ACADEMIC SERVICES

Teaching and research at the University are supported by a number of academic service units.

Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching

The Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching (CELT) is an academic support unit, dedicated to the advancement of quality education by fostering a continuous improvement culture on learning and teaching quality among students, faculty and other teaching staff at HKUST.

CELT provides leadership in the development and promulgation of effective teaching methods and technologies and is active in forming partnership with faculty to explore pedagogical and technological initiatives. Through consultation, evaluation service, grants for teaching improvement projects and provision of needed professional advice and technical support, the Center assists faculty members and other teaching staff in improving their teaching quality and achieving teaching excellence.

The Center also organizes orientation and series of workshops and seminars for teaching assistants (TAs) and works with departmental TA Coordinators to support TAs in their work.

It plays an active role in enriching students’ learning from an institutional and cross-discipline perspective with learning enhancement programs that encourage well-rounded and active learning experience for UST students. As a form of community service, CELT also extends its support services to the wider education community in HK by conducting training sessions to schoolteachers in information technology and teaching.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.ust.hk/celt or email [email protected]

Information Technology Services Center

The Information Technology Services Center (ITSC) develops and manages the computing and networking infrastructure of the University. It provides computing support to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, and research applications in all Schools. In addition, the Center also looks after the central audio-visual (AV) needs of the University to facilitate teaching and learning.

The HKUST computing environment is based on a secure distributed computing architecture.

The cornerstone is an advanced high-speed and fault-tolerant switched Gigabit Ethernet network backbone. International Internet connectivity is provided by multiple high-speed links. Most of the laboratories and offices are provided with switched Ethernet or Fast Ethernet connections. The network covers not only all the academic buildings but also reaches out to staff quarters and student halls. Staff and students can also access network services via a

22 ACADEMIC SERVICES

Mobile notebook users can have convenient network access through wireless or wired access points in public areas like computing laboratories, library and canteens. Off-campus users can connect their home computer to the campus network via dial-up modem pools.

The Center operates powerful servers to provide campus-wide network services such as e-mail, network printing, World-Wide Web and electronic notice board. One important characteristic of the University’s computing environment is its multimedia and Chinese-English bilingual capability. Increasingly, more network services will have these features.

All personal computers and scientific workstations are connected to the campus network, providing desktop computing power as well as a window to a vast array of information and computing resources such as Library systems, administrative systems, academic software packages and audio/video broadcasting programs.

The Center manages a number of central computing laboratories, providing PC, Macintosh and Unix workstation facilities for teaching and students use. Software training programs are provided to assist users to get the most out of their computers. The Center also looks after centrally-provided AV facilities in all common teaching venues, including 8 lecture theaters, some 70 classrooms and 30 teaching laboratories.

Language Center

The Language Center has a pan-University role in the provision of language courses. Its English programs seek to help students acquire the necessary language skills to gain the maximum benefit from their postgraduate curriculum. The Language Center also provides Business Communication programs for the School of Business and Management, and Technical Communiction programs for the School of Science and Engineering, all of which cater for the career needs of our graduates.

Courses in written Chinese, Putonghua, Cantonese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Latin are also offered by the Language Center.

The Center has three 24-booth language laboratories, complete with audio-visual and computer equipment, which are used by class groups to practice their listening, speaking and writing. Under the auspices of the Language Center, the English Writing Center organizes workshops and gives individual consultations. The Language Center also operates the Self-Access Center -- a well-equipped facility that provides a wide variety of materials, activities and services to aid self-directed learning of English, Putonghua and many other languages.

The Self-Access Center is open to staff and students on weekdays (9 am - 8 pm) and Saturday mornings.

ACADEMIC SERVICES

Publishing Technology Center

The University is committed to high standards and up-to-date methods in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, research and publication. To this end, the Publishing Technology Center (PTC) sustains a comprehensive publishing service for all academic and research staff.

The Design and Multimedia Team of the Center provides assistance in the graphic design and production of university publications, teaching, research and promotional materials.

It also provides web page design, CD-ROM production, computer graphics output and large-format plotting services. Meanwhile, its Photo Imaging Team supports photographic flat-copying, location shooting, portrait and event photo-taking together with image editing to

produce slides, transparencies and prints for academic and publicity purposes. The Print Shop provides high-speed, high-volume reprographic and offset printing services. In addition, the AV Production Team assists in the planning, videotaping, editing and duplication of AV, digital and multimedia materials.

Besides fulfilling the publishing needs of the university users, PTC acts as an in-house consultant and coordinator for production projects outsourced to commercial sector. The center also provides expertise advice regarding choice of delivery approach, production format, budget planning, system configuration and specification of multimedia facilities; it can further assist in tender evaluation and system integration processes.

Throughout the academic year, hands-on technical workshops will be organized and offered to faculty and staff to promote and enhance a wider use of electronic and web-publishing technology in teaching, learning, research, and publicity activities.

Safety and Environmental Protection Office

The University is committed to conducting all its teaching, research and other operation in a safe and environmentally friendly manner and in compliance with relevant regulations. Heads of all campus units have the responsibility to implement the University safety policy and to ensure a safe and environmentally healthy workplace. All members of the campus community must follow established safety and environmental procedures and watch out for the safety and health of one another. The Safety and Environmental Protection Office (SEPO) mission is to develop and help implement safety and environmental policies and procedures.

24 ACADEMIC SERVICES

The Office provides leadership on the promotion of safety and environmental protection culture and awareness. SEPO’s vision is that students will learn about safe and environmentally friendly practices while studying at HKUST and will take this knowledge and experience into the community after graduation to positively impact the safety performance and environmental consciousness of the Hong Kong community.

Specifically, SEPO contributes to this University commitment by providing guidance and assistance in the following areas :

• Facilities and operations planning

• Regulatory compliance

• Research proposal review and risk assessment

• Hazardous materials exposure monitoring

• Hazards control equipment evaluation

• Safety training to complement supervisors’ hands-on safety training

• Personal protective equipment selection

• Emergency response and drill coordination

• Medical surveillance program supervision

• Air emission, liquid effluent and waste management monitoring

• Accident and incident investigation to identify causes and to prevent recurrence

• “Stop work” orders for repeated violation or imminently dangerous situation

University Library

The Library is an integral component of the academic programs, supporting the University's teaching and research in science, engineering, business and management, the humanities and social sciences. As of 2002, the Library’s book, periodical, and microform collections total approximately 620,000 volumes, plus 28,000 media materials. Its electronic collections include more than 100 electonics databases, and over 5,000 full-text e-journals.

ACADEMIC SERVICES

In addition, the Library offers its users a learning environment rich in electronic information and services. In a sense the Library is always open in that its extensive array of electronic resources can be accessed from every corner of the campus, including all student and staff housing, twenty-four hours a day. Users can search the Library catalog in both English and Chinese using a telnet or Web interface. The Library Web server (http://library.ust.hk) has developed into a central information hub for access to Library information, services, and resources; instructional materials; pathfinders; and Internet sites.

An experienced library staff assists users in a variety of ways, from the selection, acquisition, and cataloging of materials to making use of the collection, online searches, and interlibrary loans. There is also a fully-equipped classroom and a computer laboratory for group instruction. The University Library has a strong service orientation in order to effectively meet the information needs of its academic community.

27

CENTRAL INTERDEPARTMENTAL AND DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH UNITS