Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2000

New Technology Centre to Boost University-Industry Cooperation A state-of-the-art technology centre was officially set up on 24th July 2000 by Elec & Eltek Technology Center (Holdings) Ltd. (the 'JV Co.'), a joint venture betwee n The Chinese University of Hon g Kong F o u n d a t i on L t d. a n d Elec & Eltek Technology Investment Ltd. Name d the 'CUHK-Elec & Eltek Technology Centre', it will be operated by JV Co. to promote innovative and emerging technologies and inves t in any viabl e ventures derived from such technologies. It will act as a reciprocal channel enabling technology transfe r from academia to industry aswell as the flow of new ideas from industry to academia. It will also serve as a pre-incubation and incubation centre for IT entrepreneurs, and a continuing education centre offering frontier professional training to practising engineers. New Smartcard Technology Licensed to Industry A licence a g r e eme n t on b i ome t r i c smartcard technology wa s concluded be twe en the University and Coulomb Holdings Ltd. on 26th Ma y 2000. This marked the first technology transfer from university to industry under th e sponsor- s h ip of the I n f o rma t i on Technology Entrepreneurs Programme (ITEP). Developed by an ITEP fellow Mr. Joh n Ng and his supervisor Prof. Y.S. Moon at the Department of Computer Science and En g i n e e r i n g , t he n ew t e c h n o l o gy p r o v i d e s a totall y n ew a nd efficient solution to Internet business transactions, c r ed it c a r d p a yme n t s , a n d i d e n t i t y verification. By combining two innovative technologies — smartcard and fingerprint verification technology, it makes real-time authentication of the identity of smartcard holders a reality. With this technology, e-commerce activities a nd i d e n t i ty verification processes will be conducted more smoothly and with greater security. ITEP is a joint effort of the government, industry, The Chinese University of Hon g Kong, the University of Hong Kong , and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to provide entrepreneuria l t r a i n i ng for s t u d e n ts receiving IT e d u c a t i o n at t he thre e un i v e r s i t i e s , encouraging them to turn innovative ideas into solid prototypes with application potential and commercial value. ITEP fellow John Ng with his biometric smartcard News in Brief 61