HKUST Annual Report 2017-18

A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7 - 1 8 HKUST 7 PROPELLING DISCOVERY AND START-UPS During 2017-18, the University added to its scientific and technology breakthroughs, with major discoveries including Alzheimer’s disease genetic risk factors in the Chinese population, identification of the cause of bacterial resistance to peptide antibiotics, and a synthetic pathway to produce chiral molecules. A fusion-based “smart” location sensing technology for indoor navigation and other applications, an HIV protein finding that could potentially lead to a vaccine, and a novel energy storage system incorporating electrically rechargeable liquid fuels were among many other original contributions. Looking to support next-generation enterprise and Hong Kong economic development, preparations took place for a HKUST Entrepreneurship Fund to be launched in the coming year to provide capital investment to University technology start-ups with high potential. This will join the up-and-running Proof-of-Concept Fund and HKUST Entrepreneurship Program, which since establishment in 1999 has spun-off over 30 active companies. In external funding, 11 applications to the Innovation and Technology Commission’s Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU) Program were recommended for funding, bringing total HKUST-related TSSSU start-ups to 40. Some 70% of these endeavors leverage HKUST technology. I was happy and grateful to see recognition of our work from the community through the generous donations that enabled us to confer named professorships on 15 more faculty members in recognition of their outstanding work, as well as gifts that will facilitate frontier work in life science, healthcare, and other areas of research. I would also like to highlight the contribution of our alumni, who are assisting current students through scholarships and start-up grants from the Alumni Endowment Fund, and enhancing the University’s reputation through their own award-winning technology and community contributions and achievements in Hong Kong and around the world. INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABILITY To foster concern for others and a shared sense of belonging and tolerance, the year brought the introduction of a residence hall initiative whereby 500 first-year students had the opportunity to stay in hall for one year, easing the transition from school to higher education and encourage integration between local and non-local students. On a wider scale, a distinctive partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will extend HKUST’s humanitarian insights through joint research with the ICRC as well as a traineeship at the organization’s Geneva headquarters. Meanwhile, the HKUST 2020 Sustainability Challenge, which is working toward “green” leadership across the University’s education, research, operations, and community, led to year-on-year reductions of greenhouse gas emissions (-7.2%), waste (-2.6%), and electricity (-1.6%), along with the withdrawal of plastic water bottles under one liter from sale on campus. A MEMORABLE JOURNEY With my term as President ending on August 31, 2018, I wish to add here my deep and heartfelt thanks to all the colleagues, students, alumni, Council and Court members, community supporters, academic partners, and industry collaborators, who have contributed to driving forward HKUST to the next level of achievement during my nine-year tenure. It has been an inspiring and memorable partnership and to my great delight has resulted in many impactful research breakthroughs and academic accolades at the highest levels for both eminent and young faculty; and a more diverse, participatory, and entrepreneurial student body, welcomed into elite academic institutions and significant jobs worldwide. HKUST and its achievements within a short and amazing 27-year history are also much more well-known in a broader mix of locations, ranging from different cities in Mainland China to regions around the world, a development that has encouraged wider academic exchange and collaboration, and a greater cultural mix on campus. I am especially proud of contributing to the overall strengthening of HKUST as an institution, through strategic planning, overseeing the articulation of the University’s core values, fund-raising to enable the University to undertake far- sighted and otherwise unaffordable initiatives, and the 1-HKUST drive to really imbue a spirit of integration and togetherness on campus. I wish all at HKUST and my successor Prof. Wei Shyy the very best in the years ahead. I am confident that the University will continue to create “miracles”. President PROF. TONY F. CHAN, JP