becoming a professor at the age of 35, she said that in a scientific research marathon, running the farthest is the way to go.
2024-10-05
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after graduating with a doctorate at the age of 29 and having 3 years of overseas postdoctoral experience, he returned to china and joined zhejiang university as a distinguished researcher. he became a professor at the age of 35. zhao chunhui continues to expand the boundaries of "control science" research in the field of "control".
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this article was published in "china women" magazine
zhao chunhui: professor at the school of control science and engineering at zhejiang university, academic vice president of east china jiaotong university, qiushi distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor at zhejiang university, winner of the national science fund for outstanding youth, and winner of the 19th china young female scientist award
the first time i met zhao chunhui was at the announcement ceremony of the 19th china young female scientists award. with a low short ponytail and a pair of round glasses, he looks like a student. as everyone knows, she, who still looks "childlike", is already a doctoral supervisor at zhejiang university and a winner of the national science fund for distinguished young scholars.
zhao chunhui is engaged in "control science" research. in this regard, she made an analogy: just like a doctor treating a patient, he makes a judgment about the condition through laboratory indicators and his own experience; and her research is based on "seeing, hearing, asking and feeling" about the analysis object or the system's real-time collection of data. , to analyze and determine whether it is running smoothly and effectively.
mining information from data
in 2010, zhao chunhui, who graduated with a doctorate in control science and engineering, is working as a postdoctoral fellow at the hong kong university of science and technology. at the time, she was considering a bold career change—to study diabetes at the university of california, santa barbara.
spanning the two fields of industry and medical care may seem strange to outsiders, but for zhao chunhui, such a crossover is exactly the charm of "control science".
"regardless of the different objects, the research carrier is actually data, including high and low frequency data, text data, image data, etc., which are essentially how to mine information from data to solve specific problems." zhao chunhui said.
at that time, zhao chunhui’s american mentors had many research fields, and she didn’t have a clear idea of what she wanted to do. during the online interview, she talked about her research on "intermittent process", a molding equipment that makes plastic raw materials into various finished products. the working process of the injection molding machine is a typical intermittent process, that is, the raw materials are processed according to preset settings. the processing sequence is converted into one or a batch of products, and the processing of more similar products is obtained through the process cycle.
american tutors keenly discovered that this process has something in common with the periodic changes in blood sugar. people eat three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and may follow some activities or exercise patterns. blood sugar may show a relatively regular change pattern every working day. every day is a process that is repeated in a broad sense, which makes every day the changes in blood sugar have the characteristics of an "intermittent process". in this way, zhao chunhui jumped into a new research field and embarked on his own alternative path.
"in scientific research activities, we will come into contact with different objects and involve different fields due to different timings and opportunities. however, in essence, we need to find the right object to solve the problem. the starting point and ideas of how to solve the problem are the same. "since then, she has switched research objects many times, including smart power generation, cigarette production, chip packaging, artificial pancreas... her list of topics and patents is rich and colorful. "silk-smooth" switching in different fields,in fact, it is the result of her good grasp of common core issues. she constantly jumps out of her comfort zone and expands the boundaries of "control science" research in the field of "control".
whenever zhao chunhui has time, he will go to the student laboratory to guide students.
embedding professional expertise into major national needs
in the era of artificial intelligence +, various fields are full of daydreams about its application, but zhao chunhui calmly stated that there are still bottlenecks in artificial intelligence in the industrial field.
in her opinion, the analysis of data in the industrial field requires not only “knowing what is happening and why”, but also requires extremely high accuracy. "in the internet field, such as online shopping, when big data recommends products to everyone, we can make judgments and choices about the recommendation results based on our own needs and knowledge. but in the core business of the industrial field, the data analysis results are when applied to machines that operate at high temperatures, high pressures, and at high speeds, even an error of 0.01% may result in serious consequences.” this is why artificial intelligence big data is difficult to apply on a large scale in the industrial field. here's why.
seven years ago, zhao chunhui had a project in cooperation with an energy group, focusing on monitoring research on coal-fired power generation equipment. at that time, there were already a lot of intelligent monitoring software in the field of coal-fired power generation at home and abroad, but the results were not satisfactory after use by manufacturers, and false alarms and omissions occurred frequently.
