News and Kudos

CBS Research Assistant Professor’s project nominated for the World Summit on the Information Society Prizes 2022

Conducted by CBS Research Assistant Professor Dr. CHERSONI Emmanuele, PhD graduate Dr. Enrico SANTUS and the team of the University of Udine in Italy, a project on using Natural Language Processing technologies for monitoring and analysing COVID-19 vaccine opinions on Twitter has been nominated for the "E-science" category of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2022. Directly sponsored by the United Nations, the WSIS Prizes 2022 is a global event that recognises WSIS stakeholders by identifying and showcasing their successful and impactful ICT-related implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Out of a thousand submitted proposals, the team’s work was selected together with other 19 outstanding projects that promote beneficial ICT applications in the field of E-science. Congratulations!   Details of WSIS Prizes 2022: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Prizes/2022/ Project website: http://ailab.uniud.it/covid-vaccines/

Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU CBS 2022 - Result Announcement

The Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU CBS aims to give public recognition to outstanding CBS graduates for their professional achievements and significant contributions to the community and their alma mater. We are delighted to announce the following result of the CBS Outstanding Alumni Award 2022:   Dr. Enrico SANTUS Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Professional Achievement of PolyU CBS 2022   Ms. Zelia WONG Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Community Service Achievement of PolyU CBS 2022     Read more about the stories of our awardees:     Dr. Enrico SANTUS Doctor of Philosophy, The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, 2017 Currently the Director (AI and ML) at Bayer, Dr. Santus is being honoured for his remarkable professional achievement in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). He was granted the Hong Kong PhD fellowship to pursue a PhD in Computational Linguistics at PolyU and followed by three years of postdoctoral fellowships at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Santus has been dedicated to the research and application of AI for various purposes including sentiment analysis, fintech, healthcare, fake news detection and deciphering lost languages. In his current workplace, he has contributed to the exploration, design and implementation of numerous AI solutions for pharmaceutical and crop sciences. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has supported numerous efforts against the virus and toward a more sustainable, effective and personalized healthcare system. Being recognized as a young and innovative expert in the field, Dr. Santus is indeed a successful interdisciplinary talent with a strong presence in both academia and the industry. He is an active NLP champion who published over 69 papers in top-tier conferences and journals and received numerous grants and awards. He advises several laboratories, foundations and start-ups and his projects have been featured in mainstream media around the world. He was the first author of a fact sheet about AI for the American Congress, while he was also invited to speak at the White House Office of Records Management in 2019.      Ms. Zelia WONG BA (Hons) Language Studies for the Professions, 2008 Ms. Wong is an award-winning professional emcee with a heart to serve the community. During her studies at CBS, she volunteered to teach Chinese to ethnic minority students and since graduation, she has devoted a great deal of time and effort in leveraging her expertise to benefit the underprivileged community and create positive impacts on society. Ms. Wong has served as the key player in several charitable organizations, and her sterling contributions include hosting fundraising events that helped students in rural areas of Mainland China; initiating the largest sign language lesson that set a new Guinness World Record to promote social inclusion; and volunteering in the training courses for local non-profit organizations such as Border District, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and Reading Dreams Foundation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Wong has been actively engaged in supporting different walks of life in Hong Kong. To support the beauty industry in overcoming the financial downturn, she hosted over 20 online talks to promote the pandemic relief measures and organised online training courses that benefited more than 200 businesses. Meanwhile, she has also provided free online courses for children from low-income families. As a successful practitioner in the industry, Ms. Wong is also keen on giving back to her alma mater. She was the emcee of the previous PolyU alumni award ceremony and several departmental homecoming dinners, while she has also offered guest lectures for CBS classes and served as a mentor for CBS Mentorship Programme since 2019.     Congratulations to the two outstanding CBS alumni who are accomplished in their respective fields and draw positive attention to their alma mater. We would also like to thank the panel of judges for their commitment to the selection process.

CBS-trained student’s paper selected for an international academic forum

Miss Tin Yan MOK, a secondary school student participant of the PolyU Junior Research Mentoring Programme trained by CBS team, has been selected for a poster presentation at the 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing with the team’s work on the topic of Language and Dementia in Ageing. As the team representative, Miss Mok will present their linguistic research among many top-ranked and top-reviewed selected papers. A big round of applause to the high-achieving student, as well as the CBS mentors Professor Wang Shiyuan and PhD student Ms Hui Nga Yan who provided kind guidance and support to make it happen. We will continue putting effort into knowledge transfer and talent development activities with an aim to educate and empower young people.

