HKUST Annual Report 2022-2023

6 7 with new recruits under schemes driving research projects on pressing societal issues in six HKUST areas of focus: Biomedical Science and Translational Medicine; Material Science and Future Energy; AI, Future Computing, and Electronics; Innovation for Business Management and FinTech; Environmental Science – Sustainability and Green Tech; and Art Tech and Humanities. Notable senior management talent onboarded this year includes top international computer scientist, Prof. GUO Yike, as Provost, as well as two accomplished homegrown academics and administrators, Prof. WONG Yung-Hou and Prof. LO Hong-Kam, as Dean of Science and Dean of Engineering, respectively. The recent passage of the HKUST(Amendment) Bill by the Legislative Council in July 2023 removed the cap on the number of Vice-Presidents and provides increased flexibility for manpower planning, particularly for the HKUST 3.0 Vision Plan. Education Innovation Daring to boldly widen our educational horizons is in our DNA. To bring interdisciplinary innovation to more areas, we are elevating the Interdisciplinary Programs Office to become the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies. In addition, HKUST has taken a pace-setting approach to the mass adoption of generative AI, being the first local university to embrace this technological advance. Following consultations with faculty and students, the University issued a set of guidelines in March 2023. We also launched the Education and Generative AI Fund to encourage faculty to integrate generative AI tools into their teaching and learning. To provide opportunities to actively explore the development of AI and ensure accessibility, equity, and security to all members of the HKUST community, in June 2023, we made HKUST ChatGPT, along with tutorials and training kits, available to all members of the University. Dual-Campus Collaboration We continued to pioneer dual-campus higher education with the first year of HKUST(GZ). Under the innovative “Unified HKUST, Complementary Campuses” framework, both HKUST in Clear Water Bay and HKUST(GZ) in Nansha collaborate closely on academic programs, research, and facilities while retaining their own unique positioning. We saw HKUST(GZ) begin recruiting its first undergraduates to start in 2023-24. Our commitment to consistent standards was emphasized by the setting up of a Joint Academic Board: a consultative mechanism to ensure comparable quality of academic offerings by the two campuses. Administrative collaboration and clarity on governance were also enhanced through the establishment of the Cross-campus Coordination Framework and the improvement of the Governance Framework of HKUST(GZ). Addressing Global Challenges to Impact Society On the research front, the University has maintained the pace of discovery and generation of solutions to address pressing global challenges. Breakthroughs over the year included the development of innovative polymer technologies targeting three chronic conditions (i.e. dry eye disease, macular degeneration, and knee osteoarthritis), which was one of the three winners of “Gold Medals with Congratulations of the Jury” presented at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva. We were delighted that our institution’s first attendance at this acclaimed event was so successful, with our 19 teams collecting 20 awards for their inventions. Other breakthroughs this year include a mobile app that helps find missing dementia patients through crowdsourcing and Bluetooth positioning technology as well as an extreme rainstorm database to boost insights for flood preparedness. It is also delightful to see the significant societal impacts resulting from our holistic knowledge transfer ecosystem. Our comprehensive support helps students and faculty move their research breakthroughs from lab to market and champions the entrepreneurial spirit. Indeed, as the first university in Hong Kong to emphasize campus- wide entrepreneurship, the HKUST community has been incredibly successful: over 1,700 active start-ups have been founded, including nine unicorns and 11 exits (i.e. IPOs or mergers and acquisitions), which generated over HK$400 billion in economic impact as of June 2023. Expansion of Our Footprint To further energize our contributions to innovation and technology, considerable development at our Clear Water Bay campus is underway or planned. In November 2022,