Speakers

Sections

Guests of Honor

Prof. Wei SHYY, JP
President,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Wei SHYY, JP
Professor Wei Shyy is the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is concurrently Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining HKUST in August 2010 as Provost, he was Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson Collegiate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Michigan. He was previously employed by the University of Florida and GE Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York. He earned his BS degree from Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, and his MSE and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He is the author or a co-author of five books and numerous journal and conference articles dealing with computational and modeling techniques involving fluid flow, biological and low Reynolds number aerodynamics, combustion and propulsion, and a broad range of topics related to aerial and space flight vehicles. He is General Editor of the Cambridge Aerospace Book Series published by the Cambridge University Press, Co-Editor-in Chief of Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, a major reference work published by Wiley-Blackwell. He also serves as editor and member of editorial board of numerous peer reviewed journals.

Prof. Shyy is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has received awards for his research and professional contributions, including the AIAA 2003 Pendray Aerospace Literature Award, the ASME 2005 Heat Transfer Memorial Award, and The Engineers’ Council (Sherman Oaks, CA) 2009 Distinguished Educator Award. He has also served as a consultant and on a number of national and international committees to support and review numerous private and public organizations as well as higher educational institutes. His professional views have been quoted in various news media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, the USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, and the US News & World Report. Prof. Shyy has supervised more than 45 PhD students and mentored many postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars.

As an academic leader, Prof. Shyy has consistently advocated broadening the educational scope and approach, advancing research and knowledge transfer to help address global challenges. He is committed to promoting university’s societal engagement and independent, entrepreneurial spirit. He has also led efforts in fostering diverse and inclusive campus cultures to better reflect and support the university’s overall mission.

Prof. Lionel M. NI
President,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

Prof. Lionel M. NI
Professor Lionel M. Ni took office as the Provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on May 16, 2019. He is concurrently Chair Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Prior to this, he was Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) and Chair Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Macau. From July 2002 to December 2014, he served at HKUST in various capacities including Chair Professor and Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School and Special Assistant to the President.

Professor Ni earned his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1980. He was Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University (1981 to 2002), the Microelectronic Systems Architecture program director at US National Science Foundation (1995-1996) and co-founder and CEO of CC&T Technologies, Inc., Michigan (1998-2001), and the Chief Scientist of the China’s National 973 Program on Wireless Sensor Networks (2006 to 2011).

Professor Ni’s research publications have received strong support with over 32,000 citations on Google Scholar. The winner of 8 best paper awards, he has multiple achievements including ownership of 27 US/China patents and having supervised 71 PhD students. A Life Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Professor Ni won the Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award from China Computer Federation in 2009, the First Class Award in Natural Sciences from the Ministry of Education, China in 2010, the Second Class Award in Natural Sciences for Research Excellence from the State Council, China in 2011, and the First Class Award in Science and Technology from the Guangdong Province in 2014.

Prof. Max SHEN
Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research),
The University of Hong Kong

Prof. Max SHEN
Concurrent with his role as Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Professor Shen is appointed as Chair Professor jointly in the Faculty of Engineering (Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering) and the Faculty of Business and Economics.

Professor Shen obtained his PhD from Northwestern University, USA in 2000. He started his academic career as Assistant Professor at the University of Florida in the same year, and joined the University of California, Berkeley in 2004, where he rose through the academic ranks to become Chancellor's Professor and Chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He was also a Centre Director at the Tsinghua-Berkeley Institute in Shenzhen and an Honorary Professor at Tsinghua University, China. Professor Shen joined HKU in 2021.

With research interests in the areas of logistics and supply chain management, data-driven decision making, and system optimization, Professor Shen's research programmes cut through businesses, energy systems, transportation systems, smart city, healthcare management, and environmental protection. He has worked closely with industries and has a strong track record of securing major research grants from government agencies and private companies. PhD students he graduated now hold positions in top universities in North America, Europe, and China as well as in leading technological companies worldwide.

Internationally recognized as a top scholar in his field, Professor Shen is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the President-Elect of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), and a past President of the Society of Locational Analysis of INFORMS.

Prof. Wai-Yee CHAN
Pro-Vice-Chancellor/Vice President and Li Ka Shing Professor of Biomedical Sciences,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Prof. Wai-Yee Chan
Prof. Chan obtained his BSc (Hon. 1st Class) in Chemistry from CUHK in 1974 and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Florida in 1977. In June 2009, Prof. Chan established the School of Biomedical Sciences, CUHK and served as the Founding Director and Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences. He was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor/Vice President of CUHK in August 2018.

