CityU has named Academic 1 “Yeung Kin Man Academic Building” in appreciation of the staunch support and generous donations given by Dr Yeung Kin-man, JP, to the University and students. Dr Yeung, CityU’s Honorary Doctor and Co-Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the CityU Foundation, is supporting the University’s various strategic initiatives and student development programmes including student exchange scholarships and student entrepreneurship schemes.

The sports teams from CityU have further extended their dominance in intervarsity sports competitions by winning a record-breaking ninth Grand Slam in the 2016–2017 annual sports competitions. Thirteen local higher education institutions took part in this annual event organised by The University Sports Federation of Hong Kong (USFHK), China. The Grand Slam refers to the men’s and women’s teams winning the overall championships in the same year after competing in 32 sports events. In addition, both the titles of the USFHK Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year went to CityU students. Among the 32 sports events, CityU teams won 12 championships, nine 1st runners-up and five 2nd runners-up. Moreover, 11 CityU athletes were among the 32 players named Most Valuable Player in their respective events.

A Letter of Reasonable Assurance from the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council has been granted to the School of Veterinary Medicine at CityU following an accreditation visit to CityU in December 2016. It will convert into provisional accreditation status on the date that the initial class is admitted to the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (BVM) programme in the fall of 2017.

A CityU research team has recorded a ground-breaking advancement in materials research by developing the first-ever supra-nano magnesium alloy. This new advanced material is 10 times stronger than conventional crystalline magnesium alloy and has super-deformation capacity two times higher than that of magnesium-based metallic glass. Also, the alloy can be developed into biodegradable materials that can be implanted in the human body.

Mr Wong Chun, a graduate of the School of Creative Media, won the Best New Director award at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards for his first feature film Mad World, following his success at the 53rd Taipei Golden Horse Awards last November. In addition to the awards mentioned above, Mr Wong won one of two Best Director awards at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Critics Society.

An exhibition on the theme “Frontier Research and Innovation@CityU” showcasing CityU’s research achievements, product development and advanced technology was held at CityU in April. Over 30 CityU research centres, including two State Key Laboratories and one Chinese National Engineering Research Centre, participated. The event, comprising an exhibition and technology forums, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The French government has bestowed the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur on Professor Lu Jian, Vice-President (Research and Technology) and Dean of Graduate Studies, for his research excellence, promoting values associated with France and strengthening education and research between France, Hong Kong and China. The Légion d’Honneur is the highest national order led by the President of France, who serves as grand master of the order.

A hidden amorphous phase in the formation of metallic glass uncovered by an international research team led by CityU will expedite the development of new and better alloys. Professor Wang Xunli, Chair Professor of Physics and Head of the Department of Physics and Materials Science, headed the project. The discovery has solved a 40-year scientific mystery.

A research project led by CityU aiming at enhancing security and privacy for cloud storage has been awarded HK$5.98 million from the Collaborative Research Fund of the Research Grants Council in the 2016–17 exercise. The project is titled “Security and Privacy-enhancing Technologies for Cloud Storage of Big Data”.

A mobile app that can protect users from phone scams has been developed by a cross-disciplinary research team at CityU at the invitation of the Hong Kong Police Force. A pilot study showed that the majority of participants felt safer with the app installed. The app alerts users to suspicious incoming calls and raises awareness about the risk of scams. A warning message alerts users when incoming fraudulent numbers are identified.

A CityU research team led by Dr Walid Daoud, Associate Professor in the School of Energy and Environment, has combined two energy conversion concepts, namely piezoelectric and triboelectric effects, to create a hybrid system, by which the energy we spend on daily activities can be converted into electrical energy for powering-up smart electronics via a wearable energy-harvesting device. 

Professor Ron Chen Guanrong, Chair Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, was conferred a second-class award under the 2016 State Natural Science Award (SNSA) in recognition of his fundamental achievements in the field of network science.

Professor Ben Leung Kwok-wa, Chair Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering and a member of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, received the highly prestigious First Class Award (Natural Science) in the 2016 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) of the Ministry of Education, China for his research on dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). He is the first researcher to carry out a full-wave analysis of DRA and the first to show that DRAs can be fabricated with glass (Pyrex).

