Tsinghua '97 Alumnus Qin Yudi: From an Abandoned Garage to AI Energy Management, He's Always Been Flying Close to the Ground

Tsinghua '97 Alumnus Qin Yudi: From an Abandoned Garage to AI Energy Management, He's Always Been Flying Close to the Ground

November 5, 2025

"I'm flying. Just for a second. Everything disappears. Sound, fear, all of it gone. That's the moment I keep chasing."

F1 drivers chase that second of weightlessness and stillness. So does Qin Yudi, born in 1997, a Tsinghua University bachelor's-to-Ph.D. student, twice an entrepreneur, always searching for that same instant.

The pale gray terrazzo walls of Tsinghua's First Teaching Building hold his densest memories. On nights building vehicles, he'd stay until the building emptied completely. When security guards came to shoo him out, he'd hide in the bathroom, wait for the lights to die, then sneak back out to keep working — just to get one thing done.

Winter 2021. As captain of Tsinghua's Future Automotive Interest Group, he and several teammates worked in a small garage on the second floor of an abandoned auto parts market. No heating. Huddled in heavy cotton-padded jackets through the winter. Their first gig: building a fast-charging system for an alumni-founded electric motorcycle company. Manual system modifications, fast charging, controller tuning. They broke the vehicle the first time. Kept tinkering. Eventually made it work.

At Tsinghua, Qin was the archetypal young geek. Soft-spoken, head down, once he burrowed into technology it was like entering uninhabited territory. He could build vehicles in the First Teaching Building until deep night, could squat in garages for days on end. That spirit carries into his work today.

What Chainway does now is use AI agents to enable intelligent energy dispatch — making energy generate stable cash flows like financial assets. In 2024, their green smart residential solution debuted at the China Construction Technology Exhibition, earning a visit and affirmation from Premier Li Qiang. V2G technology thus moved from laboratory to industrialization, making Qin and his team a core force driving vehicle-grid interaction deployment in China.

Qin's advisor, Academician Ouyang Minggao, was among the earliest in China to throw himself into the new energy wave. He constantly encouraged students to start companies, to let technology and ideas create real change. That legacy has shaped Qin ever since. To this day, he still often discusses with his teacher until late night. Whenever facing choices or dilemmas, he recalls Ouyang's words: "I'm not just a scientist, but a technological revolutionary."

Those words have pushed him farther, again and again.

A '97-born founder's restless pace 01:25 — Chainway uses AI to manage assets for new energy equipment owners 03:30 — Entrepreneurship gathers talent, makes the impossible in your head real 05:36 — Original technology from research lets you stand in the hardcore startup era 06:47 — Entrepreneurship needs not just passion but commercial thinking

Two tuition payments after Tsinghua 09:28 — Built technology he considered advanced, but the market didn't need it 10:28 — Mastered cash flow consciousness, adjusted flexibly with the market 12:08 — Advisor's twelve-character counsel: problem-oriented, interdisciplinary, innovation and entrepreneurship 15:37 — Four years of transformation from Tsinghua geek to founder

AI-driven energy asset management 17:12 — Helping state-owned enterprises activate accumulated locations and resources for built solar and charging infrastructure 19:31 — With mature AI technology and self-developed foundation models, operations phase needs one or two people monitoring a dozen-plus projects 20:32 — China's earliest V2G enterprise, foreseeing every electric vehicle becoming a mobile power bank 23:02 — Using AI to activate existing systems, enabling building-sector energy savings through low-cost sensors 25:35 — Difference from typical virtual power plants: positioned further downstream in the ecosystem, directly touching each specific energy device 28:21 — Overseas energy structures marketized earlier than China's; business expansion requires local partnership 30:47 — Business remains focused on asset management, revenue improvement, and AI-driven optimization

A young team that steadily puts out fires 32:43 — Superpower: can build, can endure, can grind 36:35 — Advice for young people who want to start companies: act now

Chainway (linkutec.com) is a smart energy management service provider built on AI large models, cloud-edge integration, and IoT technology.

Currently, Chainway has undertaken the largest number of national-level V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) pilot projects in China, developing the "Home-Vehicle-Grid" series of technical products. In 2024, at the China Construction Technology Exhibition, this green smart residential solution — developed in partnership with China State Construction Engineering Corporation — was unveiled and received a visit and affirmation from Premier Li Qiang. These demonstration projects not only pushed V2G technology from laboratory to industrialization, but also made Qin Yudi and his team a core force driving domestic vehicle-grid interaction deployment.

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