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+From cheung@mathcs.emory.edu Fri Jul 26 05:22:38 1991
+From: cheung@mathcs.emory.edu (Shun Yan Cheung)
+Newsgroups: soc.culture.hongkong
+Subject: KAHANER Report on Computing in Hong Kong
+Date: 23 Jul 91 19:52:46 GMT
+Organization: Emory University, Dept of Math and CS
+
+I found the following report on Computing in Hong Kong. Hope it arouses
+some interest and discussion in this newsgroup.
+--
+
+To: Distribution
+From: David K. Kahaner, ONR Asia [kahaner@xroads.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp]
+Re: Computing in Hong Kong
+11 July 1991
+This file is named "hongkong.91"
+
+ABSTRACT. Computing activities in Hong Kong are described.
+
+INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.
+China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) has almost 1.3 billion people,
+five to six times the population of the United States, and more than ten
+times the population of Japan.
+
+Both Taiwan and mainland China consider themselves part of one country,
+although there is a small difference of opinion as to who is in charge.
+We presented a report on computing in Taiwan earlier, (see Taiwan, 17
+Jan 1991), and a forthcoming report will discuss mainland China
+explicitly. This report is limited to Hong Kong.
+
+Comprising several small islands and a section of the Chinese mainland,
+Hong Kong has been under British control for two hundred years. Hong
+Kong Island is the best known of these islands and the location of a
+spectacular array of large modern skyscrapers, dominated by the Bank Of
+China Building, and Victoria Peak, the latter the location of former
+British summer residences. The adjacent mainland portion (Kowloon) is
+another tourist center, packed with hotels and shops.
+
+Hong Kong will revert to China in 1997. At the moment it is officially
+under British control, although mainland Chinese are being incorporated
+into its administration and government. There are the expected disputes
+between Britain and China about how much money should be left in Hong
+Kong's treasury, who should make decisions concerning contracts that
+overlap 1997, etc. Plans to construct a new multi-billion dollar
+international airport were the focus of this controversy while I was
+there, with China, Britain, and Hong Kong all claiming they had the
+right to have final say. Among Hong Kong's population, there are
+differing points of view on this transition. Most of the professionals
+are apprehensive because of the uncertainty, while some feel that
+ultimately it will be a good thing to be united. But many industrial
+firms are packing up and moving, and there has also been a well
+publicized exodus of Hong Kong citizens to Canada and other hospitable
+countries. Other people are hedging their bets and attempting to obtain
+foreign passports with the hope that they won't be forced to use them.
+One Hong Kong scientist asked me if I knew how he could get a British
+passport (I didn't). Britain has set up a quota system for a limited
+number of British passports depending on age, education, and vocation of
+the applicants. Apparently there is an excess of some scientists and
+engineers who have applied, and not enough managers. I was told a story
+about 2,000 well-to-do (and shrewd) Hong Kong citizens who purchased
+East German passports shortly before Germany was reunited. The general
+feeling was very well expressed by one scientist, who put it this way,
+"we are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst." The nearby
+Portuguese-run island of Macau will revert to Chinese control in 1999,
+two years after Hong Kong.
+
+Computing and related research in Hong Kong is fragmented, with
+individual universities going their own way; laissez faire is a good way
+to describe the state. This might equally apply to other aspects of
+activities within Hong Kong, which appears to be the ultimate "free
+market". There is a great deal of creative energy, especially at the
+University of Hong Kong, but I had very little sense that there were any
+coordinated programs among the universities. This assessment is
+tentative however, as I had no opportunity to speak to government
+officials who might be promoting such things. Also, the situation might
+change as Hong Kong's new Science and Technology university begins
+operation; the government has identified information technology as a key
+area this university should focus on. Nevertheless, the computing world
+here is quite different from, say, Singapore (see my report, 19 June
+1991, Singapor) in which coordination is dramatically apparent. About
+three years ago a study was commissioned to determine if the Hong Kong
+government could justify the purchase of a supercomputer for use at the
+universities and other public facilities. That study concluded that
+such a purchase was not justified at the time, although perhaps there
+was also some concern about where this machine would ultimately end up.
