金一
一－
mw
Survey Finds UST Grads Back in Class
.
job (21 %) with sales and marketing a close
second (20%).
The under- and unemployment rates remained stable, with only 38 graduates in
these categories. Of these graduates, 14 had received job 。在ersbut had declined them.
UST法 unemploymentrates are among
the lowest in Hong Kong institutions.
“
The state of the job market didn’
t seem to affecttertiary students last year, and employers tell us that 出eeconomy is picking up this ye叫， said Cheryl.
“
The job market may be better,but as there are more graduates, the
compe-tition will be just as tough
:’
As few of the major companies have finished recruiting 闕， predictionsare
im-possible for the Class of 1997, but signs are
positive.
“
We are getting good feedback from employers about our students;’”id Cheryl.“
They are more aware of career planningand are putting more effort into their job sear℃h and preparation.
"
.
development;’
said Cheryl Lee, SAO studentcounsellor.
“
Science students intent on research careers plan their studies before graduation.Business and engineering students want to
gain experience or professional qualification before pursuing full-time srudies.”
The survey found that scien tists and engineers were studying
to enhance their qualification, while business graduates were more likely to be pursuing aca
-demic or professional interests.
For those opting for emplo~-
ment-81 %-the job search is taken seriously. All the
applica-tions and interviews paid o匠， with graduates getting more job offers than in previous years.
’
The m~jority are working in
Hong Kong in the commerce and
business sector. This year, for 出efirst time, engineering was the most popular type of
叭
［，~＼＇
ing class has maintained theUniversity's outstanding record
on graduate placement, more graduates are opting for fur出erstudies than ever before. At the end of December last ye缸， 97% of the Class of
’
96 were eµiployed or in full-time studies, according to the GraduateEmployment Survey recently published by the Student Affairs Office (SAO).
The class numbered 1,363, including the first graduates in chemical engineering and
industrial engineering and engineering
management: 99.4% responded to the SAO
survey..
Nearly 15% -200 graduates-returned
to the classroom or the research lab, com
pared with only 111 a year earlier. More than three-quarters of those have chosen to come back to UST as postgraduates.
~
'
It matches the trend in HongKong-most people realise that a first degree is no longer enough for short-or long-term career
Graduate Employment at a Glance
Half of the class said they are satis
-fied or very satisfied with their job. MGTO, MATH, CIVL, ISMT and MARK grads, in order, are most satisfied.
When asked what they would be doing in 12 months' time, 67% ex-pected to be in the same job, while
30% expected to change jobs or fields, a slight increase on last year.
.
.
97% are employed or self employed(81%) or in full-time studies (14.8%). Over a quarter of science graduates
are pursuing further studies, while business graduates are most likely to
be found in ful 卜timejobs (92%). Graduates of MGTO (96.3%), ISMT
(95.5%), MARK (94.7%），仁IVL(94.2%)
and ACCT (93.3%) have the highest employment rates of the
’
96 class..
.
[antonese Lessons on Radio ... ... 2
P『的1dentLooks Fo「ward... .-...’…’,... 3
Success for Al Research ... 3
Nearly 50% of science graduates reported that they would either be changing field or job within the year. Civil engineers are most likely to stay
in their jobs 85.2%一followed 甸
、 graduatesof MECH’的 Ml， ζOMPand
MGTO .
•
Salaries also rose. The median gross monthly income rose from HK$10,250 to HK$11,000, a 7% increase.The top salary reported thisyear is $31,230 per month.
。
Debates Win Again ...”4-5
Questions? Answers! ... 5 Home Affairs ...…’... 6 Engineers and business grads are
most likely to find their jobs relevant or quite relevant to their studies-80.5% and 77.9% respectively. ·
.
Civil engineers are almost all work－一
ing in engineering-96.9%, while 86.4% of accounting graduates are working in accounting and 84.2% of computer scientists are working in programmin'g or systems .
•
rnv φ.
.
『 3α ．付 u nH Ac 、 Au rE ‘ 、 5 Hu nur m 、 α r 『、..a:m:畫i!Il!iDII﹒
2
Enter the
Dragon Boat
Fancy getting fit and taking pa rt in a
Hong Kong tradition at the same time? The UST staff dragon boat team is looking for new paddlers for their new boat. Practice is starting soon for the Tuen Ng Festival on 9 June.
