Reborn in Hong Kong: The Tycoon Grows Up

On Monday, September 5, 1977, Bao Zixuan was about to take his first class after settling in at MIT. It takes two years to complete a three-and-a-half-year course. College students like them, most of whom have exchanged experience at other universities, are under a lot of academic pressure.

There are only 22 students in their class, 14 of whom are from other famous universities in the world. Some are studying civil engineering, some are studying computer science, and some are studying bioengineering. They are all diverse. After all, when they first entered university 2 years ago, they chose If you choose a double major, you must be responsible for your own choice. As a result, the teacher has to teach a book in the second class, and then there are practices and exams.

Their first lesson was relatively simple, covering the development history and future directions of machinery. This is a very simple course, but it is also a history of human production and use of machines. This class is taught by a professor who is about 50 years old, Kevin Bowman, a professor of German descent. And he comes from a family of mechanics. His grandfather was once the chief engineer of Rheinmetall in Germany. His family moved to the United States because of the war.

Kevin Bowman: "In this class, we will talk about your views on the future development of machinery, including how we can help companies build factories and what kind of factories they should build. As for the machines invented by mankind in ancient times, you should regard them as a basis Take a look, the textbooks at MIT are taught by history teachers. Who can share with you first the relationship between machines and factories in the future, and the role that MIT will play in it."

At this time, one of the only two girls in the class stood up and said: "Professor Bowman, hello, my name is Jane Jones. I think the production efficiency of machines in the future will be higher; production accuracy requirements are higher; some people Trade unions are gradually being replaced by machines." Anyone with a little reading in the 21st century can express this view, but there are not many people in this era who can hold such a view.

Another girl then stood up and said: "I would also like to add that the proportion of CNC machine tools will become higher and higher. Our manual operations will become less and less, and the factory's production will be produced after the customer places an order."

Everyone kept expressing their opinions, and at this time, one person's speech made Bao Zixuan feel bright. I think that many of the current machinery should be integrated, so that people who need it can use less money to buy all the machinery they need. Buy them all, and it is best to use the parts on a large scale and find a standard interface so that products produced by different factories can be interchanged. Achieve quick replacement of parts, and the standard rotation speed of the motor must be based on the different needs of each industry. Gear integration is performed to achieve the required standard rotation speed and multi-pole division.

At this time, Professor Bowman nodded thoughtfully and asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Louis Wallace," said the boy who had just finished answering the question.

Bowman: "Okay, Louis, what you said makes sense. I hope you will work hard in this direction."

After everyone continued to express their opinions, it was finally Bao Zixuan's turn.

Bao Zixuan: "Hello everyone, my name is Bao Zixuan. What I just heard from all the classmates is very reasonable, but I think the improvement of mechanical manufacturing is a systematic project, which requires the overall quality of our staff, precision processing capabilities and people's understanding of It is checked and determined by product usage requirements. I think we should expand mechanical manufacturing into the industrial system."

"I was thinking about a question during this holiday, and that is how we divide large industry. I initially divided industry into four eras. That is, Industry 1.0, Industry 2.0, Industry 3.0 and Industry 4.0."

"The so-called Industry 1.0 is the age of steam; Industry 2.0 is the age of electrification; Industry 3.0 is the era of information; it is also the era we are experiencing, and Industry 4.0 uses information technology to promote industrial change. I define it as the era of intelligence. .”

"What we are experiencing now is the Industry 3.0 stage, the era of electronic informationization, that is, GF applies electronics and information technology to further greatly improve the degree of automation and control of the manufacturing process. It transforms the information we receive into products produced in the factory."

"Industry 4.0 should be the integration of the physical world and the virtual world calculated by computers, the entire product life cycle, the digitization of the entire manufacturing process, and the integration of modules based on communication technology to form a highly flexible, personalized, and digital product. A new production model with services.”

"In Industry 4.0, we must pay attention to the construction of smart factories, the degree of artificial intelligence in smart production, and the overall supporting facilities of smart logistics. Currently, I am still trying to build smart factories. In my computer, I can already implement 16 The factory construction of uncomplicated parts, as well as all data connections and integrated production, if there are more, my computer computing power will not meet the requirements."

At this time, everyone looked at Bao Zixuan like a monster. Industry 4.0 was proposed 40 years in advance, but he just wanted to prove himself at MIT, and the MIT laboratory was sure to do so before the Germans proposed it. There will be experiments in this area, but the cost factor has not been realized.

At this time in the world, people who propose such a theory will not be considered crazy in the MIT Machinery Manufacturing Classroom. Through this statement, they still conquered the MIT classmates, and of course Kevin was also conquered. -Professor Bowman.

At this time, Professor Kevin Bowman was the first to react and applauded, and everyone followed suit. In fact, this was what Bao Zixuan wanted, so that his research results would not be so abrupt.

Professor Bowman: "Bao, your point of view is very novel, and I think it has great development prospects. You have really achieved the goal of building a virtual factory with 16 parts."

In fact, when they were at Rolls-Royce, they were able to simulate the entire production and assembly process of tens of thousands of parts on computers, and Bao Zixuan participated in the core part of this plan, so the simplified version of the software had already been written.

Bao Zixuan: "Yes, Professor. I can simulate it for you in the next class."

Professor Bowman: "Very good, you can turn today's ideas into a paper. I am a member of the review committee of the scientific journal. I can recommend your paper to the scientific journal."

Bao Zixuan didn't expect that just a few words meant to be remembered by everyone would have such an effect. And as a man in science and engineering, there is no one who doesn’t know about science magazines. It seems that this is also a way to increase his influence!

Bao Zixuan: "Okay, professor; I will give you the paper tomorrow. In fact, I have already finished it during the holiday, but it is not refined and simplified."

Professor Bowman: "Great, I'm looking forward to your paper. That's it for today! get out of class is over!"

At this time everyone started to walk outside the classroom. At this time, Professor Kevin Bowman asked Bao Zixuan to wait for him. Everyone is envious when they see this. But everyone thought it was appropriate, and Bao Zixuan's performance today deserved the professor's individual attention.

Professor Bowman: "Bao, you are a young man with great ideas. I hope you will be my teaching assistant and laboratory assistant."

Bao Zixuan: "Professors and teaching assistants must have master's degrees, right? And the assistants in Bowman's laboratory are all doctoral students. I'm afraid my qualifications are not enough."

Professor Bowman: "There are not so many restrictions and rules at MIT. As long as you have the strength and ideas, nothing is a problem. The main task of my laboratory this year is to study the multi-functional application of CNC machine tools. Originally, I wanted to I'm looking for someone from the computer science department to join, but after hearing your ideas and your computer strength that you said you can already build a virtual factory, I think you are the best choice."

Bao Zixuan: "I have a question, how to calculate the patents generated during the research and development period? Don't worry about your jokes. My family has a factory in Xiangjiang, but the technology is not very advanced. I need to use what I have learned to complete the upgrading of technology and industry."

Professor Bowman: "These are not problems. No one dares to take possession of your research results at MIT. The patent is yours, and it is yours. However, if you use the school's resources, you will have to pay service and usage fees."

After constant communication between the two, Bao Zixuan did not agree to be a teaching assistant, but agreed to join the Bowman laboratory.