+I sensed that a mini-super, at least, would be very useful.
+
+There are six main college/universities in Hong Kong.
+ The University of Hong Kong
+ The Chinese University of Hong Kong
+ The Hong Kong Polytechnic
+ The City Polytechnic of Hong Kong
+ The Hong Kong Baptist College
+ Ling Nam College
+The first two have both graduate and undergraduate programs and have
+faculty members engaged in research. The remainder are more focused on
+vocational training and some postgraduate (mostly MS) programs. Their
+faculty also do some research. There is a brand new university
+ The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
+which will open its doors to students this fall (1991).
+
+I visited U-HK, HK-Poly, and HKUS&T. All three are either bursting at
+the seams or in the midst of a frantic building program. I had no
+opportunity to visit ChineseU-HK but was told that this is a fairly
+traditional university that has heavy emphasis on the social sciences.
+HK-U, HK-Poly, and ChineseU-HK have enrollments in the range 10-13,000,
+and HKUS&T is anticipating similar numbers within a few years. Hong Kong
+has a population of about 6,000,000 so there does not appear to be much
+doubt that this level can be maintained as long as the government
+provides financial support (these are all public institutions).
+
+HONG KONG UNIVERSITY.
+HK-U is on Hong Kong island, in a very hilly setting. Buildings are
+stacked, and it is difficult to walk more than a few meters in any
+direction without encountering steps. There are some beautiful views.
+
+HK-U has a very active Computer Science department, established in 1988.
+I had met the Chairman in Taiwan, where I was impressed with one of his
+research papers.
+ Prof. Francis Yuk-Lun Chin
+ Department of Computer Science
+ University of Hong Kong
+ Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
+ Tel: +852 859-2178, Fax +852 559-8447.
+ Email: CHIN@CSD.HKU.HK, or CHIN%CSD@HKUJNT.BITNET
+The current department has about 15 faculty. In the 89-90 academic year,
+there were about 120 students, 43 CScience undergraduates, 60
+CEngineering undergraduates, and 14 graduate students. Almost all of
+the faculty have PhD from Western universities such as Princeton,
+Columbia, Waterloo, Wisconsin, Illinois, London, etc. Research interests
+span the usual range of those in Computer Science departments, although
+I did not sense much activity in numerical computation, and none in
+numerical analysis (I had no opportunity to visit the Mathematics
+department), although at least one faculty member (W.W. Tsang) is
+interested in statistical computation. There is some work in parallel
+and distributed computation, related mostly to programming environments,
+networking, systems, and object oriented programming. Chin's research
+that caught my attention in Taiwan was concerned with computation on a
+hypercube. It is somewhat theoretical and was done while he was on
+sabbatical in the US. His current responsibilities leave little free
+time for research. There is a generous collection of modern Unix
+workstations, but I did not see any parallel computers at the
+University. There may be some at local industries however.
+
+The department has generated a credible number of publications, mostly
+in English, many in well known journals. There is an active visitor
+program. While I was there Prof Robert Uzgalis (retired from UCLA) was
+ending a year's visit. The University provided him with support and
+housing. Uzgalis claimed that the Chinese students he met were very
+creative and diligent, and more suited for creating new software than
+some other Asian groups he had dealt with. He also commented that there
+was an excess of skilled computer talent in Hong Kong, and many
+graduates are forced to accept positions in financial or other fields.
+In fact, I did not see any evidence of an information industry, although
+I was told that there is at least one PC clone (Sigma) produced in Hong
+Kong. (The new HKUS&T has as one of its goals to build the information
+industry in Hong Kong.) However, while I was in Hong Kong I watched an
+exceptionally well done computer video that was presented on TV as an
+advertisement for the proposed new airport. It showed the bay surrounded
+by tall buildings, water disappearing and slowly being replaced by
+runways, followed by a 747 on its final approach and landing.
+Unfortunately I was not able to get any information about where this was
+made.
