After three long years of pandemic, we finally gathered to recognize the achievements of our students who obtained outstanding HKDSE results from 2019 to 2022 at the Dean of Engineering Scholarship Ceremony on July 5, 2023 at HKUST. The long-awaited ceremony was filled with excitement and anticipation. A total of 131 individuals from 70 schools graced the event, including 26 high school principals, nine vice-principals and 30 teachers who showed their love and support for their past students.

The ceremony started on a high note with President Prof. Nancy IP’s welcome remarks. She congratulated the group of outstanding scholarship recipients and emphasized the importance of technological innovation in driving economic growth. “We embrace openness, diversity, and inclusiveness, and we value whole-person development. HKUST 2.0 is the establishment of our Guangzhou campus, while HKUST 3.0 is the further development of our Clear Water Bay campus. We are also building an HKUST innovation park near our campus, which will provide a platform for collaboration between academia and industry. The University has a proven track record of fostering creativity and entrepreneurship with HKUST members nurturing over 1,600 active start-ups, nine unicorns, and nine listed companies to date. Going forward, we will continue to provide support for our faculty, students, and alumni. Together, we will propel HKUST to be the most innovative university in Asia.”

After Prof. Ip’s speech, Dean of Engineering Prof. Hong K. LO took the stage to introduce the School of Engineering (SENG), highlighting the unique benefits it offers to students. “At HKUST, we place a great deal of importance on student wellness. We have assigned a Student Wellness Manager to provide guidance and support in all areas of student life, which means addressing not only academic needs, but also social, emotional, and institutional attachment factors,” he added. “As a key champion in transforming engineering education, we have the Undergraduate Student-initiated Experiential Learning (USEL) program and community service program such as Student Innovation for Global Health Technology (SIGHT) for our students to learn beyond the classroom.”

Prof. Tim WOO, Director of the Center for Global and Community Engagement, who supervises the HKUST Robotics Team, as well as team member and 2021 scholarship recipient Azalea LO Hiu-Ching (Year 2, BEng in Computer Engineering), shared the remarkable efforts of the team, which has garnered a reputation as one of the most sought-after student groups for HKUST students to join.

Joining the team from Year 1, Azalea is now a senior member who holds a leadership role in the Robocon Team (a sub-team of the Robotics Team). Despite her academic background in computer engineering, she is responsible for the mechanical aspects of the team’s operations. This highlights the interdisciplinary nature of HKUST’s education and that female students can do well in engineering too.

In his closing remarks, Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies) Prof. WANG Yu-Hsing emphasized the importance of individual contributions. “If we all do a little, share, contribute, and put in effort, we can make a difference. As educators, it is our collective responsibility to nurture our future leaders and engineers,” he concluded.

The attendees were also amazed by the alumni and student showcase. The air was filled with the electrifying buzz of conversation as participants savored the tantalizing array of cocktails, expertly crafted by Hong Kong’s very first automated cocktail machine developed by SENG alumni’s start-up XOXO Beverages. Adding to the spectacle, the reception also featured an award-winning six-legged robot from the Robotics Team. The robot received a silver medal at RoboGames 2023, an international robot competition in California, US.