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The four-year curriculum introduced in 2012 provided an unprecedented
opportunity for the School to optimize students’ education through
widening the range of programs and experiences available to
undergraduates and postgraduates.
ENGINEERING COMMONS
The School inaugurated its state-of-the-art Engineering Commons, a
milestone student-centered space to promote total learning. Located at
the entrance to the School, the custom-designed area serves as a hub
for student advising, collaborative learning and knowledge exchange, a
platform to inspire creative ideas, and a showcase for the School’s latest
inventions and technologies.
The Engineering Commons has also become home to the School’s
pioneering Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E
2
I). Over
the year, E
2
I helped implement new ideas on innovative teaching and
assessment strategies aimed at improving student learning in a number
of courses, including promotion of collaborative problem solving skills
in “Engineering Solutions to Grand Challenges of the 21st Century”. The
peer mentoring program continued, with around 100 of the School’s
undergraduates involved during 2012-13. Peer mentors are upper-year
engineering students who volunteer their time to help first-year students
to facilitate a positive transition to HKUST.
WIDENING LEARNING OPTIONS
To expand options for students in two areas of increasing social demand,
minor programs were established in Aeronautical Engineering and
Entrepreneurship, the latter offered jointly with the School of Business
and Management. A three-credit, one-month summer course on Design
Thinking was also launched in collaboration with the China Academy of
Art. Open to undergraduates and postgraduates across both universities,
this course provided the foundation for designing a successful product,
with participants spending time at both campuses.
Student exchanges are another major focus for the School, which
fully recognizes the personal development benefits of such
opportunities. The percentage of engineering
undergraduates participating in
exchanges grew to 35% in
2012-13.
School of Engineering
The School has been
expanding its undergraduate
and postgraduate student
experience through a series of
innovative initiatives that add
to its academic and research
endeavors through personal
and professional development,
industry and community
engagement. In the QSWorld
University Rankings by Subject
2013, the School was ranked
within the global top 30 in all
five fields in Engineering and
Technology