Five faculty members were honored in the School of Engineering (SENG) Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2022-23. 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. Among the awardees this year, two were selected for the Distinguished Teaching Award.

Recipients of Distinguished Teaching Awards:

• Prof. Mansun CHAN, Alex Wong Siu Wah Gigi Wong Fook Chi Professor of Engineering and Chair Professor of Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Anthony LEUNG, Associate Professor of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Recipients of Teaching Awards:

• Prof. Ben CHAN, Associate Professor of Engineering Education in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Prof. Gibson LAM, Assistant Professor of Engineering Education in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering
• Prof. Stephane REDONNET, Assistant Professor of Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Prof. Mansun Chan’s pedagogical approach is based on the REACT principles (Realistic, Entertaining, Assuring, Connecting, and Transforming), which react to the needs of the students rather than focusing on the subject matter and address both immediate and long-term needs of the students. He revolutionized ELEC 3500 Microelectronic Devices and Technology by incorporating animated video lectures to create a truly engaging and interactive blended learning experience, implementing a just-in-time support system that allows students to receive immediate feedback and guidance from the teaching team, and creating a game-based competitive arena that encourages students to actively share their thoughts and learn from each other. He has taken up leadership roles in administration related to education, including the chair of the ECE Department’s curriculum committee and Founding Director of the Academy for Continuing Education.

Prof. Anthony Leung serves as the course coordinator of two large-sized required undergraduate courses – CIVL 1100 Discovering Civil and Environmental Engineering and CIVL 2160 Modeling Systems with Uncertainties, and has consistently achieved high teaching evaluation scores. He developed a novel game-based tool named “Creating an Intriguing and Visualizable Learning EXperience (CIVL-X)” with the Center for Education Innovation’s Teaching Development Grant, to aid students’ learning and instructors’ teaching on the application of probability and statistics in civil engineering. He is the coordinator of the Department’s undergraduate committee and supervised 13 students under the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program in the past three years.

Prof. Ben Chan pioneered in developing teaching pedagogies based on metaverse, generative AI and other interactive online tools. For example, he developed and piloted a Spatial.io-based creativity course under CORE 1200 Engineering Team Design Experience in Spring 2023, and received an extremely satisfactory course rating and instructor rating. In 2021, he developed a creativity course based on Rhodes’ 4P dimensions of creativity (Person, Press, Process, and Product), with funding support from the Center for Education Innovation’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Project scheme. Over the years, he has developed more than 10 courses to encompass a wide spectrum of attributes, including innovativeness, creativity, professionalism, leadership, and global vision. More than 5,000 students have benefited from taking these courses annually.

Prof. Gibson Lam has consistently obtained high instructor scores, a result of his passion and enthusiasm for teaching. He actively pursues teaching-related funds to explore new ways of teaching. For example, he was involved in a UGC fund entitled “Beyond Reality: Unleashing Generative Metaverse Avatars in Education” as a co-investigator in 2023. He led the blended learning development of the course COMP 4431 Multimedia Computing using the Center for Education Innovation’s (CEI) Departmental Teaching Development Grant in 2022-23. He was also awarded funding in CEI’s Teaching and Learning Innovation Project scheme to develop a MOOC of COMP 4021 Internet Computing from 2022 to 2024.

Prof. Stephane Redonnet was lauded by students for the quality of his teaching, including in some challenging courses of aerospace engineering, e.g. MECH 3670 Aircraft Performance and Stability. He co-led with Prof. Rhea LIEM the development of a multidisciplinary simulation platform pertaining to aerospace engineering education, which benefited several batches of students, and whose outcomes were published in IEEE Transactions on Education. Over the past few years, he mentored more than 30 undergraduate students within various frameworks, such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and Final Year Design Project, which led to several publications in journals and international conferences, including that of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He led the development of experimental research means, such as aerodynamic wind tunnel and wind turbine model, which are now also used for supporting teaching and learning initiatives at HKUST. He proactively engaged in the Hong Kong Inter-School Aviation Tournament, which saw 150+ local secondary school students joining a glider design competition at HKUST in Spring 2023.