On Monday, September 5, 1977, after settling in at MIT, Bao Zixuan was about to usher in his first class. It takes two years to complete three and a half years of courses, and most of the college students like them who have exchanged with other universities are not under great academic pressure.

There are only 22 students in their class, 14 of whom are from other prestigious universities in the world, some of whom study civil engineering, some of whom study computer science, and some of whom study bioengineering. As a result, the teacher has to talk about a book in two classes, and then it is practice and exams.

Their first lesson was relatively simple, the history of mechanical development and the future direction. It's a very simple course, and it's also a journey of human production and use of machines. This class is a professor in his mid-50s who is teaching these geniuses, Kevin Baumann, a professor of German descent. His grandfather was the chief engineer of Rheinmetall in Germany, and the family moved to the United States because of the war.

Kevin Bowman: "In this lesson, we're going to talk about your views on the future of machinery, including how we can help companies build factories and what kind of factories to build. As for the machines invented by mankind in ancient times, you can take a look at them as a basis, and the textbooks at MIT are taught to you by history teachers. Tell us a little bit about the interrelationship between machines and factories in the future, and the role we play at MIT. ”

At this time, one of the only two girls in the class stood up and said, "Hello, Professor Bowman, my name is Jane Jones. I think that in the future, the machine will be more efficient, the production accuracy will be higher, and some people will be gradually replaced by machines. "In the 21st century, anyone who has read a little bit of books can express this opinion, but there are not many people who can do so in this era.

The other girl then stood up and said, "I'm going to add that the proportion of CNC machines will get higher and higher." We will have less and less manual work, and the production in the factory will be produced after the customer has placed an order. ”

Everyone is constantly expressing their opinions, and at this time a person's speech made Bao Zixuan feel bright, I think we should integrate a lot of current machinery, so that people who need it can buy all the machinery they need with less money, and the parts and components should be used on a large scale, and find a standard interface, so that the products produced by different factories can be exchanged with each other. To achieve the rapid replacement of parts, and the standard speed of the motor should be integrated according to the different needs of each industry, and the gear integration should be carried out to achieve the required standard number of revolutions, 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 returned to the question.

Bowman: "Okay, Luis, you have a point, and I hope you're going to work towards that." ”

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

Bao Zixuan: "Hello everyone, my name is Bao Zixuan, I just heard what the students said is very reasonable, but I think that the improvement of machinery manufacturing is a system engineering, which requires the overall quality of our staff, precision machining capabilities and people's requirements for product use to balance and decide." I think we should expand machine building into the industrial system. ”

"I'm thinking about a question this holiday, that is, how do we divide the big industry, and I initially divide the industry into four epochs. i.e. 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 era of electrification, Industry 3.0 is the age of information, and it is also the era we are experiencing, and Industry 4.0 is the use of information technology to promote industrial change, I define it as the era of intelligence. ”

"What we are experiencing now is the stage of industry 3.0, the age of electronic information, that is, the application of electronics and information technology by GF, so that the degree of automation and control of the manufacturing process has been further greatly improved. Transform the information we receive into products that are produced in the factory. ”

"Industry 4.0 should be the integration of the physical world and the virtual world calculated by the computer, the whole life cycle of products, the whole manufacturing process data and the module integration based on communication technology, so as to form a new production model of highly flexible, personalized and digital products and services. ”

"And in Industry 4.0. We should pay attention to the construction of smart factories, the degree of artificial intelligence of intelligent production, and the overall supporting facilities of intelligent logistics. At present, I am still trying to build a smart factory, and in my computer, I can already realize the construction of 16 factories with uncomplicated parts and all the data connection 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, the proposal of Industry 4.0 was 40 years ahead of schedule, but he just wanted to prove himself at MIT, and the MIT laboratory would definitely have this test before the Germans proposed it, and the cost factor was not realized.

At this time, the whole world can only be in the MIT mechanical manufacturing class, and the person who puts forward such a theory will not be considered crazy, and through this statement, he still conquered the students of MIT, and of course Professor Kevin Bowman.

At this time, Professor Kevin Bowman was the first to react and take the lead in applauding, and everyone followed, in fact, this is what Bao Zixuan wants, only in this way his research results will not be so abrupt.

Professor Bauman: "Bao, your point of view is very new and I think it's very promising. You've really made it possible to build a virtual factory with 16 parts. ”

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

Bao Zixuan: "Yes, Professor. I'll show you a simulation in the next class. ”

Professor Bowman: "Very good, you can put your ideas into a paper, I'm a member of the review committee of a scientific journal, and I can recommend your paper to a scientific journal." ”

Bao Zixuan didn't expect that just to make everyone remember something, there would be such an effect. And as a science and engineering man, there is no one who does not know scientific magazines, and it seems that this is also a way to increase his influence!

Bao Zixuan: "Okay, professor, I'll give you the paper tomorrow, in fact, I have already finished it during the vacation, but I haven't refined and simplified it." ”

Professor Bowman: "Great, I'm looking forward to your paper. That's all for today!

At this time, everyone began to walk towards the outside of the classroom. And Professor Kevin Bowman asked Bao Zixuan to wait for him at this time. Everyone is envious when they see this. But everyone thinks it should be, and Bao Zixuan's performance today deserves the professor's individual attention.

Professor Bowman: "Bao, you are a young man with a lot of ideas, and I would like you to be my teaching assistant and my lab assistant. ”

Bao Zixuan: "Professor, don't all teaching assistants be master's students! Moreover, the assistants in Bowman's lab are all doctoral students, so I'm afraid that my qualifications are not enough." ”

Professor Bowman: "At MIT, there are not so many rules, there are not so many rules, as long as you have the strength and ideas, nothing is a problem. The main task of my lab this year is to study the multi-functionality of CNC machine tool applications, and I originally wanted to find someone from the computer department to join, but when I heard your ideas and you said that 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, don't be afraid of 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, at MIT, no one dares to own your research results, the patent is yours, it is yours, but you have to pay for the service and use of the resources used in the university." ”

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