HKUST Genesis = 同創, Volume 7, Number 8

‘

Virtual'

Window

Shopping

Comes to UST

Exciting news for

sh仰眼 in

the next four

to 似 week

s

the

UST Souvenir Shop will be going on-line.

’,Internet shopping is really the emerging trend in the retail field, and we wanted to be at the leading edge of that trend," says Shirley Tsang, Souvenir Shop

’,I th趴kfor staff and students it will still be more convenient for them to come to the shop and see the products for themselves.

But I think people who have worked here before, or people who have visited from over田的 forconferences, or alumni will use the Manager/Information Centre

Coordinator.可ythe time peo-pie really get used to shopping on the Internet, our program w山 alreadybe up, running and fine-tuned.’,

！

︱旦j

之

j刮到

主

！到全j旦J

三

i

system to buy souvenirs. I

’

m looking forward to those peo-pie coming back via the Internet, coming back virtu-ally.’,

To make this idea a (vir“ tual) reality, Shirley enlisted the help of Dr Kar Yan Tam, Deputy Head of the Depar恤1entof In”

formation and Systems Man-agement, and five final-year ISMT students who are work-ing on the project with research assistant Carson Tam.

When the system is com-plete and fully tested, World Wide Web surfers will be able to access the shopping page via

links from the UST Home Page. ’,Window shoppers’， w山 then be able to check out the mer-chandise on offe1~ search for a specific item or search for items available for a certain price.

S嗨 ， ~~$1泣ATION

i且主星星

Having the chance to work on a l叫 conunercialap plication has certai.r廿ypaid off for the students working on the project too.’,I thi.r法 the stu-dents have gained some very valuable experience from this project that will be in great de-mand from industr予’， saysDr Tam. Already tlu·ee of the five students have job offers from Anderson Co.nsulting-ISMT as a whole has five offers from the company.

’,The students ha, e f也﹒ ex­ ceeded my expectations, both as a team and individually; says Dr Tam.’,They have to be good, otherwise they wouldn't be holding job offers from Anderson Consulting.’, ’,Every major item of

mer-chandise will have its own page, featuring a graphic image and a detailed description. If

you decide you want that item, you can select it and it is added to your shopping list. Mean-while, you can carry on brows-ing and check exactly what

。ISM1,UKUST.呵，‘

會

弘…咖.tlon'!

i＠具

This is the first page that "window shoppers" will see when they access the

on-line shopping service.

items you have on your shopping list before you confirm yom or-de1/' explains Shirley.

’,Of course, we need to make it as convenient as possible, so we also have to post the goods to the customer. The progr訂nwill add up the total weight of the purchase, calculate the charges for postage, add a small service charge and tell the customer the grand total.’,

For the first six months, during a trial period, Shirley plans to Im吐tpurchases to local addresses o叫予 untilany glitches are ironed out. Once it is available globall予 Shirleyexpects more people to make use of the service.

The project team: back m叫 fromleft to right, Clara Pun, Shirley Mak, Candy Wong,

Dr Kar 冶nTam and Shirley Tsang. Front ro叫 ChanSan Kuen

{

'

technical support),

1.11已1"正﹜司正函主，，，nl

Visiting Bayer Team to Talk

Research and Play Ball

.A

team of 20

research 叫f

from the

German chemical giant Bayer AG and its

representative office in China will be visit-ing UST on 31 May and 1 June to learn

about its research, to meet staff and s仙－

dents and to challenge students to a friendly soccer game.

Bayer

’

s interest in UST stems from its

cooperative research work to develop an effective drug to

treat malaria. Chemistry

’

s Dr Richard Ha

}mes

is leading the UST group in this joint project, which began last August.

Dr Haynes hopes the visit

by Bayer will lead to more col-laborative efforts between UST and one of the world

’

s largest

chemical companies-Bayer

’

5 1995 revenue topped US$29

bil-lion.

pm. In the case of rain, the game will be moved to the S. H. Ho Sports Hall. All are welcome to cheer the teams on.

’，四1esoccer game is Bayer’s idea,'’Dr Haynes says.’,h building cooperative ties

with an institution in Brazil, Bayer

chal-lenged sh1dents there to a soccer game. The event proved to be extremely successful."

’,This is an

opportunity-building process. We hope that when Bayer thinks of where to

collaborate in Asia, they will

look at us first,'’ Dr Haynes

says.