+
+HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
+The most interesting new scientific development in Hong Kong is its new
+university, HKUS&T, which will consist of a grouping of professional
+schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, management and
+business. There is a deliberate decision to make the university focus
+on technology transfer to industry. In fact there is a plan to create
+two separate types of positions to attract scientists from both the
+academic research community and the industrial/commercial R&D sector.
+Initially, the teaching language will be English, but university
+administrators acknowledge that Chinese will also be pervasive to
+satisfy "a practical need for our graduates to be able to flourish up
+north". At the time of my visit, the university staff were located in an
+office building one block from the center of the downtown portion of
+(the mainland-Kowloon) Hong Kong, but a brand new campus is being built
+outside central Hong Kong and is visualized as more like a college town
+than an urban campus, set along the ocean on 60 hectares, including not
+only the university complex but sports facilities, student residences
+for over 2,000, senior staff apartments of 1500- 2000 sq.ft, shops, etc.
+
+Academic staff are being recruited actively. Senior members are being
+sought by all traditional methods including academic "head hunting".
+Advertisements in scientific journals are also used. I noticed a large
+ad in a recent SIAM Newsletter, indicating very handsome salaries and
+benefits. Many of these senior positions have now been filled, and
+there is a long list of scholars who have spent many years at very well
+known universities in the West, including Berkeley, Princeton, USC,
+CalTech, Brown, Oxford, MIT, and the like. Roughly two thirds of the
+senior staff have Asian names, the remainder appear to be Western. The
+university reluctantly has acknowledged that they will have to pay
+department salary differentials based on market conditions.
+
+There are many growing pains, and some chaos as the first students will
+appear this fall. More than 10,000 applicants vied for about 560
+undergraduate positions. The following year about 2000 students are
+expected. Plans are to have about 10,000 students by the end of the
+decade. (Regardless of the long term future of the university, I think
+that its first students will have a very rich and rewarding educational
+experience.)
+
+The following chart describes the planned enrollments. Figures are
+undergraduates/graduate students/faculty & staff.
+
+ 1991 1993 1995 1999
+ ---- ---- ---- ----
+ Science 180/30/49 835/130/129 1503/365/192 2024/430/263
+ Engineering 230/42/39 1054/126/120 2070/433/209 3192/726/317
+ Business & Mgt 150/60/31 1034/210/104 1963/474/161 2798/627/226
+ Hum & Soc Sci 0/ 8/15 0/ 61/ 50 0/155/ 80 0/200/110
+
+Within the School of Engineering, Computer Science and EE will be
+co-equal as the largest programs. Surprisingly, Mathematics will
+eventually be the largest program in the School of Science, half again
+as large as physics, and almost twice as large as chemistry. Perhaps
+this is related to the strong Mathematics faculty, of whom five have
+already been selected, including two professors from Brown (Hsieh and
+Shen), a former department head from Princeton (Hsiang), and a research
+mathematician who spent 20 years at the US Naval Research Laboratory
+(Yang). The Computer Science program will be headed by a Princeton PhD
+and former MCC program manager (Shen). The university President (Woo)
+was formerly President of San Francisco State University.
+
+The university is planned to be a first class research establishment,
+and funding has already been secured for programs in biotechnology and
+information technology. There are a large number of additional proposals
+in areas such as advanced materials, energy, scientific computation,
+manufacturing, cognitive science, and others. A Materials
+Characterization Center, Microfabrication Center, CAD/CAM Lab, and
+others are being built. A computer environment is also being developed.
+It will consist of heterogeneous microprocessors such as micros and
+workstations, connected with a few large minis and mainframes via a FDDI
+(Fiber Distributed Data Interface) network. The network is in the form
+of a dual ring of trees; optical fiber will be routed to various central
+locations, and then Ethernet cables will connect to individual users.
+The net will not only be connected to offices but also to all campus
+housing. Some of this network is already installed. There is at least
+one HP 70MIP workstation and many other workstations are presently in
+boxes waiting for installation. The university claims that every
+department will have or share a computer lab for use by graduate
+students and faculty, and every faculty member will have a workstation.
