Bulletin Number One 1987

Department o f Electronics Introduction The Department of Electronics was established in 1970 with its own major programme. The first Chair man of the Department was Professor Charles K. Kao, the world authority in optical fibre communication. From its modest beginning with a staff of two and a student intake of fifteen, the Department has grown to a staff of fourteen and a half and an annual student intake of over sixty. Since 1974 ， the BSc in Elec tronics of this University has been accepted by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (lEE) as having fully fulfilled the Institution's educational require ments. Postgraduate programmes leading to the degrees of MSc, MPhil and PhD were introduced in 1972 ， 1973 and 1980 respectively. In 1975 ， this University became the first tertiary institution in Hong Kong to introduce a five-year Work-Study Programme in electronics. The course requirements of the Work-Study Programme are identical with those of the four-year programme, but the students on the Work-Study Programme spend about fifteen months in industry before graduation. The main feature of the programme is that the indus trial training is part and parcel of the programme and is accepted by the lEE in partial fulfilment of the training requirement for Corporate Membership. Objective and Philosophy o f the Programme The objective of the honours course in Elec tronics (the BSc course) is three-fold: (a) to give its students a broader understanding of the cultural, social and technological processes through a programme of general education offered by the University and the Colleges; (b) to provide students with fundamental, scientific and technical knowledge in electronics and electronics-related technologies, to develop their abilities for independent and creative thinking in applying scientific and engineering principles to solve practical problems of engineering systems and processes, and to help them develop sufficient professional skills and atti tudes required of the professional engineer; and (c) to prepare students for postgraduate studies i f they so desire after graduation. To keep pace with the rapid development in electronics and to meet the demand of the local industry for knowledgeable and competent electron ics graduates, the Department has been continually updating and revising its undergraduate syllabus. The revision covers both the theoretical and practical aspects of Electronic Engineering, with special empha sis on engineering and computer-related applications. The Department realizes that with the ever increasing innovation in electronics and electronics-related dis ciplines, more Electronic Engineering topics and related subjects of current interests must be incor porated into the core programme. After the general University curriculum review, a new curriculum was introduced in 1986. Under the old curriculum (present second to fourth year students are still under this curriculum), Electronics major students are required to minor in any one or two subjects. Under the new curriculum, the minor requirement becomes optional, but the major programme is further strengthened. There will be three streams in the new Electronics major programme, viz. (1) General Electronics, (2) Special Electronics, and (3) Special Electronics — Work-Study. Students electing the five-year Work- Study Programme have to undertake fifteen months of industrial training in the local industry under the guidance of a training tutor who must be a chartered engineer. Teaching and Research Facilities There are three undergraduate teaching labora tories (for first to third year students) for basic training in measurements and experimental tech niques. Most of the experiments are of an open-ended type, and many have incorporated in them an element of computer-aided design or require the application o f the personal computer. In the fourth year, students RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 11