The staff team plans to enter
eight-person and 20-person boats in the men
’
s and women’
s races,and 也·elooking for new members, regardless of rowing experience.
Clair Krider, co-ordinator of the women
’
s te且mhad never rowed until three years ag。“It'sa great experienceand a fun way of getting into shape;’
said Clair.
“
We practice at Sai Kungonce or twice a week, for about two homs each time.
”
The new·boat is the result of the
generosity of the Social Club and some
inspired fundraising by the teams. A new 20-person boat has also been bought for the UST student team. v
If you are interested in learning more about the team, contact Clair Krider (e-mail: mkkrider), Zaheed Kaxim (eekarim) or Michael Cheng
(faming).
In Brief
A special session of the University Senate was held on 19 April to discuss the UGC's Teaching and Learning Quality Process Review. With only two days
’
no tic巴， 35members attended andparticipated in an active exchange of views on how best to in1prove Univer-sity systems that monitor teaching quality. The Senate decided to hold a series of special sessions on the issue, working as a committee of the whole.
Faculty members are encouraged to
read the TLQPR report and discuss ideas for improvements at the depart-mental level which can then be brought to the Senate. Student representatives of the Senate are also encouraged to
collect views of fellow students. An-other Senate meeting was scheduled for Saturday, 3 May.
Pai·k
’
N Shop will herald the openingof its new and larger venue on LGS with a Lion Dance at 8:45 am on 9 May;The
store is also planning to have special offers and discount coupons.
Cantonese Lessons on Radio
N
…
igrants to…
ghavea friend on the radio to help them with Cantonese. Every weekday
afternoon八JSTlanguage teacher Keithτbng
can be heard on h得ORTHK channels leading
a short language lesson he has designed for Putonghua speakers who are struggling with Cantonese.
“
There is a theme for every day,"explained the Language Centre's associate
director. On Monday and Wednesday, Keith concentrates on
“
survival Cantonese"-phrases used, for example, in the market-place, in a taxi, in a restaurant. On Tuesday
he talks about the phonology, or sounds, of
Cantonese.
“
In lay terms, the Cantonesetones present certain challenges to Manda rin speakers. In Cantonese, for example,
there are words which end in p, t and k
sounds. Mandarin does not have these
end-ings. There are also no Mandarin syllables that end in the m sound, which requires closed lips.
While 出einterest in Putonghua is
grow-ing locally, Keith notes that interest in the
Cantonese language and culture is also growing across the border.
“
Hong Kong is influential in the areas of entertainment, pop culture and clothes;'Keith said.
“
Hong Kong brand names inChina are popular and Canto pop records sell like hot cakes:'
Even linguistically, Hong Kong is having an influence on Putonghua. A lively language, Cantonese has long been quick to adopt combinations of a foreign word with
a Chinese word. A pager, for example, is a
call g衍， geibeing the Cantonese word for
machine. Mixed words have recently been slipping into Putonghua. In Beijing, locals
can now be heard referring to a taxi as a di
shi, which is similar to the Cantonese expres
-sion dik see.
The Thursday lesson is devoted to colloquial or slang expressions, and on
Friday, Keith examines
“
how Hong Kong people's culture is reflected in the language”. One exampleis the Cantonese obses-sion with the number
eight.
“
Because the word eight in Cantonesesounds like the word for fortune, Cantonese be-lieve eight is a good
• Keith Tong records his Cantonese language program, which
is scheduled to run for three months as a pilot.
number. This belief is peculiar to the
Cantonese.
”
RTHK first approached Keith about
developing a language program. While he had written a Cantonese language text and
tape series,“Colloquial Cantonese”,he had not done a radio program. That didn
’
t stophin1, however. Within weeks of the proposal, the
“
North-South Language Classroom弋 asthe program is called, was launched on 31 March, coinciding with RTHK's launch of the all· utong
}
ma channel 7,AM 621. Thesix-minute program is aired at ar‘ound 5:15
pm on both AM 621 and AM 783. Keith draws a linguistic compar心on between Hong Kong and many European
countries where people
“
have a repertoire of three or four languages for different purposes”.He explained,“Cantonese is the
Ian-guage of Hong Kong life. English is the international language and Mandarin will be necessary for work and official occasions.
