ll'lfDD~DR:l::Jllmi 1111i1.!11Fil:~~ An Internal tlifliilill!m:i:!!~~1il'i~ tl~~~;:I Corn mun ication
offered to classes at all, making the most of teach-ing expertise within Hong Kong.
Developments and Perspectives
"The next logical step," Dr Boehnker observes,
What's
In
side ...
Putting Technology in the Service of Education
"is offering classes to _business and industry. Sili- P. 2: ETC. Centre for changing money? Club for con Valley in California is blanketed by course
of-Staff Introductions extra-terrestrials? Collection ofRoman misfits? Those ferings from UC Davis, Chico State, and Stanford."
who have been with HKUST longer than a few days The same could happen in Hong Kong, if busi- P. 3: know better. "ETC" is the acronym for "Educa- nesses are willing to pay for the installation and
tional Technology Centre", a central academic sup- rental of the telecommunications cable. Catering Survey port unit with the mission of helping HKUST use How likely is the creation of an inter-UPGC Report
the latest in technology to achieve its educational institution link? Dr Boehnker says that five of the
goals. With a staff of thirteen, ETC has already six UPGC tertiary institutions have a central room Transport Update begun to provide audio-visual equipment and vari- which could serve the pt,rrpose. Laying P. 4:
ous services. It is publishing a monthly - -
ff)
the fibre optic cable could begin withinnewsletter, "Excellence", and offer- 11!1111111.
m
.
,
,
.
three months, once )JlOney for the A Bit of This, ing seminars, workshops, and consult-mm!
',\·
project has been approved. "By July A Bit of That ing services to enable faculty to inte- '92 the system could be up andwi:
ml
HKUST in Actiongrate the latest in technological edu- running," Dr Boehnker estimates.
cational materials into their teaching. And how likely is TV teaching at P. 5: On campus it will have facilities for producing audio- HKUST? Definite, according to Dr Boehnker.' At
and television programmes as well as print-oriented an ETC presentation to faculty of video-confer- Graphically Speaking learning materials. encing and television teaching possibilities, the de- On the Light Side
The goal is simply to make teaching and learn- cision was made to go ahead with simple video
ing as efficient and effective as modem technology distribution in Phase I. Movie of the Month will allow. Dr Donald Boehnker, Director of ETC, The video classroom will be ready by
Novem-points out two factors which have given the Centre ber 1991. Whether faculty will be prepared to P. 6: a good start: "We are fortunate because we have become stars of the silver screen by then is anotfier Meeting the been able to select the latest tools available, putting question. Teaching on television requires skills_ --Ch llor us at the cutting edge in instructional technologies, different from those used in classroom teaching.- :°ce
and because we have a staff of professionals work- "Teaching off the top of your head just doesn't Staff Movements ing as an integrated team and thus taking full adv an- work on TV," Dr Boehnker notes. "Lack of or-.
tage of these tools." ganisation becomes immediately apparent And Home Affairs One exciting area in which Dr Boehnker envi- you can't hold a class over. When time is up you
sions future development is that of teleconferencing are cut off."
enabling people in different places to see an~ speak For students, the advantages are great At the with each other. This is not now happening in Hong University of New Mexico, students living off-campus Kong's tertiary institutions although the technology and those working in research labs particularly liked and the potential applications exist; Dr Boehnker, it. Attending class on TV saved-valuable travel past Director of a centre similar to ETC at the time, and having the class on tape allowed them to University of New Mexico, hopes to develop just review as many times and whenever they wished.
such a system. As in a normal classroom, the more familiar the
stu-Once implemented, a panorama of applications dents became with the lecturer and the medium, the immediately spring to mind. The first is linking the more comfortable they felt in asking questions. six UPGC institutions together. Then, administra- Dr Boehnker and his staff at ETC look forward live officials and faculty in like disciplines could to serving the academic community. "We are idea meet without wasting time in travel; distinguished people ... solvers of problems," in Dr Boehnker's visitors could speak to students and faculties on words. So, anyone with a teaching problem will every campus; courses at one institution could be find the door at ETC always open.
