Chapter 502: A Pleasant Cooperation

Because he had called ahead to make arrangements, when Sun Cheng arrived at Nanjing University of Technology, President Shen Peiyuan had already been waiting in his office for some time.

"President, long time no see!"

Sun Cheng squeezed a smile onto his face; perhaps because he had spent too much time in the Transformers Universe, his instincts had begun to lean toward those of a Mechanical Life, and recently his facial expressions had become increasingly scarce, to the point that even Ye Qi had started to tease him about having "poker face" or "emotionless" traits.

"Oh, it's little Sun... You're a rare guest... Hehe, your company has been making quite a splash lately, good... young people have ambition..."

Shen Peiyuan smiled and invited him into the office; although his words were vague, Sun Cheng knew Shen Peiyuan was referring to Cybertron's acquisition of Panda Weiyun.

The two had dealt with each other a few times before and could be considered to have some rapport.

Shen Peiyuan did not treat him like a Normal student; he took an iron canister slightly smaller than an adult's palm from a cabinet on the side of the office, "A gift from an old friend; although it doesn't compare to the specially supplied ones, it is a premium Pu-erh produced by a century-old tea tree... Wait a moment..."

Sun Cheng did not understand tea appreciation, but he would not waste the man's good intentions.

He nodded, and watched as Shen Peiyuan spent a few minutes boiling a small pot of fresh water with an electric kettle, brewing it in a purple clay teapot, and then pouring it into a purple clay cup to serve in front of him.

"... To speak of China's way of tea, it is truly profound... The vast majority of people spend their whole lives trying to grasp its essence... I am merely indulging in affectation..."

Lifting the teacup, Shen Peiyuan brought it under his nose to lightly sniff the tea's aroma, took a small sip, set it down, and laughed at himself.

Sun Cheng was even less versed in this than he was, and having dealt with Shen Peiyuan often, he knew that relying solely on the tempering he had received in an alien world, he certainly could not compete in patience against an old fox who had played power politics for half his life.

He had now completely grown accustomed to the Decepticon style of interaction, so after taking a small sip of the tea without tasting any refinement, he placed the purple clay cup on the coffee table in front of him and went straight to the point.

"... I've come to disturb you today, President, and I believe you have guessed the reason... I previously proposed establishing a laboratory to be affiliated with the school... I wonder how the school has deliberated on this matter?"

A few months ago, shortly after establishing Cybertron Technology, Sun Cheng had proposed to Shen Peiyuan that he wanted to establish a laboratory affiliated with the school.

Such commercial laboratories affiliated with universities were a relatively common business model in the industry.

After all, laboratories were generally non-profit or scientific research institutions, and they had very high requirements for research funding, talent, and research cycles; except for laboratories established by government agencies and universities supported by fiscal subsidies, the vast majority of enterprises could not meet these three most basic conditions.

And having a laboratory affiliated with Nanjing University of Technology did not mean the laboratory had to accept the management of Nanjing University of Technology.

On the contrary, affiliated laboratories were generally cooperative in nature, and before establishment, the future management of the laboratory, the allocation of research funds, and the treatment and arrangements for staff would be clearly written out in the form of a contract.

For example, the Intelligent Machinery Laboratory that Sun Cheng wanted to affiliate with Nanjing University of Technology was intended to be a collaboration with Nanjing University of Technology, with research expenses, laboratory management, and major research projects and topics all being the responsibility of Cybertron Technology.

As for the staff, both sides would allocate them proportionally; at the beginning, the number of personnel sent over by Nanjing University of Technology would certainly account for the majority, but Cybertron Technology would increase the number of researchers year by year until it reached a maximum of 60%.

Professors, Doctor students, graduate students, and students arranged by Nanjing University of Technology to be responsible for certain projects and topics in the laboratory would not only receive project research subsidies but could also receive their due remuneration from the laboratory every month.

As for scientific research achievements, Nanjing University of Technology would only have the right of authorship, while patents and profits would belong to Cybertron Technology.

Of course, such a blatant proposal to use the scientific research strength of Nanjing University of Technology to help accelerate one's own project and topic research was not easy to get approved by the senior management of Nanjing University of Technology.

After all, Nanjing University of Technology was a premier science and engineering institution in the country, receiving large amounts of scientific research funding and educational funding subsidies from the national treasury every year, so there was absolutely no need to sell off its own scientific research strength.

To this end, Sun Cheng had also offered two bargaining chips that Nanjing University of Technology would find hard to refuse.

One was a production process for high-capacity mobile hard drives that he considered outdated, but which was about a generation ahead of the vast majority of storage companies on the market; and the other was a personal donation of 100 million to Nanjing University of Technology.

With these conditions, plus the fact that the scale and influence of Cybertron Technology Company had been continuously expanding over the past few months.

Sun Cheng did not doubt the final decision of Nanjing University of Technology; the only thing he could not wait for was when this cooperation would actually begin.

Sure enough, although Shen Peiyuan had not expected him to be so straightforward, skipping even the pleasantries to get straight to the point.

He then smiled and gave an answer that satisfied Sun Cheng very much: "... In principle, the proposal you made last time to establish a laboratory affiliated with the school has been discussed in our meeting; although there are still some differing opinions, the majority are welcoming..."

He had finally given a positive reply, and for once, a smile appeared on Sun Cheng's face.

"That's good... I will arrange for personnel to communicate with the school regarding the specific follow-up cooperation plan as soon as possible... I also ask that you, President, handle the relevant procedures for the establishment of the laboratory as soon as possible..."

Shen Peiyuan was somewhat surprised, "Is it that urgent? I remember you just acquired Panda Weiyun recently, right? You shouldn't be able to spare much more energy for the laboratory in the near future, should you?"

This was actually a doubt held by many in the senior management of Nanjing University of Technology; after all, although Cybertron Technology Company was developing very quickly, it was, after all, a new company that had been established for less than half a year.

It stood to reason that for such a start-up, even if it happened to possess Core technology and had obtained a large amount of venture capital and achieved rapid profitability from the start, it was already very difficult to have achieved its current scale and influence.

Therefore, Sun Cheng's persistent obsession with utilizing the scientific research strength of Nanjing University of Technology was undoubtedly a very puzzling matter.

And regarding Shen Peiyuan's doubt, Sun Cheng had long since thought of an answer.

"... The outside world only sees our temporary success now, but as the President and Chief Technology Officer of Cybertron Technology Company, I know better than anyone else that our storage technology is barely a generation ahead of the three major storage giants in the United States... I cannot be sure how long the market dividends brought by this temporary technological lead can last, so the establishment of the laboratory is imminent..."