Prof. Chan is very active in the scientific community, both locally and internationally. He has served as President of the Association of Chinese Geneticists in America and a member of the Development Committee of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in the USA.

Currently Prof. Chan is the President of Hong Kong Institution of Science, Council Member of the Shaw Prize Foundation, a member of the Hospital Authority, a member of Research Grant Council, a Director of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Genome Institute, a Specialist for the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications, and a member of the Board of Directors of Joshua Hellmann Foundation for Orphan Diseases.

Keynote Speakers

Prof. K C CHAN, GBS, JP
Adjunct Professor of Finance,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Former Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, HKSARG

Prof. K. C. CHAN, GBS, JP
Prof. K. C. Chan is Adjunct Professor and Senior Advisor to the Dean at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Business School. He was appointed as Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from July 2007 to June 2017. Prior to that, he was Dean of Business and Management in the HKUST. Before joining the HKUST Business School in 1993, Prof. Chan had spent nine years teaching at Ohio State University in the United States.

Prof. Chan received his bachelor's degree in economics from Wesleyan University and his M.B.A. and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago. He specialised in assets pricing, evaluation of trading strategies and market efficiency and has published numerous articles on these topics.

Prof. Chan held a number of public service positions including Chairman of the Consumer Council, Director of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange, and Member of the Commission on Strategic Development, Commission on Poverty, the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee, the Hang Seng Index Advisory Committee, and the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation. He was former President of the Asian Finance Association and President of Association of Asia Pacific Business Schools.

Prof. Peretz LAVIE
President Emeritus of Israel Institute of Technology

Prof. Peretz LAVIE
Prof. Peretz Lavie joined the Technion Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in 1975 where he served as Dean from 1993-1999. In 2001 he was appointed as the Vice President of External Relations and Resource Development and from 2009-2019 he served as President of the Technion. He was the first President in the history of Technion to be elected for a third term serving a total of ten years.

Under his leadership the Technion stands among the top 100 world class research universities, distinguished by academic excellence, interdisciplinary research strategy, innovative globalization and financial stability. During his tenure, the Technion has recorded a number of impressive achievements led by the recruitment of more than 250 new faculty members, which involved raising extensive resources. He has led a transformational change in the quality of teaching on campus and in students’ satisfaction.

Prof Lavie conceived and played a principal role in the Technion's expansion to New York where, together with Cornell University, the Jacobs Technion Cornell Institute (JTCI) was opened on Roosevelt Island. Similarly, in China the Technion established the Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) in Shantou.  After his retirement from the presidency in 2019, he was appointed by the President of Israel to chair the National Council for Civilian Research and Development. 

Prof. Lavie is considered one of the founders of sleep medicine, publishing more than 400 scientific articles and eight books in the field of sleep research and sleep disorders. His book “The Enchanted World of Sleep" has been translated into 15 languages including Chinese and Japanese. His research has won many prizes, including the EMET prize in medicine (2006), the most prestigious prize for academic achievements in Israel. He is the founder and co-founder of 5 companies that develop and produce medical devices for sleep medicine and cardiology and provide diagnostic services. He is married to Dr. Lena Lavie, a cell biologist; they have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

Prof. Harvey F. LODISH
Founding Member,
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Professor of Biology & Professor of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Prof. Harvey F. LODISH
Member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research,
Professor of Biology and Professor of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A leader in the field of molecular and cellular biology, Dr. Harvey F. Lodish has isolated and cloned numerous surface membrane proteins that play a role in blood development, cell signaling, glucose transport, and lipid metabolism.

He earned his PhD at the Rockefeller University in 1966, and was a postdoctoral fellow with Sydney Brenner and Francis Crick at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

A Founding Member of the Whitehead Institute, Dr. Lodish joined the MIT faculty in 1968 and has been Professor of Biology since 1976 and Professor of Biological Engineering since 1999.

Dr. Lodish is also the lead author of the widely used textbook Molecular Cell Biology. The book has been translated into 14 languages and the ninth edition appeared in January, 2021.

He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Microbiology, an Associate (Foreign) Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.

He received the 2010 Mentoring Award from the American Society of Hematology, the 2016 American Society for Cell Biology WICB Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Mentoring Award, the 2016 Pioneer Award from the Diamond Blackfan Anemia Foundation, and the Metcalf Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Experimental Hematology in 2020.

During the 2004 calendar year Dr. Lodish served as President of the American Society for Cell Biology.

