Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1993

diagnostic machines in these hospitals can be transmitted easily and speedily over this network. At present, 30 doctors, mainly radiologists and surgeons at the two hospitals, are registered users of the system. With such a network, doctors and medical students can have fast and easy access to medical images to facilitate diagnosis. Joint consultation by doctors at different locations is also possible. The network may eventually be extended to all local hospitals and even clinics of private doctors via their personal computers. More medical centres can therefore share the use of expensive diagnostic machines such as magnetic resonance imagers, tomography scanners, and nuclear medicine. The network may also be linked to similar systems outside Hong Kong, enabling the flow o f medical advice from overseas experts. New Computer Equipment for the University A new computer system was recently donated to the University to serve the growing number of workstations in the Department of Systems Engineering and facilitate research that involves extensive and complicated computations. The new system, SUN SPARCsystem 630MP model 41, can run at a speed of over 100 million instructions per second and is manufactured by the donor, Sun Microsystems. It is one of the most advanced models of the company's SuperSPARC processor technology and is worth over HK$500,000. The system has been installed at the workstation laboratory of the Department of Systems Engineering, and w i l l be used as a central workstation server for existing and new workstations. It also forms part o f the Chinese University Engineering Computer Network, and can be accessed remotely from any workstation and personal computer in Hong Kong using the UNIX operation system. Hanzix: Chinese Open System Computing A group of researchers from the Department of Computer Science attended a seminar held in Beijing from 18th to 21st October on information technology in mainland China and Taiwan. The function was jointly organized by the Chinese Information Technology Committee on the mainland and the Institute for Information Industry in Taiwan. The purpose was to discuss strategie s for and technical issues involved in establishing common standards in Chinese computing . The CUHK contingent was invited because of its research on Chinese open system computing, or the 'Hanzix' project. The objective of the Hanzix project is to devise a standard platform for Chinese computing in an open system environment, so that Chinese software can be developed for use without modification in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other Chinese communities overseas. In the seminar CUHK representatives introduced to other participants the progress of their research and gained support from the right groups for the Hanzix project. They will continue to liaise with relevant government departments and private industries in mainland China and Taiwan and contribute their share towards establishing common standards for Chinese information technology. New Plans in Faculty of Engineering Effective from the 1994-95 academic year, the Department of Systems Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering will be renamed the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. The existing integrative engineering programme w i ll also be broken up into four programmes of studies, namely computer engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering, and systems engineering and engineering management. While the four programmes will continue to share common courses, they will admit students separately from 1995-96. The faculty also plans to introduce a new programme of mechanical engineering from 1994- 95. Faculty of Educat i on to He l p Re t r a in Teachers in the Mainland The University's Faculty of Education has been awarded a HK$7-million contract to retrain 1,000 teachers and educational administrators in three cities in mainland China. Funded by a World Bank loan, the contract represents the largest educational consultancy project undertaken by a local tertiary institution. It comprises a series of 45 study tours, workshops and News in Brief 42