Welcome to the 59th edition of CUHK in Focus.
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong SAR Government organised a seminar on the 2024-2035 master plan on building China into a leading country in education. I was pleased to attend this meaningful event with Professor John Chai Yat-chiu, the Council Chairman, and Professor Poon Wai-yin, the Acting Provost, during which the Vice Minister of Education, Mr Wu Yan, was invited as a keynote speaker to elaborate on the significance of the master plan.
CUHK actively supports the national vision on talent cultivation as a key mission to advance the country’s modernisation. Recently, thanks to the championship of the renowned mathematician and outstanding CUHK alumnus, Professor Yau Shing-tung, we announced the establishment of the Zhizhen School of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences. This first-of-its-kind school in Hong Kong is set to become a robust platform for nurturing leaders in the field for our country. In addition, CUHK consistently achieves encouraging results in world university rankings, including obtaining its best-ever performance, ranking 69th globally in the newly released Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2025 and having a good number of subjects in various disciplines placed amongst the global top 50. We shall continue to leverage on our unique collegiate system and competitive edge in innovation and technology to provide top-quality education and promote knowledge transfer to ensure our scholarly output can generate positive impact on society. We will also ride on our successful collaboration with CUHK-Shenzhen on operating joint academic programmes to help build a high-calibre talent hub in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The master plan, which sets out a roadmap for the development of education in our country in the next decade, gives a clear direction for the formulation of CUHK’s next strategic plan. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to join this seminar where mainland and Hong Kong government officials and representatives from the education sector converged to reflect on how to align our development goals with the national strategy.
New milestone in institutional development
CUHK-Shenzhen hosted a series of events in mid-February to celebrate two new developments in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) – the opening of the eighth school of the University, the School of AI, and the unveiling of the Surgical Minimally-invasive and Artificial-intelligent Robotic Training Centre of the School of Medicine. Alongside the ceremonies to commemorate these two important milestones were the 2025 Spring Media Reception as well as an international forum on AI gathering media representatives and experts of the industry. I was pleased to deliver a speech at the Inauguration Ceremony of the School of AI in my capacity as the Chairman of the CUHK-Shenzhen Governing Board. Not only is the establishment of the School a significant milestone in the development of the University since its inception in 2014, but it also marks an ambitious step forward in its ongoing commitment to talent cultivation to serve the needs of our country.
With AI being the crux of modern technological revolution, its development is crucial for boosting new productive forces and the competitiveness of our country and improving quality of life. The School of AI serves to address the needs of our country and the modern world through nurturing AI talent with a global perspective, an innovative spirit and a strong sense of social responsibility and driving groundbreaking research. It holds the promise of the University for a bright future, one that we share with our global partners. I am delighted to witness the continuous endeavour of CUHK-Shenzhen to bring value to academia, industry and society as we herald a new era of AI.
Celebrating time-honoured partnerships
I was glad to gather with the vibrant community of employers, mentors, sponsors and work partners of CUHK last week at an event organised by the Career Planning and Development Centre of the Office of Student Affairs. Over the years, the Centre has been organising a variety of recruitment activities, career development programmes and local, mainland, overseas internship schemes, preparing students for their future roles in the world of work. All these would not have been possible without the support of our employer and community partners from different sectors. It gave me great pleasure to meet them in person and express my sincere gratitude to them for providing CUHK students with valuable learning opportunities and guidance. Their dedication to fostering talents has enabled our students to explore their desired career paths and discover their unique potential and passion. I look forward to working more closely with our community partners to enhance students’ employability.
Commending outstanding CUHK members
CUHK organised the annual presentation ceremony for the Outstanding Students Awards earlier to commend a total of 290 students, including 90 individual recipients and 14 groups for their remarkable achievements beyond academic pursuit. Many of these students have dedicated themselves to the University and community through activities and services, demonstrating exemplary leadership, diligence and perseverance. The awards are well-deserved recognition for their commitment to excellence in all aspects. I take pride in their being a great inspiration for their fellow students. Many congratulations on their job well done and best wishes for their future endeavours!
I would like to congratulate three distinguished CUHK scholars who have recently received prestigious honours for their work. Professor Irwin King of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Professor Xing Guoliang of the Department of Information Engineering have been elected as Fellows of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for the Class of 2024 for their outstanding contributions to the theory and applications of machine learning in social computing, and to embedded AI and mobile computing systems, respectively. Meanwhile, Professor Yu Jun, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics and Assistant Dean (Mainland Affairs) at the Faculty of Medicine became the only scholar from a Hong Kong institution to be recognised as one of the first “National Distinguished Physicians” by the “National High-level Medical Talent Programme” of the National Health Commission for her remarkable achievements in gastrointestinal cancer studies. I am sure the honours will further propel the three outstanding faculty members to new heights in their pursuit of impactful research.
The 9th Asian Winter Games that took place in Harbin earlier this month concluded successfully. Hong Kong’s delegation, which was the city’s largest ever in the Games, demonstrated great professionalism, excellent sportsmanship and team spirit in various events. We were also proud to see CUHK students and alumni participating in the Games too. Their impressive performance spoke volumes about their passion for sports. Please join me in congratulating them on shining brightly on the international stage and thanking them for trying their best to vie for glory for our city.
I look forward to sharing more stories with you in our next edition.
Best wishes,
Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming
Vice-Chancellor and President
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
