Li Quan
Apple Inc.
An interview with Li Quan, inventor of “Transmitting sound into secret”.
(Translated from Chinese)
This Report has also been reprinted by: hexun.com
Youth Daily
February 20, 2014 Thursday
Yesterday, our newspaper published an article entitled "The 26-year-old boy developed ‘Transmitting sound into secret’”. Last night, the Youth Daily reporter interviewed this 26-year-old boy, Li Quan. This native Shanghainese student who once studied at Minhang High School told us his own story of success.
Li Quan is not the kind of top student in the traditional sense of Chinese people. When he was in high school, he was often complained by his English teacher for his bad performances on English exams. He also declined his teachers’ suggestion to enter Shanghai Jiaotong University, a prestigious university in China, to take his undergraduate study, but chose to study at Nanjing University…….
Youth Daily Reporter: Yanping Fan
Learning: Used to be a poor student in his English teacher’s eye
Reporter: Your first choice is to enter the School of Physics at Nanjing University to study Physics. But due to insufficient scores in the College Entrance Examination, you had to pick up your third choice, to study atmospheric science. So, can I infer that you were not the top students with best grades?
Li Quan: Yes, I finished my junior secondary education in Wenqi Middle School and finished my senior secondary education in Minhang High School. I was not belonging to the top students in my early school times. But I gradually became top students in the class later. I usually kept in top 10 in the class. Because of this, I was recommended to be admitted by Minhang High School without attending the High School Entrance Examination. I was not a student leader in the school.
Reporter: How was your performance in high school?
Li Quan: I was a student with subject bias in my high school studies. I was not good at liberal arts but very interested in Physics. I sometimes failed my English courses. My English teacher was not satisfied with my performance and complained to my parents that I should not spend too much time on Physics but should spend more time on the English subject. I didn’t accept my teacher’s suggestion and still spent a lot of time on Physics in order to get a good prize in the Physics competition. I just started to make up my English in my last high school year.
Reporter: Do you think that physics can bring you a sense of accomplishment?
Li Quan: Definitely. I have won the first prize in the Shanghai Physics Competition. In my second year of high school study, I attended Physics Competition together with some senior students from my high schools. I won the third prize in the competition, which was the best prize in our school. Only one student won the prize among those senior students attending the competition with me. The president of our high school highly praised my performance and I felt very excited. My stories then were soon recognized by my schoolmates and I become a “man of the time” in the school. In my third year of high school, I won the first prize in the Physics competition.
Reporter: You mentioned that you were a student with subject bias. Did your parents worry that you might not be able to be admitted by top universities?
Li Quan: I have to say my parents respected my interests a lot. They encouraged me to pursue what I’m interested in. At that time, I made a surprising decision. I attended Shanghai Jiaotong University self-admission examination. The university promised me an extra 20 bonus points to be added to my College Entrance Examination scores. It means that they still required me to take the College Entrance Examination instead of admitting me directly. I didn’t choose this university in the end. The reason is that I felt unpleasant because they didn’t admit me directly. Another reason is that the Physics department of Shanghai Jiaotong University is not as good as the one in Nanjing university. So I declined Shanghai Jiaotong University’s offer. My high school teachers persuaded me to accept the offer several times, but I insisted on my decision. I knew what I want to do and I was glad to have made such an important decision in my life.
Reporter: You declined such a good offer. Did your parents blamed on you or did they try to persuade you to accept the offer?
Li Quan: At this point, I really appreciate their respect for my choice. Actually, my parents always support my decision. They didn’t suppress my enthusiasm for learning even if I have subject bias.
Changing: Losing my love created my success
Reporter: As one of the most prestigious universities in China, Nanjing University gathers huge amounts of top students. How was your performance in your freshman study?
Li Quan: My score in the College Entrance Examination was not very high. So I was not admitted to my first major choice but was admitted to my third choice, which made me upset that time. I didn’t perform very well in my freshman year. I often skipped lectures, stocked, slept a lot, played games, and went around and play. In the final exam of the Politics course, other students could get 90 points easily, but I even failed the course.
Reporter: In which situation you began to change?
Li Quan: In the second semester of my freshman year, I attended an acoustic seminar, which changed me and made me interested in acoustics. I started thinking to transfer my major. I can still remember that there were four students from the School of Atmospheric Science attended the interview organized by the School of Electrical Engineering but only two students were admitted. And I am one of the lucky ones.
Reporter: In the process, what other things or people let you find the goal of learning?
