Dear faculty, staff, and students,
I hope this email finds you in good health and high spirits. On the first anniversary of my presidency, I would like to share the achievements and progress we have made over the past year towards elevating HKUST into a preeminent center of excellence in education, research, knowledge transfer, and innovation.
Towards this goal, we have focused on enhancing our education and research expertise, while enriching an environment that fosters originality, creativity and innovation. In parallel, we have increased fundraising efforts and are securing vital resources to fuel HKUST’s growth and impact. Major highlights are as follows.
People are at the heart of our success. Attracting and retaining exceptional talent remain the highest priorities. With this focus, we launched the ‘30 for 30’ Talent Acquisition Campaign aimed at recruiting 30 leading experts to build excellence in six strategic areas pivotal for addressing today’s global challenges: Biomedical Science and Translational Medicine; Material Science and Future Energy; AI - Future Computing and Electronics; Innovation for Business Management; Environmental Science - Sustainability and Green Tech; and Art Tech - Humanities. Our academic units are also actively engaged in searching for top talent on a global scale.
To expand interdisciplinary innovation across wider disciplines, we elevated the Interdisciplinary Programs Office (IPO) into the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) to drive new pedagogy and interdisciplinary research in emerging areas with greater flexibility and agility. We also laid the groundwork to introduce two new academic initiatives, Sports Tech@HKUST and Art Tech@HKUST, both burgeoning fields that integrate the latest technology into sports and art creation.
With the landmark launch of HKUST(GZ), we are now poised to focus on synergizing our two campuses, from aligning academic and research pursuits and setting up the cross-campus co-ordination framework (for academic and non-academic matters), to implementing procedures enabling faculty and students on both campuses to collaborate and undertake academic exchanges, respectively.
We initiated a series of upgrades in our campus infrastructure last year to provide the very best environment for discovery and innovation. The HKUST Innovation Building, currently under construction, will be a welcome addition to our innovation ecosystem. A high-performance computational facility to support big data and AI research is also under construction. Two additional research buildings – one focused on life and chemical sciences and technologies, and the other on physical sciences and related technologies – are at the planning stage and will significantly elevate existing research capabilities.
Over the past year, we also worked hard to secure government approval for two major developments, the HKUST Innovation and Technology Park (USTInnoTech Park) and the HKUST Medical School (HKUSTMed). With USTInnoTech Park, we aim to strengthen our ability to actualize academic research outcome into real-world solutions and foster greater industry partnerships. With HKUSTMed, our goal is to nurture physician-scientists and address the local healthcare needs. Both major initiatives are currently at the early phase and we will keep you informed of our progress. We are also working hard to secure land lots in proximity to our CWB campus. Successful acquisition of these sites will increase our campus area by ~20%.
To ensure successful attainment of the various initiatives and developments, we have intensified fundraising efforts to secure major donations from both the private and public sectors. I am happy to report that we received substantial donation pledges and have reached the ceiling of the RGC matching fund scheme – HK$500 million, a significant milestone. We also expanded relationships with potential donors and forged closer connections with alumni. Moreover, we launched our university anthem in three languages earlier this year to celebrate our shared identity, and instill a strong sense of belonging among our members, both locally and abroad.
I am immensely proud to be a part of this exceptional institution. Looking ahead, we will continue to build on our successes and strive for greater heights. Your support, dedication, and commitment are instrumental in our journey of growth and excellence. I wish you all a successful and rewarding school year.
Nancy Y. IP
President