Brainoid

In order to be able to speak in front of a large audience, Qi Min really spent a week making two descriptive videos. One section talks about how to collect raw data to build a real neuron model, and the other section talks about how to build a brain-like body.

By the time it was Thursday, when it was time for her to give her academic report, Qi Min had already memorized the manuscript to make sure it was flawless. She went on stage with her PPT and video, and the process of speaking went very smoothly because she had practiced it several times in private.

However, when it came to the question-and-answer session, Qi Min couldn't hold himself back - who could have imagined what weird questions these doctoral students with strange brain circuits could ask? Moreover, when hearing some questions, it was obvious that the questioner did not listen carefully to what she said. However, as a keynote speaker in a public place, she had to answer patiently and directly.

All in all, Qi Min’s answers during the question and answer session were not very good in terms of content or status.

However, just when she thought her report was going to end, the microphone was suddenly handed over to an old professor in the front row.

Judging from the name tag in front of him, this old gentleman's name was Zhang Jiushu. Qi Min didn't know what direction he was in, but he praised it: "I think your subject is quite interesting. We used to think that we should imitate people. One way of thinking about the brain is to completely imitate the structure of the real brain from top to bottom. The other is to directly design artificial intelligence without following the characteristics of the physiological brain at all. The design of the current brain-like body is neither a complete imitation. It’s not that it doesn’t imitate at all, but it imitates the real brain on the underlying neurons, and the top-level structure does not follow the brain. This brain-like body is not a brain, but it has the characteristics of a brain. To be honest, I can’t imagine it. What kind of thing can we get in the end? I think this is really worth a try, and whether it is the early fluorescence data collection or subsequent computer simulation, the design of this PIPLINE is also very clever."

With such a summary in a few words, he made it clear to the audience of many doctoral students with insufficient knowledge what Qi Min had not explained clearly.

Then the old gentleman turned to other audience members and said: "I think some of our classmates in the audience are not very polite. I heard that there are credits for listening to academic lectures, but I guess the original intention of establishing credits is not to let everyone waste time, but I hope you can learn something. Especially in the future, don’t talk about AI playing Go when you hear about simulated brain. If you continue to do this after graduation, others will think that the teaching in school is not good.”

Then he turned to Qi Min and said: "There is still a problem with speaking. Since you are relatively young, I will tell you directly. The design of this academic report itself is problematic, especially these two videos. The main body of the report is in Chinese. , but the video is in English and there are no subtitles. It is obviously not taken into account that most of the audience are doctoral students and do not know much about the background knowledge in this area. If you just listen to English, you may not understand it. This is said for general academic lectures. That’s all, but if you talk like this in class in the future, there will probably be problems with this evaluation.”

Qi Min quickly nodded in agreement. She knew her problem well, and she would definitely not be able to teach in this state.

The old gentleman named Zhang Jiushu said this, and no one dared to ask any stupid questions again. Qi Min's academic report ended here, but after the meeting, she was called over by Mr. Zhang.

Mr. Zhang said to her: "Xiao Qi, you are the new PI from the Department of Biology of the University of Science and Technology of China this year, right? Will you teach classes this semester?"

"Uh... not yet..." Qi Min replied honestly.

"That's really no wonder." The old gentleman said with a smile, "You still need to practice your speech skills."

"Yes... I'm not good at this in the first place," Qi Min explained with some embarrassment, "so I didn't start the class."

"It doesn't matter if the class doesn't start. I heard that the Biology Department of the University of Science and Technology of China already has courses with hundreds of credits. It won't be a disadvantage if there are fewer people to start the class." The old man said, "But I don't think this is the Beijing System Biology Department. The scientific forum is about to be held, your project is very interesting, and it is also related to systems biology, so you can give a report."

"Ah? Yes...really?" Qi Min reflexively wanted to refuse, but then thought that this was an opportunity, and it would be rude to refuse, "Can I...be able to do this? Take a look at my two videos. How to change it?"

Mr. Zhang Jiushu looked at her and smiled kindly: "I am not a teacher in your school, nor your mentor. You should let your own people worry about this kind of thing."

After he finished speaking, he nodded to Qi Min, turned around and left with a smile.

After he left the lecture hall, Wang Xin and Chen Linyou approached Qi Min and whispered mysteriously: "That Professor Zhang Jiushu just now is an expert in bioinformatics under the foundation. I didn't expect him to speak for this project. What a stroke of luck!”

When Qi Min heard the news, he couldn't help but widen his eyes: "The Foundation Committee? Isn't that the one in charge of project review..."

"So it's great luck. Who would have thought that Professor Zhang would come to attend the weekly academic lectures this week?" Wang Xin pulled Qi Min's sleeve and said, "Sister, go back and write a report on bioinformatics. Applications for key projects may be approved if we strike while the iron is hot.”

Qi Min thought that this matter would not be so lucky. The brain-like body project was reported and he was spotted by the experts from the National Foundation Committee. However, it is not difficult to apply for key projects, and there are no consequences even if you fail to apply. She still went back and revised the previous project plan, filled in the application form for key projects, and then submitted it to the Fund Committee.

It took a long time to wait for the review, and during this time, Qi Min unexpectedly received a notice saying that the school's biology department wanted her to give a report at the Systems Biology Forum.

——

The time from when I was informed that I was going to make a report to when I actually made the report was only two weeks. It is conceivable that Qi Min's performance in the real report was no better than her performance in the school's academic forum. Fortunately, the participants in the forum are at least scholars with a certain foundation in the industry, so there is no problem of not being able to understand.

Finally, Qi Min made a summary imitating Mr. Zhang Jiushu's previous method. Although he stumbled, he still won a lot of applause from the audience. Perhaps there is also an element of encouraging young scientific researchers, but Qi Min is still very happy to see his research recognized by so many people.

The subsequent question-and-answer session also went relatively smoothly. Even because there were surprisingly many people asking questions, everyone's questions were short and not too tricky.

When Qi Min answered the question, she briefly talked about her planned follow-up work, and one questioner said: "I think if you just input a digital signal and look at its output, it may not be enough. If you expect it to have some If you have the characteristics of the brain, then you can try to connect it to the animal brain."

This idea sounds natural, but it makes Qi Min remember it very deeply. She had always regarded brainoids as something similar to AI, but she had never thought about the results if it was used in brain-computer integration.

Of course, in fact, she doesn't know what a full-scale brainoid will be, but starting from the perspective of brain-computer integration may be more elucidating.

Once you do it, you'll be good at it, but once you talk about it, it'll be useless.jpg

(Also: In fact, some of them are already very strong. During the scientific research training defense last month, I talked about a bunch of failed experimental results into a year's work... Experimental success is accidental, and failure is normal: P)