24 November, 2017
HKUST signed MOU to strengthen collaboration between Waterloo.ai and BDIA high level delegation led by Prof. Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo (UW), visited HKUST on 24 November to sign two agreements, including a strategic partnership agreement as well as a memorandum of understanding (MoU), with Prof Tony Chan, President of HKUST to enhance collaboration between two leading universities in the world.
The strategic partnership focuses on cooperation between two institutions in general, whereas faculty from School of Engineering (SENG), School of Science (SSCI) and Interdisciplinary Programs Office (IPO) have identified potential research interests to collaborate with UW, including vast amount of topics spanning across schools and departments such as Civil Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electronic & Computer Engineering, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Chemical & Biological Engineering, IPO and SSCI. Both institutions will contribute an appropriate amount of seed funding to enable these bilateral research projects to become self-sustain. The funding mainly support local hosting, overseas visits and joint workshops.
As for the MoU, since both universities have specific units focusing on AI research, application and a development, the MoU is to further strengthen the collaboration. Ultimate its goal is to create and scale up AI startups, train talents, identify more AI user industry and deploy more new AI technologies. The preliminary plan is to explore mutual research strengths in AI and establish joint projects through co-supervision of PhD students, facilitate faculty exchange, and cross-teaching of the Waterloo.ai Alpha program and HKUST’s MSc in Big Data Technology.
Apart from the President of UW, who was present to sign the agreements, the delegates also include many senior management at Waterloo such as Prof Charmaine Dean, Vice President, Research; Prof Robert Lemieux, Dean of Science; Prof Pearl Sullivan, Dean of Engineering; Prof Stephen Watt, Dean of Mathematics; Prof Doug Peers, Dean of Arts; Prof Jim Rush, Dean of Applied Health Sciences; and Prof Ian Rowlands, Associate Vice President, Waterloo International. The delegate was greeted by the HKUST counterparts, including Prof Sabrina Lin, Vice-President for Institutional Advancement; Prof Yang Wang, Dean of Science; Prof Tim Cheng, Dean of Engineering; Prof Kar Yan Tam, Dean of Business & Management; Prof James Lee, Dean of Humanities & Social Science; and Prof Charles Ng, Associate Vice-President for Research & Graduate Studies, among others.
UW has also covered event of the day at their web story in its website here.