Black technology starts from the steel suit

Chapter 192 Application of Supercomputing

"I'm in my second Ph.D., and even though I've published more than ten articles on computing, I can't guarantee that I'm completely reliable in computing."

"Although I am mainly in the calculation group, I feel that my basic ability is still very lacking."

"Then you are very likely to be in the field of quantum mechanics, and your knowledge is not enough. How is your knowledge of quantum field theory and electrodynamics?"

"It's not very thorough, because my co-supervisor doesn't mainly study this area, and he doesn't have much guidance for us in the laboratory."

……

Sure enough, no matter where it is, there are big pits for mentors. If you don't keep your eyes open when choosing a mentor, and accidentally fall into the pit, you will be finished.

"Then you may need to make up for some knowledge in this area. If there is something you don't understand, you may need to consult other tutors. You must thoroughly understand this area of ​​knowledge."

"In addition to the aspect of knowledge, there is another very important thing, which is the support of hardware. Has your instructor given you the time to apply for supercomputing?"

"There must be an application for this, but it may be that my model is not perfect, and the simulated effect is not particularly good." As a university that has been rich from the past to the present, it will definitely not treat its teachers and students badly in terms of hardware .

"Let's talk about this question after class, because the general-purpose supercomputer is not particularly good for a simulation of molecular dynamics, so it may not be your problem." This should be a euphemistic way for Wang Feng, after all, this child He was already deeply hit, so he had better not continue to irritate the other party.

The computing power of the computer is not enough for a senior player like him.Just like a child, you play a cs1.6, what configuration do you need?
"Now that we're talking about supercomputing, let's discuss an application of supercomputers in computational chemistry." Wang Feng's first class didn't intend to talk about anything, but focused on the nature of popular science. By the way, he would answer questions for students their doubts.

For the students in this university, they can learn whenever they want, and they must be able to learn.What are they most afraid of? What they are most afraid of is that they have doubts, hold them in their hearts, and don't ask them. If there is a psychological problem, that is a big trouble.

"In the current scientific world, supercomputing is playing an increasingly important role, and its status is getting higher and higher. There are many scientific problems that can be solved only through simulation calculations. I know why Wuchang signed the agreement no longer. A treaty to conduct nuclear tests?"

"I know, I know, because we can solve the problem only through supercomputing, otherwise, fools will restrain themselves." A student who knew at a glance that he was studying nuclear physics replied very excitedly road.

"Yes, that's absolutely true. Computers before the new century were adequate for this job. At that time, they were not called supercomputers, but supercomputers."

"The current supercomputer is much better than him. Let me give you an example that everyone is more familiar with, such as Tianhe. At present, among the users of major Tianhe, there are many physics/chemical industries that use supercomputers for material simulation calculations like us. /Material Research Brickworker."

"Our job is to build a suitable system model, choose a suitable approximation, pseudopotential, calculation method, etc., and use software to solve the Schrödinger equation to obtain a series of parameters of the system. For example, calculate the system energy, stable configuration, valence bond orbit, Electronic energy levels, etc., to explain or predict various properties of materials."

"Of course there are some answers we can get, and many we can't get the answers. Even among the answers we got, not all the answers are valid."

"One of the problems is that our current theoretical basis is not perfect enough. To give a simple example, we cannot do without the knowledge of electrochemistry in a prediction of chemical materials, but so far, we still lack effective theoretical framework to explain some of the phenomena that occur in electrochemistry."

"Of course, in addition to the incomplete theoretical knowledge, the hardware problems are indeed quite different. I have already mentioned the general supercomputing problem just now. The general supercomputing was not born for molecular dynamics simulations in essence. Yes, so it is understandable that his results are not accurate enough and not particularly representative.”

"So, do you know any computers that are more suitable for molecular dynamics simulations?"

"We definitely know about this. The little lover of a billionaire, the star destroyer of molecular dynamics simulation, the nuclear weapon of computational chemistry... anton2, which is more than a dozen blocks away from general-purpose computers!"

When it comes to this, many knowledgeable people look envious.Of course, no one envies the other party for having such a supercomputer specifically designed for computational chemistry. After all, this thing not only requires money, but also requires strong enough talent and basic knowledge and theory.

What they envy is that this guy has achieved financial freedom at a young age: he is worth billions at the age of 40, and it is still in US dollars
David Xiao is a top student and the idol of PhDs: a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University, he entered Columbia University as a professor when he was less than 30 years old, specializing in ultra-large-scale parallel computing.This is already an excellent academic life.

But Xiao felt bored.Columbia University is located in New York, and the hedge fund men who broke out all over the place are having fun and drinking, playing among various models. As an equally smart professor, they can only sit on the bench and write computer models.Although in the eyes of scientists, the latter is even sexier, but after a long time... It's too far away. In short, Xiao quit.

Of course, the more important reason may be that he was studying computer theory at that time. At that time, the performance of computers was as bad as shit, and the demand for algorithms and models was not so great. Of course, David Xiao sat on the bench... The science foundation officials don't want to give this guy money at all.

In their opinion, guys who study theory are not only useless, but also very expensive
Even if he tried his best to accompany the smiling face, treat him to a meal, give him some cigarettes and alcohol...it was completely useless, he would not give him face at all, and the research funding was only symbolic Allocate a little, not a single coin!

So this big guy quit.I'm tired of doing research, and when it's over, I still have to look at the faces of you guys who don't do anything about it...I didn't do these things for myself, but for all mankind... Forget it, I can't stand this birdishness!
So he gave up his career as a professor in 1986 and joined the famous Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley to do quant trading (which can be understood as using computers to automatically speculate in stocks, bonds and foreign exchange).

Sure enough, Dr. Du is not suitable for political struggle. In a place like Morgan Stanley, where there is a lot of money, right and wrong, and political and technological struggles are equally fierce, he failed in the political struggle after only 2 years and was forced to leave Morgan Stanley. (Welcome experts in quant trading to gossip to complete this story).

(End of this chapter)