”
While the explic此.aim of the RTHK language lesson is to help newcomers with
Cantonese, Keith has additional aims for the program.
“
For historical and other reasons,Can-tonese has not been given due respect in Hong Kong. A lot oflocals tal<e so little pride in the language because they don
’
t know much about it. Cantonese has long been referred to as a 'dialect’,which has the con-notation of inferiority. In fact, from every linguistic aspect, Cantonese is a language in its own right. It is a living, flexible language that expresses ideas vividly. I would like thecommunity to recognize the importance and usefulness of Cantonese. If you go abroad, Cantonese is the most·widely spo-ken of the Chinese languages
:’
As a language teacher, Keith is convinced that by learning more about one's mother tongue, students can then make the leap to
speaking and understanding other
languages.
President Looks
Fo附ard
to New Era for UST
p叫 Chia 川0 仰的 wi心…w
like campus atmosphere and called for greater faculty involvement in student life in a wide-ranging speech on the State of the University on 18 April.
The Citibank Lecture Theatre was filled with faculty member丸
some sta缸， anda few students, attending what the President called an
“
informal progress report”
on anumber of aspects of University development, including faculty and student issues, teaching and learning,
research and technology transfer,
campush俗， and UST法 linkswith the community, the Chinese Mainland, and the world. A discussion of budget matters was to be"included, but had
to be omitted when time ran short after three hours.
President Woo roundly praised UST's faculty, saying he believed it
to be’,of the highest
quality" in Hong Kong
President Woo roundly praised and the region.
UST's facult弘 sayinghe believed it to be “of the highest quality’,in Hong
Korig and the region.
“
We are proud ·of the fact that you have chosen to come.’,Rea
l
Success f
or Al
Resea
r
che
r
Afl出 lessthan a year at UST, Dr Fangzhen Lin 叫叫
}
1onors to the Computer Science Department..
A paper by Dr Lin, written during the winter session, has been accepted for the 1997 International
]
oint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).While this is a significant achievement on its own-IJCAI is the most influential international conference on AI-his paper has also been selected as one of only three
“
distinguished papers" at the conference.Artificial intelligence attempts to simulate intelligent behavior in computers. It has many applications, including scheduling, robotics, intelligent agents and natural language processing.
One of the major approaches to AI suggests that to solve a problem you only need to specify the problem in a high-level · logical language-and the computer will work out the solution.
“For
instance, if we want a computer to play a game;’explained Dr Lin,“all we need to do is tell the computer the rules and it will figure out how to play the ·game well.’,In his paper, Dr Lin has devised a new logical control mechanism device which could improve this type of process.
Reviewers for IJCAI describe the work as very original and
relevant一“areal advance in this area of research".
Less than a quarter of papers submitted are selected. Dr Lin is very pleased.
“
Researchers around the world target IJCAI as the showcase for their latest results:'Prof Roland Ch 凶， Headof Computer Scienc巳 isdelighted.
“
IJCAI is the premier conference in Al. The fact that Dr Lin has received one of the top paper awards against the best researchers in the world shows the quality of junior 臼cultyatUST'A graduate of Fuzhou and Beijing universities, Dr Lin received
his PhD at Stanford Universit手 Hespent fou1: years at the University of Toronto as a research scientist bfore joining UST in August 1996. Dr Lin will present his paper during a special distinguished
papers session at the 15th IJCAI, to be held in Nagoya in August.
GENESIS, 7 May 1997
With regard to faculty retention,.President Woo sketched for new faculty members the development of USTγ‘rather American九ystem
of renewal and prorpotion.
“
We are stricter than Hong Kong's traditional practice:• he said, "which has been known to provide all with an iron rice bowl." However, the success rate for faculty advancement at UST is much higher than it is at most major American universities. He stressed t_hat every faculty member has an opportunity to eventually advance to the top at UST.In a discussion of the UGC這Teachingand Learning Quality Process Review, the President said he and the Senate are taking seriously the recommendation to improve our system for monitoring teaching quality (see In Brief).
In his comments on students and campus life, the President noted the existence of more than 80 student societies, and wondered
how many faculty members are involved with these societies. Greater faculty involvement in student life, he stated, would be one way to improve the teaching and learning process, as well as unify the campus community.