A bird's eye view of Bayer's headquarters 的 Leverkusen,Germany: representatives from the chemical giant will brief students on career opportunities both at Leverkusen and in the Asia-Pacific region.

Leading the Bayer team is Prof Jorg

Stetter, th巴 dir巴ctorand head of Bayer' s

In

Br

i

ef

The Advanced Materials Research Insti-lute recently received a grant of $1

mil-lion from SAE, a major magnetic recording head manufacturer. The money is to support research in magnetic mate-rials, which includes the design and fab-rication of novel magnetic devices and the

simulation of their magnetic properties. Hong Kong-based SAE has 25% of the world

’

s market share in magnetic record-ing heads.

Sir S. Y. Chung, GBE, JP, Chairman of the University Council and Acting Chairman of the University Court, spoke on’, De-mocratization and the Senior Civil Serv-ants’,at a lunchtime lectme on 7 May. The

· lecture was presented by the Office of Public Affairs.

’,HKUST: The Undergraduate Experi-ence’,was the theme of a faculty fonun

held on 8 May. Presentations by faculty and a Students

’

Union representative were followed by a discussion on improv-ing the undergraduate experience. Engineers from around the world will visit the campus from 3-5 Jw1e for BME

’

96, the International Conference on Bio-medical Engineering. Student papers will be featured at the biennial conference for the first time.

bioactiv巴 compounds r巴searchd巴par恤1ent.

_.

Staff and students ar巴 i.nvit巴dto h巴arPr固O

Stetter pres巴ntanovervi巴Wof his company on Friday, 31 May at 9:30 am in Lecture Theatre

F.

India's

Top

Modern

Dancer

to

Perform

This will be followed by a series of short presentations by the other Bayer sci-entists on current research work. The

visi-tors have expertise in the areas of medicinal chemistry, immunology, virology,

phytotherap予 molecularpharmacology, enzymes and enzyme inhibitors, drug

for-m叫ationand packaging, quality assurance and reg叫ation, computational chemistr予

competitor intelligence systems and

busi-ness management a丘airs.

Students, in particulai~ 位·einvited to attend a special recrui恤1entand career

op-portunities 叫kat 10 am in Lechire

Thea-tre G. This will be given by Peggy Ho, the Human Resources Manager of Bayer

Cl世1a.Sh1dents from all disciplines 位·een­

couraged to attend.

OnSaturda予 lJun巴， HKUSTstudents will meet Bayer employees on the soccer field. The friendly match will begin at 2:30

2

A stad Deboo has

pioneered modern dance in his native India and performed in more th也1

40 countries.

On l句ednesday,22 May, Mr Deboo will per-form at the Exposition Hall at noon. He is pass-ing tlu-ough Hong Kong on his way to the Pr世lip”

pines, the first stop of a world tour. His campus

perform但.icewill be his

only one in Hong Kong.

Kabuki theater. The highlights of Mr Deboo

’

s long

and successful

per-forn:吐ngand teaching career have included invitations to per」

form at the John F.

Kennedy Center in

Washington DC, a commission by

Galludet University

to choreograph a

dance for deaf danc-ers, command per-The versatile chore”

ographer 位.1dperformer has created a unique

For one performance only: see Astad Deboo in formances for the

the Exposition Haff at noon on 22 May. royal families of J

a-style, combining the techniques of Indian

clas-sical dance, Martha Graham, Pina Bausch, the

Pilobolus Dance Company as well as Noh and

pan and Thailand

也1dmunerous invitations to perform, com-pete and teach at prestigious dance festivals arOlmd the world.

間益區耳再讀區illH.J立i且!.t:il

In

d

u

str

y

Sees Latest Computer

Science Research

〈

三om

put叫ci­

ence students and

faculty showed off

their latest research efforts to local in-dustry

representa-tives at their

Department

’

s

an-nual Indush·y Day,

held 3 May 1996.

Francis Hsiang, an information technology

of-ficer witl1 the Hospital Authority, fmmd Dr Drew

’

s

presentation of metadata to be particularly

eye-opening.

’,The meta data concept is quite si伊ificant.It’s

perhaps not new to the Universit予 butit

’

s new to

me and it makes me think that maybe we should

do things differently," Mi‘Hsiang says.

More than 30

local corporations

and institutions sent some 50 rep re-sentatives to the day-long event 位.1at

aims to spur

col-laboration between

For the third-year students demonstra也可

their final-year pr司ectsfor visitors, Industry Day

is a 山1iquechance to show potential employers

what they are capable of doing.

