News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Exeter to broaden collaborative activities between the two institutions. These activities include academic and research programs, such as student exchange, faculty and staff exchange, collaborative research and short-term training. For HKUST, this is the 105th exchange agreement signed with overseas universities. Signing the MOU on 13 May 2009 were HKUST Vice-President for Academic Affairs Prof Roland Chin and University of Exeter Vice-President Prof Neil Armstrong, with HKUST Dean of Business and Management Prof Leonard Cheng and Associate Dean of Engineering Prof Charles Ng as witnesses.   For media enquiries, please feel free to contact : Ross Lai Tel: 2358 6306 Email: rosslai@ust.hk

The Secretary for Education, the Hon Michael Suen, along with philanthropist Dr Chan Sui Kau, HKUST Court Chairman Dr John CC Chan, and HKUST President Paul Chu, officiated at the naming ceremony of the Chan Sui Kau and Chan Lam Moon Chun Hall (Undergraduate Hall 7) today (Tuesday). “We at HKUST are tremendously thankful to Dr Chan Sui Kau, who has donated HK$18 million to our University for various enhancements to campus life,” said President Paul Chu. This new hall will provide accommodation for 363 students starting from the Fall Semester this year. It will also introduce a new concept – Living Learning Communities – in furtherance of the objective of holistic education.

Two papers submitted by HKUST research teams have won two out of a total of three best paper awards at the 14th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications held in late April in Australia. The first paper on how search engines should be run and developed has won for HKUST Professor in Computer Science and Engineering Dik Lun Lee and his doctorate student Budi Yuwono the inaugural DASFAA 10+ (Database Systems for Advanced Applications) Best Paper Award 2009. Entitled “Server ranking for distributed text retrieval systems on the Internet”, the paper was selected from more than 320 papers presented over a period of 10 years (1989 – 1999) at six DASFAA international conferences.

HKUST MPhil student of Physics Tsui Lok Man became the only candidate from Hong Kong to have won a fully-funded scholarship for the Perimeter Scholars International (PSI) program, a 10-month concentrated Master degree program jointly organized by the world-renowned Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PITP) and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. For this honor, Lok Man has to compete against 200 international applicants, becoming one of 25 eventual scholarship winners from 15 countries/regions for this inaugural program. Due to start in August 2009, the program aims to attract budding physicists from around the world and nurturing them to become theoretical Physics researchers contributing to future cutting-edge discoveries.

http://www.bm.ust.hk/en-us/media-resources/overview/press-releases/100

HKUST Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Li Zongjin has been awarded a HK$30-million project to conduct research on concrete under China’s National Basic Research Program, also known as the 973 project. As the Chief Scientist of the project, he will work closely with a cross-boundary and multi-disciplinary research team comprising four HKUST scientists—Professors Moe Cheung and Chris Leung (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Xiaoping Wang (Mathematics) and Zhenyang Lin (Chemistry), and 50 scientists from seven universities in Mainland China, including Southeast University, Wuhan University of Technology, Zhejiang University, Jiangsu Institute of Building Research, Tongji University, Tsinghua University, and Wuhan University.

Young students from seven Asian countries or regions gathered at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on Saturday, 4 April to receive their International Talent Search Award for High Honors presented by Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (JHU-CTY). With a history spanning three decades, JHU-CTY is one of the world's top institutions dedicated to the search for, and development of, talented youngsters in and outside the US. The ceremony at HKUST was their first annual international awards ceremony held in Asia. Attending the ceremony were 65 youngsters from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Mainland China and Hong Kong, studying in primary or junior secondary school. They were identified through JHU-CTY's International Talent Search, based on their SAT or S-CAT performance. SAT is a globally administered test taken by university-bound students, and S-CAT is a similar test scaled for younger students.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has teamed up with aircraft manufacturer Boeing to develop a wireless system that will drastically enhance the efficiency of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul. "Aircraft maintenance is a massive, complicated operation and involves a large amount of paper work and commuting between the aircraft and the maintenance office. Hence we aim to develop a wireless-enabled computer system that eliminates most of the printouts and the need to commute," said Prof Gary Chan, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at HKUST. Prof Chan currently leads a team of researchers working on the project called Lean Aviation Network, or LAviNet in short.