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No. 25 4 October 2004
 

 

Allocation from the Restructuring and Collaboration Fund
The UGC has approved an allocation from the Restructuring and Collaboration Fund to support CityU's initiative in two areas. HK$10 million is allocated to the University as supplementary funding assistance for meeting part of the cost of ex-gratia payments to affected College staff under the 2004 Departure Scheme. Another HK$5 million is allocated for the establishment of a joint Enterprise Resource Planning Development Centre, in collaboration with Lingnan University and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The funding will finance the Centre in the following major aspects: developing Chinese Language localization to meet local tertiary institutions' needs; developing enterprise resource planning enhancement; common testing and development.

 

Plans for the Creative Media Centre
The University will announce plans for the Creative Media Centre later this week. To be built on Cornwall Street, Kowloon Tong, the Centre will be a focal point for the development of creative media industry in the region, and in Hong Kong. The Centre consists of two parts: the Academic Facility and the Public Outreach Facility. The Academic Facility will provide educational facilities for the School of Creative Media and other related departments; the Public Outreach Facility will be the interface between the University and the outside world, providing space for exhibitions and other events. A HK$550 million capital cost for the Academic Facility was approved by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in 2001. The University is seeking a further HK$200 million private sponsorship to fund the Public Outreach Facility.

 

Distinguished Lecture Series
CityU has invited three distinguished persons to deliver lectures in October and November for the University's Distinguished Lecture Series: Professor Xu Jialu, Vice-chairman of the 10th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Director of the College of Chinese Language and Culture of Beijing Normal University; Mr Justice Xiao Yang, Chief Justice and the President of the Supreme People's Court; and Mr Orhan Pamuk, a renowned Turkish writer whose landmark novels include Yeni Hayat and Kara Kitap. Kicking off the series is Professor Xu, who will deliver a lecture on Zen and the meeting of Chinese and Indian cultures, 18 October, at the Wei Hing Theatre. Mr Xiao, who will be conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws in the 19th Congregation, will deliver his lecture on 12 November. Mr Pamuk will conclude the series on 25 November.

 

CityU researchers participate in 973 project
Dr Li Qing and Dr Jia Weijia, Associate Professors of the Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, and Dr Liu Wenyin, Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science, are participating in the "China Semantic Grid" project, a 973 project funded by the National Basic Research Programme, under the administration of China's Ministry of Science and Technology. The "China Semantic Grid" is a five-year project with a total funding of over RMB 20 million yuan, led by Professor Zhuge Hai of the Institue of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The CityU researchers join this project as key investigators, along with investigators from other eight leading mainland universities.

Meanwhile, the three CityU researchers will engage in a "Web Services" sub-project of the "China Semantic Grid" project. "Web Services" will be a joint collaboration with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). A seed capital of RMB 0.9 million has been approved for the setting up of a Centre of Excellence on Web Services, to be based in the USTC-CityU's Advanced Research Institute in Suzhou.

 

CityU delegation to Zhongshan
Professor H K Chang, the President, and Professor David Tong, Deputy President, led an 11-member CityU delegation to visit Zhongshan University on 23 September. Both universities expressed interest to collaborate in: co-supervision of postgraduate students, administrative training for staff at CityU, and summer programmes for CityU students.

 

Presidential speeches
Professor H K Chang delivered a key note speech entitled "Ideal Biomedical Engineers in the 21st Century" at the 2nd World Congress for Chinese Biomedical Engineering, held in Beijing, 27 September. He also presented his lecture "From Movable Type to World Wide Web" at the Beijing Jiaotong University on the same day.

 

Signing ceremony
CityU's Co-operative Education Centre will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Nanyang Technological University's Office of Professional Attachments, on 18 October. The objective of the Memorandum is to establish collaboration between the two universities on mutual support to obtain placements for industrial attachment.

 

Kudos
Ms Irene Cheng, Executive Officer I of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Studies, has been awarded a fellowship from the Ford Foundation to conduct research in San Francisco on the historical architectural context of Chinese immigrants from Kaiping in Guangdong province.

 

CityU students win AIA award
Five students have been awarded The Best Presentation Award in the AIA Young Leaders Development Programme. The students are: Lau Yuk-nam, a Management Science major; Lee Ka-man, a Linguistics and Language Technology major; Tsang Chi-wai, an Information Engineering major; Yeung Pui-wai, an Information Systems major and Yung Wing-cheung, a Surveying major.

 

20th Anniversary updates
Professor H K Chang, the President, will be the Chief Honorary Coach of the Proud of 20 Team. To meet the target of HK$200,000 for charity, the Organizing Committee has also invited Deans of Faculties/Schools to be Honorary Donation Leaders, to encourage staff and students' support.

 

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