’,h the past, some compa11ies have made

of-fers to our students on the spot,’,Dr Pong says.

PG student Savio Lam says that demonstrating the World Wide Web Index and Search Engine

{

WISE) project

improves his presentation skills-a necessary tool in the job hunt.

industry and the Computer Science Deparhnent.

’,Collaboration with indush·y provides faculty and students

with real-world problems. We don

’

t do research in a vacuum," says

S

U

See

k

s St

ud

e

nt

s

' Vi

e

w

s

o

n

Po

liti

ca

l

Fu

t

u

r

e

Ac他1g Depar恤1entHead Roland Chin.

lnfac仁 oneof the faculty projects highlighted was Dr Pamela Drew

’

s collaboration with the Government Works Branch to

cre-ate metadatabases (information catalogues) about geographic

in-formation in the various Government deparhnents. This joint effort

grew out of initial meetings at an Industry Day several years ago.

I

na 的re叫Lill 呵anized

by the

Sh.咖1叭Jnion a吋 held

ov巴Itwo days in early May, 80% of the 212 voters said they would not support the provisional legislature pla1med for the Special Ad-minish·ative Region after the 1997 handover. AroLmd a third of voters (31 %) felt that President Woo should remain on the

Pre-paratory Committe巴， another31% were neuh·al and 38% wanted

’，Comp剖1iesinterested in certain research ideas but without the capability to do research themselves may wish to work with the U11iversity’，可aysDr Ting-Chuen Pong.

Oft凹， tlurd-year students work on indus仕yneeds for their

final-year projects. Dr Pong gives an example: ’ ,Motorola

spon-sored UG students to work on a real-time control stystem for their

IC testing equipment.’,

In addition to being a potential meeting place for future

re-search par切ers,Industry Day presents a learning opport山吐tyfor companies whose main source of information about technology is often limited to the marketplace.

him to step down. 45% of voters would prefer the present legislature to straddle the handover, and 40%w剖.1teda leg-islature to be elected by one-man, one-vote. The SU plans to pass on the results to the President.

As

k

the

Expert

Yo11 /zear n

[

io11t LCDs all the time these days，間1日tisa11 LCD and how does it work?

L iquid

αy叫

displays (LCD) are

very conunonplace

nowadays. They

are found in tel

ephones, toys,

ATM machines and

of co山sepalmtop

and notebook

com-puters. According to some statistics, 20% of the

LCDs produced in the world 但·emade by

com-P也吐eswith headquarters in Hong Kong. How does 也1LCD work?

An LCD 的 basedon the manipulation of light by liquid crystal molecules contained in a

GENES 時， 15May 1996

very thin glass cell about 0.007nun thick (or tl由1）.甘1eoptical properties of the LCD are deterrnined by the aligmnent of the liquid crystal molecules, which in turn is control-led by the voltage applied across the glass

plates. The aligmnent determines whether

light can go through the LCD or not, prod uc-ing’,black" and "white’,displays.

A very import仙1telement of an LCD is the tr位1sparentmetal coating on the glass plates that controls the voltage across the liq-uid crystal cell. 百1e coa仙1gsare etched into

various patterns to produce the desired

dis-play. The most common transp也·ent

conduc-tive material is indium tin oxide

.

Try looking

at an LCD at an oblique angle and you will see 出E 叮Opattern on 出eglass.

Ofcour哎， themost important element of the LCD is the liquid crystal itself. It is arr甘lk­

like chemical. At lllmdreds of dollars per gram, it is as expensive as gold. Fortunately, we do

not need much of it to make an LCD. A 10-inch

display contains only about 0.2 r吋. Interest-ingl予 alot of body cherrri叫shaveliq峭的IS­

talline properties. The most 札1ell-known

exan1ple is cholesterol. As a matter of fact, we are working on cholesteric LCDs at HJ支UST.

This week the q11estio11 is answered by Prof HS K1叩k, Pr，妒，·ssor 叫 theDepnrlme11t of Electricnl n11d Electro11ic £11

gin吋川您仰而 Directorof the Cent陀forDisplay R臼enrch

A

Da

y

in

the

L

if

e

of

A Journalist

I I I

Many jobs may

sound glamorous,

but

what

do they really

entail?

Janice

Lam, an HKUST graduate, gives us the inside story

on

her typical working

day.

Name: Janice Lam, Class of 1995

(Marketing) Age: 22

Occupation: Reporter for Easy Finder

Salary: $10,000-$15,000 a month.

