HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY VOL. 12 NO. 8 5 OCTOBER 2001
A birthday carnival to remember
and Germaine Chan and Kenny Chow, rep-resentatives of the 10th Anniversary Student Activities Sub-committee. Students presented the University with a miniature version of the Redbird sundial showing the contribution of all groups to the University.Thanking the University community for their concerted efforts in organizing the event, President Chu and the officiators collectively lit up the miniature, and fol lowed w ith a champagne toast. Alumni also had a gift for the University—a spirited song entitled Fei Xiang (Soaring) composed by alumni Eric Yung with lyrics by Terry Leung and Mavis Lee,
V
oices sang, drums pounded and abuzz filled the air at HKUST’s 10th Anniversar y Carnival, held on 23 September. The campus-wide birthday Carnival brought the HKUST family together with the Hong Kong community for a day of festivities under brilliant skies.
Crowds thronged the Hong Kong Jockey Club Atrium for a vibrant lion dance, which kicked off the event. President Paul Ching-Wu Chu welcomed everyone, noting that the Uni-versity has achieved premier ranking globally over the years, and said “not only has HKUST been responsible for enriching students’ knowledge and making breakthrough discoveries, but also has made a strong con-tribution to society.”
He was then joined on stage by Kaxton Siu, HKUST Students’ Union President, Terry Leung, President of the HKUST Alumni Association, Loretta Pang, Convenor of the 10th Anniversary Celebrations Committee,
Official welcome of new students ... 2
Letter from the Acting VPAA ... 2
Orientation highlights ... 3
Perspectives on Tibet ... 3
Interactive phone system ... 3
Anniversary celebrations calendar ... 4
10th Anniversary profile ... 5
Choosing the campus site ... 5
INSIDE THIS ISSUE in which they sang how HKUST had helped
to “broaden our horizon and enrich our knowledge.”
With Prof Chu’s urging to “enjoy them-selves” in their ears, visitors experienced the kaleidoscope of exciting activities and events through-out the day. Especially popu-lar were the campus tours, activity booths throughout the campus, and dance and music performances by students, parents and other groups on the Atrium stage. Sports matches and a chance at sport climbing added an athletic feel to the day.
The Carnival was an un-qualified success, attracting more than 15,000 visitors.
Festivities culminated in evening tours of the Halls for a glimpse of student life, making this event one of the highlights of HKUST’s 10th Anniversary celebrations.
GENESIS, 5 October 2001
2
The Power of Dreams
T
he Official Welcome of New Students 2001/02 was a first for HKUST’s new students in many ways, including their first official address by the new President, Prof Paul Ching-Wu Chu, and the first opportunity to see the Deans and senior administrators.Over 900 new students turned out for the friendly and inspiring welcome to the University, held in the S H Ho Sports Hall on 27 August.
Prof Chu set the tone for the event by saying that he too was a newcomer to the University, and was learning the ropes even as they were. Speaking in English and Cantonese, Prof Chu told the students that his role is to
“prepare you to meet the challenges we are facing in the new millennium.” He cautioned that “there is one un-changing rule—the world is forever changing” and noted that while brainpower is valuable, a well-rounded education is essential.
He also urged students to un-derstand the “power of dreams”. He himself had a dream he would find superconductivity at high temperatures. Despite many failures, he persevered and finally found the material he was seeking.
Prof Chu then introduced the students to the senior members of the Uni-versity present, Prof Yuk-Shee Chan, Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Mr Paul Bolton, Vice-President for Administration and Business, Prof Otto Lin, Vice-President for Research and Development, Prof Shiu Yuen Cheng, Associate Dean of Science, Prof Kang Wang, Dean of Engineering, Prof K C Chan, Acting Dean of Business and Management, Prof Pang-Hsin Ting, Dean of Humanities and Social Science, and Mr Kaxton Siu, Presi-dent of the StuPresi-dents’ Union. The ceremony was officiated by Mr Luke Wong, Director of Student Affairs.
Brief but inspiring messages from the Deans followed. Prof Shiu Yuen Cheng encouraged the students to have “broad
minds” and not to focus on academic results alone.
Prof Kang Wang added his welcome by saying, “You are joining a new family and we want to make you feel at home.”
Students received this important tip from Prof K C Chan: “Three years comes and goes very quickly. The essence is time management.”
Prof Pang-Hsin Ting then demonstrated his time-management skills, by condensing his 30-minute address to 3 minutes. He asked the students: “You will become better engineers, better scientists—but will you also become better people?” The answer depends on whether the students would broaden their horizon by taking courses in the humanities and social sciences.
