There is such a young man.
He has won the Baidu Star Programming Contest Championship and the third place in the Google Programming Challenge.
He won the China Division Championship and the second place in the global finals in the International College Program Design Competition (ACM/ICPC), known as the "Programming Olympiad".
He ranked first in China in the computer programming competition of the famous software development website TopCoder.
He has the title of "the first person in computer programming for college students in China", and is respected by the students participating in the competition as the "loud master". Kai-Fu Lee once said that he is the mainstay to promote the development of China's Internet industry in the future.
His name is Lou Tiancheng .
1
Lou Tiancheng was born in 1986 in a teacher's family in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Lou Tiancheng, who was born in 1986, was a kid like most children, who didn't know how to study and play around.
But Lou Tiancheng changed completely when he was eight years old.
At that time, Lou Tiancheng also had the same dream we had when we were a child-going to Tsinghua University when we grow up. When he was 8 years old, he went to Tsinghua University to play with his parents. Lou Tiancheng, who was in Tsinghua University, was deeply attracted by Tsinghua University. Seeing his fascination, his parents asked him, "Would you like to come to Tsinghua University when you grow up." Lou Tiancheng nodded and couldn't help making his parents laugh.
He does not mean that. Since then, Lou Tiancheng has taken studying at Tsinghua University as his goal. After returning, he has reduced the playing time. But he has not only had a three-point interest like most people. Lou has persisted in this dream for many years. After being admitted to Tsinghua University for many years, Lou Tiancheng also worked hard for each of his dreams for ten years.
Lou Tiancheng’s parents were Lou Tiancheng’s life mentors in his childhood. When he was young, Lou’s parents told Lou Tiancheng to cultivate Lou’s independence since childhood:
"In the future, you can only rely on yourself. No family can help you when you buy a house. In short, you must not let the child have the idea that parents will carry it for me anyway."
Lou Tiancheng's parents believe that to get along with their children on an equal footing, they always treat Tiancheng as an adult since childhood, discuss with him and listen to his opinions when he is a child, so that he will have his own opinion when he grows up. Therefore, from Lou Tiancheng's fourteenth middle school to Yao Qizhi's Ph.D., he chose himself. Facts have also proved that the enlightened and educational methods of parents are correct.
Lou Tiancheng also recalled the influence of his parents' education on him after successfully obtaining the admission notice from Tsinghua University.
"After ten years of hard work, this wish has now been fulfilled. In high school, I can participate in various programming competitions as I wish, and I cannot do without the support of my parents, but the premise is that intellectual subjects such as mathematics will not be affected. Such competitions are not It belongs to the college entrance examination subject, and it is bound to have a certain impact on academics. Without the support of my parents, the road to participate in the competition will not work. The support of my parents has supported me on the road of competition.
The influence of Lou's parents on Lou Tiancheng is undoubtedly a lifetime. This kind of education model gave Lou Tiancheng great initiative in his later studies.
2
You may hardly imagine that Lou Tiancheng, whose programming ability is widely recognized, had never touched a computer before in high school.
In March 1998, Lou Tiancheng obtained the qualification to be sent to Hangzhou No. 14 Middle School in the second half of the third semester of Hangzhou No. 9 Middle School. During the second half of the semester, Lou Tiancheng took three months to complete the three-year high school. The course, don’t think it’s unbelievable, this is a true report.
But surprisingly, he chose computer programming not because the mathematics is too good, it is precisely because the math is too "bad"-the high-intensity calculations on the last few math problems always make him wrong. Then he changed his mind and thought: "If the last few steps of each question, such as the simple calculation of the "manual work" of mathematics, let a machine that can’t make mistakes do it for me, wouldn’t it be easier and more efficient. Huh?" So he chose computer science at university.
At that time, the Fourteenth Middle School set up an information class for these geniuses in order to let them participate in the competition later. This was also Lou Tiancai's first attempt to write code.
At that time, Lou Tiancheng would run to the computer room as long as there was spare time. If the computer room was still on when it was dark, the Lou Tiancheng would be the one sitting inside.