Route to job: Read the recruitment notice in Easy Finder and applied.

T h i s is a "typical" working day. In fact, my job is so varied that

every day I have to follow a different schedule. In other words, I do not

have fixed working hours. Sometimes I have to get up early to do an

interview. At other times, working till late at night is the usual course of events.

The sweet time comes when I have finished my jobs for the day. Then I can leave the office and stroll around the street. The rationale for this is to give us the chance to keep in tune with society and to generate new ideas. When I am in the office, I also read

JANICE'S DAY

9:30 am 1 get up and take the minibus to work.

10:00 am First job of the day-check through the newspapers to see if there are any break-ing stories to follow up.

10:30 am Continue to write up yesterday's story

or contact someone to arrange an

inter-view for another day.

2:00 pm Set off to interview Mr Wong at his

apart-ment.

5:00 pm Get back to the office and my editor is

already yelling at me to write my story. I have to start writing.

7pm Finish the story and go home around

seven.

lots of newspapers and magazines to stimulate my thinking. So my job allows great flexibility and freedom, which at the same time requires

initiative and self-conh·ol.

For me as a reporte1~ the bad thing is that I can seldom plan my schedule in advance. Living an unpredictable life, I always miss the gathering times with my friends. Even on some Saturdays or Sundays, I have to spend time at work, without overtime pay. During festivals like Easter or New Year, while other people are setting off to have a nice holiday, I always celebrate with my job.

Another aspect of the job is its task-oriented and time-oriented na

-ture. Once the editorial board sets a deadline, I have to meet it without

any excuses. The magazine cannot go out with a blank page. So, learn-ing to cope with the unexpected is a great challenge of this job.

On the other hand, I deal with different sorts of people all the time,

which helps enhance my communication skills. The sense of

achieve-ment comes when my article is finally published. Imagine, there are

over 10,000 people reading your article. Bravo!

Other a/u11111i who would like to slwre their typical worki11g day are requested to contact Genesis at 2358-6308.

4

Pathfinders Helps Students Plan Career

.<=::;ompetitionf01'. top graduate to have your sample job application reviewed by personnel

ex-JObs m Hong Kong is hotter than ecutives from major companies. Participants can visit StarTV, ·

ever be~o~·e. Many employers are KPMG Peat Marwick, Citibank and the Hong Kong Productivity

advertts~ng vacancies ~n the Council to meet former graduates and talk to them informally

World Wide Web, attractmg an about their career development. And at the Debut of 1997

Gradu-even bigger turnout. And with a ates high tea, students can quiz representatives from major

em-slow overseas employment mar- ployers.

ket, the number of graduate returnees, looking for work in Hong Kong after studying

over-seas, is also on the increase.

In the face of this

competi-Brian Cheng, student counsellor, addresses participants at last year's

Pathfinders High Table Dinner.

tion, what can

you

do to improve your chances of getting

that

job?

One step in the right direction is to join this year's Pathfinders Job Search Orientation program.

"With the information teclmology revolution, the barriers to

in-formation on vacancies are falling away. Students need to be even

better prepared and better informed to be successful," says Brian Cheng, Student Counselor in the Student Affairs Office, and one of the organizers of this year's pathfinders program.

"Over the three days of the program we want to equip students for every phase of a job search-from writing covering letters and resumes, to interview skills and group discussions," says Mr Cheng. The program, now in its fourth year, is becoming increasingly

popular. This year a majority of the 150 places were filled within two

weeks of the first announcement being made, mainly tlu-ough word-of-mouth recommendations from last year's satisfied customers.

"But we are still open for students to sign up," says Mr Cheng.

There will be workshops on job search activities, including a chance

There are plenty of opportunities tor students to chat informally with employers.

The theme of this year's program is career development in China, and it will be high-lighted with a keynote speech by Dr Glendon Rowell, former president of the American Chamber of Commerce and cur-rently a managing partner of the top executive head-hunting firm Boyden International Ltd.

"This year we are h·ying to get the message across to stu-dents that from a long-term perspective they shouldn't just be thinking about how they can develop their career in Hong Kong, but rather how

they can do it in China

and

Hong Kong," says Mr Cheng.

Pathfi11ders Job Search Orie11tatio111996

Date: 6-8 J1111e

Ve1111e: HKUST campus

Fee: $85

Interested students should register at the Careers Centre or Infor-mation Centre. For enquiries, please contact Richard Lee at ext. 6116 or

e-mail to

sariclee.

