Chapter 556
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Seriously… he’s got a real persecution complex.”
“Agreed,” Aria said.
Aria gathered her things and headed to the Spectroscopy Lab.
Helen was calibrating the instruments while Mike Clancy and Larry Bowen stood nearby, observing.
After all, Mike’s undergraduate background was in organic chemistry, so drug analysis experiments weren’t exactly his strong suit.
Larry had some experience with this experiment, though he wasn’t particularly skilled at it.
As Aria entered, the three students looked up and stepped aside.
“Today’s goal is to build a herb identification model,” Aria announced, slipping on her gloves.
She gave a quick rundown of the experiment. “The theory and hands-on part are simple,” she said. “Just make sure to eliminate any interference during the process…”
Then, she continued, “You’ll need to write up the model report alongside conducting the experiment. Make sure to be thorough with your work.”
The three responded in unison, “Yes, Ms. Saxon.”
At noon, Aria took the three students out for lunch.
Spotting them, Derek tugged Arthur along and called out, “Hey, Aria, mind if we join you?”
Aria picked a large table that could easily accommodate two more people.
After they sat down, Aria introduced, “This is Derek Fletcher, my cousin, and Arthur Blake, his roommate. They’re both computer science majors.”
She then said to Derek and Arthur, “These are Helen Larsen, Larry Bowen, and Mike Clancy.”
Derek flashed the three of them a big grin. “Hey there!”
Mike’s eyes lit up when he heard “computer science”. “You guys code?” he asked eagerly.
Arthur nodded. “Yeah.”
Mike quickly pulled out his phone. “I’m working on a drug stability prediction model and need some help optimizing the algorithm. Can we swap contact info?”
Derek readily scanned the QR code, then turned to Larry and Helen with a grin. “Let’s friend each other, too. And make sure to invite us next time you go out for a meal!”
They nodded. “Sure thing!”
After swapping contacts, everyone dug into their meals.
Derek received a message, poked at the meat on his plate with his fork, and frowned at Arthur. “All the regular expressions are throwing errors. We’ll have to start from scratch.”
He then grumbled, “Their data annotation is a complete mess-so many wrong tags. And once again, we’re taking the fall.”
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Chapter 556
Richard’s annotation guidelines were completely contradictory, and it was obviously personal.
Arthur reassured him, “It’s okay. In the end, let’s just do it our own way.”
Derek sighed, then abruptly speared a rib with his fork. “These ribs are pretty good today.”
It was really an awkward way to change the subject.
Aria took a sip of her soup and casually asked, “Having some trouble?”
Arthur gave a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. We can handle it.”
Aria asked with a knowing smile, “Don’t tell me Professor Richard Lloyd is the one supervising your project.”
Derek and Arthurfell silent.
“It’s my fault you got dragged into this,” she said apologetically.
Derek shook his head. “Aria, this isn’t on you. Mr. Lloyd’s always been like this-nickel-and-diming everyone while reaping
the benefits.”
As they finished eating, Aria put down her fork and asked, “So, what’s going on?”
Not wanting to give Richard any ammunition against them, Derek and Arthur carefully selected what details to share.
Aria thought for a moment, then grabbed a piece of paper and quickly sketched a flowchart. “You could start by running an unsupervised model-for example…”
After hearing Aria’s solution, Derek was so stunned that his fork dropped onto the table.
Derek gaped and exclaimed, “Damn, Aria, how are you so freaking smart?”
Arthur smiled, his eyebrows curving. “This method works better than what we came up with.”
Mike listened until his head was spinning. Suddenly, it hit him-he stared at Aria in disbelief. “Ms. Saxon… you can code?”
Aria nodded modestly. “I just know a thing or two.”
Mike’s mind reeled-he couldn’t follow about a third of what she was saying.
Mike thought to himself, ‘Even Derek and Arthur are actual computer science majors, yet Ms. Saxon can still guide them… How amazing is that!’
Remembering why he had once wanted to switch advisors back then, Mike felt his cheeks burn.
He remained under Aria’s guidance, but his research focus was now overseen by Martin.
Mike would be too ashamed to regret this choice again.