11
11
1
ETC photographer April 1991Tony Chung, who couldn't be in the group photo because
he took it.
Tony Lam Wai-Ieung, Principal AV Officer-Video (SAS). Born 15 June in HK; with two daughters. Graduated from S. Illinois U. with a BS in Com-munications; working on an MPhil (a the.sis on cable TV in HK).
(Back row, left to right) James Chan, Thomas Ng, Yau-Keung Tsui, Kent Tam, lAurie Wong, Peter lAu, Tony lAm.
Anthony Chung,
Technician
(Photo-graphy). Born 15 August in
Phila-delphia (USA); single. Graduated
from U. Hawaii with a Bachelor of (Front row, left to rig}1t) Sana lAi, Tracy Chick (Personal
Sec-retary), Dr. Donald Boehnker (Director), Elsa Lui.
Missing: Hector Kao Tak-ming.
Mr Lam worked for TVB, RTHK, and City Polytechnic. At HKUST, he is involved in ETC's audio-visual set-up.
Mr Lam's family and his thesis consume most of his spare time.
Thomas.Ng Wang-kuen, AV Officer-Graphics (AS). Born 28
August.in HK; single. Graduated from HK Poly. with a Higher Dip. in Graphic Communications & Design, and from Manches-ter Poly. with an MA in Communications Design.
J\1r Ng has worked at TVB, at several advertising agencies, and, most recently, at a PR firm as head of the design department
Mr Ng reads in his spare time., and plays squash and badmin-ton occasionally.
Hector Koo Tak-ming; Assistant Secretary. Born 7 October in Macau; single. Graduated from CUHK with a BA in English, and from HKU with an MPhil in Chinese. He has taught secondary school, worked in the Information Office of HKU, and most recently has been Chief Editor of the Ming Pao Monthly.
At HKUST, Mr Koo writes, translates, and edits translations done by others. In his spare time, he reads, especially Chinese literature.
Sana Lai Tik-shan, Executive Officer I. Born 25 August in HK; single. Graduated from CUHK with a BA in English. After graduation,
Ms
Lai worked for the ICAC and then as an Admin-istrative Assistant in the ETC of City Poly.At HKUST, she co-ordinates and sets up procedures for handling and processing requests coming into ETC. ·
Ms
Lai's incontestably favourite activity is shopping. James Chan, Executive Officer II. Born 31 December in HK; engaged. Graduated from National Taiwan U. with a BA in Foreign Languages & Literature; from U. Oregon with an MS in Instructional Systems Technology. Mr Chan is working on a PhD thesis which examines how cultural perspectives permeate the de-sign of educational software and its meaning for dede-signers.At HKUST, Mr Chan is responsible for instructional develop-ment and edits the "Excellence" newsletter.
FineArts. AftergraduationMrChung
worked as a junior photographer for a commercial photographic
studio in Honolulu. In his current position at HKUST he photographs people and events for ETC and for public.ations of
the Office of Public Affairs.
Mr Chung's hobbies are basketball and surfing.
Peter Lau Kar-yui, Computer Graphics Officer. Born 16 March in HK; single. Graduated from Simon Fraser U. (V a1icouver) with a BS in Computer Science. After graduation, Mr Lau returned to HK to work in technical support for Gilman Office Machines, and
then as a contract consultant for Citibank
At HKUST, Mr Lau works in computer graphics. He fills his leisure time with sleeping, watching TV, and listening to music.
Kent Tam Siu-fu, Senior Technician. Born 10 March in HK; married with a two-month old son. Graduated from Nortl1 London Poly. with an Ordinary National Dip. in En gin. TP.Ch. and a Higher Dip. in Electronic & Communications Engin. Back in
HK, Mr Tam worked for several commercial firms
as
an engineerand for HKU as a technician in the Civil Engineering Dept At ETC he is responsible for maintenance and service of AV equipment His favourite. pastime is singing and guitar playing. Laurie Wong Sai-Fu, Senior Technician. Born 15 April in HK; married with an 18-month old daughter. Graduated from HK Polytechnic with a Higher Dip. in Power Electronics; now working on two external degrees: one in engineering at the S. China U. of Tech. and one in production managementatHKPoly.