Softball Tournament Scores Home Run

.,,.,,

I

t's an attrac-tive game-the mti-form, the action, the batting position, the

glove-and most

people say it's an in-teresting and excit-ing game."

The speaker is of course talking about softball, a game that is played on every spare piece of grass in the US, but which has only recently taken off in Hong Kong.

"Om mission is to make softball a very popular activity in UST," adds Dionne Lam Ka Man, internal vice president of the Softball Club. And with this in mind, the club recently organized a University-wide softball tomna-ment to spread the word to their fellow stu-dents and staff about just how much fun softball can be.

day of the "knockout" competition. By the end of the day, only eight of the original 16 teams were left to go through to the next rotmd. The mixed teams representing deparhnents and schools included fac

-undergraduates, male and female.

Even though

some people had

never played softball before, the regular UST team members were impressed. "The quality of playing is not so bad, they played quite well," says Diorn1e.

It might help that the rules of the game are qttite easy to tmderstand. "Perhaps after only one or two games you can get the basic idea," says Carol Mang Ka Wai, chairperson of tl1e Softball Club. All teams had the chance to attend coadting sessions run by the club before tl1e event, and to consult their simplified rule-book.

In fact the event proved so populai~ with lots of players asking when tl1ere would be more prac-tice sessions and tournaments, that the softball club is plaiming to repeat the event in the fall semester. "We were very pleased with the response," says Carrie So Kar Yee, publications secretary. "And we saw some prom-ising players to recruit for om teams too!"

The Softball Club would like to extend their thanks to EMO and SAO for making the tournament possible by postponing maintenance work to the softball lawn.

Over 100 people turned up on tl1e first ul ty, postgraduates and It takes some skill and a lot of concentration to hitthe ball.

GENESIS, I 5 May I 996 GENESIS, I 5 May 1996

Q

Having taught and attended meetings in various

classrooms on campus, I have noticed that many are

ex-tremely crowded. I have even seen chairs and tables placed behind large pillars or within inches of the front whiteboard. This is uncomfortable when classes are full (as one of mine

is). Some of my students go to the room an hour early just to get a decent seat.

What I am more concerned with, however, is safety. Administering an exam recently, I watched students in the front try to leave to go to the rest room. They had to go to the back of the room, squeeze around some desks and a pillar and then walk to the front again. There was at least one table and two chairs not being used. Had they been occupied, they would have blocked the only exit, making an emergency exit dangerous.

The University seems to be simultaneously trying to get by with fewer larger classrooms and trying to store

ex-cess furniture in the rooms themselves. I know that space is at a premium, but is this really the best way to econo-mize?

A

Robert Brashear (DARR): "If you spot a situation that

you believe to be unsafe, by all means report it to ARR or EMO

immediately. Unsafe situations have not been knowingly

cre-ated, but people do move furniture around, even from room to room, without the knowledge of either ARR or EMO. Often, after the need that caused them to move or rearrange the furni-ture has passed, they fail to return rooms to their original state.

"Having said that, now let me address the bigger issue and

the longer term plans to address the crowding problem.

Ap-parently, in response to a perceived shortage of classroom space, some years ago EMO was asked to maximize the capacity of

our classrooms. They then ordered and installed additional

fur-niture.

"My assessment of the problem today is that any general shortage of classroom space is really a function of less than ef-ficient use of our space. The current classroom scheduling ap-proach began its evolution during those years when a relatively small number of students were rattling around in a huge build-ing. In those days, efficient use of space was not an issue.

"The situation today, with an enrollment of 6,228 students, is now very different. As a result, ARR is now working with the schools, departments and the office of the VP-AA to de-velop and implement a classroom scheduling scheme that will permit better use of the classroom space available to us.

"Also, ARR and EMO soon will be surveying instructors to identify classrooms where problems exist. In some cases these problems may be corrected by making adjustments to the rooms

(e.g. moving whiteboard or screens, correcting lighting

prob-lems, etc.). In other cases, it may be necessary for us to adjust the official capacity of some rooms.

"You can see, though, that these two processes are linked. A significant in1provement in our classroom utilization rate is necessary before we can reduce the listed capacities of any, but the most egregiously crowded, of our classrooms. Reaching a

significantly greater efficiency in our use of classroom space

will require compromise by all, but a reduction in the over-crowding of classrooms is a worthy goal."

E-111nil your questions to genesis orfn.r t'1e111 to 2358-0537.

