Shanghai was still carrying a bit of winter chill in late December.
Backed by Guowei Equipment Group, a domestic semiconductor equipment giant, it was a top-tier competition.
The Huaxuan Cup Physics Innovation Competition was undoubtedly the pinnacle of commercial competitions for high school students in the country.
This national finals lineup covered more than a dozen provinces, cities, and autonomous regions, with over twenty long-established elite high schools and more than 210 top physics competition students.
Shanghai Pudong Airport.
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Li Dong carried a backpack as he followed Jiangcheng No. 6 High School's group out with the crowd.
Jiangcheng No. 7 High School had not sent a teacher to lead the team this time, so Li Dong's accommodation, meals, and itinerary would naturally be arranged together with No. 6 High School.
And the teacher leading No. 6 High School this time was not Liu Limin, but Old Chen.
Old Chen had come out personally this time entirely because of Li Dong.
Because Li Dong now had another, even more important goal: the Yau High School Science Award.
If Li Dong wanted to use his "Dual-Beam Laser Interference Maskless Lithography" proposal from the Huaxuan Cup semifinals to compete for the Yau Award, he had to write and publish a standard academic paper entirely in English.
But Huaxuan Technology had already taken an interest in the proposal, and it involved the company's early technical secrets and a patent NDA.
Old Chen had come to Shanghai this time to personally speak with Director Lin Wei of Huaxuan Technology and secure a "non-exclusive academic publication waiver" for Li Dong's technology.
Put simply: the company could take the technology and make money from it, but the right to put his name on the paper and publish it academically had to