Mr Wong has worked as a technician for several commercial firms and, for HKU' s Centre for Media Resources. At HKUST he assists in planning and setting up the AV system.
Elsa Lui Kit-bing, Technician (Graphics). Born 9 June in HK; married with one six-year old son. Graduated from U. Alberta with a BA in Visual Communication Design. After graduation
Ms
Lui worked as a supply teacher in primary and secondary schools, and as a graphic designer for two commercial firms. At HKUST, she works in desktop publishing.Progress Report from the
Working
.
Party on Selection
of a Catering Operator
In March, the Working Party for Selection of a Catering Op
-erator (WPSCO) circulated a survey to all members of staff, to determine their opinion and expected pattern of using campus catering facilities. The results have been tabulated, and are presented below. According to Pandora Yuen, Secretary of the WPS CO, the results more or less confirm initial predictions and assumptions. The vast majority of staff expect to eat lunch on campus at least three times a week, and will be willing to pay $10-20 per meal. Most prefer shorter serving hours and fewer varieties in order to achieve lower prices.
The \VPSCO has received four tenders for the job of han-dling catering services at the Clear Water Bay campus, and will make their selection in June. Food service will begin as soon as the kitchens and dining areas can be fitted out. It is impossible to predict when this will be, but the WPSCO assures staff that as soon as Offices and Departments begin moving to campus attempts will be made to provide lunch for those working there. Arrangements will depend on-and will change according to-'the number of staff on campus and the facilities available.
Appointed by the PVC-AB, the WPSCO comprises six members representing academic and general grade staff (see 'January Genesis for the list). The Party would like to thank all
~
'colleagues who responded to the survey, and encourages
any-'one with further comments or with interest in further details of the results, to contact Pandora Yuen of the Student Affairs Office (Extension 1771).
The following is a summary of the findings: 1. Response rate: 68.3%
2. Total number of respondents: 259 Academic/Administrative Staff Supporting Staff
Did not specify their grades
3. How frequent would they patronise on-campus catering facilities?
Three times or more in a week for Breakfast
Lunch Dinner
4. How much would they spend? Breakfast less than Lunch Dinner $10 $10-20 $21-40 (30.9%) (65.5%) ( 3.1%) (30.5%) (82.2%) (8.5%) (74.3%) (53.9%) (45.9%)
5. What did they think about separating the accounts for the operation of the staff restaurant, canteen and function catering? Agreed that the accounts for restaurant and
canteen should be kept separate so that
one would not subsidise the. other. (71.4%)
Agreed that the accounts for function catering
should be kept separate from those for
restaurant/canteen. (82.1 %)
6. Which method of operation of the staff restaurant would they prefer?
A method that attempts to optimise varieties and serving hours, prices with value for money comparable to those in similar
commercial operations in town. (65.7%)
A method that gives priority to cost-effectiveness, attempting to have prices with better
value for money. (28.1 %)
A method that gives priority to varieties and serving hours, likely resulting in prices
with less value for money. (6.2%)
7. Would they accept the possible methods to improve cost
-effectiveness in the Staff Restaurant? Acceptable/Tolerable
Conversion of the restaurant into a semi-self-service snack bar Reduction of varieties/services Reduction of serving hours Use by outsiders
(82.6%) (62.9%) (59.4%) (58.6%)
4
Right of Abode in
C01nputer
Land
Many programs in use today are unreliable and difficult to main-tain. To address this problem, a group of researchers has designed a "right of abode" scheme to control the quality of the programs put into a computer. The idea is to evaluate a program based on a set of criteria; points are scored under each criterion and added up to give a final score. If the final score exceeds a certain threshold, then the program is allowed to reside in the machine for normal use, i.e., the program is granted "right of abode" in the computer. The evaluation criteria are given below.