HKUST

Calendar

的May, 12:45-2 pm

Vertex, House II Students’Association Inauguration

。fJoint House

Ah·ium

19 April to 17 May, 1 5 pm (Tue-Fri)

Soy Sauce, Lipstick, Charcoal Recent Works of Zhang Hongtu

Exposition Hall

18May,2 3 pm

Computer Music Concert;Wind and Ghosts

Exposition Hall

22 May, noon

Contemporary Dance Performance by Astad Deboo

Exposition Hall

31 May

’

9 am -12:30 pm

Bayer Company Introduction

Lecture Theatre F

31M旬，1日叩1

Bayer Company Ca『eerOpportunities Talk

Lecture TI1eatre G

1 June, 2:3 pm

HKUST Students vs Bayer Soccer Match

Soccer Field

3-5]w1e

BME '96 International Conference on Biomedical

Engineering

For more info , contact

Prof Peter Cheung (ELEC) at x-8526

真理愈辯愈明

主丘

二

百名科大

師生出席了上月

二

十二

日

（星期一）由學生會主辦的論壇，就近期香港 特別行政區籌備委員會在港諮詢所引起的一連 串討論，與吳家瑋教授展開廣泛的交流。 論壇主席5薩達智同學表示 ，學生會舉辦是 ljz論壇，是本著“真理愈辯愈明” 的原則，希 望同學踴躍發表意見，透過互相討論，深入了 解問題。 6 論壇開了兩個小時，台下就臨時立法會、籌

Home Affairs

+TAM Sin Leung (EMO) announces the

birth of TAM Lok Sie on 17 February

1996.

+ YAU Hoi Shan (EMO) announces the

birth of YAU Cheuk Sang on 29 April 1996.

Announcement

+ Salaries will be paid on Wednesd旬，29

May 1996. 月薪將於五月二十九日發放。 ．四運讀書圖

從市場到時聽

市場學系學生會

主弓設計

師、

鴨展、

市場學及科大學生這些東西 之間好像扯不上任何關係， 但在一九九六年四月十八 日，這一切都撞擊在一起 了。就在這天，市場學系學 生會舉辦了著名設計師譚燕 玉的時裝展一－PortraitIn Motion。 耍籌辦一個真正的時裝 展，對於我們這群一年級生 來說實在殊不簡單。從舞台 設計、搧跡、燈光、音響、 以至模特見天橋表演丑化裝等，我們都所知不 多 ，所以當決定籌辦時，首要任務便是搜集資 料，再運用手頸上零碎的資料，多方嘗試，銳 意求新。當中最困難的要算是怎樣籌辦一個與 日I）不同 2別開生面的時裝展。既要創新 3 又要 顧全設計師的意念。怎樣才可以更突出 ，更創 委的代表性及西方民主制度等問題踴躍提悶。 是 ljz論壇為校長與科大師生溝通的渠道之 一。類似活動今後還將繼綴舉行，好讓同學更 多地反映意見。

「

一一一

面

一一

品 J

憑此券每次

購

物滿

－ s 元

以上，

可作十元使用。

l

$10

off 州 pur伽se

i

。ver

$100.

(Valid until 31/5/96.)

L

一一一

~

一一一一一

」

新呢？正在惆悵當兒 3 同lj 好駐校藝術家張宏圖先生 設計了一個舞台背景 ，我 們便由這個人頭像設計意 念開始，配合譚燕玉的時 裝設計和張先生的展品 ， 塑造了PortraitIn Motion 裡“似毛非毛” 的概念。 另一個最大的困難便 是模特兒的挑選。由於譚 燕玉的時裝設計是給一些 身形高悅的女士穿著的 3 所以我們的目標是在各大 專院校找一些高仇而又肯接受挑戰的女同學來 參與。幸好我們終能找到合適的人退。 雖然在籌辦這個時裝展的過程中，過上很 多困難，但是我們認為，籌辦這樣的一個大型 活動，是一次難能可貴的機會和經驗。這也是 一次難得的機會讓同學接觸時裝，欣賞藝術。 論還舉行的會場坐滿 同學及教職員。 －量Hllll[畫~ Managing Eddor Paulette Flahavin

Ed/tors Jacky Tsang Maggie Verrall

Bosco Wong Ling Zhou

Design&P,『oduction

Hester Chau, Catherine Tse

月＇O/ographyLeo Chan (IE帥，Year11)

Genesis is published by the Office of Public Affairs

and printed by ETC.

