HKUST Annual Report 2019-2020

ASIA 36% (113) AFRICA 1% (2) EUROPE 34% (108) NORTH AMERICA 25% (78) LATIN AMERICA 1% (5) OCEANIA 3% (9) Geographical Distribution of Global Partnership FIGHTING COVID-19 President Discusses Resilience at Academic Leaders’ Forum President Prof. Wei SHYY was invited to be one of six speakers at theWorld Economic Forum’s University Leaders Dialogue event on COVID-19 and resilience in January 2020 to share HKUST’s view on how the academic world could respond to the coronavirus crisis. At the session, President Shyy discussed with leaders of over 40 universities how higher education could address the impacts of COVID-19 and the importance of international collaboration in the fight against the pandemic. He also contributed an article to the Forum, highlighting the collaborative efforts made by HKUST against the pandemic. The article was made available in four languages including English, Chinese, French, and Japanese for wider reach. Working with Partners through Global Webinars With overseas travel and face-to-face gatherings being brought to a near standstill due to COVID-19, HKUST launched a global webinar series entitled “Navigating a World of Disruption” in collaboration with international partners to explore the new challenges and opportunities in the post-pandemic era in May 2020. The School of Engineering and University of Strathclyde, UK, looked at all- round efforts to fight the pandemic. The School of Science and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology explored research contributions to a sustainable world. The Interdisciplinary Programs Office and KTH Royal Institute of Science and Technology, Sweden, investigated the impacts of behavioral biases, norms, and culture on responses to the coronavirus crisis. In total, over 500 participants were drawn to the three webinars. Sharing Experience of Real-time Online Teaching On the teaching front, HKUST senior faculty took the initiative to share experiences and best practices in response to COVID-19 with university partners in March 2020. Prof. Roger CHENG, Associate Provost (Teaching & Learning), Prof. Anirban MUKHOPADHYAY, Associate Dean of Business and Management, and Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen, Acting Director of the Center for Education Innovation, jointly hosted a webinar on “Migrating a Whole University to Online Real-Time Interactive Teaching” in March 2020. With HKUST faculty members leading the session, representatives of around 40 institutions across the world had a timely and enriching exchange on equipping faculty members with online teaching skills, managing students’ expectations, and monitoring feedback for continuous improvement. University Connections HKUST places strong emphasis on its global network with other leading universities around the world, both to generate opportunities for students to experience studying and living in another cultural environment and to strengthen faculty research cooperation. Broadening the diversity of ties, the University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and student exchange agreement with the New Economic School in Moscow, Russia, for business school students. An MoUwith Washington University in St Louis, US, will benefit teaching and research activities in engineering. An exchange arrangement for humanities and social science students was agreed with the College of Liberal Arts at Taiwan Normal University, and new exchange partnerships for science students were set up with Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. World Economic Forum 2020 As the only Hong Kong member of the 28-member Global University Leaders Forum (GULF) community within the World Economic Forum (WEF), HKUST continued to exchange knowledge and gain insight into the latest trends and developments at the annual WEF in Davos, Switzerland. In 2020, President Prof. Wei SHYY was invited to speak on societal developments in Hong Kong at the GULF session on “The University of the Future” while engaging in dialogue and exchanging views with other top university leaders across the globe. He also joined a panel discussion on artificial intelligence and global governance at the 4th Belt and Road Davos Forum, organized by Tsinghua University, and shared views on improving urban resilience and agility in meeting changes at the “City Readiness for AI” discussion, held by international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Prof. SHI Ling (Electronic and Computer Engineering) was named a member of the WEF Community of Young Scientists’ Class of 2020 for his research achievements in cyber-physical systems security and privacy. Regional Ties The University contributed to the 15-member Asian University Alliance, which encourages collaboration on higher education, scientific and socio-economic development, through active participation in academic conferences, scholar award programs, staff exchanges, and a youth forum for students. Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen, Acting Director of the University’s Center for Education Innovation, gave a keynote speech on HKUST’s online education practices at the alliance’s Online Education Conference at Tsinghua University in July 2019. As a member of the GLOBAL NETWORK Association of East Asian Research Universities (AEARU), the University shared credit-bearing online courseware to promote in-class active learning and flipped class teaching over an extended period for the first time. Twenty-five students took part in the 2019 AEARU Summer Institute for extended flipped learning. President Shyy also attended a virtual presidents’ meeting of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities in June 2020, with over 35 heads of member institutions discussing COVID-19 challenges and university leadership, followed by a panel discussion on what the future might hold. Issues included moving classes online, equity and access to resources among students, and students’ mental health. Business Links Corporate collaborations were enhanced with the signing of an MoU with Wisers Information Ltd., a Hong Kong- founded world-leading expert in all-media big data smart business intelligence solutions. The agreement will establish a platform for faculty and students from the Schools of Business and Management and Humanities and Social Science to explore applications of all-media big data and emerging technologies for business and social issues, including public policy research projects. In other moves, HKUST specialists in data science, machine learning and business research teamed up with Ernst & Young (EY), a global leader in professional services, to become the first university in Asia-Pacific to form a research and technology development partnership with EY Tax Lab. HKUST ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 37 36 Local to Global