zhao chunhui led the team to conduct on-site research and analyzed all mainstream monitoring software. after opening the "black box" of the algorithm, many problems were discovered. for example, a set of software imported from abroad assumes that the coal used in power plants and the power generation load are relatively homogeneous and stable. however, the actual situation in china is that the coal burned comes from all over the world, including inner mongolia, shanxi, and shaanxi... the differences in coal types very large, which results in a difference on the "input" side. in addition, domestic coal-fired power plants will frequently change the output of generators following changes in electricity load, which is a typical problem of deep and frequent load changes. foreign monitoring software is developed for applicable scenarios and problems abroad. without taking into account the specific conditions of china, if it is copied directly, it will inevitably lead to "acclimatization".
at this time, the study of "intermittent processes" came into play again. zhao chunhui found that no matter how the operating status of power generation equipment shows disorderly and non-stationary changes in time, it is still essentially changing within a limited working status range with load instructions under the influence of the control system. after finding the rules and driving conditions in the chaotic changes in time, she proposed the modeling concept and technical solution of "condition-driven multi-mode", and the false alarm problem was solved. this project laid the foundation for zhao chunhui's subsequent continued cooperation with other power plants. .
"many people jokingly call deep learning the contemporary 'alchemy'. they always feel that only deep learning methods can reflect the sophistication of artificial intelligence. in fact, this is not necessary.the so-called 'killing a chicken with a butcher's knife' requires choosing appropriate means to solve the problem according to the object and being able to play a role in production. this is what big data analysis in the industrial field values."zhao chunhui said.
as a college teacher, zhao chunhui hopes that students majoring in control science can meet the country's major needs and develop their expertise in the industrial field."scientific research must be focused slowly. the field of expertise cannot be without a core, and it cannot be too complicated or messy. it must be focused slowly, find the place where the country's major needs and your own strengths can be combined, and then make in-depth breakthroughs." this is what she taught, and it is also do this.
break big dreams into small goals
zhao chunhui is what many teachers call the "best student" and "the most desperate girl", but she always feels that she is a "stupid and slow-heated" type of person, with an almost obsessive-compulsive-like effort.
"i was born in rural shandong. at that time, my parents only had a simple idea - 'pass the exam and eat public food'. although the family conditions were not good, my parents never hesitated when they needed to contribute money and effort to study." high school student at that time, zhao chunhui got a walkman that his parents had used money they had saved at home to buy livestock.
“i have been relatively strong since i was a child, and at every stage i have a dream or goal that i can’t see right now.every time i enter a new stage, i will naturally work hard in a better direction in that atmosphere, constantly update my goals, and continue to grow."zhao chunhui said.
zhao chunhui’s hard work can be seen from her habit of organizing and taking notes over the years. her online personal homepage is like a notebook filled with indexes for easy reference by students. in addition to the basic pages such as "personal profile", "research projects" and "teaching and courses", there are also "notifications for undergraduate recruitment", "my students", "algorithm open source", "news!!!" and other personal style and information huge amount of personalized information paging.
in addition to hard work, zhao chunhui also met "the best teachers."in her opinion, her logical expression ability was established in junior high school. at that time, her chinese teacher often used her essays as model essays, which inspired her; her doctoral supervisor often spent an entire afternoon discussing research ideas with her. , revising papers, shaping her rigorous attitude towards doing scientific research and being a mentor...
now, it is zhao chunhui's turn to become the person who helps students open the door to the future. as a branch of engineering, students in the control discipline have to deal with companies. she guides students to conduct research and practice on the front lines of companies. she also sees herself as a bridge, first communicating clearly the needs of the company in plain language, and then "translating" them into academic issues that students can understand. this concise process is where teachers play a connecting role.
zhao chunhui always emphasizes to students that they must be patient and study in depth, but at the same time they must have a clear concept of time. when diving in for scientific research, they must know when to get out.“big dreams may take a long way, but small dreams can be realized in visible time, so always dream.”
in her opinion, break the dream into small goals. each time you achieve a small goal, you will be one step closer to the dream.she believes that she is not a talented player, she just needs to do every step in a down-to-earth manner, which is something every student can do through hard work and accumulation.
zhu kezhen, who once served as the president of zhejiang university, asked two simple but meaningful questions to the freshmen at the opening ceremony, which are also known as "zhu kezhen's two questions": first, what do you want to do at zhejiang university? second, what kind of person do you want to be after graduation? "one talks about the original intention, the other talks about the dream and mission.scientific research is a marathon. running the fastest at the beginning is not important, but running the furthest is the key." zhao chunhui said. (guoke also contributed to this article)
editor: liu zhengyu
reviewer: yang xuejuan
approval: liu ping
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