28
HKUST 2014-2015
Annual Report
Along with excellent results in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014,
the School continued to fly high in global rankings, being first in Greater China
and 21
st
globally in the Times Higher Education Engineering and Technology
Rankings 2014-15 and No.15 in the QS World University Rankings by
Faculty 2014 – Engineering and Technology
SCHOOLOFENGINEERING
BROADER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES
The first intake for the Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering’s new BEng in Aerospace Engineering
was recruited from among the School’s first-year students.
They will embark on the program in Fall 2015. A Minor
in Design was launched by the Department of Industrial
Engineering and Logistics Management where the various
technology and user-centered courses would allow an
enhancement of creativity through constant shifting of
divergent and convergent thinking to support a future
career as a leading innovator in a technologically-driven
design team.
Experiential learning and tri-modal education opportunities
expanded, with the inaugural Engineering Community
Services Project series. This provided a unique crossover of
engineering design and service learning for students from
all engineering majors and levels to work in teams alongside
non-profit agencies, government groups and educators
on real-world challenges. In 2014-15, three courses were
offered: Innovative Trolley Design for the Elderly; Mobile
App Development for Hearing-impaired Children; and
the Underwater Robot Community Engagement Project.
The experiential Engineering Team Airship Design course
remained popular and was developed into a Common Core
course to be offered from Fall 2015. A Design Studio was
set up to teach such experiential courses and is scheduled
for use from Fall 2015.
The School’s Center for Global & Community Engagement
enabled students to participate in more than 20 international
and local competitions, including the GE Foundation
TECH Award, Asia Pacific Information & Communications
Technology Alliance Awards, and Airbus Fly Your Ideas.
HOLISTIC PROVISION FOR POSTGRADUATES
For the sixth consecutive year, the School received the largest
number of awardees among all engineering schools in
Hong Kong in the prestigious city-wide Hong Kong PhD
Fellowship Scheme. Thirty-five engineering awardees from
around the world will commence their PhD studies at
HKUST in Fall 2015. To expand career pathways, a SENG
MPhil Student Internship Scheme was launched to provide
industrial experience in leading companies.
Multinational electronics company TCL agreed to donate
$250,000 per year for three years to support MSc projects
related to communications and information technology, in
particular 5G wireless technology, internet services or big
data. In addition, a MSc internship program was agreed with
the Spanish National Research Council. In the second year of
the Ford-HKUST Conservation and Environmental Research
Grants program saw 19 grants awarded to MSc students
in 2014-15.
RESEARCH RECOGNITION
The School received remarkable results in the Research
Assessment Exercise 2014. On average, over 73% of its
research activities were rated world-leading (four stars)
or internationally excellent (three stars). With regard to
