Newsletter - HKU Graduate School
Transcription
Newsletter - HKU Graduate School
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL Newsletter A P R I L 2 01 4 Graduate School Award Presentation Ceremony 2013 The Graduate School held it s annual Award Presentation Ceremony on December 9, 2013 to celebrate our research postgraduate students’ outstanding achievements. It was our honour to have Professor Rosie Young (Chair man of the HKU Foundation), Mr C.F. Man (HKU Council Member) and Professor Nirmala Rao (erstwhile Associate Dean of the Graduate School) to present the important prizes and awards. For ty PhD students with excellent academic records received the University Postgraduate Fellowships. The prestigious Li Ka Shing prizes were awarded to two MPhil and four PhD graduates who had submitted the theses of exceptional quality. Ten other students who had submitted excellent theses and demonstrated outstanding performance in other academic areas were bestowed the Outstanding Research Postgraduate Student awards. We were also delighted to celebrate at the ceremony the achievements of 44 students who have won external prizes, including the Doris Zimmern HKU-Cambridge Hughes Hall Scholarships, RGC-Fulbright Hong Kong Dissertation Research Programme Fellowships and Hong Kong PhD Fellowships, together with the winners of the HKU Three Minute Thesis Competition 2013. For the complete list of award recipients, please visit http://www. gradsch.hku.hk/gradsch/2013_ a w a r d e e s. p d f. O u r h e a r t f e l t congratulations to all of the award winners! List of prize winners: LI KA SHING PRIZES (2011-12) Best theses in the Faculties of Architecture, Arts, Business & Economics, Education, Law and Social Sciences Mr COLLINS Jeremy Charles (MPhil, School of Humanities (Linguistics)) Thesis Title : Grammaticalization and Greenberg’s Word Order Correlations Supervisors: Professor S.J. Matthews, School of Humanities (Linguistics) Dr P.S. Ding, School of Humanities (Linguistics) Dr LAI Suet Lin Selina (PhD, School of Modern Languages and Cultures (American Studies)) Thesis Title : Lighting Out for the Chinese Territory: Mark Twain & 'Sivilization' in China Supervisor:Dr K.A. Johnson, School of Modern Languages and Cultures (American Studies) Dr QI Zhixin (PhD, Department of Urban Planning and Design) Thesis Title : Short-Interval Monitoring of Land Use and Land Cover Change Using RADARSAT-2 Polarimetric SAR Images Supervisor:Professor A.G.O. Yeh, Department of Urban Planning and Design Best theses in the Faculties of Dentistry, Engineering, Medicine and Science Mr ZHANG Linquan (MPhil, Department of Computer Science) Thesis Title : Move My Data to the Cloud: an Online Cost-Minimizing Approach Supervisors: Dr C. Wu, Department of Computer Science Professor F.C.M. Lau, Department of Computer Science Dr FAN Jing (PhD, Department of Mechanical Engineering) Thesis Title : Heat Transport in Nanofluids and Biological Tissues Supervisor:Professor L. Wang, Department of Mechanical Engineering Dr LI Yan (PhD, Department of Clinical Oncology) Thesis Title : Identification and Characterization of Two Oncogenes SPOCK1 and AZIN1 in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Supervisor:Professor X.Y. Guan, Department of Clinical Oncology AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH POSTGRADUATE STUDENT (2011-12) Dr JAYARATNE Yasas Shri Nalaka (PhD, Faculty of Dentistry) Dr LAI Chun Cheong (PhD, Department of Microbiology) Dr LEE Wing Kin (PhD, School of Chinese) Dr NG Pun Tung (PhD, School of Biological Sciences) Dr NG Sophia (PhD, School of Public Health) Mr TSO Ricky Van Yip (MPhil, Department of Psychology) Dr WANG Qian (PhD, School of Economics and Finance) Dr YE Lin (PhD, Department of Civil Engineering) Dr YEUNG Ching Lam Margaret (PhD, Department of Chemistry) Dr ZHOU Yue (PhD, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering) Art and AnEmotion International Postgraduate Conference at HKU After a year of planning, on the 12th and 13 th of December 2013, HKU’s School of Humanities (Philosophy) hosted an international postgraduate conference on the topic of “Art and Emotion”. With the funding we received from the Postg radua te Students Conference Grant of the Research Grants Council, we were able to welcome Matthew Kieran (Professor of Philosophy and the Arts, University of Leeds) and Amy Coplan (Associate Professor of Philosophy, California State University Fuller ton) to take part in this beneficial exchange with postgraduate speakers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Finland, and the United Kingdom. Covering a wide range of topics including Chinese philosophy, philosophy of mind, psychology, music, dance, literature, and film studies, the conference allowed the speakers to discuss their work and receive valuable feedback from both their peers and established scholars. Coffee breaks supported by the School of Humanities and a typical Cantonese conference dinner supported by the School of Humanities (Philosophy) contributed to the enjoyable atmosphere and made for vibrant interactions. All in all, this conference was an enriching experience for all concerned, and was well worth the organisational effort. Thus, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who made this event a success: my fellow committee members – Kathleen Ho Ka Yan, HongTing Li, Yumi Suzuki, and Lorraine Yeung; Dr Edoardo Zamuner and especially Dr Timothy O’Leary for their helpful supervision; Novia Wong for her wonderful poster; Karen Leung and Loletta Li for their valuable help; and finally, the Postgraduate Students Conference Grant of the Research Grants Council Hong Kong and HKU’s School of Humanities (Philosophy) and School of Humanities for the funding support. Ekin Ulas MPhil Candidate, School of Humanities (Philosophy) My Experience as the Opening Speaker for the TEDxYouth Conference About TED and TEDx TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, which started as a conference in California 26 years ago. At a TED conference, talks are given by the world’s leading thinkers including Professor Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, Philippe Starck and Sir Ken Robinson. