It is often said that "a key opens a lock", but what will it be like to "unlock" marine equipment thousands of meters below the depths of the sea?
In March this year, Zhang Xuanye, a doctoral student of the 18th "National College Student of the Year" and a doctoral student of Harbin Engineering Underwater Acoustics, under the leadership of his mentor Professor Liu Zhenzuo, led the team to develop a deep-sea releaser that successfully "unlocked" the mainland deep-sea submersible system, so that the system could be successfully deployed and recovered, and escorted its operation safety.
Zhang Xuanye worked hard to let his youth shine in serving the construction of a maritime power. He was invited to serve as the Chinese representative of the first World Youth Development Forum, won the gold medal "Grand Slam" of the three major innovation and entrepreneurship competitions of "China International College Student Innovation Competition (formerly Internet + Competition)", "Challenge Cup" and "Create Youth", led the team to win dozens of various innovation and entrepreneurship awards, founded the company "Echo Technology", and obtained a number of patent authorizations for related technologies.
Heart to the deep blue, aiming to "listen to the sea" for the country
Zhang Xuanye, from Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province, has always had a "deep blue dream" in his heart, and is full of yearning for the mysterious underwater acoustic engineering major. In 2018, he was admitted to Harbin Engineering University, and through hard work, he successfully transferred to the coveted major in underwater acoustic communication.
Zhang Xuanye, who loves to think and use his brain, was infected by the school's strong scientific and technological innovation atmosphere, joined the DSP student science and technology innovation club, and entered the underwater acoustic laboratory under the leadership of the senior brothers and sisters, and the endless world of science and technology opened the door to him.
Laboratory test of acoustic releaser (the first on the left is Zhang Xuanye)
In Professor Liu Yanzuo's "Principles of Communication" class, Zhang Xuanye learned about a technical problem, the expensive ocean observation instrument is placed on the seabed several kilometers away, and it is necessary to place a heavy object under the connecting equipment cable to anchor it, and after the equipment completes the task, it needs to be "unlocked" through underwater acoustic communication to successfully recover the equipment. This "key" that can "unlock" is the key equipment for the recovery of deep-sea equipment - the acoustic releaser, which has long relied on imports.
"We want to build China's own 'key' to open our own 'lock'." Professor Liu Yanzuo's words of encouragement made Zhang Xuanye sound a kind of "deafening" power, and he secretly made up his mind to follow the teacher to realize this wish and develop a deep-sea acoustic releaser that integrates acoustic communication, release, and ranging functions.
Performance verification of deep-sea equipment (second from right: Zhang Xuanye)
If you want to create a "key" to "unlock" the bottom-sitting deep-sea equipment, the key is to be able to receive and analyze the command signals of shore operators in a timely manner. How do you "hear" and "decipher" an accurate signal? This brings great challenges to the development of deep-sea acoustic releasers that often sink into the deep ocean at 5,000 meters, 6,000 meters, or even 10,000 meters.
In order to solve the above problems, Zhang Xuanye, under the guidance of Professor Qiao Gang's team of the School of Underwater Acoustics, began to carry out in-depth research on the characteristics of underwater acoustic channels in complex sea conditions. In order to reduce or eliminate the interference of complex factors, it is necessary to build an optimal acoustic signal information decoding model.
To this end, Zhang Xuanye and his teammates spent half a year repeatedly conducting simulation tests and calculations, but the stability of the equipment could not be improved. At a loss, Professor Liu instructed him to start from the most basic communication principle, find the source of the problem, from the hardware circuit to the communication logic, after hundreds of tests of the whole machine, successfully reached the expected indicators of the project.
"At seabeds above 6,000 meters, or even at full depth, our technology can accurately acquire and demodulate communication signals under low signal-to-noise ratio." Speaking of this, Zhang Xuanye couldn't hide his pride.
Participate in the performance test of deep-sea equipment
Based on the acoustic releaser, Zhang Xuanye introduced artificial intelligence technology into underwater acoustic communication, and is committed to realizing the organic combination of subject research and engineering practice.
From "rookie" to "dark horse", he won the gold medal of the "super first-class" innovation and entrepreneurship competition
Under the leadership of teachers and seniors, Zhang Xuanye is immersed in the cause of serving the country with science and technology to create more sensitive and effective "eyes, ears and mouths" for China's marine equipment.
Zhang Xuanye led the team to overcome obstacles all the way in a series of "super first-class" innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as "Creating Youth" to "Challenge Cup" and "China International College Student Innovation Competition".
Zhang Xuanye believes that there is actually no secret, that is, there must be tenacity and the spirit of not admitting defeat in doing things.
When Zhang Xuanye was a junior in college, he was still a "rookie" of the team, and followed his brothers and sisters to participate in the national "Challenge Cup" innovation and entrepreneurship competition and the "Create Youth" competition. However, the results of the two competitions were not satisfactory, and the best result was only the second prize at the provincial level, which was a big blow to the team members, and the morale was very low for a while. When the 2020 "Create Youth" competition came again, everyone was very discouraged and even wanted to abandon the competition.