。1996by The Hong Kong Unive的ityof

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The next issue of Genesis will appear on

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濁水變清流

科大學者參與治理城門河

位主在沙、回城門1可附近的居民，最近的看過這樣一個景象在

i歷源橋與沙燕橋之間的河面上，停著一條小船，船上有三、四個人不停 地將長長的竿子往河裡插，他們既不像是在釣魚 ，也不似在打撈。他們 是誰？在忙什麼？ 也導致河水上下混合。陳光浩博士解釋說．“？可道受到有機性污染而嚴 重缺氧，是河水里灰綠色和發臭的主要原因之一。因此，針對河水缺氧 的情況2 我們往河中輸入空氣 3 這樣做一則可以增加河水中、尤其是河 道底郁的含氧量i二則通過一個上下循環的作用 ，把河底郁的一些乏氧 物質帶到河表面含氧量較高的地方來 3 從而提高河水自行潔淨的能力， 也就是說，讓河水復活。” 他們是科大土木及結構工程系助理教授陳光浩博士和幾位研究助 手，正在採集河水和何道底部淤泥的樣品，帶回實驗室進行分析，以研 究改善城門河水質的新方法。這支工程小組由陳光浩博士主持，成員包 括環保專家黃汝常教授和勞敏慈博士 ，以及水利專家顏本琦教授。 城門河是本港受污染較嚴重的河流之一，它的水質和臭氣問題更備 受關注。雖然城門河畔有小道胸徑， 工程小組巳選定瀝源橋與沙燕橋之間的河段為初選河段，因為草地 區的污染較嚴重 2 政府收到有闊的臭味投訴也較多。他們目前的工作包 括調查河流的水位變動情祝、河床形！lk 、和水質狀況以丑測量河水不同 深度的缺氧程度，以制訂出最佳的治理方案。 綠樹成蔭，是游人消閑的好去處，但 漂浮在河面上的垃圾、灰綠而不清澈 的河水、和陣陣襲人的臭氣， 卻與此 恰人的景色極不協調 ，大煞風景。 科大的工程小組最近得到沙田區 議會的資助 3研究採用 “湖泊曝氣 法”來改善城門河水質的可能性及其 經濟效益， 此研究第一階段的工作已 於今年二月中旬展開。 “湖泊曝氣法”是一種高效益的 加氧方法，與普通廢水處理之曝氣方 法截然不同。它是在河道底部設置曝 氣裝置，輸入空氣，讓細小的氣泡緩 慢地從河底釋放出來，除充氧之外 3

︱

單單聽說，話

...

但司我在校園不少課室接過諜，閃過會， 發現課室非常擁擠。我甚至見過這樣的情 景：桌椅放在大柱子後面，或距離課室前的 自板只有數吋之遙。課室過擠，顯然是很不 舒服的，我授課的課室正是如此。我的學生 有的在開課前一個小時便到課室，只為佔上 一個好位子。 但我更為關心的是安全的問題。 最近，我在監考的時候，看到第一排同 學離開試場到洗手間，卻要走到課室的後 面，從多張桌子和一條柱子中間擠過，然後 再繞回封面去。至少有一張桌子及兩張椅子 是無人佔用的。如果有人坐在那裡，該張桌 子就會擋住唯一的緊急出口，構成危險。 大學似乎一方面想以較小的課室來解決 問題，一方面卻又用這些課室來儲存多出來 的傢具。我知道科大寸金尺土，但這是否達 致經濟效益的最佳辦法？ 同創 一九九六年五月十五日 科大的工程小組在城門河中採集樣品 罕至F 入學及註冊處處長白士柏覆． 覺待某些地方不安全，講馬上向入學註冊處或 校產管理處報告。雖然人們不是故意製造危 險 3 但謀室的傢具倒是經常是皮人移動 ，有時甚 至從一個房間搬到另一個房間 ，入學註冊處及 校產管理處對此均毫不知情。很多時候，移動 或重新安放傢具後，目的既已達到 ，他們也就 不會把房間回復原狀。 至於長遠解決課室擁擠這個較大的問題， 顯然，校產管理處在數年前為回應可預見課室 地方短缺的問題，便著手研究增加課室的容 量，並購置了額外的傢具。 我認為，現時的問題並不是課室不夠3而 是還未能有效地運用現有的空間。現！待課室煽 排的方法早於多年前確立，那時，學生數目相 對較；J、 2 學校的地方就顯得很大了。當時， 有 效運用地方並不是一個問題。 今天，隨著科大的學生人數增至六千二百 一般來說，河水的治理方法有好幾種 3 例 如拉底泥、覆蓋沙子以及化學處理法等，為！可 科大工程小姐要選用“湖泊曝氣法”來治理城 門河呢？陳光浩博士指出，城門？可屬於i事Ir:夕河 流，7](位不斷地漲落，在處理方法上會比較複 雜。曝氣法既適用於一般河流，也適用於潮汐 河﹔由於它消耗的只是電力和空氣，因而具有 工程簡單、費用低廉、和見效快等優點。 河流污染的問題，不僅僅是城門河，也不 局限於香港 3 在中國大陸以及東南亞許多國家 都是一個十分普遍、並迫切需要解決的問題。 陳光浩博士相信，此法如果成功，不但可以用 於治理香港的河流，更能幫助許多東南亞國家 解決其河流污染問題。 二十八人 2 情 i兄比起當年已大大不同 。因 此，入學及註冊處正與副校長辦公室（學 術）、各學院及學系研究並制定一套行之有 效的課室煽排計剖， 以便更有效地運用現有 的諜室空間。 此外 ，入學及註冊處和校產管理處即將 向老師發問卷，找出有問題謀室的新在。在 某些情況下，作出一些變動就可以解決問 題，1日移動自板或屏幕 ，糾正燈光問題等﹔ 但在別的情祝下，可能需要調整某些課室容 納的學生人斂。 從上可見，這兩個解決過程是互相聯縈 的。要減少極其擁擠的課室可容納學生的數 目 ，就得先在提高課室使用率上 ，取待一定 的成績﹔所有人均需為大大提高使用諜室空 間的效率而作出妥協，但話~室的擁擠情況得 以改善，卻又是一個很有意思的目標。＂ （請將問題傳真至23580537或電子郵遞genesis。） 7