Finally, Students’ Union President Kaxton Siu gave a rousing welcome, saying that while HKUST students are known for being hard workers, “we also play hard.”
This year also set the tone for the relation-ship between the administrators, faculty and students, as a tea reception held after the wel-come gave all participants a chance to chat informally over tea and sandwiches.
The event was best summed up by Prof Chu: “HKUST is a treasure island waiting for you to explore. Let’s all be positive and optimistic, creative and independent, work hard, play hard, and create and shape our own future.” New students enjoy the chance to chat with
President Chu.
A Letter from the Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs
Work hard and have fun
Greetings to all,
I was invited to write a letter to Genesis’ readers, and would like to use this opportu-nity to welcome all the students to the new school year, especially those in the Class of 2001. HKUST is famous for its rigorous academic requirements. That’s why we attract students with an entrepreneurial spirit and a “can-do” attitude, who are not averse to hard work.
To our students, we are proud of your dedication to academic work. But we also feel that it is crucial for you to expand your hori-zon and have fun. I won’t reiterate the impor-tance of doing extracurricular activities, but would suggest that you explore activities of interest and fun to you.
good professor looked at it with astonishment. “Odd,” he said, “I distinctly remember hav-ing eaten my lunch.”
With warmest regards,
Yuk-Shee Chan
Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Finance
HKUST LETTER
How about reading a book of humor in the library when you really feel tired and your mind is not working properly? I do this from time to time with refreshing results. Let me tell you a joke about an absent-minded professor (# 137 from Isaac Asimov’s Treasury of Humor, Houghton Mifflin, 1971) before ending this short wel-come message.
“I have brought a frog,” said Professor Krumpelmayer, beaming at his class in elementary zoology, “fresh from the pond, in order that we might study its outer appear-ance and later dissect it.” He carefully un-wrapped the package he carried and inside was a neatly prepared ham sandwich. The
To enhance information services for the public, the University has launched a new interactive phone system (2358-8888). The system supports English, Putonghua and Cantonese and can direct inquirers to the pertinent information as well as provide de-tailed information by fax. At present, callers can ob-tain information on the following: campus amenities, directions and map, degree programs, continuing and professional education programs, job applications, alumni information, congregation, campus events and student affairs.
More extensive uses of the system are being explored, including providing information on typical questions such as HKUST history, achievements, listing of office bearers and so on.
The University community is cordially invited to try the system and send suggestions by e-mail at [email protected], by fax at 27059119, or by phone at ext 6314.
New interactive phone system
2358 - 8888
T
he hum of activity filled HKUST’susually quieter summer spaces as new students were introduced to campus life through a variety of informative and fun-filled orientation activities. O’Days, O’Weeks
O’Days and O’Nights
and O’Camps took place from 9 to 27 August and in early September, with individual and joint House activities like Performance Night giving HKUST’s newest members a chance to shine.
Heart to heart—sowing the seeds of friendship.
Insights into the cultural and economic development of Tibet were provided on 6 September, at a Division of Social Science (SOSC) dinner seminar organized by Associate Professor Barry Sautman.
Held at the Bistro in the University Center, the evening marked the first visit to Hong Kong by the two speakers: Cedan Tashi, Deputy Head of the Department of Tibetan Studies, Tibet University, who spoke on China’s “Go West” campaign in relation to minority issues in the western provinces; and Basang Norbu, Deputy Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region People’s Congress Standing Committee, who discussed the major problems in Tibet’s moderniza-tion progress.
The seminar also marked the completion of three full years of the SOSC Dinner Seminar Series. Initiated as a way of encouraging a more relaxed atmosphere for university members to gather and discuss key issues with prominent academics from around the world, the series also attracts faculty from other local universities, the media and diplomats. This past year’s theme was Social Change and Social Conflict in Asian Societies, and noted speakers included Y K Pao Distinguished Visiting Professor Gayatri Spivak. The Department anticipates continuing the series under the theme of China Rising— its meaning for East Asia and the rest of the world.
Perspectives on Tibet
Learning the latest dance craze—Para Para Sakura?
Per formance Night showcases HKUST’s coolest new talents.
Building the future together.
GENESIS, 5 October 2001 4
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Choosing the campus site
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HKUST is set on a beautiful hillside overlooking Clearwater Bay. The campus has woncommendations over the years, and received an Artistic Merit Award for architectural design at Beijing’s Contemporary Chinese Architectural Art Exhibition, in June 1999.
