On Monday, after a pleasant weekend, Duke came to the lab in good spirits, just in time to meet Professor Ball. Duke was wondering if Professor had come to the lab so early, and Professor Pol had already walked up with a man smiling.

"Duke, you've come just in time. This is Dr. Schubert from NASA, and he's here today to talk to you about robotic path finding. Professor Pol said.

"Hello, Dr. Duke, it's a pleasure to meet you, the champion of the new autonomous robotics competition, and by the way, I am also a graduate of MIT." Dr. Schubert said with a smile as he spoke, holding out his hand and shaking Duke warmly.

Schubert, who was taller than Duke, had naturally curly blonde hair, and a very lush beard growing near his ears, and if he wore a robe and a turban, he would have been an Arab beard. It's just that he has a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose and wears a very formal suit, which reveals a bit of intellectual characteristics. But the overall look is more like attending an important business meeting than a technical consultation.

"Dr. Schubert is a 2005 Ph.D. in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he participated in the 2003 autonomous robot competition, also won the championship, and now works at NASA, responsible for research on robotics, today Dr. Schubert mainly wants to see the genius beautiful girl's path-finding performance on the actual terrain." Professor Pohl directly explained Schubert's intentions and thoughts, everyone is engaged in technology, or it is more refreshing to go straight.

When Duke heard that he was really here to talk about business, he was surprised, thinking that it had only been a few days, and he had actually alarmed a behemoth like NASA, and it seemed that the people who paid attention to MIT's robot competition were really a little scary.

However, the opportunity to cooperate with this kind of organization is a mixed blessing for Duke, the good news is that this kind of project is easy to gain fame and fortune, but relatively speaking, participating in such a highly classified project of Uncle Sam will never be less troublesome in the future. If Duke is an ordinary person, he can encounter this kind of opportunity, it is simply an opportunity to fall pie in the sky, and many people can't wait to pray to God and Buddha.

But Duke had a furrow in his chest, and when he heard that it was such a thing, he was a little resistant in his heart. This face inevitably showed some disapproval, Schubert, who had high expectations for this trip, was originally calm, but at this moment, seeing Duke's expression was not only not surprised, but interested, and couldn't help but be a little strange.

However, when the two met for the first time, there was Professor Pohl in the middle, and Schubert didn't say anything, even if Duke had any quirks, Schubert could understand, after all, people who were obsessed with technology were more or less different from ordinary people.

"Okay, Duke, now you take the genius girl, let's go outside and find a place, so that Dr. Schubert can intuitively feel the genius girl's amazing intelligent pathfinding ability" Professor Pol saw that the two of them didn't seem to have any interest in talking again, and said directly. After all, Schubert didn't come to MIT to be nostalgic, his purpose and interest were still in the state-of-the-art algorithm of intelligent pathfinding developed by Duke. Although Dr. Schubert has watched the live footage of the robot race many times, making a decision without a personal visit is not a serious attitude at NASA, even if Professor Ball is a great admirer of the algorithm.

Duke took out the genius beautiful girl robot from the laboratory, tested the power supply first, and found that it could support it for a long time, so he nodded to Professor Pol and said that everything was OK. The three of them picked up the robot and walked out of the laboratory.

After walking outside for a while, Duke and his party came to a small campus garden, the garden path was paved with uneven cobblestones, on both sides of the path was a green lawn, and in the center of the garden there was a fountain.

Duke set a few parameters according to the requirements and then started the genius beautiful girl, only to see her standing at the starting point and scanning around for a while, this time she quickly recognized the route she should be traveling, and accurately stepped on the cobblestone path, watching the genius beautiful girl automatically avoid the obstruction of the large cobblestones on the path, Schubert nodded secretly in approval, to be able to do this extent, it is already quite remarkable.

When she reached the fountain in the middle of the garden, the genius girl quickly circled the pool without slowing down, and drove without hesitation in the face of the cobblestone path in the other direction next to her, and after a direct detour of 180 degrees, she realized the entire garden journey from the path facing the other side of the pool.

"Duke, you genius girl really deserves her reputation, which is breathtaking. If Dr. Duke is interested, I think that in the future development of NASA's robots, Dr. Duke will definitely leave an important stage for Dr. Duke to show his strengths. Seeing such a superb performance of the genius beautiful girl, Schubert was full of praise, and even began to recruit his Duke talent.

"Schubert, you're a little unfriendly, why did you start poaching my people," Professor Pol said with a few laughs, as if he were serious and joking. "However, our AI lab is more than happy to cooperate with NASA."

Of course, Professor Pol is very keen to facilitate this collaboration, because under the laboratory he leads, many assistant professors and student grants and other expenses need to be supported by research project funds, and he can catch up with a big rich man like NASA for at least a few years without worrying about lack of funds.

"Haha, Professor Pol, I'm just kidding, it's too early for Dr. Duke to graduate, and it's too early for us to talk about it. But speaking of cooperation, I'm here to reach a preliminary draft of a joint research agreement with you, and I'd very much like Dr. Duke to join us in the joint development of our next generation of lunar robots and Mars robotic travel control systems. Schubert took Professor Ball's words and said. If Dr. Duke doesn't have any opinions, I think it's very likely that NASA's joint development of a robotic travel control system with the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will be approved. ”

Professor Pol was very unhappy with Schubert's linking the cooperation plan with Duke, but Professor Pol knew that Schubert was originally here for Duke's genius beautiful girl, otherwise they would not have given up the cooperation plan with Stanford and cooperated with him, the MIT artificial intelligence laboratory.

When will his own students be able to influence an important cooperation plan, Professor Pol sighed inwardly. On the surface, he had to ask Duke for advice. "Duke, what do you think of the proposed joint development program with NASA?" Professor Pol said to Duke.

What else can I do? Instead of complying with it, Duke secretly smiled bitterly, "I don't have any problems myself, and I'm very happy to join this program, but," Duke said. "I only want to be involved in the least required part of the program, which means that I will not participate in a project if the confidentiality requirements affect my freedom to leave the United States." This condition had to be put forward by Duke first, lest it be unclear in the future.

This request made Schubert scratch his head, NASA projects rarely have a low level of secrecy, and Duke really raised a very big problem. However, Schubert thought that he should not be the only one who should be anxious, and Professor Pol, one of the biggest beneficiaries, should also contribute to it, so this issue will be left to the specific agreement later.

A few days later, Ball negotiated a feasible plan with Schubert, dividing the entire project into several independent sub-projects, and Duke was responsible for the intelligent pathfinding sub-project, so as to avoid the possibility of leaking the existing secrets of the NASA robot project, although it is possible to deduce some data on NASA's robot capabilities from Duke's intelligent pathfinder module, but this is already a non-critical thing.

Under the agreement, a one-year joint research programme with a total research funding of $2 million was finalized. As a freshman, Duke became a part-time researcher at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab with an annual salary of $100,000, setting a new record.