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a programme of local, independently-organised events in countries around the world that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. One unique feature of TEDxYouth Hong Kong is the live-streaming audience, as 2,000 students in schools around Hong Kong spend the day live-streaming the conference rather than having classes, as well as a live audience of 300. TEDxYouth Hong Kong 2013 I was invited to be the opening speaker for TEDxYouth held in Hong Kong on November 20, 2013 at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. My talk, entitled ‘Creativity in Memory’, discussed innovative approaches to learning. The theme was how to ‘play’ with boring data to make it more memorable, and the lecture featured smoke 'Fans' outside the lecture hall machines, henna tattoos, rap and dancers. However, far from being simply entertainment, the science of these methods and the biological responses they produce were explained, using examples from my own research in e-learning under taken at HKU. The finale was a physical interpretation of mitosis. Together with medical students from HKU (Joshua Ma and Phoebe Leung) and CUHK, we performed a four stage contemporary dance choreographed from prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase. “ I believe the best lecturers combine excellent scientific knowledge with creativity. Taking a ‘Rockstar’ approach to lectures can capture the imagination of students, inspire them in their learning and show them that creativity and science belong hand-in-hand. ” Some other facts Dance interpretation Other speaker s included Francis Ngai, the HK entrepreneur responsible for Dialogue in the Dark, and Queenie Poon, HK's first female professional magician with her own series on TVB. One of the research items discussed was a project funded by a project grant from CEDARS, for experimental anatomy teaching using henna tattoos. See Christopher Yew Hong PhD Candidate, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care MPhil Candidate Receives Scholarship for 2nd Santander International Summer School for Doctoral Students Mr Wong Man Lok Nichol, an MPhil candidate in the Department of Psychology, has been awarded a scholarship for the 2nd Santander International Summer School. The summer school is taking place at the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg from April 7 to 17, 2014. With the theme ‘Frontiers in Neuroeconomics – How Social and Individual Context Matters for the Biological Mechanisms of Behaviour’, the summer school addresses how human decision making is affected by personal factors, physical and mental health, and social and environmental factors. It explores the interactions between biological and context factors, and how these interactions influence the process and the outcomes of decision making. A Lasting Passion for Research Alumni interview with Dr Wong Ngai A BEng and PhD graduate of HKU, and now an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Dr Wong Ngai shares his experiences and thoughts. From his early years as a student in Shau Kei Wan Government Primary and Secondary schools, Dr Wong’s passion was science. ‘It took a while to discover the subtle difference between science and engineering, and realise that engineering was for me. Scientists tend to inhabit an ivory tower while they explore t h e s e c r e t s o f t h e u n i ve r s e, whereas engineers seek practical applications of their knowledge to improve human life.’ As a product of the local school system, Dr Wong’s natural choice for undergraduate studies was HKU, although he did have a very brief interlude at the National University of Singapore. ‘I was awarded a scholarship, but I was living in a dorm and in the middle of the night was woken up to be a basketball cheerleader! That was not the sort of student life I had envisaged and I didn’t want to have to sleep through classes, especially given the heavy tuition fee. But it helped me focus on what I wanted, so I left after a few days and enrolled at HKU!’ Following his BEng course, it was an easy decision for Dr Wong to opt for research postgraduate (RPg) study, continuing on from his final year undergraduate project under the same supervisor, Professor T.S. Ng. ‘I was for tunate in Professor Ng’s free style of supervision, which I think is crucial to unleash creativity. An environment without pressure encourages self-motivated research (although, of course, without care it can encourage laziness).’ ‘I had in mind to go abroad for broader exposure after getting my Master’s degree, but HKU gave me the opportunity to transfer from the MPhil to PhD programme after one year, which meant that it took me only three years to finish my PhD thesis after my BEng. Compared to the US and the UK it takes a much shor ter time to obtain the PhD at HKU.’ ‘My familiarity with the HKU culture and environment at the beginning of my RPg study was cr ucial in enabling me to adapt fast and produce early output. I spent nine months as a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University fur thering my research without all the hassle of taking the SAT and so on. The US system emphasises technical courses and training throughout the RPg study, something which is lacking at HKU. It is an essential ingredient for in-depth and impactful research outcome and it helped build some of my technical knowhow and consolidate the direction of my research.’ Immediately following conferment of his PhD, in late 2003, Dr Wong took up a faculty position as Assistant Professor in the Department of EEE at his alma mater. ‘For family reasons I was happy to stay in Hong Kong and I was eager to contribute to my mother school. That was the only post for which I applied after my PhD and very likely it is where I will spend my entire career.’ Life-work balance is important for Dr Wong. He enjoys photography as a hobby, plus long-distance running and hiking to sharpen the mind. He likes spending time with his young daughters, born in 2010 and 2012 respectively. ‘I’m sure they will find their own ways in life. If by chance they like engineering then I can give them a push (although this is unlikely as my elder one is highly artistic). I am a Christian so the most I want for my children is to have them follow the footsteps of the Father above.’ Dr Wong believes that HKU has changed in many ways since his undergraduate days. He appreciates the campus beautification and the planned MTR access. He comments that teaching and learning have become more systematic and he is happy to see young people, like himself, among new faculty members. ‘In many ways I think the facilities at HKU are much better than at top overseas and mainland universities. Our computer equipment is stateof-the-ar t and our workplace is spacious. But the graduate students aren’t as diligent as in my time -a worldwide problem. We should remember that the quality of RPg students defines the value of the research outcome. In past centuries researchers did not rely on facilities to produce amazing results: all they required was to carry their brains around.’ ‘To enhance HKU’s RPg system, I think there should be better quality checkpoints throughout the RPg curriculum, and students should appreciate that they need to perform well to earn a degree. In the world’s top graduate schools students are self-motivated and compete for excellence, while at the same time treasuring synergy among peer group members. To increase HKU’s competiveness, RPg students should “align” their vision with top students worldwide. Perhaps shortterm overseas exchange schemes for good HKU RPg students would help?’ Too many students view RPg study only as the stepping stone to Wall Street and big money, cautions Dr Wong. ‘But RPg study should always be exclusively interest driven, not viewed as the means to an end. Students should also respect their supervisor as their teacher.’ Dr Wong’s final advice for RPg students is that, like everything in life, research has its ups and downs. ‘But if you persevere, you find light at the end of every (sometimes very long) tunnel.’ Brief Report on the Conference 'Religion and Power: Political, Legal and Economic Perspectives' being non-religious: this leaves us with almost 90% of the world population – over 6 billion people – associating with a faith-based identity. Chronology provides compelling evidence of organised religious activities since at least 9,000 BC. Seen from an anthropological perspective, religious beliefs are a natural fact of life, just like establishing social relations, setting up families or engaging in trade. It is most observable that religions have a major impact on dissemination patterns of influence and affluence within and among societies. On January 13-14, 2014, a third sequel to the HKU interfaith dialogue series was organised by the nonprofit society Bridging Gaps, the Faith and Globalization Initiative and the Centre for Comparative and Public Law. The conference attracted 18 speakers from 14 countries who presented Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim perspectives on the issue of 'Power and Religion'. This interfaith dialogue series was initiated at HKU in 2011 to provide a platform for academic discussion on religious issues that are often considered sensitive. The underpinning logic of these public fora is that it is only by recognising differences and acknowledging diverging interests that a true dialogue can contribute to mitigate intercultural tension and violence. A similar logic has successfully been used in tackling ideological and ethnic conflicts through the work of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions facing national pasts of intolerance and violence in countries such as Argentina and South Africa. The HKU interfaith initiative builds on the idea that this same cultural, social, institutional and psychological mechanism is not only replicable but is also applicable in the context of inter-religious conflicts. This year's conference and the public dialogue forum built upon the dual and at times ambiguous role religions play in society: moral guards in the believers' inner world of