訪客服務中心網土相見

齊心合力 (1長排右起） 譚嘉因博士﹒示範助教陳新權、陳英幹、 李志卉‘黃佩文、麥淑儀‘活綺芬同學及曾太。

主專過凹到六個星期

，

想買科大紀念品

，

可以足不出

戶 ，可以不限時間，可以不付現金 3 只要你擁有一台駁通 環球通訊網絡的電腦。 科大訪客服務中心經理曾陸惠貞說，“網上購物是零 售業的新興事見，我們也要走在潮流的尖端。” 資訊與系統管理學系副系主任譚嘉因博士、助研譚嘉 訊且該系五名三年級同學，正協助曾太把上述構思化為現 實。是項計剖也是該五名同學的畢業作業。 一俟系統的測試工作完成 ，任何寰宇網絡庫的瀏覽 者，均可透過科大主頁的聯緊接過購物網頁 。一進入系 統，瀏覽者便可鱗賀電腦櫥窗陳列的貨品 ，搜索想買的貨 品或在預定價錢下尋找可買的東西。 曾太解釋說，每一類貨品都會有自己的網頁 2 並有圖 解。如果你已決定買某一件貨品，你可以把它選上， tm在 你的購物清單上。與此同時3 你可繼續瀏覽，並在確定訂 單前再檢視你先前已買下的東西。 “當然，在網上麟物，越方便越好，既以我們需要郵 寄貨晶給顧客。在結帳時，電腦會計算所將貨品的價錢， 郵費及像徵式的服務費 ，然後算出絡服來。” 訪客服務中心上網後 ，曾太會以首半年為試驗期，購 物僅限於本地 3 直至J!Jl順所有可能出現的小問題為止。一 且可以提供全球性的服務 2曾太預計會有更多人在網上購 買科大的紀念品。 曾太說 “對在校園的教職員及同學來說，親到訪客

8

服務中心挑選貨品始終較為方便， 但曾在這＇f!Jl工作過的人3曾到科大 參加1會議的海外人士或校友 z則可用這個系統來購買紀念品。我期望 他們會透過環球通訊網絡重返科大。” 對參與計劃的同學來說，有機會在實際的商業環境中實踐昕學3 確是非常值誨的。譚博士說 “同學昕取緝的寶貴經驗》在行內的需 求很大。” 五名同學中 ，已有三人種安建信諮詢（Anderson Consult-ing） 公司聘請。資訊與系統管理學系一共有五名同學獲該公司錄用。 譚博士又說﹒ “同學不論個人及國隊的表現均遠超我的期望 。他 們實在棒極了，不然的話 ，安達信諮詢公司不會在他們還未畢業便先 行聘請他們。”

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