Li Quan: There were two people that had great influence on me. One was a senior alumnus from my high school. I remember when I was near the end of my sophomore year, I consulted him about studying abroad. He reminded me that four years college passed quickly. If you want to study abroad, your GPA is very important in your graduate application. His suggestions reminded me that I cannot be lazy any more. The other person is my advisor. In my junior year, I took part in the Undergraduate Innovation Training Program and met my current advisor. During my junior year, my study performance was in a very good status. I wrote two scientific papers in half a year. I applied for a patent with my advisor and we published our results in international journals.
Reporter: What is the magic point about the “Transmitting sound into secret”?
Li Quan: In short, we first used numerical simulation to calculate the results and realized that we could achieve phenomena like “transmitting sound into secret”. And then we designed the sample according to the theory. I remember that in my first year of my graduate study, I didn’t go home to celebrate the New Year’s Day and put myself in the anechoic chamber room to do experiments. I made a sample with my advisor later: we decorate some acoustic microstructures on the steel plate and realized the “transmitting sound in to secret”. Previously, when you talk to other people, they can hear your voice no matter where they stand. But now, only people stand in front of you can hear what you said.
Reporter: What was your mood at the time when you discovered the new phenomenon?
Li Quan: After the completion, I was very happy, and immediately submitted the results to Nature Communications. But the reviewers felt that the experiment results were not perfect and suggested us to redo the experiment. The sample was very heavy, and I had to move it up and down every day which made me back pain. At that time, I didn’t get the perfect results. I felt depressed at the time and even wanted to give up. What made the situation worse was that I broke up with my girlfriend at that time (September 2013). I had a bad mood and felt painful, but I thought that this is always my business. I have to take my responsibility. I didn’t go home to spend the seven-day-long National Day. I worked with my collaborator to redo the experiment and finally I succeeded.
Reporter: What is the physical mechanism of this finding and what is the breakthrough of it? How long does it take to enter the application stage?
Li Quan: The mechanism of the finding is by decorating the acoustic microstructures in the steel plate, we made the hard boundary of the steel plate to be a soft boundary which is even softer than air. Thus, we achieved the dipole radiation and quadrupole radiation.
As for the significance of the breakthrough, actually, the concept of “transmitting sound into secret” has been proposed before. But according to their mechanism, they only achieved the phenomenon in the ultrasonic frequency. We proposed a new mechanism to make the working frequency to be very low. The breakthrough is we realized the phenomenon in audio frequency and make this effect possible in real life applications.
Of course, this is only a preliminary study and it will take several years to enter the application phase. We have applied a patent on our discovery.
Personality: If I choose it, I will not give up
Reporter: I heard that you graduated and found a good job?
Li Quan: Your message is very well-informed. When it comes to job hunting, it was quite funny. At that time, a mobile phone company held a summer camp, and was willing to pay an annual salary of 180,000 to 300,000 RMB. Only 20 people were selected from 2,000 candidates. I was one of them to be selected. But because the company was in Shenzhen, I declined the offer. Later, I was interviewed by several companies, and finally I was accepted by a software company. The work was related to mobile phone audio design.
Reporter: What is your plan for the future?
Li Quan: I thought about continuing my studies and I also thought about working in industry. Two ways, either studying abroad or working in industry.
Reporter: Generally, the outside world has a stereotype of the students studying science and engineering and thinks that they are nerds. Are you usually being silent?
Li Quan: On the contrary, I am keen to organize various activities, such as the Shanghainese students Association of Nanjing University, the sodality between School of Physics and School of Liberal Arts, etc. al. I also participated in the Oral English Club. I have many hobbies, such as karaoke, climbing mountains and participating in various social events.
Reporter: You said that you lost your love. Is it because your girlfriend thought that you devoted all your time into your research and did not take enough care of her feeling?
Li Quan: Nope, it is purely emotional incompatibility. Some Ph.D. students who study physics are typical science and engineering men. I am not quite like a science and engineering man. I feel that I am very creative and a wonderful man in science and engineering. My ex-girlfriend also commented that I didn’t look much like a physics man at first glance.
Reporter: Can you summarize your personality in one sentence?
Li Quan: I am independent and with insightful ideas. If I choose it, I will not give up. But I will not get into a dead end.
Reporter: Finally, as a senior, what is your suggestions to other students who are not top students in the beginning like you?
Li Quan: In my early years I was the one sitting under the stage and seeing other seniors sharing their successful experiences. I admire them. Sharing my experience: as long as you work hard, find your direction, and you can also achieve your success in the end.