The exhibition had finally started. The happenings in the exhibition hall settled down as people began to pile in. This was the day many big tech companies would come to see what the younger generation was capable of.
The most prominent and elite of the industry would always show up to scout people to join their companies as well. It was a day many looked forward to. If one were to get scouted, their career path after college was already set in stone.
In the simple exhibition booth that had no banners displaying their school name or anything fancy, Shen Xia sat with the other girls as she played with Spot. Because of their unassuming booth, no one was taking a second look at them, except for two old men.
"Old Mo, are you seeing what I am seeing?" One of the old men asked as he stared at Shen Xia's booth.
"Old Yun, I am..." Old Mo replied with a nod of his head.
"Let's go before those other idiots show up and try to snatch our find!" Old Yun slapped his friend on the back and quickly yet slowly made his way over to Shen Xia's booth.
Shen Xia did not care if anyone came over to visit their booth. The fewer number of people interrupting her playtime with her Spot, the better. "Xiaxia, how come you didn't program Spot to talk?" Shen Lingxin asked. She knew it had a speaker since it could bark, but she wondered why she didn't program it to speak as well.
Shen Xia pondered this for a moment and looked at Spot, and shook her head. "No, if I am going to make a talking robot, it will not be an animal version. I would make one that looks like it should speak."
"Oh." Shen Lingxin felt a little down about this. She wanted to actually converse with Spot.
Shen Xia reached over and patted Shen Lingxin's head. "Want me to make you a robot that you can talk to?"
"Isn't it too much trouble?" Shen Lingxin asked. She didn't want to bother Shen Xia with such a task.
"Nope! It will be good practice for me. So I will make you… Let's say a kitten? How's that? I will even try to figure out how to put fur on it." Shen Xia replied with a smile. She caved and decided to do an animal for Shen Lingxin. She was actually getting a little excited by the idea. She had already begun planning out the systems to build it in her mind.
"Thank you, Xiaxia!" Shen Lingxin's eyes became bright as a big smile formed on her face. She happened to really like cats! Especially kittens, so to have an eternal kitten was like heaven to her!
"Ahem.." Old Mo stood in front of the booth. He had taken in the entire conversation just now and immediately knew that the little girl playing with the robot dog was the one who was the leader of the group.
"Yes?" Shen Xia looked up and asked. She did not greet the old men at all, mainly because she was annoyed that she had her thought process interrupted.
"Ah… Yes, may I ask how you went about building this robot?" Old Mo finally spoke up.
"Mmm." Shen Xia turned her laptop around and began explaining the programs she had written without giving any actual code out. The more she explained, the more the old men's eyes widened in shock. The intricate explanation of how she taught Spot to do everything it was able to do was out of this world mainly because the way she spoke about it made it seem like machine learning was an easy task! Not to mention a lot of what she explained would need a serious neural network which only supercomputers would be able to do.
"Miss Xia, was it? May I ask how you got around not needing a supercomputer?" Old Yun asked. He really wanted to know.
"Hmm? Why would you need a supercomputer? Do we not use light in fiber optics to send information? Since a robot is only a small machine, the data circulation would only need short distances. So why not use this to our advantage and make a central hub where light acts as the processor? If you send light into a containment unit that has another ball of light that is acting as the processor, you basically have a neural network that can be used in the same way as the human brain. To be honest, I think it may be faster. After that, it is just a matter of uploading all the data and then adjusting things where needed. " Shen Xia replied.
"This… This… Genius!" Old Mo yelled out at the top of his lungs. "Little lady, you may have solved the biggest ordeal of our time when it comes to any computer processing!"
"That's all well and good, but I am not selling my work." Shen Xia said firmly. This caused Old Mo, who was excited and was about to ask how much, to freeze. He looked at Shen Xia in disbelief.
"You-You won't sell!?" Old Mo felt like he was going to have a heart attack.
"Why would I sell something I can make tons of money on myself? That would just make me an idiot. Plus, only I know how it works. I do not think there is anyone in the world who would be able to create the system I have made in a compact form. It took me almost three days to plan and to build it, you know." Shen Xia's words were like a stab to the two old men's hearts. Three days to plan and build. This meant she came up with the idea in a short time without even needing years of research…. The two old men began to wonder what they had been doing their entire life.
"Ah! Screw it. Little lass, if I gave you my company to build whatever you want, would you at least allow this old man to watch you build robots? I won't ever ask for your code. I will also make sure to help you patent everything under your name. Hell, I will sign my whole industry over to you! I will even write you into my will as my sole heir!" Old Yun yelled out desperately.
"Me too! Me too!" Old Mo also wanted in on the action.