Continued enhancements to the campus could be expected over the next two years
’
he said, including the creation of an outdoor amphitheater below LGl, a seafront promenade below the athletic field, and an indoor pool for use throughout 出eyear.
Court Gets UST Update
Sunshine greeted 也eannual University Court meeting, which also marked the opening of the University Center on 11 April. Court members toured new facilities, including the Center, the cli釘side pa出 andpavilions.
Earlier, staff and student research presentations preceded
出efirst showing of a new video of teaching activities at UST. Here, Prof Woo shows Court member Sir Dav_id
A』cers-Jonesaround the University Center.
STUDENT FOCUS
UST Debaters Think and Talk Their Way to the Top-Again
Wellness
Camp T~aches Real-Life Lessons
Y
ou are in a boat in the middle of a lake with10 of your friends. One of you has to go in
the water. The decision is yours.
Candy Kwong (ACCT, 3) saw many of the games as lessons for life. "Often the rules weren't
clear, but the rules in real life _are rarely clear.
Working out the rules and deciding what to do are a daily task."
U
ST's English debaters have again. They are Hong Kong champi-done itons for the second year running.
In the final on 4 April, the newly formed
1996-97 team argued for the motion, "This
house believes that local universities fail to
address the needs of local society", beating Chinese University on home ground.
This gives the UST English Debate Team a 100% record-entered twice, won twice. The speaking team was made up of captain Khyati
Jhaveri (FINA, 2), Roger Lee (COMP, 1),
Madhu Motwani (BIOL, 2), and Kyle Farh (COMP, 1). Khyati won the best speaker award in the final, with Madhu picking up the indi-vidual award in the semi-final.
Khyati is quick to credit the rest of the 12
-person team. "It only takes four people to
de-liver the speeches;' she said, "but it takes the entire 'team to prepare, research and rehearse." "We did our homework, researching· the facts behind the questions;' said Khyati. "We also did well anticipating what our opponents' arguments would be."
Debating is more than an exercise in
Eng-lish public speaking. "When we prepare, we
have to look at both sides of an argument;'
explained Kyle, one reason why law schools are the traditional training ground for debaters around the world. This makes UST's
lawyer-less team all the more impressive.
. "We don't jul,t look for excellent English speakers to join the team;' said Khyati. "Re-searching, analysing, planning the arguments
and team work are just as important and that's where we've been successful." In fact, many of the team members had not debated before, but gained valuable experience debating and researching in the earlier rounds.
"Some of the universities emphasize deliv-ery;' Roger explained. "We concentrate more on the research, content and argument:'
Mike Co~rtney, senior instru~tor in the Language Centre and the team's coach, i~ proud to be associated with their success. "I coach them but they do the really difficult part on the
"Some of the Universities
emphasize
delivery.
We
concentrate
more
on the research,
content
and argument.If
day;' he said. "They also show other students that it is possible to develop winning commu-nication skills with motivation and effort. The many, many late-night preparation sessions
have paid off:'
The winning debaters-front, 1-r, Khyati Jhaveri, Kyle Farh, Madhu Motwani and Roger Lee -raise the cup with help from their fellow team members.
Researching the final motion saw the team ploughing through UGC reports and statistics to back up their arguments. "Before debating,
I'd never have followed up on these sorts of
issues;' said Roger. "As the topics are often close
to home, you learn ~ lot more about what's going
on around you:'
All the team needs now is a
sponsor-English debating is very poorly supported. After
last year's success, the UST team was invited to compete around the world, including the_ world championships in South Africa, but had to decline due to lack of financial support. "We'd love the chance to debate with, and learn from, the international teams:' said Khyati.
The team is always looking for new mem-bers. Those interested should contact Khyati
by e-mail at fn_jks.
This was just one of the challenges faced by
41 UST students at the Wellness Camp, a
week-end of psychological and physical activities or-ganized by the Student Affairs Office in April.
· "They had to give us five reasons for
pick-ing that person;' said student counsellor KwongMiu. "They are going to face tough decisions in their lives and this got them think-ing about the process."
