Birth of Automate Animal

Zhao Ru, excellent honor student at Jiangbei's third university. Second-year undergraduate enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering Department, with great favourable connections with professors, students, and alums alike. Her personality was amiable and easy-going, but determined when she set her mind onto the project – and yes, a horrible sucker for ambition.

Especially that ambition wasn't a half-hearted promise exchanged over dinner, but one that provided the initial funds into her Weibo associated bank account by tomorrow morning.

The young campus belle was immediately energized by the notification from her bank that a splendid half-million sum had been deposited into her personal account, and set out to work before Xi Chen could send a reminder. Though the youth had set an initial planning date to be Friday of that week, Zhao Ru had assembled the entire development and marketing team by Wednesday – something Xi Chen had expected, but was still surprised to witness. The popularity of the female mechanical engineering student dazzled even his experienced eyes who had witnessed an entire university life prior.

Perhaps it was either due to her charisma or the fact that the female population in any engineering department was close to nil, but when Xi Chen entered the prepared classroom at three in the afternoon, he was greeted with the energized and over-enthused expressions from over fifteen students.

"Since Senior Xi Chen is here, we can start!"

Zhao Ru enthusiastically clapped her hands, and the nervously chatting students gently quieted to a lull. The young girl retrieved a portfolio from her bag and presented it to the students seated around the table, a proud smile displayed at full effect.

"Today, I wanted to announce that we will be starting a fully-fledged project named Automate Animal! Well… the naming might have to be changed, but everyone has seen my design specifications at the engineering competition? I believe that if we can improve on the flaws, it can certainly attain great success!"

The students seated around Zhao Ru eagerly pecked their forehead onto the table, particularly those of the mechanical engineering department. They had witnessed her prowess as she stomped over everyone to stride into the semi-finals and were highly convinced of the project's feasibility, but more were determined to become her potential suitor.

"Er… we are from the computer science department, so we don't know of Junior Zhao's specifics. Can you explain it in a bit more detail for us?"

A fourth-year student raised his timid hand and gestured with his large glasses. Xi Chen laid back in his seat as the young girl bolted to her feet and immediately began to declare with a proud voice, her hands planted at her hips as she thrust her modest chest to the nearly salivating male students.

"A Bluetooth-integrated, interactive pet! The initial concept is that of simulating an animal's natural motions and behaviors, while integrating a few smart features into its features!" Zhao Ru crossed her fingers and pursed her lips.

"It'll be nearly impossible to replicate air-based animals, so we will have to stick with dogs, cats, and so forth. As for the integrated features, I was thinking of serving as a 360-degree wireless speaker system as well as home security on the side."

"Oh, the speaker system that Google had presented a few weeks ago at their quarterly presentation?" a third-year computer science student nodded his head in approval.

"But how are we going to manage home security? Development of AI and neural network architecture is barely in its infantile stage, not even the masters at Google had managed to accomplish much more than a few sentences filled with junk."

"We're only students, so the problems we can solve are bound to be simple. Nonetheless, that means that the solutions we need also need to be simple!" Zhao Ru refuted with a gentle smile.

"Instead of wasting resources attempting to develop an AI by ourselves, we can merely include a library of pre-recorded sounds that the animal needs to be aware of – breaking glass, wood or porcelain, screams beyond a certain threshold, or the sound of crying. If the received audio achieves a certain degree of similarity with the recorded thresholds, an alert will be sent to the user's device – isn't that somewhat easier to achieve?"

The students, one after another, ultimately gave their approval. On the surface, there wasn't much they could find fault with Zhao Ru's project. It was simplistic yet complex enough to challenge a few university students, but not onto the level that they would need to cry for help. Yet it was at this moment that a fourth-year student, who had been silent until now, raised his hand with furrowed eyebrows.

"How are we going to get the movements working properly? Do we have a design to properly replicate an animal's movements? What about recovery systems?"

The mechanical engineering students immediately burst into a fervour of discussion. By the time the third idea was pitched, many had discontent expressions plastered across their countenance, and Zhao Ru had to quickly clear her throat to restore calm.

"The construction of the joints is a bit of an issue, but I think we can mitigate the problem by configuring a few support structures to stabilize the mainframe and lessen the strain onto the actual movement system. But recovery will be a problem – the design won't be able to pick itself back up."

"We're students, after all. Junior Zhao, no need to fuss that much over it – not even top-grade automation technology has managed to fully solve that problem yet!" a student quickly reassured the young girl who had bit her lip.

"There's enough on the table for us to stress over for a few months. Oh, right – how are we going to get funding for this project? Junior Zhao, did you file the application to the engineering department?"

Zhao Ru immediately flushed scarlet, and lowered her head in embarrassment. Before Xi Chen could properly assess the source of the discomfort, the young girl quickly pointed in his direction and muted herself after tossing a short statement towards the table.

"Sorry, this isn't a research project for demonstrative purposes, but a project for a startup company. Senior Xi… can give more information."

Xi Chen's brow creased at the obvious discomfort experienced by the students seated. Some of adventurous spirit held excitement close to their chest, but it seemed a great many had suddenly felt the desire the back away after hearing the stakes.

"There is 500,000 RMB available as in initial fund in developing a marketable prototype. Junior Zhao Ru's design is one that can be quickly applicable to a local market group as Jiangbei – a metropolitan area filled with students and young children."

"Five hundred thousand RMB!?"

"Holy hell, how did he obtain so much money!?"

Was this Xi Chen a potential suitor of Zhao Ru?

The maleficent thought immediately bloomed in a few students' hearts, and their glares towards Xi Chen became filled with hostility. When Zhao Ru presented the account receipt from the bank confirming the transfer, the youths all bolted to their feet, their bodies having received a fresh injection of a few liters of boiling chicken blood.

A nearly complete design plan, and initial funding secured before they did anything. If they failed to produce a marketable product even with such conditions, they didn't deserve their numerous years of education at Jiangbei's prestigious universities!

"Junior Zhao, Senior Xi, don't worry! We will certainly get this project to succeed!"

F*ck, this was clearly a heaven-sent opportunity to pad their resumes right before they graduated! A pillow just when they were about to fall asleep!!

The students quickly retrieved their computers and threw themselves at their newfound work. Under Zhao Ru's amazed and enthused gaze, the senior fourth-year students threw their miserable theses out of their minds and fiercely analyzed the project design of their junior campus belle. To them, the merit of successfully launching a start-up company and contributing to its premiere project's final design was greater than some shoddy graduate thesis that had to be written for every course they took.

Xi Chen prepared to leave, for there wasn't much he had to do at the moment. The students – ahem, now engineers – had to invest a significant effort redesigning and optimizing Zhao Ru's concept plan, and his primary goal – finding a critical area to "magically solve" with the heavenly bowl – would only appear after they encountered a bottleneck. Although he didn't notice, Zhao Ru had sent his back off with a happy bow, her countenance failing to conceal the persisting smile of enthusiasm and ambition.

The youth eventually wandered his way through Jiangbei's expansive streets, sweeping his gaze across the busy rivers of people streaming along either side of his body.

Given his lofty position at Tianming Corporation, he didn't need to check in daily like other employees, though he did have to provide some amount of contribution each quarter. The security company's restructuring was bound to take some time, and it was probably best to travel to Suzhou.