Earlier this year, Dr Calvin Wong Wai-keung and Prof. Lu Qin received President's Awards for Excellent Performance/Achievement in Teaching (Individual) and Service (Individual), respectively. Thirty-six other staff members were also presented Faculty/School Awards for Outstanding Performance/Achievement in recognition of their outstanding achievements in teaching, research and scholarly activities as well as services.
Associate Professor and Associate Head Institute of Textiles and Clothing
Dr Calvin Wong is an inspiring teacher who maximizes student learning. He excels at adopting innovative approaches to strengthening interactive learning environments. In addition to the use of real-life cases, video and hands-on practice, Dr Wong's teaching innovations include the "Technology-based Simulated Fashion Shop" and the "Interactive Team-based Simulation Project". He believes that students not only acquire in-depth subject knowledge but also boost and develop their creativity and critical thinking skills through role-playing in simulated environments. To create a research culture, Dr Wong initiated the "Research Student Seminar Day", which is held every semester for research students, undergraduate students and academics to exchange research ideas and discuss research-related matters.
With a strong belief in teaching-research integration, Dr Wong devotes himself to innovative research for which he has received many local and international awards. He has also published high impact research articles in top-tier journals. One of his publications was ranked by Essential Science Indicators as in the top 1% of the most cited articles in his field.
Professor and Associate Head Department of Computing
Prof. Lu Qin is at the global forefront of encoding Chinese characters in the computing field. Leading an international team of experts from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the UK and the US, Prof. Lu developed the combined International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission 10646, providing over 80,000 Chinese characters that are used by almost all computer platforms. She also pioneered the development of the code set announcement scheme that enables computer systems to display web pages written in different languages. With her contribution and support, the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set – the first open technical standard developed in the name of the Hong Kong government – is now widely used and supported in all Chinese computer systems in Hong Kong.
Prof. Lu has received over HK$7 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund to carry out various infrastructure projects that place Hong Kong on solid ground to embrace open system platforms in support of Chinese information processing and interchange. She has also secured funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club to successfully develop the first Chinese computer interface for the visually impaired using "text-to-speech" technology. Her contributions to the technological development of electronic communications in Chinese for Hong Kong and the Greater China region were deservedly recognized by the Hong Kong government with a Medal of Honour in 2012. ♦