Every aspect of the camp got the students thinking. They camped at Chong Hing Water Sport Centre for three days ,and worked in four
teams. Among the tasks, they had to organize a
variety show, carry their team across a field with only four planks, prepare din.ner and complete the waterborne challenge. "The students had a lot of fun, but they also learned about team-work-trust, sharing, problem solving, risk taking, when to lead and when to support-and in the process, a lot about themselves;' says KwongMiu.
David Wong (MATH, 3) is a member of the
UST athletics team. "I could finish first in the jogging, but I learned from the others that you also have to be mentally fit;' said David. "I don't know how to cook but even though our meal came last in the competition, we were happy to have prepared the best possible
meal we could:'.
KwongMiu organized the event with a col
-league from the physical education department
and thinks the camp is an important service. "The counselling service isn't just for when things go wrong;' she explained. "Most of our students don't need therapeutic care, but they can all benefit from this kind of event.
"We're not training them all to be leaders, but letting them explore their own leadership
potential and strengths, how to balance the leadership role." ~ Balancing team roles takes on a dynamic dimension.
Handball Club -
Hong Kong Champs
~
Q
-"'l
Questions?
~~~
Answers!
:::::,
"Even if you were very bright, you couldn't finish all the tasks without the
help of others;' said Kenneth Chiu (ACCT,
3). ''I'll remember that when I start
work-ing. Not all the games were fair but
instead of arguing about fairness, you
have to deal with it and get on."
4
T
he UST Handball Club organized and won the fourth Intercollegiate Handball Tourna-ment, held over six weeks in March.The men's team won their competition, lead-ing from the start of the final, where they beat HKU for the second time in the tournament. With the women's team coming in third, the combined points score gave UST the overall championship.
As well as practising with coaches Paul Yeung (SAO) and Li Ko Kei, a UST graduate, the club found time to organize the competition with
help from SAO. Five local tertiary institutions
participated. The Club is now preparing for a friendly match with'Kaohsiung in May and the 14th China Intercollegiate Handball Tourna-ment, to be held in Anhui in July.
~ The men's and women's teams celebrate success on home ground.
GENESIS, 7 May 1997
Q
Is it possible to set up a Web site for sport facilities booking ?This should be feasible, and would make the booking of
different courts much more convenient. It would also make it easier
to punish those people who do not use their booking appropriately; their access to the site could be blocked.
A
Luke Wong ( DSA): "A program has been written for booking sports facilities and student amenities through the UST network. The end product of an undergraduate project, the program is now at trial run stage. We hope the new system will be in operation later in the year."Q
I often see piles of new mail and newspapers sjtting outsidethe mail room. They appear to have been delivered after office
hours. If that is the case, treating late-delivered mail this way does
not seem to be very responsible. They could be taken away by anyone and get lost. Could the mail room open a "drop-in" hole for such pieces?
GENESIS, 7 May 1997
A
Alexis Nga'n, Campus Services Office: "We too have noticed the mail lying outside the mail room, and lately the situation has been getting worse:Delivery companies have been contacted and briefed on our officehours and proper procedures.
"Some irresponsible companies will leave mail without approach-ing us regardless of what time of day it is, especially if they can't find the recipient easily. In these cases we make every effort to deliver the mail on.
"A 'drop-in' hole would solve some problems, but create others-some mail handling agents already bulk deliver to our mail room rather than mailing to campus residents via the Post Office, leaving us to bear their costs. Any agent caught doing this is warned by UST staff.
"Newspapers are different. It is common practice to leave packs of newspapers outside premises and no loss has been reported thus far. We will continue to monitor the situation:'
E-mail your questions to genesis or fax them to 2358-0537.
..