Dr. Lodish is the lead author of the textbook Molecular Cell Biology. The ninth edition was published in January 2021 and the book has been translated into 13 languages.

Dr. Lodish was a founder and scientific advisory board member of Genzyme, Inc., Arris Pharmaceuticals, Inc, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In 2014, together with Flagship Ventures, he started Rubius, a now public company developing genetically modified human red blood cells for multiple therapeutic indications. Together with two parents of children with Dravet Syndrome, he founded Tevard, a company developing novel gene therapy therapeutics for several genetic brain and other disorders. And with two former students he founded Carmine, which develops red cell extracellular vesicles as gene delivery vehicles. 

He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Eisai Research Institute in Massachusetts and on the Scientific Advisory Board of Astra and then AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. He has testified as an expert witness in seven high- profile biotechnology patent trials in Federal Court, notably Amgen vs. TKT Aventis in 2000, Amgen vs. Roche in 2009, and Biogen vs. Merck - Serono in 2018. He was on the winning side in all.

Featured Speakers/Panelists

Moderators

Prof. Tim Kwang-Ting CHENG
Dean of Engineering & Director of HKUST-WeBank Joint Lab,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Tim Kwang-Ting CHENG
Prof. Tim CHENG Kwang-Ting became the Dean of Engineering in May 2016 in concurrence with his appointment as Chair Professor jointly in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1988 with a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Before joining HKUST, he was a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he served since 1993. Prior to teaching at UC Santa Barbara, he spent five years at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

At UC Santa Barbara, Prof. Cheng had taken up various important academic leadership roles, such as Founding Director of the Computer Engineering Program from 1999 to 2002, Chair of Department of ECE from 2005 to 2008, Acting Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research in 2013 and Associate Vice-Chancellor for Research from 2014 to 2016 where he helped oversee the research development, infrastructure, and compliance of UCSB’s research enterprise with over US$200 million extramural research funding. A highly respected teacher-scholar and internationally leading researcher with excellent experience in fostering cross-disciplinary research collaboration, Prof. Cheng is a world authority in the field of VLSI testing and design verification, as well as an impactful contributor across a wide range of research areas including design automation of electronic and photonic systems, mobile computer vision, and learning-based multimedia computing. He had previously served as Director of the US Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Center for 3D Hybrid Circuits which integrated CMOS and nano-memristors for future computing systems. He has published more than 400 technical papers, co-authored five books, held 12 US patents, and transferred several of his inventions into successful commercial products. He is a Fellow of IEEE and his works are of high impact with due recognition from the field, including 11 best paper awards and one Distinguished Paper Citation in major conferences and journals. He was also recognized as the Top 10 Author in Fourth Decade Award and Design Automation Conference (DAC) Prolific Author Award at the 50th DAC 2013.

Prof. Cheng has been very active in providing professional services to the IEEE and to the academic community at large. Having served as the editor-in-chief of IEEE Design & Test of Computers, on the boards of IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation’s Board of Governors and IEEE Computer Society’s Publications Board, and on various technology advisory or working groups including the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), Prof. Cheng has been internationally known as an eminent member of the field.

Prof. King L. CHOW
Acting Dean of Students & Professor of Life Science and Biomedical Engineering,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. King L. CHOW
Prof. Chow, received his PhD in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He was a Belfer Fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine before joining HKUST. His own research focuses on molecular genetics of body patterning, neural development, synthetic and evolutionary biology, and he runs a laboratory with diverse model organisms. He experimented extensive on various teaching pedagogy including exploratory project course, MOOC and extensive flipped classes, and was awarded the Science School Teaching Award and the Michael G. Gale Medal of distinguished teaching at HKUST. He also heads the Center for Development of the Gifted and Talented nurturing gifted students. Over the years, he has set up a number of successful undergraduate and graduate programs, e.g., Mol. Biomed. Sci., Bioengineering, Individualized Indterdisciplinary Major, etc. He served as Academic Director of the Common Core Program, the Director of Interdisciplinary Programs Office overseeing the development of Environment, Sustainability, Public Policy, Technology Management, Risk Management and Business Intelligence, as well as currently as the Dean of Students.

