Interview Summary

Through the interview with Teacher Cheng, I have gained an understanding of the essential qualities that professional technical personnel involved in the development and application of new technologies in the cultural field should possess. It deepened my understanding of technology design and development, and provided me with a clearer vision of the possible trends, practical opportunities, and employment prospects in the field of computer science and technology during academic advancement and career planning. The following summary will cover four aspects: analysis of possible career development, personal change in understanding, help in academic and future career development, and interview insights.

1. Analysis of possible career development directions: Through the interview, I first learned that engaging in new technology development in the field of digitizing ancient texts requires good professional technical knowledge and software development skills. It also requires integrating technology with business and maintaining perseverance, focusing on cutting-edge advancements and practical application effects. Secondly, it is important to keep track of the development trends of cutting-edge technologies, especially by reading international professional papers in the field and reflecting on the practical application paths of relevant technologies in one's own work. In addition, from a technology development perspective, it is essential to respect intellectual property rights while truly understanding and mastering the technology, and then proceed with technological integration and innovation. This is crucial for companies to gain a competitive advantage and promote development, and is currently a common practice. Lastly, engaging in various levels of professional technical development requires certain basic qualities, such as a sense of responsibility, technical acumen, perseverance, and the ability to integrate technology with business.

2. Personal change in understanding: Through the exchange with Teacher Cheng, my understanding has gradually deepened. Firstly, I learned that in the cultural industry, the focus of technology research and development is on content and data. By combining with business needs and exploring the value through technology, it is possible to achieve both social and economic value enhancement. Secondly, it is necessary to keep track of the development trends of cutting-edge technologies, with special attention to the understanding and application of artificial intelligence. Thirdly, as a technical researcher, I will encounter various challenges and problems, so it is important to clarify goals, deduce possible technical solutions, and not be discouraged or stagnant.

3. Help in academic and future career development: This interview has provided me with a lot of insights. Teacher Cheng advised me to consolidate my knowledge of fundamental theories, keep track of the development dynamics of cutting-edge technologies, and maintain close communication with teachers and classmates to promote information exchange, resource sharing, and mutual progress in the future. I will continuously improve myself in the following aspects:

(1) Acquire knowledge and improve comprehensive abilities. I personally have an interest in science and engineering, and I also have certain expertise in English, music, and painting. I hope to grow and progress comprehensively in the future.

(2) Actively participate in various activities both inside and outside of school, unite with other students, and contribute to others, the school, and society through practical actions.

(3) Engage in technology design and research and development work, continuously improve knowledge and skills, and cultivate habits of tireless learning and a mindset of open, in-depth, and rigorous research

4. Insights from the interview: Through the interview, I have gained more information about technology design and research and development. I now understand the abilities and requirements needed to become a professional technical personnel. I have also recognized my own deficiencies, which will help me further plan my academic and career development. Rome wasn't built in a day, and I realize that I need to calm down and study and research diligently. I firmly believe that with hard work, I will continue to make progress and be able to apply to ideal schools and suitable career development paths. After the interview, I have made further arrangements with Teacher Cheng to participate in on-site summer practice activities at GuLian Company, where I will personally experience the daily work and life of technology researchers and contribute to the best of my abilities.

Interview Content:

Question 1: You have been working in software development and have held key executive positions in technical design and research and development. Could you please share your academic background and why you have chosen to pursue a career in computer science? Have you encountered any difficulties or setbacks while working in technology roles for traditional cultural enterprises? How did you solve them? Can you share your experiences?

Teacher Cheng: I specialized in computer science and technology. My first job after graduation was in hardware-related work. After some time, I realized that although the work was important, it was relatively narrow in scope and did not create significant social and economic value. Later, I seized the opportunity to learn software programming in my work, and by integrating hardware and software, I was able to effectively solve problems and gain more sense of achievement. Since then, I gradually transitioned to design and research and development-related work. Technology can improve work efficiency and optimize user experience by combining data and business. I believe that technology cannot be discussed in isolation; it must be combined with data and business to enable through technology.