1. Effort required
A score of 200 points is given if the program takes 30 to 40 woman-days of development effort (One woman-day is the amount of work done by one woman in one day.) 10 points are deducted from this maximum for each woman-day less or each woman-day more. The rationale behind this is that anything requiring less than 30 woman-days is not worth automating, and anything requiring more than 40 woman
-days is deemed to contain too many bugs. 2. Level of understanding
This measures how well people in the first, second and third tiers understand the functioning of the program. For the purposes of this scheme, the three tiers are represented by students, professors and administrators. A maximum of 50 points can be scored in each tier. (It's not easy, extremely dif
-• HKUST, together with HKU and Baptist College, organised a Workshop on Scientific Computation held 20-21 December 1990 in Hong Kong. Dr Yue-Kuen Kwok (Mathematics) gave a presentation entitled, "Numerical Simulation of Gas-Solid Flows".
• Prof. C.C. Yang (Mathematics) has been invited by the HK Mathematical Society to lead the HK Mathematical Olym-piad team in participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad to be held in Moscow in 1992.
• Prof. Nelson Cue (Physics) was the guest speaker in the Fifth College Monthly Assembly of the Shaw College of CUHK, 8 March. More than 1,000 students heard his talk entitled, "Are
the activities of academic research and technological devel-opment necessary for Hong Kong?"
• On Sunday 21 April, a busload of some 70 HKUST staff, spouses, and friends toured spots of interest in the New Territories. First stop was Kadoorie Experimental Farm,
April 1991
ficult, and almost impossible to score in the first, second and third tier, respectively, since most stu-dents are not interested in under
-standing others' programs, most professors are not interested in understanding others, and mostadministratorsarenotinter
-ested in understanding.) 3. Number of relevant bugs
This measures the number of known bugs which are "rele-vant". 10 points are given for every relevant bug discovered during development time;. up to 200 points can be awarded. If
something is a bug but not relevant, or relevant but not a bug, points are calculated on a pro-rata basis.
4. Connection with the computer
If the program is a patch to, or an upgrade of, or a new version of, an existing program with "right of abode" in the computer, 10 points are given.
5. Proficiency of the binary language
A maximum of 50 points can be given if the program is capa
-ble of handling binary arithematic at a level equival~nt to, or above, that of the cen tra1 processing unit of a working computer.
The initial re~ponse to the scheme was far below expectation.
The manager of the scheme believes that this is because most pro-grams with high scores would prefer to reside in textbooks and research papers, while programs with low scores are discouraged from applying.
•
famous for its garoens and infamous for the rain which keeps the flowers blooming. Next stop was a Yuen Long temple, renowned for its vegetarian lunches-justifiably so according to at least one satisfied HKUST diner. The group then spent the afternoon touring the residence of an ancient Chinese official and finally a bee farm, where workers demonstrated techniques required in handling hives.
Rites of Passage
(from the diary of the Unknown Academic)
It was an overcast afternoon as I struggled to the kerb from my
taxi
at Kai Tak Airport. The sky was as leaden as my mood: I really wasn't looking forward to this trip. It was going to take me 44 hours to get to New York --that was the cheapest flight they could get for me, since there were no seats left on Trans-Antarctic.At the check-in counter, I found that in Zed Class I had a choice of having a smoker in the scat on my left or my right. My right eye is a bit more sensitive to cigarette smoke, so I picked the forn1er. It was .a little annoying to find that the plane was not parked at the gate, since we Zed Class passengers had to walk while everyone else got to
ride the shutlle bus.