Lou Tiancheng is also a person with logical thinking and good summary. What I said next may be a bit dreamy, maybe you have only seen it on TV, but don't believe it. Even if he plays the ball in ordinary times, he will constantly calculate the probability relationship between the angle, distance and score of the ball to the opponent's goal line!
"Dripping the ball to the bottom line of the opponent’s goal (if it’s dribbling to the goal, it must be as far forward as possible), the angle between the goal and the ball is getting bigger or smaller; when dribbling the ball forward, the angle is bigger and bigger Well, the smaller the better. After calculation, I found that when the ball is brought to a certain place, the angle is the largest, and then it will become smaller when the ball is brought forward. This place is the best position for shooting. The conclusion is: This maximum angle is related to the distance from the goal." Lou Tiancheng said.
Later, Lou Tiancheng's experience could not help but make people feel more legendary.
Lou Tiancheng joined the computer team in the first year of high school and successfully won the first prize in the NOIP competition and entered the provincial team.
In his second year of high school, he participated in the NOI (National Competition). In NOI, he won the gold medal for the country, was selected to enter the national training team, and formally accepted. In the 16th International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), Lou Tiancheng won the gold medal and successfully obtained the admission letter from Tsinghua University. .
At this time, Lou Tiancheng's first dream can be said to have been successfully completed. I wonder if Lou Tiancheng jumped up excitedly at that time, or did it feel natural and quietly devoted himself to the next work? We don't know these.
3
In 2005, Lou Tiancheng formally entered the computer science major of Tsinghua University, and successfully entered the Yao class .
If the person who enters Tsinghua is a genius, then Lou Tiancheng who entered the Yao class may be regarded as a genius among geniuses.
Speaking of the readers who are reading Yaoban, there should be something they don't understand, so let's introduce it a little bit.
Yao Class is led by Academician Yao Qizhi, the only Chinese winner of the Turing Prize (Nobel Prize in Computer Science) so far, and is committed to cultivating students of world-class universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University that are equal or even higher Competitively leading international top-notch innovative computer science talents.
At the same time, Yao Ban is also a bold reform and attempt at undergraduate education reform by Tsinghua University.
Of course, geniuses have genius training methods.
Starting from the third year of undergraduate, the students of the Yao class are very different from those of the same class. The teaching materials are from MIT, and the teachers are also top professors from all over the world. They pay attention to grasping the trend of the frontier in the courses and feeling the times. Pulse. Yao Qizhi, who introduced many foreign advanced teaching concepts to Tsinghua University, taught 6 courses in person.
According to a reporter interviewing Lou Tiancheng and asking how his life was in Lou University, Lou recalled:
"At that time, I took the math test in the morning and wrote the program in the afternoon. That is to say, you must have a mathematical foundation and know how to practice. This is what Mr. Yao requires of the students."
Yao class students are very smart, have their own advantages in mathematics and computers, and they are all very hardworking. But Lou Tiancheng believes that hard work and IQ can make up for each other.
In the days of studying in the Yao class, if you relax slightly, you may not be able to keep up with the progress. The intensity of the courses and the huge amount of information may be unimaginable for ordinary people. Even for a genius like Lou Tiancheng, it is not easy to complete the minimum requirements.
There is another interesting thing. Do you know who invented the Three Kingdoms Killing that once swept the streets and alleys ? That's right, Lou Tiancheng!
He is one of the inventors of the game's balance test in the Three Kingdoms Killing Team of Tsinghua University.
He also regretfully said: "One of my most proud designs has not been preserved in the game. When holding a lightning card, a lot of blood will be lost when encountering certain suits and points of playing cards, and it is easy for the character to die, but If a lightning strikes a person who is out, the person who is out can be resurrected."
The earliest Three Kingdoms was a social game rather than a strategy game, so that those who were out had expectations. This game was designed for everyone to communicate.
In 2008, Lou Tiancheng, who graduated with a bachelor's degree, was recommended for his Ph.D. by Tsinghua University, and Lou Tiancai's doctoral tutor was actually Yao Qizhi, a teacher of the Yao class.
