SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
Computer science is the discipline that studies the structure, function, and application of computers. The computer science programmes at HKUST cover such topics as dgorithmic analysis and design, artificial intelligence, communications and networks, computer architecture, data and knowledge base management, human computer interaction, operating systems, programming languages and compilers, and software engineering.
Traditional computer science research covers computer hardware (the physical components of computer systems) and computer software (the logical instructions to the computer for problem solving). Computer science programmes at HKUST will cover both areas but will particularly emphasise software. This emphasis is consistent with the increasing importance of software.
The Department offers a full range of courses to meet the needs of its own students in programmes leading to the BEng, MPhil, MSc, and PhD degrees, and of students from other departments at the University. In particular the postgraduate programmes aim to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to meet the challenges of Hong Kong's present and future development needs related to computer systems.
The Department of Computer Science operates a number of teaching1 research laboratories. In 1991, the Department equipped one laboratory with 40 personal computers to meet the teaching needs of the beginning programming courses. The equipment is similar to that provided by the Centre for Computing Services and Telecommunications (CCST) in the "computer barns". All computers have colour monitors running Microsoft Windows, while one, to be used by the instructor, has a screen projector for class viewing. In addition, the Department has equipped two laboratories with high-end workstations for research in artificial intelli- gence and software engineering. In 1992, the Department is opening a teaching laboratory for software systems. Laboratories for computer architecture and graphics will open in 1993. Computer Science staff and students have on-line access to all of the University's central facilities, such as the University Library and the laboratories operated by the CCST.
Faculty
Professor and Head of Department :
Vincent Y. S. SHEN, BS National Taiwan; MA, PhD Princeton Professor :
Frederick H. LOCHOVSKY, BASc, MSc, PhD Toronto (Associate Dean of Engineering)
Visiting Professor :
Roland T. CHIN, BS, PhD Missouri-Columbia
Reader :
Samuel T. CHANSON, BSc Hong Kong, MSc, PhD Univof Calif, Berkeley Senior Lecturers :
AmeliaC. W. FONG LOCHOVSKY, BSc Toronto; MSc, MA, PhD Princeton Michael KAMINSKI, MSc Moscow State; PhD Hebrew Univof Jerusalem Ting-Chuen PONG, BS Univ of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; MS, PhD Virginia
Polytech lnst and State Univ
Helen C. SHEN, BMath, PhD Waterloo; MSc Toronto Lecturers :
lshfaq AHMAD, BSc Univof Engineeringand Technology;MS, PhD Syracuse Lewis H.M. CHAU, BSc Chinese Univ of Hong Kong; MSc Univ of Alabama,
Birmingham; PhD Univ of Calif, Los Angeles Siu-Wing CHENG, BSc Hong Kong; PhD Minnesota Scott C. DEERWESTER, BS, MS, PhD Purdue Pamela A. DREW, BA, MS, PhD Univ of Colorado, Boulder
Mordecai J . GOLIN, BSc Hebrew Univ of Jerusalem; MA, PhD Princeton Mounir HAMDI, BS Southwestern Louisiana; MS, PhD Piffsburgh Kamalakar KARLAPALEM, BSc Bombay; MS lndian Statistical Inst; MS
lndian lnst of Tech; PhD Georgia lnst of Tech Chung-Mong LEE, BSc, MSc, PhD Minnesota Qing LI, BE Hunan; MSc, PhD Southern Calif
Jogesh K. MUPPALA, BE 0smania;MS Southwestern Louisiana; PhD Duke Man-Chi PONG, BSc (Eng), MPhil Hong Kong; MSc Univ of Calif,
Los Angeles; PhD Univ of Kent, Canterbury
Chung-Dak SHUM, BS, MS Washington Univ; PhD Univof Calif, Los Angeles Michael D. STIBER, BS Washington Univ;MS, PhD Univof Calif, Los Angeles Dekai WU, BS Univ of Calif, San Diego; PhD Univ of Calif, Berkeley Dit-Yan YEUNG, BSc (Eng), MPhil Hong Kong; MS, PhD Southern Calif Visiting Scholar :
Stephen M. THEBAUT, BA Duke; MS, PhD Purdue
Undergraduate Programme
All Engineering undergraduates are required to take aseries of courses which provide them with basic engineering theories, concepts, and practices. Classes in the basic sciences and mathematics also form part of the curriculum. Introductions to the theory and application of computers are given in the second year. In the third year, students may specialise in one of the major concentrations such as algorithm analysis and design, artificial intelligence, computer engineering, data and knowledge base management, or software engineering. Alternatively, students may choose to remain in a general programme with a course of study tailored to their own interests. A final year project is prepared under the supervision of an academic advisor.
