05 IN FOCUS n a key step forward, Prof. Lionel NI Ming-Shuan has been appointed Founding President of the new Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)) campus now under construction and scheduled to open in September . The appointment will take e ect following o cial approval from the Ministry of Education for the formal establishment of HKUST(GZ). Prof. Ni, who became Provost of HKUST at the Clear Water Bay campus in , is a highly accomplished computer science and engineering scholar of international recognition and a recipient of several of Mainland China’s leading research accolades. He is also a respected senior academic administrator, with many years of experience at HKUST and elsewhere. Former roles include heading the School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering when he initially joined HKUST in . The state-of-the-art, purpose-built campus in Qingsheng, Nansha, is being developed as a complementary hub to HKUST in Hong Kong. Degree programs will be cross-disciplinary and there will be no traditional division of elds into departments or schools. Instead, HKUST(GZ) will operate under four interconnected multidisciplinary hubs (function, information, systems, society) in a pioneering st-century academic structure, which Prof. Ni has helped to develop. Students need to be nurtured so that they develop the ability to identify and solve problems, Prof. Ni noted in an interview with Times Higher Education, a leading international university news and data provider, following his appointment in April . “To do this, they would need to bridge diverse knowledge from multiple disciplines,” he said. The new campus is seeking to extend its reach to , postgraduates and faculty within the rst ve years a er opening; and undergraduates in the subsequent phase. Worldwide recruitment for accomplished faculty at all levels is on-going, with some recruited by May , including around from the University’s Clear Water Bay campus. A HKUST(GZ) pilot scheme, whereby high-achieving research students can enroll and study at Clear Water Bay until the new campus is ready, will also begin its third cohort in . More than students have joined the rst two cohorts. I Prof. Lionel Ni, a renowned computer science and engineering scholar and highly experienced senior university administrator, will take the helm at HKUST’s new Guangzhou campus (artist’s impression), set to open in 2022. HKUST(GZ) Founding President appointed Hi-tech talent on track for intelligent transportation HKUST and Guangzhou Metro Group Co. Ltd. have signed their rst cooperative agreement to nurture postgraduate talents in intelligent transportation, one of the key research thrust areas of the HKUST(GZ) campus. This innovative eld, combining transportation, arti cial intelligence, and data science, seeks to enhance the e ciency, safety, and sustainability of mobility systems for both people and goods. The MPhil and PhD degree programs will be available in under the HKUST(GZ) pilot scheme, with students jointly supervised by HKUST professors and professor-grade senior engineers, or equivalent, appointed by Guangzhou Metro.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=