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Institutes & Centers
On the afternoon of December 23, 2021, the author accidentally bumped into this presentation. The warm winter sun shone through the glass window into the coffee bar on the third floor, where Zhejiang Lab's research experts and core members of the research teams were having a discussion on the frontier scientific issues in the fragrance of coffee.
This is the second academic coffee salon of Zhejiang Lab's first Pilot Program. The program is a major scientific research talent growth project aimed at cultivating a batch of scientific research leaders and young talents with profound knowledge of scientific research, exceptional innovation and great development potential. The casual talk among over 30 top scientific research experts witnessed the sparks of thought ignited by topics from Robot's Cloud Brain and neuromorphic computing to Internet of Vehicles, Photoacoustic Imaging, Laser Communication, and Intelligent Generation System for Film and Television.
ZHANG Yu, Associate Research Scientist at the Healthcare Data Science Unit of the Research Institute of Interdisciplinary Innovation, has joined the lab for more than a year. She sees the Pilot Program as a channel for her self-improvement and a great opportunity to learn about the lab's research projects in other fields. During the coffee salon in the afternoon, she found a wonderful project which made her unable to resist the thought of being a part of it.
The leader of the project is SHI Junhui, Senior Research Associate at the Humanoid Sensing and Perception Unit of the Research Institute of Intelligent Perception, who shared his thoughts in the salon on the past, present and future of photoacoustic imaging. "The laser irradiates the human body, and the instantaneous thermal energy generated by the absorption of laser pulses by human tissues is converted into mechanical expansion and contraction. This is ultrasound technology. By using ultrasound probes to locate where a sound is generated, it is possible to perform real-time three-dimensional imaging of human tissues, which will play an important role in cancer screening and brain function imaging." Into the body is light; out of the body is sound. SHI Junhui's project is much in line with the research of "Recording Brain Activities by Magnetic Resonance" conducted by ZHANG Yu's team. "Can the resolution of this project reach 2mm?" ZHANG Yu raised her hand and asked. "We are talking about 100 microns," SHI Junhui made a quick response to the slightly provocative question. "I'm looking forward to cooperating with you!" ZHANG Yu said excitedly.
The encounter between experts featured not only a battle of words, but also some modest questions. SHI Tuo, Associate Research Scientist at the Intelligent Computing Hardware Unit of the Research Institute of Intelligent Computing, shared his research on "neuromorphic computing based on memristors". Veteran researchers as the experts present are, it was hard for them to comprehend. "Memristor is beyond the scope of most people's knowledge obtained before. Based on what we knew, it's hard to imagine what the mechanism is. Could you please explain it simply for us?" Someone asked. After SHI gave a detailed explanation, everyone seemed to understand it all at once, just like an old saying puts it, "Master one and you'll master a hundred". WANG Di, who focuses on Sensing Materials and Devices, even found a point for cooperation in an instant: "We work on sensing materials, while Mr. SHI works on computing devices. I'm considering whether we can make odor sensors with large-scale heterogeneous odor-sensitive units that are integrated with sensing, storage and calculation. "
This kind of instantaneously inspired interest in cooperation was constantly emerging. During the three-minute intermission, the scientists gathered in small groups, discussing technical details and sharing cooperation prospects. In the small coffee bar, a lot of ideas were generated from the intertwined research fields.
LI Te, Assistant of the Director of the Research Institute of Intelligent Robotics, was forward-looking and "cunningly" came to the academic coffee salon to look for a partner: "The development of robotics is currently facing two common bottlenecks: weak autonomous operation capability in unstructured environments and insufficient local resources to support AI advanced algorithms. The cloud brain platform for intelligent robots that our team is developing is intended to provide a more 'intelligent' brain for robots. The terminal-edge-cloud collaborative computing platform and autonomous intelligence framework for autonomous scenarios that we are currently building cannot be completed without a number of AI technologies, and we hope that the participants here can cooperate with us more." After LI Te's sharing, QI Yinan, Research Scientist at the Research Institute of Intelligent Networks, expressed his intention for cooperation. "Our team focuses on the field of network communication, which can help robots achieve higher-speed communication with the cloud, edge, and terminal, and better improve the efficiency of the terminal-edge-cloud platform."
ZHU Yongdong, Research Scientist at the Smart Transportation Unit of the Research Institute of Interdisciplinary Innovation, shared the research and application of the key technology on the Internet of Vehicles. WANG Yiqun, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Intelligent Networks, shared the laser communication technology. LI Rong, Senior Researcher at the Science and Art Integration Unit, shared the intelligent generation system for film and television. Their presentations also triggered fantastic ideas of different participants.
The academic coffee salon, which was scheduled to last two hours, was extended as inspiration and enthusiasm continued sprouting among the scientists. These scientists, representing the research strength of the Zhejiang Lab, are writing new chapters of research stories and depicting the lab's brighter future in the coffee-scented discussion.