News & Stories

It's not common that respected academics reveal their personal struggles, especially to their colleagues, students and even strangers. Prof. Paul FORSTER from the Department of Management and Division of Environment and Sustainability, who has recently been awarded IPO (Interdisciplinary Programs Office) Teaching Excellence Award for the postgraduate category, has decided to disclose his decades-long battle with depression, in the hope of breaking the mental health stigma and encouraging people to seek help for mental health problems.

Students attending the classes of Prof. Julian GROVES of the Division of Social Science understand that switching off and putting away their electronic devices is mandatory—even the use of laptops or tablets for note-taking are discouraged—because Prof. Groves reckons that while the internet can be an important resource for educators, “mobile devices can be a terrible distraction to classroom learning”. The students might not like it at first, but they rarely complain about it because they are offered “something equally compelling in return” which involves many interactive activities such as surveys, quizzes, simulations, and discussions to keep them engaged.

School of Business and Management, School of Engineering, and School of Science of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) are jointly offering the inaugural university-wide Master of Science in Financial Technology (MSc Fintech) Program in Hong Kong. The MSc Fintech program at HKUST is a one-year full-time or two-year part-time program that aims to bridge the talent gap in the Fintech industry. The Program leverages the diverse expertise of professors in the three schools to provide students with the fundamental knowledge and skills related to popular financial technologies and their engineering and financial principles. Students will enhance their market competitiveness in the multi-disciplinary and booming Fintech space. The first cohort welcomes 60 professionals with backgrounds mainly in finance and technology.

In today’s workplace where many employers favor technical know-how over emotional aptitude, soft skills seem to be less desirable but for Professor Kellee TSAI, Dean of HKUST’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), creativity is deemed to be an essential skill for the future of work. The world is moving toward automation at speed, today’s cutting edge technology and patents may become obsolete within years, while skills like critical thinking and creativity on the other hand, do not. At a time when AI and other forms of advanced machine learning are gaining prominence, it would be unwise for humans to only focus on mastering abilities that can be easily outsourced to computers, warns Prof. Tsai.

Prof. Philip K. T. MOK, the newly-inaugurated Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies), is a student-centered educator who likens teaching to raising children.

Dr. Jason CHAN Kwan-Kit, Lecturer at the Department of Chemistry of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), received the University Grants Committee (UGC) Teaching Award 2018 under the category of Early Career Faculty Members today, in recognition of his outstanding teaching performance and achievements. HKUST President Prof. Wei SHYY congratulated Dr. Chan on winning the award, “HKUST is committed to fostering innovation, open-mindedness, and a can-do spirit.  We strive to nurture a diverse and conducive culture to allow all our members to reach their full potential and achieve their aspirations, so that they can contribute to the society by conquering challenges that matter.  I am very proud of Dr. Chan, whose innovation and dedication to teaching excellence earned him not only the recognition from his students and peers, but also this great honor at such a young age.  I congratulate him sincerely for his outstanding accomplishments.”

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) today signed a framework agreement with the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen to plan the establishment of the SUSTech-HKUST Joint School of Microelectronics (Joint School). Riding on the complementary research strengths of both universities, the proposed Joint School is set to become a multilateral collaborative platform for industry, academia and research at the national level, facilitating both nurturing of market-desired high-caliber talents and innovative research in key strategic areas including integrated circuit (IC), system-on-chip design for communications, artificial intelligence and robotics, as well as next generation microelectronics device technology such as wide bandgap semiconductors.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Minerva Project (Minerva) announced today a partnership to establish the HKUST-Minerva Scholars Program – a first-of-its-kind collaboration designed to enrich HKUST students’ learning experiences through innovative curriculum, pedagogy and technology while allowing Minerva students to engage in learning and research at HKUST.