China's 5G speed creation is inseparable from a teenager? See the growth story of the "genius boy"

He has many labels - child prodigy, top student, China's youngest 5G "genius pioneer"... He was admitted to the Wu Jianxiong College of Southeast University at the age of 15, rewrote "China Speed" at the age of 19, and his scheme was written into the 5G industry standard at the age of 22. His first 5G paper was regarded as a "divine song" by industry insiders, and the polarization code technology he invented was set as the international 5G standard scheme; his achievements are irreplaceable in 5G network operations, helping China to truly master the right to speak in the 5G era... He is Shen Yifei, who was listed as "one of the top ten geniuses in China" by netizens.

Shen Yifei

Teenage Prodigy

Shen Yifei was born in an ordinary family in Handan, Hebei Province in 1997. He showed extraordinary talent at a young age: at the age of two, he learned simple arithmetic under the guidance of his parents, and his literacy was also the best among his peers; at the age of four, he began to self-study primary school courses, and could recite English words and ancient poems easily; at the age of five, he was admitted as a first-grade student by a local primary school, and was a well-known "study god".

Unlike many child prodigies who were forced to grow up fast, Shen Yifei's parents did not repeatedly set him the goal of "crossing grades" because of his talent. Instead, they gave him ample space for independent choice and even encouraged him to go beyond textbooks and get in touch with the outside world. They often took him out to travel and see different customs and cultures; they encouraged him to try various interest classes, find a hobby and stick to it. In this way, Shen Yifei participated in the school's youth choir, and also learned to play the erhu, the electronic piano, and play Go... He grew up carefree.

In 2008, 11-year-old Shen Yifei was admitted to the Junior Department of Handan No. 1 Middle School with excellent grades. In the junior class, because his grades were always among the best, two years later, he was exempted from the entrance examination to the Science Experimental Class of Handan No. 1 Middle School. In 2012, Shen Yifei, who was still in the second year of high school, took the college entrance examination and was admitted to the Junior Class of Southeast University, one of the three major junior classes in China, with an excellent score of 564 (total score of 603). The day he received the admission letter was exactly his 15th birthday.

Hardcore Counterattack

The 15-year-old boy became famous in one battle, but unexpectedly, his road to university was not smooth.

When Shen Yifei first entered university, he still had the mentality of a junior high school student, and he preferred to learn while playing. Students of the same grade were generally three or four years older than him, with richer knowledge reserves and stronger psychological endurance. When he was a freshman, Shen Yifei's grades were not among the best for the first time, but were in the middle. At the end of his sophomore year, he actually failed two important courses - 39 points in physics and 34 points in circuits. The former "school god" no longer had the brilliance he once had. The young genius who always looked down on others began to feel frustrated, and Shen Yifei began to re-examine himself.

Should I not have taken the college entrance examination in advance? Is my ability not as strong as I thought? All kinds of self-doubts filled my heart. Finally, after a period of confusion and decadence, he found his fighting spirit again and continued to "fight". Starting from the second semester of his sophomore year, he made a detailed study schedule and strictly implemented self-management. In order to study, he stayed in the library almost all day. Even on weekends, he insisted on self-study. This extraordinary perseverance helped him turn around all the way. In his junior year, Shen Yifei scored more than 90 points in 19 majors, and reversed from the last place in Wu Jianxiong College to the first place in the college, becoming the only teenager ranked first in Wu Jianxiong College for many years. He has won honorary titles such as Three Good Students, Top Ten Jianxiong Students, and even the national 2015 "China University Student Self-improvement Star". Shen Yifei is called "award-winning professional" by his classmates.

Shen Yifei

5G Youth Leaders

In 2016, Shen Yifei ranked first in the information major of Wu Jianxiong College and was admitted to the postgraduate study of Professor You Xiaohu, director of the National Key Laboratory of Mobile Communications, becoming a student of the "head of 4G technology". After joining Professor You Xiaohu's research and development team, Shen Yifei found his life goal again.

It was the critical node of the initial start and vigorous development of 5G technology. It is said that whoever masters the core technology of 5G will dominate the future world. However, the global polarization code technology has been in the theoretical stage, and there is no practical solution. Under the leadership of Professor You Xiaohu, Shen Yifei, as the youngest core member of the team, challenged this technology.

The amount of data in the polarization code is too large, and it takes several days to run a program. This workload is a big challenge for him. Shen Yifei has to work until 2 to 3 in the morning every day. After the operation failed, he modified it again, re-ran it, and failed again. After 15 repeated failures, he finally succeeded! The running program has broken through from running one line of data in 2 seconds in the past to running 200,000 groups of data in 1 second now. This earth-shaking change in transmission speed exceeds the research results of any research group on the same subject in the world. When the scientific research results were announced, it immediately set off a huge wave in the field of communications around the world. Everyone was shocked by the huge breakthrough of this achievement. It was unbelievable that this was researched by a child who was only 19 years old. With the relevant results, Shen Yifei successfully won the world's top academic award-IEEE DSP Best Student Paper Award.

After obtaining his doctorate, Shen Yifei focused on the formulation of 5G communication standards. He published two international conference papers, one SCI paper, and applied for and mastered three national invention patents, which are important conditions for breakthroughs in 5G technology. Several design solutions he proposed in his papers were eventually adopted into the official standards, allowing China to take a leading position in the field of 5G technology.

Today, Shen Yifei, who is not even 30 years old, has grown into a young leader in China's 5G core technology field. While working hard to change people's lives with communication technology, he is also encouraging more young people to devote themselves to the country's information industry and continue to contribute to China's scientific and technological progress.