"We took a hard look at the process of the first two failures and thought carefully about what the reasons for the failures were." Zhang Xuanye feels that he is "standing on the shoulders of giants", - is the science and technology team under the guidance of the teacher, has been committed to the research of underwater acoustic communication machine and deep-sea acoustic releaser, the team's scientific and technological innovation skills are very solid, the second is that the research direction for the construction of a maritime power is also extraordinary, in the process of re-sorting the ideas of the competition, Zhang Xuanye gradually regained his self-confidence, he believes that the crux of the problem is not to explain clearly, to explain clearly why to do this, how to do this, and what to do in the future.
The 7th "Create Youth" National Gold Award Ceremony
"The cutting-edge equipment in the marine field has long relied on imports, which shows that the country's demand is very strong," in the process of preparing for the competition, Zhang Xuanye carefully combed and consulted a large number of industry information, and more deeply felt the importance and value of hydroacoustics for the construction of a maritime power and the development of the national economy, and felt that the dream in his heart and the strength under his feet can support him to overcome all the difficulties in front of him.
"I'm glad to have met so many like-minded partners, who always think together and work together, and never care about fame and fortune." The members of Zhang Xuanye's team always have a tacit understanding that they can "hit it off" with him, and under his infection and drive, there are things to do together, and there are difficulties together, and he is also very good at "letting the right people take on the right tasks", and do a good job in the division of labor, coordination and cooperation between the teams.
After several months of technical iteration and scientific and technological research, Zhang Xuanye led the team to win the gold medal of the "Create Youth" competition. Since then, this team has become a signature team of the school in high-level science and technology innovation competitions, winning gold and silver repeatedly, and proving its strength with the "three golds" of creating youth, challenge cup and China International College Student Innovation Competition.
Founding a company dedicated to making the ocean more "transparent"
"There are more outstanding young people in China here, who are committed to lighting up the dream of becoming a scientific and technological power and realizing greater value in life." The science and technology innovation competition opened a door to the vast world of entrepreneurship for Zhang Xuanye, and also gave him the idea of breaking through.
"Easy to use, effective is my goal to do things, only innovation and not entrepreneurship, just like a plant only blooms and does not bear fruit, but the road to entrepreneurship opportunities and risks coexist, and the probability of failure is nine out of ten." Zhang Xuanye also hesitated because of this, so he asked the judges of the competition who encouraged him to start a business at that time what to do if he failed, and the other party said to him earnestly: "Entrepreneurship must be risky, but if you recognize it, you will do it, and if you look ahead, you will only achieve nothing." ”
Zhang Xuanye and his team found that underwater acoustic communication equipment has great market potential through market research and analysis of dozens of marine-related units. "Just do it!" In May 2021, Zhang Xuanye founded Harbin Echo Technology Co., Ltd., the company's main products are underwater communication systems and serialized underwater acoustic communication equipment and interconnection systems that adapt to complex sea conditions, and are committed to making the ocean smarter and more "transparent".
"Entrepreneurship should face the needs of the market and enterprises, and the products should not only be innovative, but also meet the stability and reliability, and the requirements for entrepreneurs are also very high, and they must master the comprehensive knowledge of market rules, enterprise management, finance, laws and regulations." Zhang Xuanye adopts the strategy of "grasping with both hands", grasping product technology with one hand and supplementing the relevant knowledge of enterprise operation with the other hand.
30 interviews with Harbin New Talent Deal
The dozens of entrepreneurship-related courses offered by the school are like charcoal in the snow, and Zhang Xuanye has made up for the evil, and a series of courses such as TRIZ method theory and business plan writing have benefited him a lot. He carried out entrepreneurial practice in his studies and deepened his learning in entrepreneurial practice, full of motivation and double his efficiency, and soon became a "hexagonal" entrepreneur with a variety of knowledge.
The company has also started from the beginning of the "difficult to receive orders", and gradually stepped into the right track, facing the market demand, developed 5 products such as underwater acoustic communication machine and acoustic releaser, and expanded its customers to more than 10 sea-related enterprises in Beijing, Shandong Province, Guangdong Province, etc., and has also carried out application demonstrations with a number of research institutes.
The company he founded was awarded the only outstanding enterprise award in Heilongjiang Province in the 2022 China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and was invited to serve as the Chinese entrepreneurship representative of the first World Youth Development Forum, as a representative of Harbin college students, he was invited to participate in an interview with the 30 interpretations of the Harbin Talent New Deal, and also as a representative of the enterprise, for the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology "National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Project Transformation and Landing Incentive Policy" Put forward good suggestions for college students to start their own businesses.
"Innovation and entrepreneurship requires doing everything possible, speaking a thousand words, traveling through thousands of mountains and rivers, and enduring thousands of hardships." In the face of the next road of innovation and entrepreneurship, Zhang Xuanye is determined to serve the country with a more open and inclusive attitude, practice the concept of "being a man, doing things and learning, serving the ship, the sea and the national defense", and contribute youth strength to the construction of a maritime power. (Huo Ping, He Yuzhu, reporter Xu Nan, picture provided by Harbin Engineering University)