The University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) held a retreat for faculty members at Shenzhen from 4 to 6 August in this summer, prior to the start of the new academic year. The purposes of the retreat were to enhance communication, build team spirit and review the faculty strategic plan under the relaxing environment. Interaction with industries and institutes was also made. The retreat allowed faculty members to be inspired and to keep up with the UM development trend, so as to welcome the opportunities and challenges from the industries, universities, and research institutes.
Prof. Cheng-Zhong Xu, Dean of FST, and representatives of 6 departments had a meeting to set the faculty’s 5-year development plan and performance assessment criteria. The meeting was followed by an open discussion session, Prof. Yonghua SONG, Rector, and Prof. Wei GE, Vice Rector (Research), shared the most undated development of UM. Participants had a deep understanding of FST’s blueprint in aspects of admission, course and programme offering, teaching and research team development, teaching, research and services to UM and outside parties, so as to serve UM in line with its “RISE” and “4S” strategies efficiently and effectively.
During the visit to the Shenzhen Reform and Opening-Up Exhibition Hall, participants not only learnt more about Guangdong’s achievement of its reform and opening since 1978, but also got to know how Shenzhen turned into a special economic zone and became the Silicon Valley of China. Shenzhen, an innovation and technology hub, is a perfect example of the national reform district and a cradle of electronic information and Internet tycoons such as Huawei, ZTE and Tencent.
On the last day of the retreat, participants were on a visit to the Alphaba smart driving demonstration site of the Shenzhen Haylion Technologies Co Limited (Haylion). Haylion is the very first startup company that applies smart driving technology to public transportation in the world, with zero-accident as of present. A collaboration agreement was also signed between the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City (University of Macau) and Haylion, to enhance research cooperation, streamline patent and key technology development and conduct pilot driving of Alphaba in selected cities of the Greater Bay Area.
Another visit to the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences was also made. Participants received warm welcome from SIAT’s Vice Presidents Jiancheng LV and Wei FENG. During the meeting, the two sides further discussed the concrete implementation regarding the collaboration agreement for the Joint Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and the joint PhD training programmes signed by UM and SIAT in May 2019. Participants also shared their research areas and outputs during the meeting and the lab visits.
The final stop was the Tencent’s twin-skyscrapers headquarters Seafront Towers. Tencent is the largest internet enterprise in China with the largest number of social software users. Participants were impressed by Tencent’s animation presentation layout, multi-disciplinary business and technology development projects such as welink. The delegation then had meeting led by the Tencent Cloud Vice President/ Tencent Education Vice President Manqing FU, to elaborate possible cooperation between UM and Tencent and discuss internship opportunity for UM students.
This retreat marks the first of its kind in FST’s 30-year history. Through the comprehensive arrangements of the retreat, participants considered it to be meaningful and fruitful. They not only got to know more development blueprint of UM and FST, but also acquired the pioneer spirit. Further, they built up network for research and incubation. All participants are motivated and full of energy to keep serving for the UM, FST and the society by holding the vision of “carrying on the past and forging into the future”. |