Calendar 2002–03

JointResearchUnits 129 pr oblem fo r the engineer ing discipline. Th e Jo int Cen tre for Intelligen ce Engineering (JCIE) was set up in 1999 to embark on this exciting research area. JCIE advocates close collabo ration between The Chinese University of Hong Ko ng and Pek ing Univer sity. I t also der ives maximum synergy fr om the complementary capabilities of the two institutions to fulfil a general mission of becoming a world-class research centrethat promotes basic and applied research in this technological forefront. ‘Intelligent Speech for Information Systems’ is the first project conducted under JCIE. It has made tremendous progress in the development of a sophisticated trilingual (putonghua, Cantonese and English) spoken dialog system for the financialdomain by developing and integrating a hostof innovative speech and language technologiesto facilitate fully automated human-machine communication. More information can be obtained atthewebsite: http://www.se.cuhk.edu.hk/~isis. Joint Laboratory for Geoinformation Science (Please refer to p.98 under ‘Research Institutes and Centres’.) Joint Laboratory for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Tel.:2609 6286 Fax.:2603 5646 E-mail: bio@cuhk.edu.hk Website :http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/bio In thetwenty-first century,China and the world, under population pressure, will face increasing d emands for foo d secur ity, health car e, and a su stainab le environment. Recent advances in molecular biology and biotechnology offer new hopes and solutions to these challenges.In view of these developments and their potential, the high concentration of expertise, state-of-art equipment and facilities of both institutions, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and PekingUniversity jo in tly estab lish ed a Jo in t Labo rator y of Plant Mo lecu lar Bio lo gy and Biotechnology in March 1999. The objective of the laboratory are: (1) to promote plant biotechnology research and its app lication in agriculture, medicine and environment; (2) to strengthen collaborativerelationships with world renowned scientists and institutes for the advancement of plantbiotechnology; and (3) to build a strong linkageand foundation between the two universities for scientific collaboration, academic exchange, and training of personnel. Activities of the joint laboratory includeresearch projects of common interest such as genetically manufactured f ood allergy and fungal bioreactors, joint application of research funding, and exchange visits by researchers, and students.