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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) held the Naming Ceremony of Li Wei Bo Building, CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute today (23 October). Officiating guests included Dr. Li Weibo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Glory Harvest Group Holdings Limited and Honorary Chairman, Li Weibo Charitable Foundation; Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung, Vice-Chancellor and President, CUHK; and Prof. Benjamin W. Wah, Provost and Acting Director of Shenzhen Research Institute, CUHK. Dr. Li Weibo has been a staunch supporter of the University. In 2007, he made a generous donation to CUHK for its long-term development, in particular the development of the CUHK Shenzhen Institute and the construction of its main building. In appreciation of Dr. Li’s support, the University has named the building as Li Wei Bo Building, CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute.

About CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute and Li Wei Bo Building
The CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute was established in 2007 and has since then been actively involved in research, education and technology transfer in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta Region. Through the Institute, CUHK can advance its collaboration with Shenzhen in these areas and also contribute to technology innovation and economic and cultural development in Hong Kong and mainland China. The establishment of the Institute is also a monumental milestone in Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation which brings both cities’ prominence in to full play.

Over the past years, the Institute has made significant progress and its research strength has been widely recognized. It has undertaken various important science and technology projects commissioned by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Natural Science Foundation and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province. It has also been working closely with local authorities on various research missions. Leveraging the academic strengths of CUHK, the Institute has been focusing on basic research in areas of agricultural product and food safety, biotechnology, internet and information technology, as well as economics and social subjects, to support the National Science and Technology Development Plan and meet the development needs of Shenzhen. A total of 32 laboratories have been built. In 2011, the Institute was granted by the Shenzhen Peacock Plan to establish an innovative research team of agricultural biotechnology.

So far, the Institute has been approved to establish four Shenzhen key laboratories, namely the ‘Key Laboratory of Critical Technology and Application of Network Coding’, ‘Key Laboratory of Health Risk Analysis’, ‘Key Laboratory of Chemical Synthesis of Small Organic Molecules for Medical Use’, and ‘Key Laboratory of Big Data Analysis and Application of Rich Media’, as well as three Shenzhen engineering laboratories, namely ‘Vegetables Biotechnology Engineering Laboratory’, ‘Wireless Positioning Technology and System Engineering Laboratory’, and ‘Speech Therapy and Rehabilitation Technology Engineering Laboratory’.

The Li Wei Bo Building, CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute was opened in 2011. It is located in the Shenzhen Virtual University Park in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen. The nine-storey building, with a gross floor area of 25,000 square meters, is equipped with comprehensive facilities for training, research and technology transfer.

About Dr. Li Weibo
A successful industrialist, Dr. Li Weibo has been engaged in the industrial construction and real estate business in Shenzhen and South China for many years. Dr. Li is highly supportive of community welfare, having served as a member of the Board of the Yan Chai Hospital Committee for many years. He is concerned about social affairs and is especially supportive of education. He has made generous donations for scholarships to enable mainland students to study at CUHK, served as Advisor during the preparatory stage of CUHK Shenzhen Research Institute, and launched the ‘Shenzhen Li Weibo Charitable Foundation’ in November 2013.

Source: Communications and Public Relations Office, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

'The Right is to be Done', the title of Prof. Ng Yan-yung Edward's Inaugural Lecture of Yao Ling Sun Professorship in Architecture on 21 October, is also his motto, which, as he disclosed at the beginning of the lecture, was borrowed from Sir David Akers-Jones. In the lecture, he took the audience on his journey in the past 15 years, trying to find the answer to the question 'What should be done to improve lives?'

Professor Ng remembered very well how Prof. Peter Tregenza, who taught him lighting design at the University of Nottingham, put forth the question 'What should be done?' when showing the poor living conditions of the British people after the Second World War.

When Professor Ng returned to Hong Kong in 1999, he was surprised to find that many people in this city still lived in poor and overcrowded conditions, without suitable amount of daylight and proper air ventilation. And he remembered his teacher's question: 'What should be done?'

Following in his teacher's footsteps, he established an International Daylight Monitoring Station on the top of the water tower of New Asia College and formulated some guidelines for daylighting design in buildings in Hong Kong.

After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, it was known that the overcrowded urban conditions and the lack of daylight and air ventilation had something to do with the epidemic. As an architect, Professor Ng asked himself again, 'What can be done?' He was invited by the Planning Department of the HKSAR Government to look into the issue and the result was the Air Ventilation Assessment (AVA) methodology that he finished in 2006. His recommendations were adopted by the Government and all governmental projects have to be assessed by the AVA system, including the planning of what used to the Kai Tak Airport and the design of the new Government headquarters.

After the AVA project, Professor Ng was commissioned by the Government to study our city a little more in order to achieve better urban planning. He completed the study in 2012 and produced the urban climatic map. He said, 'I'm confident that we now have a better analytic tool to design our city better and to improve life.' After this research, Professor Ng and his team were invited by various cities in the world, including Singapore, Ho Chi Ming City and Kaohsiung, to conduct studies to improve their cities' urban environments. He said, 'So we're busy. That's why Edward's lab is known infamously as a 7/11 lab.'

Lately Professor Ng traveled again and was saddened by the lives of many wretched kids living in poor and remote villages without electricity, running water, and access to modern amenities. These kids do not have knowledge of the world outside and have no future. 'What should be done?'

The answer is the 'One University, One village' initiative, which is Professor Ng's latest brainchild. He said, 'I firmly believe that if we from the universities cannot change lives for the better, we're not doing the right. I don't believe that with the knowledge, resources, people and talent of a university, we cannot make a difference to the lives of a village.' Together with teachers and students from Peking University, Stanford, Cambridge, and Kunming University of Science and Technology, Professor Ng set out to improve the livelihood of rural villages and bring their villagers a better future.

For some, the holy grail of academia is tenure, a research grant, or a prize. For Professor Ng, it's to do the right thing to improve lives.

Source: Information Services Office, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation (the Foundation) has recently donated HK$1 million in support of the "Public Health Train-the-Trainer Project in China’s Rural Communities" initiated by the Collaborating Centre for Oxford University and CUHK for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response (CCOUC) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).

Officiated by Mr Peter Cheng, Chairman of the Foundation, Professor Francis Chan, Dean of Faculty of Medicine of CUHK and Professor Emily Chan, Director of CCOUC, a cheque presentation ceremony was held on Friday, 17 October 2014 to commemorate this meaningful collaboration. Mr Koo Tong-fat, Director of the Foundation and Ms Sharon Chow, CEO of Wu Zhi Qiao (Bridge to China) Charitable Foundation, also attended the ceremony.

In his welcoming address, Professor Francis Chan expressed his gratitude to the support and generosity of the Foundation, and their recognition in our disaster and medical humanitarian initiatives. With the donation from the Foundation, the Centre will provide professional and systematic training programmes to participants of the Wu Zhi Qiao project. The Public Health Train-the-Trainer Project, which is expected to last for two years, aims to promote public health and effective disaster prevention measures in remote villages and communities in mainland China.

Mr Peter Cheng gave much valuable advice and encouragement to team members of the Project at the ceremony. "The Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation will continue to collaborate closely with CUHK in bringing love and care to the communities and people in need," said Mr Cheng.