Vice-Chancellor's Report 1978-82

wi ll concentrate on promising projects wi th long-term significance. The remaining centre, the Hung On-To Research Centre for Machine Translation, was named after its donor and established in 1978 for research on computerized translation of natural languages. An on-line computer system PDP 11/34 was installed and a number of translated works undertaken utilizing the Centre's facilities have since been published. (in) Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities The Institute has under its umbrella six research centres each of which is engaged in research connected wi th social studies or the humanities. The Centre for Communication Studies, for instance, devoted a lot of effort to research into computer-aided instruction for the teaching of journalism. The Centre for East Asian Studies, on the other hand, conducted several research projects connected wi th the New Territories, i n particular the oral history of Hong Kong villages. The Economic Research Centre was also primarily interested in Hong Kong and carried out a number of studies into the fiscal system, trade pattern, labour supply and other aspects of the city's economy. The other three research centres tended to divide their efforts into the two main streams of Hong Kong and China-related research. The Geographical Research Centre, for example, was interested in China's urbanisation and environmental problems, drought and famine and conducted a special study on the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. In addition, it had also continued wi th its research into the h i ll slopes of Hong Kong and groundwater pollution in the New Territories. The Public Affairs Research Centre had two major lines of research: the Hong Kong line of research was concerned wi th the development and administration i n the new towns and the China line was interested in the recent developments in China's legal system in the context of nation- building. Finally, the Social Research Centre had no less than 35 on-going research projects on the social and economic development of Hong Kong, its social problems, education, health and welfare services. This was in addition to 15 research projects on China, principally on the commune and the socio-economic development i n China. D . Internationa l Recognitio n Wh i le it would be true to say that any academic research which 27