Second Year For admission, in addition to the general entrance requirements of the
University, acceptable grades are required in at least three AL subjects (Pure Mathematics, Physics, and one other AL subject). In 1994, the minimum require- ments will be acceptable grades in either (1) two AL subjects (including Pure Mathematics) and two AS subjects or (2) three ALsubjects (including Pure Mathemat- ics). *
Fall Semester
COMP 231 R Database Management Systems [3-0-1:3]
COMP 251 C Programming Languages and Compilers [3-0-2:4]
COMP 271 C Design and Analysis of Algorithms [3-1-0:3]
H&SS E Humanities and Social Science [3-0-0:3]
MATH 244 R Applied Statistics [3-1-0141
The following semester-by-semester description of the undergraduate pro- gramme defines which courses are required and when they should be taken. Courses designated C are core courses which must be taken in the semester indicated. In certain circumstances, and with the permission of the Department, those courses designated as R (required) and E (elective) may be taken at other times. When a specific course is not identified, the course vector shown defines the minimum credit required. The third-year programme is provisional.
17 credits
Spring Semester
First Year COMP 21 1 R Introduction to Software Engineering [2-0-1:2]
COMP 221 R Introduction to Artificial Intelligence [2-1-0:2]
COMP 252 C Principles of Systems Software [3-0-2:4]
COMP E Computer Science Elective [3-0-0:3]
LANG 103 R Technical Communication [0-3-2131 SB&M E Business and Management Elective [3-0-0131 Fall Semester
COMP 102 C Computer Fundamentals and Programming [3-0-2:4]
COMP 111 C Software Tools [2-0-2:3]
ELEC 101 R Basic Electronics [3-1-3141
(1) LANG 001 Language Skills Enhancement I [O-3-1101
MATH 132 R Discrete Structures [3-1-0:4]
17 credits
15 credits
Third Year (1) Students exempted from this course by the Language Centre may replace it
with a Humanities and Social Science course.
Fall Semester
COMP 371 C Theory of Computation COMP 397 C Final Year Project I COMP E Computer Science Elective COMP E Computer Science Elective (1) ENGG E Engineering Elective
H&SS E Humanities and Social Science SClE E Science Elective
Spring Semester
COMP 106 C C Programming
COMP 171 C Data Structures and Algorithms COMP 180 C Computer Organisation H&SS E Humanities and Social Science MATH 11 1 R Linear Algebra
MECH 182 R Experimental Methods
18 credits
(1) Students will take a course offered by any department in the School of Engineering other than the Department of Computer Science.
18 credits
Spring Semester discovering patterns and identifying semantic entities of interest. The research focus is on the design and analysis of image processing and pattern recognition algorithms COMP 398 C Final Year Project ll [O-0-9:3]
COMP E Computer Science Elective [2-0-0:2]
COMP E Computer Science Elective [3-0-0:3]
H&SS E Humanities and Social Science [3-0-0:3]
MECH 272 R Seminar on Design and Manufacturing [O-2-0:2]
SB&M E Business and Management Elective [3-0-0:3]
16 credits A minimum of 101 credits is required for the BEng programme in Computer Science.
A student's choice of electives may result in this minimum being exceeded. At least six credits must be earned in elective 300-level or higher Computer Science courses.
Postgraduate Programmes and Research
From the large variety of sub-fields within the relatively young discipline of computer science, the Department of Computer Science at HKUST is establishing critical mass in a few research areas that are relevant to the needs of society and that can be sustained by talents from the local communitv. The particular focus of these selected research areas is software. This is because research in computer software is gaining importance worldwide, the cost of software development is increasing at an alarming rate, and the education system in Hong Kong produces many young people qualified to pursue careers in the software area. Brief descriptions of the established research areas are given below. Additional research areas will be established as the Department reaches maturity.
Artificial intelligence (Al) research studies how computers can be made to exhibit intelligent behaviour in performing certain tasks which, traditionally, are better done by humans. These tasks include deductive and inductive reasoning, planning, speech recognition, vision, language understanding, common-sense reasoning, learning and motion control. Related fundamental issues in Al involve knowledge representation, problem solving paradigms and strategies, computer languages for Al and their implementations, software development environment and parallel architectures for Al applications. Several possible applications that are valuable to Hong Kong are automatic translation techniques between Chinese and English, computer-assisted manufacturing, automatic vehicle navigation, medical image analysis for diagnostic purposes, speech and character recognition, expert systems and intelligent tutoring systems.