But did you know that this was not the only site initially considered for the University? In September 1986, the Planning Committee for The Third University drew up the major criteria for selecting a site: big enough to allow for growth, development costs should be kept to a minimum, and easily accessible from metropolitan areas to facilitate close collaboration with business and industry.
In addition, construction time needed to be minimized to enable an early opening. Sir Edward Youde, then Governor of Hong Kong, realized that the world was changing fast, and Hong Kong’s need for advanced scientific and technological R&D was becoming urgent. So he asked the Planning Committee to speed up the building of the University.
Four sites were visited: Bowring Camp in Tuen Mun, Fanling West, Whitehead at Ma On Shan, and Kohima Barracks at Tai Po Tsai.
After detailed studies, the Tai Po Tsai site was finally recommended, because site formation and servicing had been completed and thus the University could be built more quickly. The location commanded a beautiful scenic view, and was near the Kwun Tong metropolitan area and Junk Bay, which the Government was already planning to develop industrially.
On 30 November, HKUST held a Topping Out ceremony for the Main Academic Building, marking the completion of Phase One. In October 1991, the doors were opened for the first group of eager students—three full years ahead of schedule.
Professor Peter Dobson, Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs, is well known to the HKUST community through his humorous and personal column “On the Light Side” as well as his other contributions to University publications. Here’s his take on the University’s development over the years.
I was approached by Genesis about doing an article on me, as a survivor of the early his-tory of HKUST. That makes me feel a bit like a fossil, and their approach sounded serious. Given the fact that readers have a right to expect something more lighthearted from me, I decided to write it for them!
I got here in early June 1989. Before my arrival, I had spent more than a decade as an administrator in the university system in Hawaii. Basically, that meant I learned a little bit about how universities are mismanaged. No, that’s not a typo—I wouldn’t want to work at a university that was really and truly managed. It is the chaos and ferment that make the academic life more interesting than the “Real World”.
I was hired to play a similar role at HKUST, writing up plans and policies in a hurry that looked just like the real thing. I had become pretty good at that. Rule number one is to find out what the Powers That Be want to prove before you find the “facts” to prove it. Rule two is to be confident enough to substitute
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10th Anniversary Profiles
up some of the notable achievements of recent years it struck me that we have suc-ceeded far beyond the expectations I had in June 1989.
To have built from the ground up a good university with a solid curriculum and com-petent faculty would have been a major achievement in a short 10 years. The fact that this institution is already producing serious world-class research and internationally com-petitive programs that attract international attention is nothing short of amazing.
When we are feeling a bit too superior about this, someone always reminds us that it is ridiculous to compare ourselves to MIT. True... but MIT admitted its first students in 1865. I think we may compare pretty favor-ably with the MIT of 1875, when it was cel-ebrating its 10th anniversary.
your best guess when necessary, and pass it off as profound insight.
When I came, HKUST consisted of about 50 people, and we had no campus. One of the questions I was asked was “What has changed since the first years?” Gosh, not much, I guess, only the addition of a few billion dollars of facilities, several thousand employees, and thousands of students and graduates.
Seriously, in the early days we had what university administrators secretly long for: a university with no students and practically no faculty. But after a while, the administrators realized that they could irritate one another al-most as effectively. So we began to look forward to the culmination of our early work on that date in October 1991.
On the other hand, almost all of us were apprehensive about the move to the campus. For about two years we worked in the Harbour City complex. This made for a rather nice lifestyle. The trips we made out to the cam-pus site during the construction period seemed like treks into an unknow n wilderness. Now that we have made the move, have an outstanding faculty, a lively and bright group of young students, and a spectacular location... I get kind of nostalgic about the good old days in Harbour City. Sorry.
But this place still engages and at times even excites me. When we started summing
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24 Oct 7 pm Swiss Concerts Exposition Hall 30 Oct 7 pmPeking Opera: What is Done Can't Be Undone— by Peking Opera Troupe of Beijing (Full Play)
Exposition Hall
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Senior Editor Barbara Yang Editors Cecelia Judge, Bosco Wong Contributors Yuk-Shee Chan, Peter Dobson, Steven Kong
Design & Production Publishing Technology Center Genesis is published by the Office of
University Development and Public Affairs to keep members of the HKUST community in touch with
University news and views. The next issue of Genesis will be published on
7 November 2001. Contributions are welcome
but must be received at least three weeks before publication date either by fax at 2358-0537, or by
email at [email protected].
© 2001 by Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology. All rights reserved.
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