Four faculty members from four different departments were honored in the School of Engineering (SENG) Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2018-19. The award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate continuous excellence in undergraduate teaching, foster students’ interest in the subject, promote students’ learning, develop innovative and effective teaching methodologies, and more.

Prof. Desmond TSOI, Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Teaching Award. He has been the highest teaching evaluation scorer among faculty members of his department for seven successive semesters and was voted one of the Best Ten Lecturers by HKUST students in 2017. He has been very active in supervising final year projects and other student projects which is beyond his teaching duties, and some of the projects went on to win prestigious awards outside the University. He also contributed significantly to the newly introduced Operating Systems course.

Prof. Mansun CHAN, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Prof. Jack CHENG, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Prof. Richard LAKERVELD, Chemical and Biological Engineering, received Teaching Awards.

Prof. Mansun Chan made substantial contribution in incorporating new teaching pedagogies into the Microelectronic Devices and Technology course. These included developing a massive open online course (MOOC) version which was launched in May 2018 to over 6,000 students worldwide and implementing flipped classroom blended learning in Fall 2018.

He was devoted to bringing engineering to primary and secondary school students. In addition to initiating the IEEE Electronic Camp and IEEE Electronic Endeavor Match, he offered regular courses via different units of the university, including Center for the Development of the Gifted and Talented, Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers, and HKUST Summer Institute.

Prof. Jack Cheng has been teaching two important undergraduate core courses, and the one on Introduction to Construction Management has been constantly rated one of the best lectures in the department. In addition to supervising final year projects which have gone on to win various awards, he successfully applied for a teaching development project fund at the University’s Center for Education Innovation to improve the teaching of building information modelling in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. He has also actively taken up administrative duties for advancing undergraduate education and curriculum innovation.

Prof. Richard Lakerveld has been teaching two important undergraduate courses, titled Process & Product Design Principles and Pharmaceutical Engineering, which were both well received by students. He also made great contributions in developing a 5-credit new process and product design course.

He devoted his time to help HKUST’s American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Student Chapter to hold a beer-brewing workshop on campus, which was a big success and has become a tradition and a highlight of experiential learning element of the department. The HKUST AIChE Student Chapter subsequently received an Outstanding Student Chapter Award by AIChE.

Related link:

• About the SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award