Prof. Naubahar SHARIF
Acting Head and Professor, Division of Public Policy
Professor, Division of Integrative Systems and Design
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Naubahar SHARIF
Naubahar Sharif (Ph.D., Cornell University, 2005) is Professor of Public Policy at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His research interests include science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in Hong Kong and within the ‘Greater Bay Area’ of Southern China; automation in China; and the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. In 2011 he completed the Executive Education program in Innovation for Economic Development at Harvard University. A dedicated teacher, at HKUST he has been nominated for the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching, also having won the Interdisciplinary Programs Office’s Teaching Excellence Award (in 2020), the School of Humanities and Social Science (SHSS) Best Teacher Award (twice, in 2009 and 2016), and one of his courses was nominated for the Common Core Excellence award. Naubahar has been awarded both ‘Public Policy Research’ (PPR) and ‘General Research Fund’ (GRF) grants by Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council (RGC). Currently, Naubahar is a co-investigator for two ‘Strategic Public Policy Research’ (SPPR) grants awarded by Hong Kong’s Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office (PICO) as well as a cross-institutional ‘Collaborative Research Fund’ (CRF) grant also awarded by the RGC. He has had numerous articles published in leading journals including Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, The China Journal, and Science, Technology and Human Values. From 2006–2010, Naubahar consulted for Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). Naubahar’s research has had a demonstrable impact on business and his research was one of HKUST’s few ‘impact case study’ submissions (sole-authored) for its 2020 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). He frequently writes opinion pieces for local newspapers including the China Daily (Hong Kong Edition) and the South China Morning Post, and he has been featured in local print media as well as local television. On a voluntary basis, Naubahar presently serves as a Distinguished Research Fellow at a private independent school in Hong Kong, as Honorary Professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), as a Council Member for the Hong Kong Sociological Association (HKSA), as Senior Advisor to The Joseph Needham Foundation for Science & Civilisation (Hong Kong), as a Member of the HKSAR Government Advisory Committee on Mental Health, and as an Appointed Member of the HKSAR Government’s Mental Health Review Tribunal.
 

Prof. Bert SHI
Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Bert SHI
Bert is a Professor at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He initiated and now serves as director of the Master of Science program in Electronic Engineering. He is a member of the Human Language Technology and Automation Technology centers. Between 2001-2008, he was Director of the Consumer Media Laboratory.

His research interests are in bio-inspired and neuromorphic engineering, analog VLSI and cellular neural networks, machine vision, and image processing. Most recently, his research team has been building large-scale neuromorphic implementations of functional models of visual cortical neurons using either mixed-signal custom VLSI chip, or embedded system designs using DSP and FPGA chips. He was elected Fellow of the IEEE in for his contributions to the analysis, implementation and application of cellular neural networks. He is currently serving his second term as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. For the past eight years, he has organized or co-organized the Vision Chips/Vision Systems workgroup at the Telluride Neuromorphic Engineering Workshop.

Bert has been both an Associate and a Guest Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I. He helped found the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Technical Committee on Cellular Neural Networks and Array Computing, serving as its first Secretary and later as Chairman. He was Technical Program Chair for the 2004 IEEE International Workshop on Cellular Neural Networks and their Applications, and was the General Chair in 2005.

He received the B.S. with distinction and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Prof. Xun WU
Associate Director of IPO (Taught Postgraduate Studies) & Professor of Public Policy,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Prof. Xun WU
Professor Xun WU is a professor at the Division of Public Policy and the Division of Social Science.

Professor Wu is a policy scientist with a strong interest in the linkage between policy analysis and public management. Trained in engineering, economics, public administration, and policy analysis, his research seeks to make contribution to the design of effective public policies in dealing emerging policy challenges across Asian countries. His research interests include policy innovations, water resource management, health policy reform, and anti-corruption, and his work has been published in top journals in his fields of study, such as Policy Sciences, Public Administration Review, Governance, Social Sciences & Medicine, and Water Resources Research. He is a co-editor of the Cambridge Studies in Comparative Public Policy, and Cambridge Elements in Public Policy.

He has been involved extensively in consultancy and executive education. He has consulted for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNEP, International Vaccine Institute, and numerous government agencies on a variety of topics, such as infrastructure planning and development, environmental and social impact assessment, design and implementation of randomized control trials (RCTs), and Public-Private Partnership. He has designed and delivered customized executive education programs in policy development, leadership, and public sector management for a diverse range of clients, such as Bank of Indonesia, Yunnan Provincial Government of China, Public Utilities Board (PUB) of Singapore, General Secretariat of the Executive Council (GSEC) of UAE, and Ministry of Water Resources of Nepal.

Prior to joining HKUST, he held a faculty position (2001-2015) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore, while serving as the Director of the Institute of Water Policy. He had also worked as a lecturer in Renmin University of China (1988-1992) and a survey specialist at the World Bank (2000-2001).

His media expertise includes infrastructure development, water security, health policy reform and anti-corruption.