CityU scholars receive prestigious Fulbright Awards
Dr Fan Ruiping and Dr William K Taylor, Associate Professors in the Department of Public and Social Administration, have been selected as two of the three fellowship recipients of the Fulbright Hong Kong Senior Scholar Awards. Established by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and the Fulbright Programme of the US, the Awards are given to up to four Hong Kong scholars in the social sciences, arts and humanities each year for them to spend between four to 10 months in a major American university or research institute, working on their research projects and giving occasional lectures. Dr Fan will spend six months from 1 January 2008 at the Centre for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, researching on "Recovering the Virtues: Aristotelian and Confucian Approaches", while Dr Taylor will spend 10 months from 1 August 2007 at the School of Industrial and Labour Relations of Cornell University in New York, conducting his research on "Understanding American Views on the Politics of Labour in China".

Teaching Excellence Awards 2006-07
Four staff will receive the Teaching Excellence Awards this year. The Awards were set up to recognize and reward distinguished teachers. The 2006-07 winners are Ms Teresa Dong Qin, Teaching Fellow in the Department of Marketing; Dr Claudian Kwok Siu-kit, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance; Dr Olivia Leung Shek-ling, Assistant Professor in the Department of Accountancy; and Professor Lo Tit-wing in the Department of Applied Social Studies.

The Awards will be presented at the Congregation in November 2007 and the winners' names will be added to the permanently displayed register in the main entrance to the University's Academic Building.

Teachers Update Course 2007
CityU will organize the Teachers Update Course in June and July 2007. There will be seminars and workshops covering the key themes of "Effective Teaching and Learning", "IT in Support of Student Learning", "Language Enhancement", "Supporting Curriculum Change" and "Updating Subject Knowledge". Since 1998, the University has offered the Teachers Update Course free of charge to Hong Kong school principals and secondary school teachers to help update their subject knowledge and knowledge of the latest pedagogical developments. The 2006-07 course will be open for application in mid-May.

BuiltExpo 2007
Entering its 14th year, the BuiltExpo organized by the Division of Building Science and Technology will showcase the final-year projects of students to industrial leaders and the local community on 20 and 21 April under the theme "Building Innovation". Professor Patrick Lau Sau-shing, a member of the Legislative Council, will officiate at the opening ceremony on 20 April.

The 10th Inter-school Straw Competition
Over 350 teams of secondary students from Hong Kong and Macau will compete for prizes in the 10th Hong Kong-Macau Inter-School Straw Competition to be held at CityU on 22 April. Participants will use straws to make a plane and the one which flies the furthest wins. The competition is organized by the Students' Union Physics and Materials Science Society with the support of the Department of Physics and Materials Science, which aims to encourage teenagers to learn the principles of physics through team work and fun activities. It is one of the outreach activities to secondary schools conducted by the University.

Outstanding Academic Papers by Students
Based on the successful pilot scheme launched last year, the Library expanded its Outstanding Academic Papers by Students (OAPS) project to eight academic departments this year. It selected 40 outstanding papers which will be archived in the CityU Institutional Repository, a digital online database for preserving the scholarly output of the University community.

Underwater Robot Challenge 2007
A team of five students from the Department of Electronic Engineering outperformed four other teams to take first place in the university/college group in the Hong Kong Underwater Robot Challenge 2007 on 9 April. The Underwater Robot Challenge first took place last year. Its success with secondary school teachers, students and their parents in 2006 led to an expansion to university and college students this year. After getting enough sponsorship, the CityU team will compete in the International Underwater Robot Challenge to be held at the Marine Institute and the Institute for Ocean Technology, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada, in June 2007.

CityU sports teams grab more prizes
CityU sports teams have achieved more success in the inter-collegiate sports competitions. The women's basketball team and the men's soccer and badminton teams clinched the championship titles. The women's volleyball, badminton and tennis teams and the men's tennis team came second.

HSBC overseas scholarship
Wong Leung-kit, a Year 1 student of the Department of Economics and Finance, has been awarded the HSBC Overseas Scholarship to study at Harvard University in 2007-08. The scholarship provides airfare, tuition fees, room and board, and money towards living expenses during the year abroad.

Kudos
Mr Patrick Tam Ka-ming, Associate Professor of the School of Creative Media, won the Best Director and the Best Screenplay awards with his film After This Our Exile at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards. The film was also selected as the Best Film.

External appointment
Professor (Chair) Rudolf Wu Shiu-sun in the Department of Biology and Chemistry has been appointed by the Chief Executive as a member of the Advisory Council on Food and Environmental Hygiene, HKSAR Government, from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2009.