Recently, braving the harsh sea conditions, Professor Liu Lizuo and his team of students from Harbin Engineering University carried out sea trials with the deep-sea submersible system. A few days ago, Liu Zhenzuo won the honorary title of the second "Outstanding Youth of Industry and Information Technology", and 21 people across the country won this honor.
Realize "unlocking" under the 10,000-meter deep sea
In November 2021, the domestic 10,000-meter deep-sea lander sat on the 10,000-meter-deep Mariana Trench, which was different from the imported deep-sea acoustic releaser in the past. Challenge 10,000 meters! China already has its own key to unlock the "lock" of the deep sea!
Deep-sea equipment and instruments placed under the deep sea are usually expensive, and heavy objects need to be placed under the cables connecting the equipment to anchor and "lock" in order to complete the underwater operation steadily. After the equipment completes the operation, it needs to receive a signal command to "unlock" through the "key" of the hydroacoustic release, so that it can successfully disengage the heavy object and float back to the sea. Therefore, the underwater deployment and operation of various seabed resource exploration, marine scientific research and marine environmental monitoring equipment are inseparable from the deep-sea acoustic releaser, which has become one of the largest equipment in the field of marine engineering.
But for a long time, in this field, the mainland has relied mainly on imported equipment. "We want to build China's own 'key' to open our own underwater 'locks'." In the long-term scientific research practice, facing the major needs of the country, Liu Lizuo and his supervisor Professor Qiao Gang led the students to develop a full-sea deep acoustic releaser with a working depth of 11,000 meters, a load capacity of more than 10 tons, and a set of communication, release and ranging functions.
Create a full range of acoustic releasers
The full-sea deep acoustic releaser can realize the "unlocking" of 10,000 meters under the sea in the deepest part of the ocean, does it mean that it is suitable for all depths? The answer is no. Because the underwater environment at different depths is complex, there are different pressures, temperatures, noises, etc., which need to be studied and cracked one by one to achieve the optimization of equipment.
As the chief scientist of the key project of the National Key R&D Program, Liu Jinzuo led the students to devote themselves to the scientific research of creating a full range of acoustic releasers, and developed a series of domestic marine acoustic releasers covering a depth of several hundred meters to 10,000 meters, so as to meet the needs of different depths and different users. "The development process of deep-sea equipment with high precision such as acoustic releaser is like being tempered by thousands of tempers, and it is necessary to ensure that every link is foolproof and every component is reliable and effective."
In the process of development and testing, Liu Zhenzuo and the students overcame one difficulty after another, overcame one difficulty after another, constantly tried and error, adjusted, upgraded, stood up and carried on in countless setbacks, and developed a series of and localized acoustic releasers covering 200 meters, 500 meters, 3000 meters, 6000 meters and 11000 meters. Behind the success is Liu Zhenzuo's long-term perseverance in leading students to defy difficulties.
Image courtesy of Harbin Engineering University
Every sea trial has to face countless unknown situations, so that Liu Jinzuo has developed a "big heart" that is calm and calm to solve unexpected problems. In order to catch up with the progress of the test and obtain data under various sea conditions, Liu Lizuo often braved extremely harsh sea conditions to go to sea to do experiments. "In the ocean monitoring test, only through the ranging function of our acoustic releaser can we know the 'whereabouts' of the equipment and whether it has safely reached the seabed." Whenever they received the information from the acoustic releaser, the team felt as if they had taken a "reassuring pill". But once during the test, the communication of the releaser that sank under the water was suddenly interrupted.
Liu Zhenzuo stared at the code in front of the screen for 24 hours, forgetting to check the software and hardware of the equipment, and finally found that its main logic could not meet the requirements of the extreme environment when checking the circuit, and quickly adjusted the parameters.
Cultivating future leaders in the field of marine engineering
As an educator, Liu Zhenzuo has always worked in the front line of teaching, integrating cutting-edge scientific research into all aspects of talent training, and cultivating a number of outstanding talents such as gold medal winners of super first-class student innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as "National College Student of the Year" and "Challenge Cup".
He served as the chairman to hold China-Pakistan marine information technology seminars and training courses, established a normalized bridge of international cooperation and talent training, and used the window of cultural exchanges to spread China's image as a maritime power to the world.
As the deputy dean of the Southampton Joint College of Ocean Engineering/School of Future Technology of Harbin Engineering University, Liu has been exploring the path of independent cultivation of "top-notch innovative talents": allowing students to shape real advantages in the cross-integrated discipline system, practice real skills in the rich resources of open education, and solve real problems in the real environment of scientific research platforms.
Liu Liaozuo took the lead in planning the comprehensive design project of "Smart Ocean Practice and Innovation" of the School of Future Technology, integrated first-class scientific research resources inside and outside the school, took serving the major strategic needs of the country and solving important "scientific research propositions" as "education topics", constructed students' personalized growth paths, students independently designed training programs, submitted 52 "one case in a lifetime" task book, and all of them have entered the project team to carry out project research.
Taking policy reform and innovation as a breakthrough, Liu Lizuo explored the training mechanism for top-notch innovative talents, designed the personalized top-notch innovative talent training model of the "3+1+X" undergraduate and doctoral degree of the Future Technology College, and formed a cooperative training program for international high-level talents of the United College.