CBS Professors win the President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2021

Congratulations to our Prof. CHAN Shui Duen and Prof. ZHU Xinhua, who were awarded the Team Award - Knowledge Transfer: Society under PolyU President’s Awards 2021 in recognition of their remarkable leadership and commitments to the research and service projects that benefit non-Chinese speaking students and learners of the Chinese language in Hong Kong. The President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2021 is a university-wide award to recognise the distinguished accomplishments and contributions of PolyU staff members.

Successful Second Grant from the Gifted Education Fund of Education Bureau

Building on the success of our previous Linguistic Training and Internship Programme, we are delighted to announce that our second application to the Gifted Education Fund has been successful. The project, entitled Multilingual Communication Training and Cross-Cultural Communication Course for Future Leaders, will run for 15 months with funding support from the Education Bureau. The target participants range from Secondary 1 students to Secondary 5 students in Hong Kong. In addition to the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) as the host, our partners include the Department of English and Communication (ENGL), HK PolyU-PKU Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics, Centre for Translation Studies (CTS), Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE), International Research Centre for the Advancement of Healthcare Communication (IRCAHC), as well as The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK).  

CBS Postgraduate Scholarships 2022/23

In order to recruit high-calibre students who are determined to pursue academic research, the MA Scheme in Chinese, Linguistics and Translation is launching two scholarships in the 2022/23 academic year. CBS Postgraduate Scholarship is an entry scholarship, which offers a 50% tuition waiver to applicants with outstanding intellectual potential to complete an MA thesis and have achieved excellent academic results in the qualifications already obtained. CBS Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship is a graduation scholarship, which worth 50% of the tuition fee for graduates who have completed their MA thesis and graduated with excellent academic achievements. Distinguished students may receive both scholarships, which will be awarded full tuition fee in total. No separate application is required for the scholarships. Applicants who have submitted their application by 31 March 2022 will be automatically considered for the Entry Scholarship through the admission interview process.

Secretary for Food and Health visits Speech Therapy Unit

On 15 December, the Secretary for Food and Health Prof. Sophia CHAN visited our Speech Therapy Unit (STU) as part of her campus tour at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  During the visit, our Head of Department and speech therapy team introduced our speech therapy services and the training facilities of STU to Prof. Chan. We were delighted to have the opportunity to share with Prof. Chan our new initiatives regarding the speech therapy services and the training of speech therapists, and grateful for the enlightening feedback and insights about the development of speech therapy in Hong Kong. 

CBS undergraduate student wins The Most Outstanding PolyU Student Award 2021

Miss HO Hiu Man, a student of BA (Hons) in Chinese and Bilingual Studies (BACBS), was awarded the Most Outstanding PolyU Student Award 2021 in recognition of her exceptional academic performance and all-round quality.   As an avid lover of Chinese language and literature, she often writes and publishes articles about linguistics and translation as well as modern Chinese poetries. She is also active in community services with the examples of mentoring secondary school students, volunteering for the local film festival and film regulatory agency, and initiating a mental health campaign to support PolyU students and staff. Dedicated to preserving and promoting Cantonese opera, she worked as a docent at Xiqu Centre and participated in the Peking University Summer School to learn about different techniques of cultural preservation.   We are proud to have Miss Ho, a highly self-motivated model student who brings positive value and impact to peers. Congratulations!   Online media coverage: Ming Pao Daily News; Hong Kong Economic Times and Wen Wei Po.  

CBS postgraduate students win the 1st prize in the 8th China University Students PR Plan Contest

Congratulations to three students of MA in Bilingual Corporate Communication (MABCC), namely LU Wen Xin, DONG Zhijie and XIONG Chengchen, who achieved an outstanding result in the 8th China University Students PR Plan Contest held in Beijing this October. The competition was organized by the China International Public Relations Associations (CIPRA) and the judging panel was formed by industry leaders in Public Relations.   Representing The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the MABCC student team “EMO” has successfully stood out from more than 1,300 competitors and won the first prize as one of the top 16 teams, and was awarded the bronze medal in the final round. We are truly proud of the splendid achievement of our MABCC students, while also appreciating the efforts of the CBS professors Dr. Cindy Ngai and Mr. Baniel Cheung, who have provided the students with professional advice and coaching.   Details of the competition: https://cusprpc2021.cipra.org.cn/4/202110/7724.html

CBS Associate Professor participates in the 4th World Laureates Forum

CBS Associate Professor Dr. ZHANG Caicai has participated in the 4th World Laureates Forum (WLF), the foremost scientific conference held in Shanghai during 1-3 November 2021. The international forum involved world-renowned senior scientists including Nobel Laureates as well as selected young scientists. As the only one from Asia in the Young Scientists Forum: Neuroscience, Psychology and Cognitive Science, Dr. Zhang presented her research on the neurobiology of language from the perspective of interaction with other cognitive systems.   Details and replay of the forum: https://wlf2021.wlaforum.com/#/agenda-details/365