As I boarded Air Iceland J:-<1ight 4, I thought 'Oh well, things could be worse. The Finance people weren't able to get me on a courier flight, so at least I was able to check my luggage.' And, since the trip was going to be so long, I was entitled to an overnight in Reykjavik. It was mid~ winter and I was a bit concerned about finding a hotel. The University's travel agent didn't seem to know where Iceland is and wasn't very helpful. I just hoped there would be an airport hotel with a room for US$?..O a·night (which is our per diem allowance for Iceland). It was kind of an odd routing, with stops in Seoul, Vladivostok, An-chorage, and Reykjavik on the way to New York, but I guess that's why the fare was so cheap.
Eventually, I squeezed into my seat and settled back for a long flight. Of course there was the obligatory safety demonstration first. I only half paid attention until I noticed the taped announcement was saying 'Flight atten-dants will be coming down the aisles with life vests for passengers in Zed Class who wish to rent one. The charge is only US$4.' Oh, oh, I thought, I had used up most of my cash for the departure tax, and I was pretty sure they wouldn't take a credit card. A quick check of the wallet turned up a US$5 bill.
As we taxied down the runway, a single question kept running through my mind: 'Movie or life vest... movie or life vest. .. ?'
6
]il\ililf]ff[
Meeting the Chancellor
HKUST faculty and administrative staff met the Chancellor of the University, Governor Sir David Wilson, at a cocktail reception hosted by the Hon. Stephen Cheung Kam-chuen, Chairman of the Appointments Committee of the University Council. The reception was held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on 15 April. It was a rare occasion when the titular head of the University, the Governor, and both the University Council and
senior staff could meet each other. Ten of the 14 members oft.he University Council
and24membersof HKUST's aca-demic and senior administrative staff, together with spouses, attended.
(Left w right, facing the camera) Prof. Maurice Craft (HS&S), Prof. S.D. Kung (Science), Prof. Din-Yu Hsieh (Mathematics), and Dr Ernest Sc.:ilberg (SB&M) pose behind Governor Wilson as he considers a serious point with Prof. H.K. Chang (Engineering) and his wife Mrs.
Min-Min Chang (Library)
(Left to right) Prof.H.K. Chang (Engineering) and Vice-Chancellor Woo demonstrate the University's motto, Hands on the Present, with eyes on Governor Wilson
April i 991
Welcome Aboard to New Staff1
Office of Pro-V-Cfor Academic Affairs: Prof. Donald A. George, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor & Prof. of Electrical & Elec-tronic Engineering; Mr Cheung Kai-cheung, Vincent, Executive Assistant. School of Science: Miss Tai Yin-ping, Flora, Execu-tive Officer (EO) I. Department of Biochemistry: Mr Pong Nga-hin, Technician. Department of Physics: Ms Li Ka-no, Clara, EO II. Department of Computer Science: Miss Yu Pui-yee, Angela, EO II. Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineer-ing: Dr Kwan Fai Cheung, Lecturer; Mr Jack Lau, Assistant Lecturer. School of Humanities & Social Science: Ms Lai Fung-ching, Clerk II. Language Centre: Ms Poon Wai-yi, EO II. Educational Technology Centre: Mr Lau Kar-yui, Peter, EO II. Laboratory: Mr Ip Tak-kin, Senior Technician (ST); Mr Tse Chi-cheung, ST; Mr Tam Ying-yan, Anthony, Technician; Mr Yuen Sing-yu, Technician; Mr Cheng Kim-man, Technician. Library: Ms Carol Liheng, Sub-Librarian; Miss Li Yuk-lai, Hennia, Personal Secretary I. Finance Office: Miss Chan Mei-mui, Mandy;MissLo Yin-ping,Irene; Miss Wong Po-ling, Dora. Personnel Office: Miss Leung Pui-man, EO I; Miss Tsui Sui-ying, Sammy, Clerk II.
Transfer
Ms Chan Shuk-ying, Cathy, from Clerk II in Vice-Chancellor/ President's Office to Clerk II in Dept of Finance & Economics. Completion of Contract
Admissions, Registration & Records Office: Miss Yuen Kwai-chun, Phyllis, Temp. Clerical Assistant.
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Home Affairs
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