+
+Well known software such as IMSL and SAS is installed and available
+through the computer center. The new campus will be connected to others
+in HK via a 9,600 baud line, and a T-1 line to Britain will be installed
+sometime in 1992. Plans are to link the university via real-time video
+and data paths to Asia, Europe (via London) and US (via California), to
+allow it "to become one of the most international of all the world's
+universities"! Certainly, the failed supercomputer for Hong Kong would
+have been very useful. As things stand now users will have to find
+creative ways to use distributed workstations.
+
+I have no special insight about the future prospects for this
+university. Unfortunately, I did not meet with senior members of the
+administration or the research faculty, but only with staff from
+Computer Services, and one member of the new computer science
+department. At this point the university has no track record and only
+an energetic new faculty and developing physical plant. The university
+could become the high-class research center that it hopes to be. Mostly
+it will depend on the commitment of the Chinese government to maintain
+the path set out by university founders, as well as that government's
+ability to sustain the university's financial requirements. For senior
+Western scientists who have joined the faculty I believe that things are
+more clear. Most of these people are in the later stages of their
+professional careers and the university now has more than enough momentum
+to carry them along for a number of years. The same would be true for
+visitors. It will be interesting though, to see how successful the
+university is at recruiting mid career faculty, and it will be important
+to follow progress here during the coming decade.
+
+My primary contact at HKUS&T is
+ Dr William Max Ivey
+ Director, Computer Services and Telecommunications
+ Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
+ 12/F, World Shipping Centre
+ Harbour City
+ 7 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui
+ Kowloon, Hong Kong
+ Tel: +852 302 1411, -1533; Fax: +852 736-7088
+ Email: CCMAX@USTHK.BITNET
+although his address and telephone number will change within the next
+few months as the new campus is opened.
+
+THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC
+HK-Poly is within walking distance of the center of Kowloon, thus an
+urban campus, which is being expanded. As mentioned above HK-Poly is
+more of a vocational center than a research university. Nevertheless it
+has about 13,000 students, although only about 60% are degree
+candidates. I met with
+ Mr. Dennis M.T. Yek
+ Head of Department
+ Hong Kong Polytechnic
+ Computer Center
+ Hung Hom, Kowloon
+ Hong Kong
+ Tel: +852 766-5940, -5932; Fax: +852 764-2647
+Poly's computing facilities include about 8 Vax 11/780s or equivalents,
+some PCs, and terminals. There are no Unix workstations yet. Software
+includes ACSL (for system simulation, including solution of differential
+equations), IMSL, GLIM, Ansys, LP/Protran, Macsyma, SAS, SPSS, AutoCAD,
+various database products such as Oracle, and a fair selection of
+graphics software such as Movie, Gino, etc. As usual, the computer
+center is overworked and understaffed. I had no opportunity to speak
+with any members of the scientific faculty.
+
+All these schools are connected together via electronic networking
+(Harnet: Hong Kong Academic & Research Network). The individual nodes
+are connected either by leased/dedicated circuits or through the Hong
+Kong Telephone Company DATAPAK service. There is a common gateway for
+access to international networks. Interestingly, there is a printed
+directory of electronic mail users that integrates all the universities
+(very helpful). This might be available on-line as well.
+
+ROYAL OBSERVATORY (300 staff)
+Main contact.
+ Mr. Yeung Kai Hing
+ Senior Scientific Officer
+ Royal Observatory
+ 134A Nathan Road
+ Kowloon, Hong Kong
+ Tel: +852 732-9331, Fax: +852 721-5034
+This is a department of the Hong Kong Government, that primarily operates
+weather forecasting, cyclone warning and related meteorological and
+geophysical services. The main facility stands on a wooded hill in the
+center of downtown Kowloon. In crowded Hong Kong the land value alone
+must be astronomical. The administration is housed in a beautiful British
+colonial building dating from the 19th century, and one expects to see
+white-suited moustached men with cold drinks sitting on the veranda. In
+many ways the Observatory is a world apart from the frantic activity in
+most other parts of Hong Kong.