Specific areas under investigation include computer vision, image process- ing, robotics, expert systems, machine learning, and neural networks. Computer vision research focuses on problems of determining three-dimensional structures from images, particularly those based on stereo and visual motion. Image processing involves computer processing and analysis of digitised images, with the goal of
as well as their applications. Robotics research concentrates on robot planning techniques for real-time motion control. Work in expert systems is aimed at discovering strategies involved in expert problem solving and building development tools for expert systems. The ability to learn is a crucial feature in simulating natural intelligence. Artificial neural nets have been shown to exhibit learning capability. The emphasis here is to develop neural net approaches for low-level perceptual tasks such as vision and speech recognition. Another important research topic in this area is the integration of neural networks and symbolic Al systems.
The area of computer engineering is covered jointly by the Computer Science and Electrical and Electronic Engineering Departments. It is concerned with the design and implementation of computer systems and their hardware components.
The objective is to identify the organisation of computer systems in order to meet certain performance criteria. The design can be at a high level of abstraction involving software and hardware subsystems, or at a detailed level with a focus on logic and circuits.
There are many subareas of research in computer engineering including design tools for VLSl circuits, application-specific computer architectures, parallel and distributed systems, computer arithmetic, real-time systems, fault-tolerant com- puting, and computer networks. A major potential of this area is to provide system solutions to Hong Kong's computing and networking needs.
Data and knowledge management research deals with techniques for repre- senting and utilising data and knowledge bases and the effective integration of these two technologies into a unified approach for supporting all of an organisation's data and knowledge processing activities. Technologies of relevance to this research area includedatabase modelling and design, query languages, knowledge representation, planning, and problem-solving. Specific subareas under investigation include data- base design tools, intelligent user-interfaces, object-oriented data-based manage- ment systems (DBMS's), and architectures and systems for integrating data and knowledge management.
A specific project under investigation is the research on methods for discov- ering and exploiting the correlational structure of potentially very large sets of documents and the words that occur in them. Such methods allow users to discover information that is implicit in these data, but that is nowhere represented or encoded explicitly. A second area of research is the widely-distributed loosely-coupled information system architecture, combining sophisticated techniques from program- ming language theory with novel system architecture concepts to enable the design of information systems that are functionally and operationally tailored to a modern networked computing environment. Other areas include text markup, multilingual computing and representation and information visualisation. Hong Kong is deeply affected by the information revolution, and research in these areas is vital to enable Hong Kong's industry to develop and use, wisely and profitably, the information resources on which it is increasingly dependent.
Software engineering concerns the difficult tasks associated with developing and maintaining large or complex computer-based systems, including their associ- ated documentation. The goal of research in this area is to develop the knowledge needed for the creation of methods and tools that will be used by software engineers in the future to produce reliable, maintainable, and efficient systems at low costs.
Specific technologies under investigation at HKUST include computer-aided requirements engineering and analysis, software design visualisation and reuse, and object-oriented development environments. One project involves applying opera- tional modelling and simulation techniques to facilitate requirements identification during system conceptualisation; another involves developing a visual environment for building complex, distributed software systems following well-established soft- ware engineering principles. Yet another project is to build a multi-media communi- cation system based on the object-oriented paradigm. All projects will contribute towards establishing a viable software industry in Hong Kong.
The Department offers the degrees of Master of Science (MSc), Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Computer Science. Applicants for admission are required to have completed, by the time they enter HKUST, a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related science or engineering field.
Students must have demonstrated knowled~e of computer science as normally required by an undergraduate programme of computer science. Deficiencies can be made up concurrently with postgraduate work. Students must also demonstrate a sufficient command of English.
Applicants are required to submit academic transcripts of undergraduate studies (and beyond, if applicable), two letters of recommendation, a one-page statement of purpose for postgraduate study, and a completed application form for admission.
In addition to satisfying the University requirements for postgraduate de- grees, all students admitted to postgraduate studies in the Department of Computer Science must complete departmental programme requirements as detailed below.