spirituality and experienced players in the outer world of social organisations. The cleavage between religions' spiritual power and temporal power reflects the schism between their definition as cultural constructs and their characterisation as sociological phenomena. The speakers specifically reflected on how religious engagement with political, legal and economic issues can have beneficial and detrimental consequences in contemporary society. Even if there is no certain outcome in the interplay between religion and power, this is undoubtedly a recognised phenomenon that such interplay exists and that it bears enormous consequences in contemporary societies. Today, only 2% of the world population is atheist, with a further 9.6% Keynote speeches from Professor C.F. Lee (HKU), Professor Graham Ward (Oxford University), Professor Michael A. Helfand (Pepperdine University) and Emeritus Professor Jamal Badawi (St Mary's University) highlighted different examples of such interplays, scrutinising the linkages between religion and power in the context of history (Buddhism); constitutional law (Christianity); legal arbitration (Judaism); and religious discourse (Islam). The public forum and the four academic panels explored and discussed, among other issues, inter-religious correlations with revolutions, civil power, finance and psychology. The comments and questions raised in a well-attended public forum bridged the debate from theoretical to real-life situations. The HKU platform once again – as in earlier events of the series – enabled speakers from diverse faith traditions to openly address sensitive issues in an atmosphere of impartiality, trust and mutual respect, something that can only happen in a secular, credible and well recognised academic venue. While commending the forum, theologian Graham Ward noted that ‘an atmosphere of trust between the speakers from the different faith traditions enabling openness is very rare in inter-faith work. There are few venues where these conversations can take place. And there are few faculties that feel confident in handling the questions raised because they are not simply religious.’ Mr Thomas Awe, Director of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Beijing, correlated the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s global mission to this interfaith platform that aims at ‘enhancing mutual understanding among religious communities w hile raising Hong Kong’s public awareness towards religious cohabitation', feeling that ‘without doubt this interfaith dialogue will continue to play a profound and normative role in Hong Kong and in the region.’ The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region within its pluralistic society has also shown to have a critical role to play by offering a receptive and neutral ground – a prerequisite for success of any such intercultural dialogue. Hong Kong's freedom of speech and geographic position contribute in making it an ideal place for the future of cultural mediation in Asia. Uzma Ashraf PhD Candidate, Department of Law Swire Scholarships for Research Students in Residence at Robert Black College The Swire Scholarships were established, through the generous donation by the Swire Company, to provide a learning opportunity for young members of the University’s academic community to reside in the Robert Black College, and thereby mix with international scholars. Swire Scholars are provided free accommodation with breakfast at the College. They are expected to actively interact with the visiting academics residing in the College, so as to enrich their learning experiences, and to offer the visiting academics good company. The selection process for the 2013–14 Swire Scholarships concluded in December 2013. The recipients of the Scholarships are as follows: All full-time research students who are registered for an MPhil or a PhD degree at the University are eligible to apply for the Swire Scholarships. Applications will normally be called for – via bulk mail, the HKU intranet, and the Research Services website – in September every year. Mr TSO Ricky Van Yip Ms Anna COSTA PhD student, School of Modern Languages and Cultures (China Studies) Dr SEE Christopher Yew Hong PhD student, Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care PhD student, Department of Psychology Congratulations to the three recipients on their achievements! Deanship and Associate Deanship of the Graduate School The Graduate School is pleased to announce the recent changes in the management team. DEAN Professor Nirmala Rao Serena H.C. Yang Professor in Early Childhood Development and Education ASSOCIATE DEANS Professor Mee Len Chye Wilson and Amelia Wong Professor in Plant Biotechnology Professor Becky P.Y. Loo (from left) Professor B.P.Y. Loo, Professor M.L. Chye, Professor N. Rao and Professor B. Young Department of Geography Professor Ben Young Department of Civil Engineering The Graduate School management team will continue to work closely with Faculties to provide first-class research postgraduate education and learning that meet the highest international standard. Produced by: The Graduate School, P403, Graduate House, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. EDITORIAL TEAM Professor Nirmala Rao (Dean, Graduate School) Mrs Betty Tsui (Graduate School) Ms Vicki Geall (Technical Writer, Research Services) Tel: 2857-3470 Fax: 2857-3543 E-mail: [email protected] Url: http://www.hku.hk/gradsch/