垃﹒盞，IWJ直忌，．科大成員倡環保齊植樹
“／聶－二出校園，貢獻社會 l工司育先鋒，，自t宗旨。在過去兩年間’這個由 生物系同學組成的固體 3 已到本港數十家中學 進行推廣環保意識的活動。 科大環保日 在 4 月 12 日，生物系問學在該系助理教授 于常海博士及多位教師的協助下，在校園內舉 辦“科大環保日，’，邀請科大教職員和學生，以 及本港中小學生參加 3 藉此加深大家對保護環 境的關注。 “科大環保曰”的節目包括 環保資訊展 覽、講座、錄像帶欣賞、標本展覽、樹木觀賞 和參觀實驗室。此外，他們還在當天下午舉行 植樹活動。 當日節目在早上十時揭幕，同學們邀請到 香港政府環保署署長羅樂秉、漁農處署理助理 處長黎錢，傳、環境保護運動委員會主席王敏超 太平紳士、校長吳家瑋教授、副校長孔憲鐸教 授、理學院院長張立網教授、生物系系主任謝Campus
Calendar-Until 12MayThe T-Shirt Exhibition
Exposition Hall, Mon-Fri, 1-5 pm;
Sat & Sun, 10 am - 6pm
Until20.May Recent Works by Jerz}iLesko
University Library Gallery, Mon-Fri: 8 am
-11 pm, Sat: 9 am -7 pm, Sun: 1-9 pm
7May
Education of Love Series
Sex, Love and Censorship, by Edward Lam
Lecture Theater E, 7 pm
13May
East Meets West
Piano recital by Choi Sown Le
Exposition Hall, 1 pm
For details of other HK UST events,
remember to check the electronic
noticeboard and·WWW pages.
Home Affairs
• Paul CARLIER (CHEM) announces the birth
of Megan Elizabeth, on 10 March 1997.
• Kun Xu (MA TH) announces the birth of
Kevin Alex 恥， on28.March 1997 6 顯堂教授及生物系學生會會長丘 奕山主持開幕儀式。 環保署署長羅樂秉在開幕辭 中，除了讀賞科大同學積極參與 推廣環保意識的熱誠，還鼓勵同 學們說 “我們必須繼續努力， 把環保的訊息傳播開去，讓社會 大眾都警覺到保護環境的重要 性，而科大同學的身體力行正是 最好的榜樣。” 生物系問學將他們在課堂中學到的知識， 用來回饋社會3也聽得各界的支持。環境保護 運動委員會便是提供資助的環保組織之一，該 會主席王敏超太平紳士說．“大專同學們由於 較容易取得學術和研究的資源，因此，他們在 搜集資料、製作展示材料方面，會比中小學校 SOUVENIR （~雯，也 INFOR即IATION SHOP \ll!l酌， CENTRE
New Arrival
Summer
T-shi『tsfrom$
59
多款夏季 T－恤由 $59 起
We accept VISA and Mastercard. ... 晶晶
訪客服務中心現接受W崎用卡及萬事建卡。－ 圓圓噩噩噩－圓圓圈盟國團圓圓﹒ 做得更好。”他期望科大“綠色教育先鋒” 可以再接再厲，把工作目標伸展到社會大 眾，令全港市民都能參與環保的工作。 植樹活動 在當日下午 ，科大“綠色教育先鋒”帶 領百多位教職員、 同學和他們的家屬，到 西貢郊野企園舉行植樹活動。生物學系學 生會會長丘奕山說：“我們希望藉著這次 植樹活動 3 表達大家都願意為保護環境蠢 值一 與盡 參境 屬環 自家搶眠 的保 們為 的他立自心 和願 學都 同們 他 員達 驗表 教’。 仿局計蚓有 υυ 多活努 否捌分 a 、 司， 環保署著長羅樂秉鼓勵同學繼續努力，把 環保的訊息傳揭開去。 一分努力﹔此外，我們也希望這項活動可以吸 引更多人關注環境保護。” 科大生物系系主任謝顯堂教授也指出，這 次植樹活動雖然是由生物系的向學發起，但它 基本上是一次全校參與的環保活動 。他說． “我們希望這份全體參與的精神可以推展開 去，令社會大眾都為環保出一分力。” IIIIIIIIIIIIIED耳固EIDIIIIIIIIIIII
Managing Editor Paulette Flahavin· Editors Sally Greig Lisa Li
Bosco Wong
Des句n& Production Timothy Ngan
Photogrophy Henry Choi (COMP, 2) Genesis is published by the Office of Public Affairs and
P『intedby ETC on 『ecycledpaper.
© 1997 by The Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology. All 『ightsreserved.
The next issue of Genesis will be published on
21 May 1997.
Cont『ibutionsare welcome. Deadline for submission is
two weeks before publication date.
Send to e-mail address genesis.
－均l！·~~•J，•鞍E
