Newsletter No. 174

New Industrial Alliance to Create Multilingual Digital Video Content Hub V ery soon people may watch their favourite films on their wireless PDA and even search for their favourite line in a film. The University has just embarked on a project entitled 'A Multilingual Digital Video Content Hub' wi th a grant of HK$7.8 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund. The project w i ll adopt infomedia technology and artificial intelligence skills to develop video technologies and prototypes that enable seamless access o f v i deo content t h r ough the I n t e r net and mo b i le communication techniques for education, trading, recreation, cultural exchange, and commercial deployment. An online digital video library w i ll be built. The project's deliverables w i ll include automated systems and tools that enable the capture, search, retrieval, summarization, exchange, and reuse of multilingual, Internet-based multimedia information. The University has also formed the Video over Internet and Wireless Technologies Alliance with six industrial partners, which include ecomhere, FlexSystem, Kong Sun Holdings, Lucent Technologies, MediaSite, and Sun Microsystems. The alliance w i ll research and p r omo te ma i ns t r eam i ndus t r i al standards for multilingual and multimedia Internet data exchange to facilitate direct and unambiguous business applications, accelerating advancement in local wireless technology. Over a hundred guests from industry and academia attended the launch ceremony of the content hub and the alliance held on 9th November at the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel. Officiating at the ceremony were Prof. A r t hur K.C. L i , vice-chancellor o f the University, and Mr. Francis Ho, Commissioner of Innovation and Technology of the HKSAR Government. High-powered Symposium on Epithelial Cell Biology T he First Be i j i ng -Hong Kong Symposium on L i fe Sciences was j o i n t ly organized by the University and the Academy o f Mi l i t a ry Medical Sciences f r om 16th to 18th October 2000 in Beijing. Wi th 'Epithelial Cell B i o l ogy' as its theme, the event was held to celebrate the first anniversary of the Epithelial Cell Biology Research Centre set up by the organizers and to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in the relevant fields. The symposium dealt w i th several major areas o f epithelial c e l l b i o l o g y and i n t e r d i s c i p l i n a ry r esea r ch, i n c l u d i ng reproductive biology, immuno l ogy, and tumour biology. The speakers came f r om mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the US. A report entitled ' F r om Ep i t he l i al Ce ll Research to Human Health' was delivered by Prof. Wang Y i Fei o f the World Health Organization. A student paper presentation programme was included in the symposium to promote epithelial cell b i o l ogy research in China and to attract young scientists into the field. Six student papers received the Excellent Award, two o f wh i ch were papers by students from the Department o f Physiology of The Chinese University. Guests o f honour attending the opening ceremony on 16th October included Ma j or General Zhao Da Sheng, president o f the Academia o f M i l i t a ry Med i cal Sciences; Prof. C.Y. Lee, representative o f the vice-chancellor of The Chinese University; Prof. Wang Y i Fei, regional manager o f human reproduction o f the World Health Organization; Prof. Ye X i n Sheng, director o f the L i fe Sciences Division o f the Natural Science Foundation o f China and representative o f the Be i j i ng Science and Technology Commission. Nine members o f the Scientific Adv i so ry Board of the Epithelial Cell B i o l ogy Research Centre were also present. The next symposium w i l l be held in November 2001 in Hong Kong w i th 'Cell Signalling' as the theme. Expert in Developmental Psychopathology Visits United College P rof. Kenneth Dodge, William McDougall Professor of Public Policy Studies and Director of the Center for Child and Family Policy of Duke University in the US, v i s i t ed Un i t ed College f r om 12th to 17th November as Distinguished Visiting Scholar 2000- 2001. During his visit, Prof. Dodge delivered two public lectures: ' How Aggressive Behaviour Develops in Children and Adolescents' on 14th November, and The Prevention of Chronic Violence in Adolescents' on 16th November. Prof. Dodge is we l l - k n own for b r i dg i ng the gap between knowl edge in developmental psychopathology and the design of preventive interventions. He has recently turned his attention to bridging the gap between research and public policy affecting children and families. His research in developmental psychopathology has earned him many awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to the Study of Psychopathology from the American Psychological Association, the Boyd McCandles Young Scientist Award for Research in Developmental Psychology, and placement in Esquire Magazine 's Register of 40 Outstanding American Men and Women under Age Forty. JapaneseStudies in Asia under Probe O ver 100 scholars from Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, Macau, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand discussed 'Quality Japanese Studies and Japanese Language Education in Kanji- Using Areas in the New Century' at the Fifth International Symposium on Japanese Studies and Japanese Language Education held on campus on 25th and 26th November 2000. The symposium was organized by the Department of Japanese Studies of the University and the Society of Japanese Language Education in commemoration o f the 10th anniversary o f the major programme in the Department of Japanese Studies. Keynote speeches were given by Japanese novelist and critic, Prof. Shuichi Kato, and expert in Japanese language education, Prof. Satoshi Toki of Osaka University. The symposium examined the present and future situations of the Japanese language studies in areas which use Kanji, or Chinese characters, which cover north-east Asia and Singapore, and the economic, political, and cultural relationships between those areas and Japan.