In my work, I have encountered technical bottlenecks, but I cannot afford to stagnate. The overall direction needs to be clear, and specific technical implementation plans can be explored and practiced in depth. As long as we persist, we will always find solutions. For example, we once developed an "OCR recognition for ancient books" technology in cooperation with a university research team. However, we found that, first, the pace of work from the collaborating party did not meet the practical needs of our business. Second, in terms of cutting-edge technology research, universities tend to focus more on publishing papers and demonstrating feasibility through experiments, which is still far from practical application and result transformation. Therefore, we temporarily suspended our collaboration with the university and switched to independent research and development. Through the efforts of our technology team, we achieved good results, meeting the practical needs of our business

Question 2: I am currently in the process of applying to universities in the United States, and I am particularly interested in mathematics and computer science. What basic knowledge should I accumulate in the field of computer science and technology? What are the future development directions, and do you have any opinions and suggestions?

Teacher Cheng: You are currently in your sophomore year of high school, and it may not be the right time to delve into knowledge accumulation and career planning. However, I hope you can study and solidify your foundation in theoretical knowledge. Pay attention to the development of cutting-edge technology fields, especially the application of artificial intelligence in specific domains. For example, in my current work in a cultural enterprise, technology cannot be separated from business. Every technological innovation we do is carried out in combination with business needs. Therefore, it is important to have a solid professional knowledge base and a technical mindset. Through technological innovation, we can solve problems in the business field, improve productivity, and enhance competitiveness.

Question 3: Ancient texts are an important reference for modern people to understand and study ancient culture. To facilitate modern reading and understanding, professionals need to organize ancient texts. However, digitizing ancient texts requires a significant amount of work and high professional requirements. We have learned that as an inventor, you have applied for four patents in four years. Could you please explain 1-2 of the patented technologies you have obtained, in relation to the process of digitizing ancient texts? Could you discuss how you have used advanced research and development in conjunction with these technologies to play an important role in the digitization process of ancient texts, as well as the subsequent patent application to protect intellectual property rights, and so on?

Teacher Cheng: The study and organization of ancient texts is a highly specialized task that used to require professionals to spend a lot of time on processing and organizing, including reading, punctuation, verification, collation, and annotation. However, by introducing technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, we can achieve automatic punctuation, OCR recognition, and traditional-simplified character conversion for ancient texts. This has indeed freed professionals from tedious and repetitive basic work, greatly improving work efficiency and accuracy. Two of the patented technologies are related to the methods of text recognition and punctuation filling in ancient texts. The innovation lies in the ability to locate and recognize the text in ancient document images without any manual intervention, converting the text in images into digital versions, thereby improving the efficiency of ancient text input. Automatic punctuation filling for ancient texts can also improve the efficiency of text organization

Question 4: GuLian Company, in collaboration with the Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Electronics at CITIC, and Zhongke Software Company, has established the Key Laboratory for the Digitization of Ancient Books and Knowledge Engineering. The members of this laboratory include experts and high-level talents in disciplines such as computer science, library and information science, philology, and bibliography. This year, the laboratory has also received recognition as the Key Laboratory for Excellent Science and Technology in the Publishing Industry. Could you please talk about the standards and progress in technological research and application in the laboratory, especially in terms of achievements in technology applied to knowledge services?

Teacher Cheng: The patented technologies mentioned earlier have been developed within this larger framework, integrating technology with business to promote development. I usually require the core members of the technical team to stay informed about the latest developments in cutting-edge technology, exchange ideas with experts and scholars from universities and research institutions, and collect and study research papers and project reports to understand advanced technological theories. We delve into the feasibility of applying these advanced technologies in the field of ancient texts and consider the implementation path. When the timing is right, we propose and implement projects through internal deliberation. Our researchers need to focus on their professional fields, think deeply, and persist in practice. They must possess good technical literacy and habits in order to consistently carry out technical research and development, support the sustainable development of our business, and achieve social and economic benefits. Last year's ChatGPT is a typical large-scale model that made significant progress in tasks such as text generation and language understanding. However, we are also aware of the negative impacts and limitations it brings. Currently, we are focusing on exploring the development and application of AI in the publishing industry and the organization of ancient texts. This year's research direction is related to two sub-topics in data intelligence. Additionally, through exchanges with universities, we have gained some understanding of digital humanities and discussed interdisciplinary issues in this field. In the context of the rapid development of deep learning technology, digital humanities is undergoing a transformation from digitization to knowledge-based research, shifting from simple search to more complex analysis and research. Digital humanities technology not only brings new materials and perspectives to the field of humanities research but also opens up new paradigms and paths for humanities research

