CHAPTER 496: CHAPTER 158: REVISITING THE CHEMISTRY LABORATORY BUILDING_4

Qiao Yu roughly understood what Brother Liu meant, after all, vertical or surface projects are easier to gain recognition in academia. Lateral projects are different, they just make a bit of dirty money...

But actually, Qiao Yu didn’t care much about fame, after all, he wasn’t in chemistry, so he didn’t need to make a name for himself in the chemical world.

"Here’s the deal, the project we’re taking on this time is a temperature-responsive smart memory gel material. We’ve already reached the material optimization stage.

Our plan is to improve the temperature sensitivity and memory functions of the material by adjusting the intermolecular interactions, like hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic effects, in the gel.

However, there are quite a lot of problems now. One is that the temperature response performance of the gel often decreases, and sometimes the material stops responding to temperature changes altogether.

We’ve been using trial and error to optimize experimental conditions, but as you know, every time we adjust the parameters, the testing and analysis cycle is quite long.

Plus, this thing generates a lot of byproducts, and this project requires a lot of testing equipment that we don’t have in our lab, so we have to queue up elsewhere, which is very exhausting.

So I wanted to ask you for help. I actually wanted to ask you a couple of days ago, but you went to Linhai for a conference. I just heard that you’re back, so I took a chance and called you. But if you just got back, do you need to rest first?"

Qiao Yu’s expression turned serious: "Brother Liu, what are you talking about? If it were someone else, I would need to rest, but since you called me, how could I say I need rest and disregard our friendship?

Your project is my project. Besides, you didn’t even ask Professor Lu this time, but directly asked me to help you. With such trust in me, if I don’t come to check it out right away, am I even human? Wait a moment, I’m coming over now!"

"Ah... well, thank you so much, I’ll be waiting for you downstairs. It’s the same lab building as last time."

...

After hanging up the phone, Qiao Yu quickly left, grabbed a yellow bike, and headed straight for the new lab building of the College of Chemistry.

In less than ten minutes, he saw Liu Hao waiting for him outside the building.

"Qiao Yu, over here..."

"I see you, Brother Liu." Qiao Yu greeted enthusiastically, then stopped his bike beside Liu Hao.

They hadn’t seen each other for six months, and Brother Liu didn’t seem to have changed much. He hadn’t lost any hair, just seemed to have more acne. Figures, being a chemistry major, he can stay young forever...

Though after greeting, Qiao Yu felt that Brother Liu seemed a bit embarrassed...

"Is there a problem, Brother!" Qiao Yu asked positively, warmly, and bluntly.

"Uh... well, Qiao Yu, I have to tell you something honest, don’t blame me." Liu Hao said hesitantly.

Qiao Yu said generously: "We’re practically siblings, just say whatever it is, besides, I’m here to help you, how could I blame you?"

Liu Hao mustered the courage to speak: "Well... you just said that we didn’t ask Professor Lu before asking you, right? Actually, that’s not true. We did contact Professor Lu earlier, hoping he could help us optimize the model.

Professor Lu also came to take a look, but he said our problem is quite complicated because there are many parameters involved, plus there are complex non-linear relationships between them.

You know, in cases like this, every additional parameter increases the number of combinations that need to be calculated exponentially, and there’s also a strong coupling situation.

Given that we don’t have enough data, using differential equations to describe it is particularly prone to divergence. So his suggestion was to keep trying errors and collect enough data before proceeding.

Well, it’s not like we can’t slowly use trial and error, but you know, the client side of this lateral project is pressing quite urgently, and we must report lab progress to the client every month.

Who would have thought the design went smoothly upfront? During the initial phased results presentation, the client was very satisfied. As a result, we got stuck at the optimization phase, and it’s been two months without any progress.

If the report we submit next month still shows no progress, the professor will be anxious again. You know, in the current environment, lateral projects are hard to come by.

Plus, it’s not like we’re the only lab entrusted by the client this time. Huairou Institute over there also got the task. Their approach is different from ours, using block copolymer phase separation and nanoparticle filling to achieve the technology.

But no matter what, if the other side completes it first, not only will the funding for future research be gone, but you know, our professor’s reputation will also take a hit. Sigh..."

Hearing this, Qiao Yu instantly relaxed completely.

He thought that Brother Liu was going to say there wouldn’t be much money for helping this time...

It turned out to be all about feeling embarrassed, not being the first person he thought of.

This didn’t even register as an issue for Qiao Yu.

What he said over the phone was just offhand, not expecting Brother Liu to take it seriously and feel embarrassed.

There’s no helping it, it seems this doctoral Brother Liu has spent too much time in the lab, resulting in being overly straightforward.

This made Qiao Yu start to worry about Brother Liu stepping into society after graduation, as overly straightforward people can easily suffer losses.

Qiao Yu thought of himself as not a particularly good person, so he sincerely hoped for good people to get good returns, because only then will more good people appear.

In such a situation, his relatively low moral standards could come in handy...

"Hey, I thought it was something big. It’s just a duel, isn’t it? Let me tell you, Brother Liu, I’m really good at this."