News & Stories

Hong Kong (February 4, 2008) — A delegation from Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology met with senior administrator and researcher from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) here today as well as to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will establish a long-term research collaboration between the two institutions. His Excellency Ali I. Naimi, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Petroleum and Minerals and Chairman of KAUST's Board of Trustees, led the KAUST delegation, which included Prof Choon Fong Shih, the Founding President-designate of KAUST and currently the President of National University of Singapore (NUS), as well as Mr Nadhmi Al-Nasr, KAUST's Interim President.

Dr Minoru Etoh, Deputy Managing Director of NTT DoCoMo Research Laboratories and Vice President of NTT DoCoMo, a leading mobile communications company in the world, delivered a distinguished lecture today (Friday) on "Insights into Mobile Applications beyond 3G" at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). This was the first lecture given by Dr Etoh at a Hong Kong university. In his lecture, Dr Etoh shared with the audience the current progress of mobile multimedia applications in Japan's broadband cellular environment. He explored the potential expansion of wireless broadband to "fixed-line" internet applications, in addition to the capacity of music download and video clip delivery. Dr Etoh also identified how mobile specific aspects such as mobile multimedia area, mobile advertisement and e-commerce have enriched our daily life and gave his insights into the future development of mobile internet.

A HKUST research team comprising Dr Liu Yun-hao and doctorate student Li Mo has developed the world’s pioneering wireless sensor network surveillance system to promote coal mine safety. The system development has won for this research team the Grand Prize of the Hong Kong ICT Awards’ Best Innovation and Research Grand Award 2007. The team has introduced some highly innovative features into the system, allowing it to detect and alert irregularities in the coal mine including gas leakage, water seepage and oxygen enriched spots. For the first time, the system provides data about the environment in the coal mines in case of emergency, facilitating rescue work and allowing more informed decisions on mapping out escape routes.

https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/press-releases/2008/01/hkust-mba-ranks-17-world-financial-times-ranking

https://bm.hkust.edu.hk/press-releases/2008/01/100th-exchange-agreement-hkust-undergraduate-business-studentssigned

HKUST is hosting Hong Kong’s first Frontiers of Science Symposium jointly sponsored by the Royal Society of Britain and the Croucher Foundation, covering key research areas such as stem cell research and infectious diseases.The conference organizers invited 70 of the best and brightest young scientists from the UK and from local universities for three days (16-18 January) of scientific dialogue and discussions.The Frontiers of Science is an important platform for bilateral sharing of major scientific ideas and techniques between countries, cities or regions. The US and the UK have each organized a series of such bilateral conferences with other countries or regions in recent years.

Two research teams involving HKUST faculty members have won the State Natural Science Award (SNSA), China’s highest honor for achievements in natural science. At the award presentation ceremony today (Tuesday) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the team leaders received their prizes from Chinese leaders Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, Li Changchun, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. Both teams won the Second Class Prize of the SNSA award. The first award winning team with participation from HKUST’s faculty members was led by Prof Zhang Tongyi, HKUST’s Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Prof Zhang’s team won the prize for their research into the fracture of “Piezoelectric Materials”, which are smart materials that can convert electric energy into mechanical energy. The other team members are Professor Cunfa Gao and Prof Minghao Zhao from the Mainland and Prof Pin Tong, a Professor Emeritus from HKUST.

The Centre for Chinese Medicine R&D (CCM) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has recently developed an advanced technology to extract effective liposoluble ingredients from traditional Chinese herbal recipe “Xiasangju”(夏桑菊) which has been proved effective in preventing flu virus and avian flu virus from entering body cells. HKUST today (Friday) signed a collaborative agreement with Guangzhou Xing Qun Pharmaceutical Company Limited (XQP), a subordinated enterprise of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (GPC) which is one of the top pharmaceutical giants in Mainland China. The agreement, which formalizes the sale of HKUST’s patented technology to XQP, will foster scientific research collaboration between Guangdong and Hong Kong in combating avian flu and common flu by using Chinese medicine.