Question 5: GuLian Company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Zhonghua Book Company. We know that Zhonghua Book Company has a history of 111 years. In traditional cultural enterprises, there are many things that can be done through technological innovation, but there are also many uncertain risks. Starting from the independent development of the "Chinese Classic Library," GuLian Company has undergone a digital transformation by building a digital consolidation platform for the entire publishing process, and subsequently established the "Chinese Traditional Culture Big Data Center" and the "Chinese Ancient Texts Consolidation and Publishing Resource Platform." We also focused on the development of Jiehe.net to provide online consolidation and knowledge services for ancient texts. Could you please give 1-2 examples of how to understand business needs, perceive the direction of cutting-edge technological development, and combine the two to find practical and innovative directions that meet business needs? How do you control input and output during the innovation process to achieve sustainable development?

Teacher Cheng: We cannot separate technology from business. In practice, we need to consider the content, data, and requirements before thinking about how to solve the problems through technology. The development goal of Jiehe.net is to provide a comprehensive display of Chinese ancient texts and all-round knowledge services. We are working towards this goal, but there is still a long way to go. For example, in terms of content and data, what we have collected and organized is not comprehensive enough, and there is still a need for iterative development in technical implementation. The input and output of technology need to be carefully considered to ensure the healthy development of the business. The automatic punctuation and ancient text recognition mentioned earlier are both derived from business needs. Through technological innovation, we solve problems, optimize business processes, and improve production efficiency. Each year, our technology research and development projects undergo internal evaluation and budget control

Question 6: Big data, artificial intelligence, especially AIGC, have brought about changes in many industries, including customer service, consulting, education, and more. In the field of news media, ChatGPT can be applied in areas such as automated content production, generating news reports, translations, and improving news production efficiency. Could you please talk about the positive and negative impacts of ChatGPT in the cultural publishing field?

Teacher Cheng: With the emergence of ChatGPT, it can be said that it has changed the way people acquire knowledge to some extent through the question-and-answer format. It can also be understood as a search engine. However, the content generated by ChatGPT may have certain limitations, and its authenticity and objectivity can sometimes be questionable. This is mainly because ChatGPT's dataset is trained on a wide range of internet texts, including Wikipedia, forum posts, news articles, and various other sources. The dataset goes through data cleaning, manual selection, and repetitive model training. However, the dataset also carries risks such as privacy protection, content bias, and inappropriate comments. From this perspective, in the publishing field, the content that has been published, edited, and organized, such as validated ancient texts, is authoritative and can serve as the basis for training models in the domain of traditional culture and ancient texts. Currently, we are exploring the application of big data and neural network technologies in the field of digitizing ancient texts. We are addressing issues such as data copyright and technical implementation to provide more stable, secure, and reliable services

Question 7: I have been studying the Young Talent Program recently, and one of the research topics is solving partial differential equations to simulate the diffusion process of gases.

Teacher Cheng: It sounds like an interesting application and a deduction of applying artificial intelligence technology in a specific field. I wish you success in completing the project.

Question 8: In my daily programming, I focus on originality and write my own code to build from scratch. However, I have recently come across some cases, such as the development of personal websites, where they clearly utilize existing programming templates. Is this approach appropriate? Can it still showcase one's actual technical abilities? What kind of coding can be leveraged?

Teacher Cheng: Technology development should respect intellectual property rights, but it doesn't mean that you cannot utilize existing foundational code from yourself or others. Many professional technical personnel have their own code libraries, which are accumulated through their past development experiences, forming various utility classes that can be flexibly called when needed. If someone else's existing code is open-source, it can be referenced and further integrated for innovation, which can improve software development efficiency.

Interviewee: Ruixue Cheng
Interview Date: July 27, 2023
Interview Method: Face-to-face interview
Interviewer: Tianwei Li

Interviewee's Profile:
Deputy General Manager of GuLian (Beijing) Digital Media Technology Co., Ltd., affiliated with Zhonghua Book Company. Previously held technical executive positions in private enterprises, foreign enterprises, and state-owned enterprises, focusing on exploring the application of new technologies in the cultural field and the transformation of research results. Led several major technological research and development projects and programs in the "Key Laboratory of Digitalization and Knowledge Engineering for Ancient Books," and is the patent inventor of advanced technologies such as automatic punctuation for ancient books, traditional-simplified Chinese character conversion, translation between literary and vernacular Chinese, and OCR recognition