Newsletter No. 90

CUHK Newsletter 2 No. 90 4th June 1996 Department Update Non-Traditional with High Potential —the SE & EM Department 'Over the past 20 years, Hong Kong has evolv ed into a world-class financial centre with a strong service industry. The emphasis has shifted from a labour-intensive economy to a technology- and information- based one,' says Prof. Vincent Y. S. Lum, chairman of the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SE&EM). T o cater to the needs of a unique community like this, we cannot merely borrow programmes offered by other universities overseas. Our academic programme is non-traditional, and has very high p o t e n t i a l . ' P r o f . Lum joined The Chinese University in 1991, and was given the task of building a systems engineering department. The department was essentially divided into two in 1994, in order to provide adequate focus on both the hard and soft aspects of streamlining operations in the industries. The newly created Mechanical and Automation Engineering Department (MAE) looks after the hardware area, while the SE Department, renamed as SE&EM at the same time, concentrates upon the soft aspects. Multi-faceted Training for Students The SE&EM programme is multi- disciplinary. It teaches its students advanced problem-solving techniques, information systems technology and application, and the application of quantitative, state-of-the-art methods to management. Human-machine interaction as well as interaction among humans are also included in the programme. The word 'system' to those in systems engineering, as Prof. Lum explains, 'is all the operations viewed together as a functional unit, from input to output, from top management to workers, from goods and services to collection of payments'. Since it encompasses all the operations that are vital to a company to run smoothly and efficiently, students need to be trained to have a good feel in all these areas. In this sense, 'systems engineers' are not really engineers, but analysts. In engineering management, in addition to qualitative concepts and philosophies, students are taught how to solve system problems by applying principles of computer science, mathematics, and other branches of science wherever appropriate. As the complex nature of systems sometimes defies mathematical solutions, students are also taught 'non-traditional' subjects such as the application of heuristics, simulation, and other advanced techniques like artificial intelligence. While computers can help solve the most complicated problems, they can't function without accurate and adequate information. Information systems are essential for planning, operations scheduling, and decision making. The SE&EM programme educates its students not only in the use of computers and information systems for problem-solving, but also in the construction of information systems in support of these activities. An innovation to be launched by the SE&EM Department from September 1996 is financial engineering, a specialty related to mathematical finance used in pricing financial contracts to minimize risks. This is going to be done with the cooperation of the Department of Finance of the Faculty of Business Administration, which will teach the fundamentals of finance to SE&EM students. While other universities overseas are offering courses in financial engineering as a part of their graduate business administration programme, the programme proposed by the SE&EM Department will be a part of the engineering programme for undergraduate students. Students who have graduated from the earlier Department of Systems Engineering have found excellent job placements with top-of-the-line companies in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Bank and Andersen Consulting. This is an excellent testimony to the effectiveness of the multi-faceted training provided by the department. Close Liaison with Industry Teachers in the department are actively involved in research. 'And almost all our faculty members have been involved in consulting last year,' Prof. Lum says. The department maintains connections with industry through its close workings with the Hong Kong Productivity Council. It also helps companies improve efficiency and operate more smoothly by providing better information systems and better alignment. Upon graduation students have to complete a product development project which is an exercise requiring practical applications in industry. 'By learning from research and working with industry, we can solve real probelms,' Prof. Lum points out. One SE&EM research project has received a HK$4 million grant from the Hong Kong Industry Department to develop a rostering system for the Hong Kong service industry, such as assigning nursing shifts in hospitals, and assigning shifts for personnel at the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal. This project exemplifies the kind of research the SE&EM faculty do— integrating different expertise areas to support an application. Administrative Chores: Budgeting & Recruitment What has the experience of running an academic department been like? The newly introduced one-line budget, with its relative flexibility as practised in the Faculty of Engineering, is perceived positively by Prof. Lum. 'It helps a lot. It allows us to plan in a much better way than we could before. Of course it has its share of hiccups, but we can do things that we could not before. Save for certain restricted areas, we can use budgets for salary and non- salary items interchangeably, depending on our needs.' Prof. Lum continues, 'We have a lot of work to do: attract more top-notch students and make people more aware of our programmes. But first of all, we need to almost double our faculty strength, for we are very short-handed. Everyone is working 60-70 hours a week on a regular basis. The problem is that the market is very competitive, and unlike the United States where market demand considerations dictate salaries and where a computer science graduate can earn more than a liberal arts one in the same university, our university has standard rules that apply across various disciplines. We are therefore somewhat handicapped. Some universities in Hong Kong, for instance, can adjust salaries and make better offers to the same candidates with due consideration to market demand.' Lofty Goals The nature of courses offered by the SE&EM Department and the emphasis on different skills does bear out its claim of being 'non-traditional'. That it has 'very high potential' is also borne out by the desire expressed by Prof. Lum to lead an already high-achieving though comparatively new department to greater heights in every aspect. As he says, 'Our learning experience is spurring us on. We have set ourselves very lofty goals, and we are confident that we will reach there.' Shalini Bahadur

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