In just one year, HKUST(GZ) has accomplished numerous remarkable feats in science and innovation.
The grand view at the main entrance of the HKUST(GZ) campus, including its Administration Building and Piazza, where the universities’ landmark sundial is located. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
June is a bustling month for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)), as it marks its first anniversary and celebrates a two-day science and innovation carnival on June 16-17. The carnival details HKUST(GZ)’s past scientific achievements and provides a meet-and-greet for hundreds of quality projects, startups, enterprises and venture capitalists.
It is remarkable that an institution founded only one year ago has already achieved so much in science and innovation.
The establishment of HKUST(GZ) marks a great success in the cooperative development of higher education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Lionel Ni Ming-shuan, president of HKUST(GZ)
In just a year, HKUST(GZ) has enrolled over 700 master’s and doctoral students, and recruited around 200 faculty members. It has also established seven provincial and municipal key laboratories and collaborated with enterprises on over 50 high-tech projects, resulting in numerous patents.
The establishment of HKUST(GZ) marks a great success in the cooperative development of higher education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to Lionel Ni Ming-shuan, president of HKUST(GZ).
Jointly established by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Guangzhou University (GZU) in June 2022, HKUST(GZ) is the first legally-independent educational institution co-established by Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland following the announcement and implementation of the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Overall Plan for Deepening Globally Oriented Comprehensive Cooperation amongst Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in Nansha of Guangzhou.
Since its establishment, the new campus, located in Guangzhou’s Nansha District, has made unprecedented innovative changes.
It adopts a brand-new academic structure featuring “hubs” and “thrusts” as replacements for conventional “colleges” and “departments”, facilitating cross-disciplinary integration while vigorously developing frontier disciplines, Ni said.
With its cross-disciplinary academic approach, the Guangzhou campus has 16 thrusts encompassing fields like artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing and financial technology. These directives are organized into four hubs — the Function Hub, Information Hub, Systems Hub and Society Hub.
Such an approach aligns with the changing global paradigm to attract talented individuals with diverse skillsets, rather than those specializing in a single discipline, Ni continued.
While the Guangzhou campus offers disciplines that are different from those of the Clear Water Bay campus, the two maintain a high level of consistency in academic standards, faculties and program quality. They also share resources, such as laboratories and research facilities, according to Ni.
In addition, HKUST actively promotes educational integration between the two campuses. Eligible students in Guangzhou campus can also choose to enroll in courses and degrees offered by the Clear Water Bay campus and vice versa.
The two campuses are working together to contribute to the development of the Greater Bay Area and the country by nurturing high-level innovative talents, conducting high-tech research, and developing cutting-edge technologies, Ni said.
By taking this approach, HKUST(GZ) can serve as an innovative model not only in China but also internationally, Ni added.
More than 700 master’s and doctoral students were admitted to HKUST(GZ) in its first year, where they enjoy a learning and research environment that encourages interdisciplinary and innovation. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Stimulating creativity
HKUST Clear Water Bay campus has a long-standing reputation for its commitment to cutting-edge research and technology.
Such dedication to innovation is exemplified by the success of the university’s faculties and alumni, who have founded or co-founded several unicorn companies in Hong Kong, including DJI — a leading global drone-making company — and SmartSens Technology — a provider of high-performance semiconductor image sensor chips. In 2021, seven out of 18 unicorn companies in Hong Kong were founded or co-founded by faculty or alumni from HKUST.
HKUST(GZ) has inherited its science and innovation DNA from the Clear Water Bay campus, according to Associate Vice-president for knowledge transfer and head of the AI Thrust at HKUST(GZ) Xiong Hui.
Specifically, HKUST(GZ) is committed to staying at the forefront of science and technology, as evidenced by its establishment of seven provincial and municipal key laboratories that specialize in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things.
Additionally, the university has collaborated with enterprises on 50 high-tech projects, covering areas such as intelligent manufacturing, new energy, medical imaging, and medical analysis.
These achievements underscore HKUST(GZ)’s ambition to be at the forefront of technological development and to foster an entrepreneurial spirit among its students and faculties, Xiong said.
Xiong noted that there is global recognition of the fact that innovation and technology are essential drivers of economic growth and development in the contemporary world.
The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, published in October last year, underlined this trend. The Guangzhou campus was created against this backdrop, answering the call of the times and serving the country’s needs, said Xiong.
To further the nation’s drive to boost innovation and technology, the central government unveiled a plan in 2019 to incorporate 11 cities in southern China into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, creating a “vibrant world-class city cluster”. In this plan, the central government vowed to support Guangdong and the Hong Kong and Macao SARs in their moves to jointly operate educational institutions.
In June last year, the State Council unveiled the Overall Plan for Deepening Globally Oriented Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in Nansha (Nansha Plan), making Nansha another highland for Hong Kong’s integration into the nation’s development strategies.
Xiong believes the Greater Bay Area can now rival other bay areas in terms of entrepreneurial density and investment density. Yet, it still lags behind in terms of “talent density” — currently the most significant hurdle facing the region in its moves to become a global innovation hub, said Xiong.
As more talented individuals flock to the Greater Bay Area, Xiong is confident that the region will become the next top-notch Silicon Valley in the near future, and HKUST(GZ) — a world-class university based in the region — will serve as a model for educational co-development between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, as well as a provider of intelligence and talent for the country’s continued development.
Pioneering integration
As the first higher education institution co-established by the Hong Kong and mainland authorities in the Greater Bay Area following the announcement of the outline plan, the Guangzhou campus is actively contributing to Hong Kong’s integration into the nation’s development strategies.
The Guangzhou campus has achieved an industry-university-research cooperation closed loop, thanks to its unique geographical location in the Greater Bay Area, according to Xiong. Through this, the Clear Water Bay campus can leverage the special administrative region’s financial strength to attract capital, while the Guangzhou campus can tap Guangdong province’s extensive industrial chain to bring the university’s research results to fruition through commercial manufacturing, said Xiong.
In just one year, HKUST(GZ) has established joint laboratories with nearly a dozen industry leaders.
In March, it set up a joint lab with Dapu Telecom, a leading Chinese supplier of high-stability clocks, and another with China Mobile Communication Group Guangdong Co Ltd to research metaverse technology.
In May, it announced the establishment of an artificial intelligence lab with Guangzhou Quwan Network Technology Co Ltd, a leading Chinese mobile game platform.
The establishment of HKUST(GZ) has also provided alumni enterprises at the Clear Water Bay campus with a new support platform and partnerships in Guangdong.
Liu Ming, associate professor and director of the Intelligent Autonomous Driving Center at HKUST(GZ), founded Shenzhen Unity-Drive Innovation Technology Co Ltd, a leading provider of autonomous driving technology in China.
In 2022, he led a team that provided the navigation solution for the fourth phase of Guangzhou Port’s Nansha area. This allowed container cranes to accurately grab containers from the ship and place them onto intelligent guided vehicles (IGV) as per instructions from the central information system. As a result, the Guangzhou Port’s Nansha area became the first fully-automated container terminal in the GBA.
In the future, the two campuses will continue strengthening educational collaboration, including encouraging professors from both institutions to co-apply for research projects, co-start joint ventures, and co-industrialize research results, Xiong said.