Professor Wang Jun, Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science, received the 2016 Achievement Award at the Wu Wen Jun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Award Ceremony for his outstanding contributions in the advancement of neurodynamic optimisation research. 

Four students from the School of Creative Media and the Department of Electronic Engineering at CityU won the championship at Disney ImagiNations Hong Kong for their development of an interactive campus that encourages teachers and students to take part in creative activities.

The Employers’ Luncheon in March attracted more than 500 participants, including over 300 senior management representatives from reputable employers from a wide spectrum of industries. The Luncheon boosts the University’s ties with the industrial and corporate world and cultivates more opportunities for students to enhance their employability. The luncheon also featured an exhibition displaying students’ excellent achievements.

CityU celebrated student and faculty achievements in discovery, innovation and creativity at the Discovery Festival in March. This annual festival showcases the teaching and learning outcomes originating from CityU’s unique Discovery-enriched Curriculum. In addition, Dr Nicholas Thomas, Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies, was presented with the Teaching Excellence Award at the opening ceremony of the Festival in recognition of his contributions to raising the quality of teaching at CityU. 

Creative media students have transformed data they collected during an expedition to the Coral Triangle in the western Pacific into 17 unique artworks that explore the complex relationships between humans and nature. The artworks were featured in an exhibition titled “Deep Focus” held in the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre in April. 

A delegation led by Professor Way Kuo, President of CityU, strengthened research and collaboration opportunities with institutions in the UK and France during visits in early February. In late February, Professor Kuo led another delegation to Taiwan to introduce the latest developments of the University to secondary school principals and students and media representatives.

More than 100 local tertiary students have pledged to promote computational thinking (CT) education and offer teaching assistance in local primary schools as ambassadors for the CoolThink@JC programme at CityU. The CoolThink@JC programme is a HK$216 million project funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. It aims to promote CT and coding skills in primary schools.

CityU signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Renmin University of China in March for research collaboration on opportunities for Hong Kong’s professional services under the Belt-Road Initiative.

Close to 600 international delegates attended the AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers) Asia 2017 co-organised by CityU and another six universities in Hong Kong and Macau, and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. Mr David Ai Chuan, Director of the Knowledge Transfer Office, was the Chairman of the AUTM Asia 2017 Organising Committee. Bringing together the largest brain trust in the global technology transfer community, this annual conference aims to advance academic technology transfer globally.

The writer and translator Wang Shiwei was heavily criticised during the Yan’an Rectification Campaign, a mass movement initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Wang is known as the firstnamed victim of the CCP’s reform of thinking. The author of this well-received volume spent eight years conducting interviews and research, as well as combining oral history, archival materials, and textual analysis, so that different voices and views are exposed in understanding the failed attempt to reform Wang and many other intellectuals. Critics have praised the book. The writer Zhang Yihe recommended the publication to her 1 million followers on Weibo, saying that she herself understands the significance/ destruction of Yan’an through this book. The critic Liu Zaifu calls the work a major scholarly contribution, while the chief editor of Cosmo Books Sun Lichuan and senior editor of Flower City Publishing House and writer Lin Shang-chi both wrote passionate forewords. Hong Kong writer Liu Wai-tong wrote a long review and was also in dialogue with the author at a book talk.

Kung fu has evolved from a traditional means of defence to become a system of attacking and defending oneself, with or without weapons, exercising the body and maintaining good physical and mental health. As such, these practices have found an international following. Yet what has remained a largely unexplored area is the scientific principles behind these martial arts. 

This publication not only covers a brief history of Chinese martial arts, but also brings together the wisdom of a Kung fu grand master with a scientist and teacher to explain the scientific reasons why this marital art has become such a powerful practice. Using the principles of physics, biomechanics and biology, with a number of drawings showing some basic Kung fu postures, the authors present a deep understanding of how the styles, the specific movements and methods of attack and defence operate.