Annual Report 1993-94

59 networks, workstation servers, multi-user UNIX servers and mainframe. Targeted towards teaching, learning, and research, the computer platforms address most of the academic computing needs on campus, leaving only very specific topics to the faculties. In addition to this, over 1,500 microcomputers and workstations on local area networks could be found in academic offices, research labs, teaching labs, college labs, and administrative offices. They are all connected to the optical fibre-based campus backbone network. Fibre has been extended to nearly all major academic, administration and library buildings on campus. University members, including those from as far as the Prince of Wales Hospital, the Lek Yuen Health Centre, the Hong Kong Institute of Biotechnology, and those connected through the 54 newly upgraded telephone dial-in lines from homes, were tightly linked to form a single community to communicate and share. To facilitate communication between students and teachers, each teacher and student was granted an electronic mail account. No restriction is imposed on sending mails overseas or exploring the resourceful information sea of Internet. To exploit the full potential of campus networking, the campaign on Campus-Wide Information System was launched. By mid-1994, networked users were able to browse freely from the network such information as curriculum, research projects, lecturers' profiles, monthly magazines, major events, college activities, library catalogue, academic references, staff telephone directory, and the opening hours of various service centres. Following the introduction of the public GOPHER server in early 1992, the World Wide Web server on Internet was set up in early 1994. Overseas network users have since been able to read the information of the University and even look up the electronic mail addresses of its students and staff. As the only local institution of higher education to be so equipped, the University is also responsible for relaying network USENET news between overseas nodes and all other sister institutions in Hong Kong and Macau. Campus computerization has come a long way over the past decade. Advances in technology and changes in user requirements have brought about a high degree of automation and significant system redesign. Back office batch processing systems have been replaced by front office on-line systems w i th all system operations being localized at the user offices. Centralized mainframe computing has also been replaced by departmental computing or client/server computing. By the end of 1993-94 major application systems supported by the University's Information Management Unit included the Full-time Undergraduate Admission System, the Student Registration and Assessment System, the Personnel and Payroll System, the Accounting and Financial System, and the University Library System.