+
+Various weather information is collected from ships, weather buoys,
+aircraft, island and land stations, and data (including video) is also
+transmitted by weather satellites and microwave. This includes such
+things as air and sea soundings (wind, temperature, pressure, humidity,
+solar radiation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, sea temperatures, sea
+waves, tides, etc.), radar, microwave cloud pictures, rainfall, and
+others. A Royal Navy officer is attached to the Observatory with the
+function of liaising with Navy ships in the China Seas and western
+Pacific. The Observatory is also responsible for coordinating marine
+data for the South China Sea. Advice on marine climalogical conditions
+is given to various companies, especially those engaged in offshore oil
+activities. Staff from the Observatory also teach courses in atmospheric
+science at Hong Kong universities.
+
+The main activities of the Observatory are as follows.
+ * Record keeping and climatological services
+ * Radioactivity monitoring and assessment in order to determine
+ background radiation levels in conjunction with Daya Bay Nuclear
+ Power Station. There is also a Monitoring and Assessment Center.
+ * Time service based on Caesium Beam Atomic Clock, and broadcast by
+ various radio stations.
+ * Geophysics and astronomy, primarily to monitor earthquake activity and
+ gravimetric measurements, via seismometers, and accelerographs, etc.
+ * Hydrometeorology, mostly via raingauges for water resources
+ information and flood forecasting models.
+ * Oceanography, including storm surge simulation, tidal monitoring and
+ modeling, and wave and swell numerical models.
+ * Applied meteorology, effect of terrain on wind flow and participates,
+ and in particular various studies related to locating the new Hong
+ Kong airport.
+
+Generally, weather related activities account for about 90% of the
+Observatory's expenditures ($10-15M US).
+
+There are communications links between the Observatory and meteorological
+centers in Tokyo, Bangkok and Beijing (9600 baud). All together, these
+amount to 4-5 MBytes per day. This data, plus that generated locally is
+processed into various charts and forecasts. Most of the computing is
+being handled by several minicomputers, such as Data General Eclipse
+S/140, MV20000, etc. There is a substantial amount of data acquisition,
+plotting, display and tape archival equipment. Databased weather data
+amounts to about 300MBytes/year, and Oracle is the main database product
+in use. There were two IBM RS/6000 Unix workstations in crates yet to be
+installed when I visited. The Observatory decided to purchase these
+after the decision was made not to obtain a supercomputer for Hong Kong.
+The staff is heavily involved in day-to-day forecasting, but would like
+to do more serious numerical modeling and a small supercomputer
+maintained elsewhere would have been ideal. The IBMs will also be
+useful but will require maintenance and training. These will be the
+first Unix machines at the Observatory.
+
+More computer horsepower will also enable them to work on image
+enhancement techniques, computer animation, etc. Storm surge models have
+been carried out at NOAA, and a single layer vertically integrated bay
+model has been run at the Observatory. The staff would like to increase
+this to a multilayer model as well as to perform various finite element
+computations. Hong Kong weather is subject to the vagaries of both
+tropical and extratropical weather systems as well as Asian monsoons.
+Hilly terrain and large land/sea contrasts give rise to complex small
+scale atmospheric circulations, leading to significant local weather
+variations. Some very interesting modeling is being done using a limited
+area model developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency. On current
+computers this is run once each day to give forecasts up to two days
+ahead. Some of this computation will be very much improved with the new
+workstations.
+
+Observatory staff do not appear to be active in research, although there
+are clearly many fascinating topics that could be examined. I also did
+not get the impression that there was much collaborative activity between
+the Observatory and universities in Hong Kong, even though there is an
+active international meteorological community that they do interact with.
+There is no electronic mail, a serious deficiency, and until recently not
+enough computer power for significant numerical research. Nevertheless
+the Observatory has many interesting problems, a long scholarly history,
+and a wonderful setting. I think that the new HKUS&T would be well served
+by developing some cooperative projects.
+
+----------------------------END OF REPORT------------------------------
+
+
+--
+Shun Yan Cheung | cheung@mathcs.emory.edu | Office: (404) 727-3823
+Emory University | cheung@emory.bitnet | Fax: (404) 727-5611
+Dept of Math and CS | "Obtaining freedom is easy, using it responsibly is hard"
+Atlanta, GA 30322 | "If the people lead, the leaders will follow."
+