Hard work will inevitably bring academic achievements, and academic achievements will inevitably bring fruitful results. Lou Tiancheng, who is about to graduate his Ph.D., has received invitations from academic institutions and companies from all over the world, among which are well-known such as Facebook and Google. enterprise.
At the time, netizens thought that Lou Tiancheng would choose Facebook to live a luxurious life in the United States, but the facts are always unexpected. Lou Tiancheng rejected Facebook's high annual salary and green card, and chose to go to Google.
After embarking on the plane to the United States, Lou Tiancheng said to the camera: "I'm just going to study, and I will come back."
Sure enough, three years later, Lou Tiancheng left Google and joined Quora (the US version of Zhihu). After that, he accepted Baidu's invitation and returned to China to start artificial intelligence.
4
Artificial intelligence has become an indispensable topic in our modern era. Smart assistants on mobile phones in our daily life, cost-saving robots in industry, and even micro robots can be used in surgery. Our life and artificial intelligence are getting closer and closer, and Lou Tiancheng just saw that this road is about to set off a gust of wind, so he joined Baidu, and wanted to fly into the sky.
In 2016, he was invited to join Baidu's U.S. R&D Center and worked with James Peng, the chief architect of Baidu's driverless car business, to promote the maturity of Baidu's driverless technology.
Peng Jun recalled that when he first saw Lou Tiancheng, he felt a bit awkward . After a few more chats, he realized that he and Lou Tiancheng were simply modern Boya and Zhong Ziqi.
"He has clear thoughts on many things, and he can see the essence when looking at the problems. This is a person who can really make things happen." Peng Jun said.
Kai-Fu Lee, who was also the president of Google Greater China at the time, commented that Lou Tiancheng will be the mainstay of the future development of China's Internet industry .
Later, I was engaged in the research and development of unmanned vehicles at Baidu for a year. I was not satisfied with the development of Baidu unmanned vehicles at that time. Lou Tiancheng and Baidu's chief architect of unmanned vehicles both left and joined hands to start a business and founded Pony Zhixing (pony.ai) .
Lou Tiancheng serves as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Xiaoma Zhixing and is responsible for the grasp of all technical directions, while Peng Jun is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Xiaoma Zhixing and is responsible for general affairs.
Xiaoma Zhixing, a newly founded company, has a market valuation of US$90 million once established.
You don't think the Loutiancheng team is small, but the energy of this team is not small. Not long ago, the teacher Lou came to Beijing to recruit. Lou Tiancheng invited his former mentor, Academician Yao Qizhi, as the chief consultant of Xiaoma Zhixing. He won the gold medal of the International Informatics Olympiad IOI 2016 and the gold strategy of the world champion. The International Informatics Olympiad IOI 2016 Gold medalist Du Yuhao and others joined Xiao Ma Zhixing, and the team of Xiao Ma Zhixing exceeds 50 people.
Now, there are more than fifties Pony.ai number of employees, and almost all engineers, product manager did not even move, and everyone is more Pony.ai is Baidu, Ali, Tencent, these big companies can be seen as Yiyidangshi Players.
5
What is needed for success?
The most common answer from newspapers is: In addition to talent, there is hard work. It is undeniable that Lou Tiancheng has both.
Lou Tiancheng once briefly outlined his day at Tsinghua University-when there is no class, he wakes up naturally in the morning, usually around 10 o'clock, and then went straight to the laboratory or library to study until midnight.
If Lou Tiancheng spends most of his time in the laboratory or in the library, it is unreasonable to be unsuccessful.
When everyone put the name of genius on top, Lou Tiancheng made his own definition of genius.
He believes that genius depends on the final height. Some things are only done a few years earlier than others, and they are not geniuses. The real geniuses are those who have their feet on the ground.
If you stand on tiptoes, you cannot stand for long; if you take big steps, you cannot walk for long. At this time, calm down, be yourself, and take every step of the way, which is the best way.
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