The programme of study must be approved by the Postgraduate Studies Committee of the Department and may include courses offered by other departments at HKUST. Normally, a student must take at least one course in each of three of the research areas of the Department as well as at least one course in the foundations of computer science. Currently, the research areas are artificial intelligence, compu- ter engineering, data and knowledge base systems, and software engineering. One of the reauired courses mav be exem~ted if a student has taken an advanced level course in'one of these are&. A student whose formal computer science background is deemed inadequate may be admitted on a provisional basis and additional courses required. This will be stipulated in the offer of admission.
In addition to the traditional areas of research in computer science, students are encouraged to choose applications from other research areas in science, engineering, business, social science, and the humanities.
Master of Science (MSc) and Master of Philosophy (MPhil) i n Computer Science
The MSc and MPhil programmes focus on strengthening students' knowl- edge in certain areas of computer science and on exposing them to the issues involved in the development of scientific, educational and commercial applications of computer systems. Holders of these degrees are qualified to be technical leaders in industrial research and development organisations. This level of advanced education is in great demand in most industrial societies, as many multinational companies require their technical employees to hold master's degrees. Some companies in North America even send their newly hired personnel back to university immediately at the company's expense in order to earn such a degree before they begin their careers.
Requirements for the MSc Degree in Computer Science Project option :
A student must complete at least eight postgraduate courses (24 credits), a computer science project (4 credits), and the seminar course (one credit) for two semesters to receive the MSc degree.
Course-only option :
A student must complete at least nine postgraduate courses (27 credits), and the seminar course (one credit) for three semesters to receive the MSc degree.
Requirements for the MPhil Degree in Computer Science
A student must complete at least five postgraduate courses and the seminar course for two semesters. In addition the student must conduct research and submit a thesis for approval by the Department.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) i n Computer Science
The PhD programme aims to develop skills needed to identify issues related to a practical application, to formulate an original research problem that addresses some of these issues, and to create independently an effective computer solution to the problem. This degree is normally required for people planning on a career in academia. It is also an excellent qualification for a position in research organisations in industry. Successful careers in these organisations often lead to senior manage- ment positions in high-tech companies.
Requirements for the PhD Degree in Computer Science
To be awarded a PhD in Computer Science, a student must complete:
acourse requirement including at least five postgraduate courses (1 5 credits) approved by the Postgraduate Studies Committee of the Department and the seminar course for two semesters;
a qualifying examination which may consist of both written and oral parts;
a written thesis proposal approved by the Department;
a PhD thesis describing significant original research completed at HKUST;
and
an oral examination in defence of the thesis research.
A student enrolled in a Master's degree programme may be admitted to the PhD programme after passing the qualifying examination. Any student who intends to proceed to a PhD degree is encouraged to enrol first in the MPhil programme.
Because of the rapid development of the discipline, the Department of Computer Science enforces expiration dates on credits earned bv course work as well as on the qualifying examinatibn. The time limit is normally set at five years.
Faculty Career Activities and Research Interests
Professor Vincent Y. S. SHEN Head of Deparfment
Professor Shen taught at the Computer Sciences Department of Purdue University from 1969 to 1985. He also held visiting positions at Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) and IBM (California) during that period. He joined the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp, a research consortium supported by 20 major US computer companies, in 1985. Before coming to HKUST in 1990, h e directed the company's software technology research programme involving about 60 professional and support personnel.
Professor Shen wasadepartment editorof IEEESoftwarefrom 1987to 1990.
He is currently on the editorial boards of IEEE Computer and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
His research interests includesoftware engineering, anddistributed and real- time systems.
Professor Frederick H. LOCHOVSKY Associate Dean of Engineering
Professor Lochovsky has been a Professor of Computer Science and Management at the University of Toronto, where he began his academic career. He was also Associate Director of the Computer Systems Research Institute, an interdisciplinary group of mainly computer science and electrical engineering faculty formed to conduct research and development into computer systems and their applications. He also was avisiting Scientist at IBM Research Laboratory (San Jose) in 1983. He directed the database and office systems research group at Toronto.
Professor Lochovsky has served on the editorial boards of lnformation Systems (Pergamon Press), ACM Transactions on lnformation Systems, IEEE Database Engineering, and currently serves asan Associate Editor of the International Journal of Intelligent and Cooperative lnformation Systems and as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Office Knowledge Engineering. He is also Chairman of the IEEE-CS Technical Committee on Office Automation.
His research interests are data and knowledge base systems, organisational support systems and human-computer interaction.
Professor Roland T. CHIN Visiting Professor
Professor Chin has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (since 1981), where
Professor Chin has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (since 1981), where