News and Kudos

PolyU-trained students achieve brilliant results in the 19th International Linguistics Olympiad

Trained by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) and the Department of English and Communication (ENGL), the Hong Kong student representatives have achieved excellent results in the Nineteenth International Linguistics Olympiad (19th IOL), held at Isle of Man on 25-29 July 2022. Competing with 184 contestants from 50 teams, the four-member team has won one silver medal and one bronze medal in the individual contest, and an Honorary Mention in the team contest. In addition, the Hong Kong team has captured two best solution awards (out of the total of 10 awards) and is the only team that won multiple best solution awards in the competition. Congratulations! The IOL, held since 2003, is one of the 13 officially recognized International Science Olympiads for secondary school students. The four team members this year are from Diocesan Boys’ School (2), La Salle College and Pui Ching Middle School, selected based on Hong Kong participants' performances at the Asia Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO) and the Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad held earlier. A team of experts in Hong Kong, led by CBS and ENGL of PolyU, provides regular training sessions on linguistics olympiads for gifted talents in language and communication.   Full results of 19th IOL: https://ioling.org/results/2022

CBS student wins the HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship

Ms. MAN Cheuk Lam, Year 1 student of BA (Hons) in Linguistics and Translation (BALT), was awarded the prestigious HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship (HK$50,000) in recognition of her outstanding academic performance and active contribution in community services in Hong Kong. Congratulations!

CBS PhD student brings home the 1st prize in translation competition

CBS PhD student Miss ZENG Weixin won the first prize in the 7th Paper Competition of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Postgraduate Academic Exchanges in Foreign Languages and Translation Studies 2022. Co-organised by Guangdong Society of Foreign Languages, Guangdong Provincial Foreign Literature Association, Hong Kong Translation Society and Sun Yat-sen University, the competition has received 254 thesis submissions from 86 universities across the Greater Bay Area, covering various topics including foreign literature, linguistics and applied linguistics, translation studies, intercultural studies, and international and regional studies. Out of 12 finalists, Miss Zeng was awarded the first prize and expressed that this opportunity has allowed her to gain a deeper understanding of academic research and inspirations. Well done!   Details of the competition: https://www.sysu.edu.cn/news/info/1901/688711.htm Online coverage: https://polyu.me/3mP82g4

CBS Assistant Professor wins the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022

CBS Assistant Professor Dr. CHEN Si has been awarded the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022, with her research focus on “Robot-assisted training for children with autism spectrum disorder”. Multilingual and multimodal robot-assisted training programs have been developed to improve the use of speech prosody and cross-domain emotion recognition of autistic children in Hong Kong. The PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) is a university-wide award to honour young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problems in society with a vision for a positive change to the future. Among 59 submissions across 22 departments covering all faculties and schools, Dr. Chen has been selected as one of the six YIRA awardees and received research funding support of HK$500,000 and a personal cash prize of HK$20,000. We are very proud of Dr. Chen’s achievement which is in line with the University’s commitment to research excellence and innovation. Congratulations!

CBS Minor in Korean student wins the 1st place in the Korean Speech Contest in Hong Kong

Ms. LEE Nok Sze Eunice, a CBS Minor in Korean student has won the champion prize in the 6th Korean Consul General Cup Korean Speech Contest. The prestigious contest is hosted annually by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Cultural Center in Hong Kong. The prizewinner is nominated to represent Hong Kong in the speech contest organized by the King Sejong Institute Foundation to be held in Korea this October. Congratulations! Details of the competition: https://hk.korean-culture.org/en/1073/board/745/read/115889

CBS undergraduate students excel in national translation competition

Congratulations to our undergraduate students MA Jianfei (BALT Year 1 student) and LIN Meishan (BACBS Year 3 student) for winning the first-class awards in the China Young Translators’ Contest (B Category). Organized by China Translation Corporation, the biggest state-level enterprise of language services in China, the competition has attracted over 10,000 participants, including students of over 1,600 local and overseas schools, language professionals and amateur translators. Competing with other language undergraduate students, it is remarkable that our students are capable to make themselves the top 5% of the participants. Well done!   Details of the competition: https://www.saikr.com/vse/Translation Online coverage: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7103531054967144963/

CBS Associate Professor’s project on neurolinguistics funded by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)

CBS Associate Professor Dr. ZHANG Caicai’s project has been awarded the prestigious fund by China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), under the Young Scientist category of the National Major Project on Brain Science. The funded project is entitled “Neurocognitive markers for typical language development and language disorders in children: A longitudinal study based on long-term memory, sleep and brain development”. The MOST’s National Major Project on Brain Science involves 59 research areas and directions with overall funding beyond 31 billion. Among all successful proposals, Dr. Zhang’s project is the only one in Hong Kong funded in the area of brain and cognition mechanisms under the Young Scientist category. We are very proud of Dr. Zhang’s achievement in pioneering a new source of funding for research in the area of language, cognition, and neuroscience. Congratulations!

CBS Research Assistant Professor’s project selected as Champion Project of the World Summit on the Information Society Prizes 2022

On top of the nomination for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2022, the project on COVID-19 vaccine opinion analysis conducted by CBS Research Assistant Professor Dr. CHERSONI Emmanuele and his team has been selected as one of the 5 champion projects under the E-science category. 90 champion projects from 18 categories will compete in the final phase of the contest. 18 winning projects will be announced at the WSIS Forum 2022 in Geneva from 30 May to 3 June. The WSIS Forum is the world's largest annual gathering of the 'ICT for development' community, co-organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Congratulations and we wish the team the best of luck!   Details of WSIS Prizes 2022: https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Prizes/2022/ Details of the WSIS Forum 2022:  https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/forum/2022/en Project website: http://ailab.uniud.it/covid-vaccines/

Multilingual Communication Course and Cross-cultural Communication Training for Future Leaders

Hosted by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS), the second Gifted Education Fund (GEF) programme entitled “Multilingual Communication Training and Cross-Cultural Communication Course for Future Leaders” is now open for application. To unleash the potential of gifted students, CBS offers the GEF programme to secondary students with funding from the Gifted Education Fund of Education Bureau and support from the Department of English and Communication (ENGL), The HK PolyU-PKU Research Centre on Chinese Linguistics (RP2U2), The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK), the Centre for Translation Studies (CTS),  the Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE), and the International Research Centre for the Advancement of Healthcare Communication (IRCAHC). The 11-month course aims to help students to better understand the different cultures and languages that weave the fabrics of Hong Kong, the nation, and the world. It offers a golden opportunity for talented secondary students to equip themselves with knowledge and skills in areas of languages sciences, and strengthen their ability in communications and cross-cultural exchanges. Students will also develop positive values and attitudes that are useful for personal growth and becoming future leaders one day. This programme is free of charge and 30 students will be selected to participate in this programme, which is tentatively scheduled from June 2022 to April 2023. Schools, parents and guardians are cordially invited to nominate Secondary 1 to Secondary 5 students to apply for this programme. Please complete the application form and send it by post on or before 27 May 2022 (Friday) to the following address: EF406 Chan Sui Wai Building The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 11 Yuk Choi Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon (Attn: Ms Karen HO) Please also send a soft copy of the application form to Miss Karen Ho at gef202112@gmail.com. For the application form and programme details, please refer to the Education Bureau’s website and the programme outline. Should you have any enquiries, please contact Miss Karen Ho via email at gef202112@gmail.com.  

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/