Good news! Two disciplines were selected as key disciplines! Postdoctoral Innovation Practice Base is approved to be established!

On February 10, the Guangzhou Education Bureau released an announcement declaring the list of key disciplines to be selected for 2022. The discipline of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering and the discipline of Artificial Intelligence declared by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) were selected. On the same day, Guangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau released the announcement on the list of postdoctoral innovation practice bases to be selected for the tenth batch of Guangzhou, one of which is from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). In addition, the announcement period is from February 10, 2023 to February 16, 2023 (7 days).

It is reported that the key disciplines of Guangzhou Education Bureau require strong overall discipline strength, clear and concentrated discipline construction direction, academic leaders with high academic achievements in China, a high-level academic team with reasonable structure, and close connection with local economic and social development as well as industrial transformation and upgrading. There are 14 key disciplines, including 9 in science and technology, 3 in medicine and 2 in social science. The leaders of the selected disciplines from HKUST(GZ) are Professor Xu Jiang, Head of Microelectronics Thrust of Function Hub, and Professor Xiong Hui, Head of Artificial Intelligence Thrust of Information Hub.

Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering is one of the emerging interdisciplinary disciplines established by the HKUST(GZ) in response to the urgent needs of the country and is the core of the Microelectronics Thrust. It focuses on the four core areas of integrated circuits: integrated circuit design tools (EDA), devices and processes, circuits and systems, and architecture to train high-end talents and develop technologies. The team currently has 12 members, with many more professors expected to join soon. All of the team members have PhDs from top universities, and over half of them have experience working for top chip companies. According to the report, HKUST (GZ) has already offered approximately 20 integrated circuit courses and plans to construct a 3,000 square meter integrated circuit central laboratory of the highest caliber to support talent development and scientific research. The subject leader, Professor Xu Jiang, has worked at Bell Labs, NEC America Labs, and the startup Sandbridge Technologies (acquired by Qualcomm), where he participated in the development and successful implementation of two generations of multi-core processor system-on-chip for smartphones. He started working at HKUST in 2007. His research focuses on integrated circuits and design tools, and he has created and released 8 of these tools as open-source software.

The discipline of Artificial Intelligence is the only discipline in the direction of Artificial Intelligence among the selected key disciplines. The Artificial Intelligence Thrust of HKUST (GZ) has a strong faculty with one Chair Professor, one Associate Professor and six Assistant Professors, all of whom have received PhD degrees from renowned universities at home and abroad. There are also 2 post-docs and about 30 PhD students. The research team has rich experience in industry, academia, and research, and has established close and good cooperation with famous enterprises such as Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, OPPO, Azera, Huaxia Fund, and Simou Technology. His main research interests are artificial intelligence, information security, data science, etc.

Professor Xiong Hui, the subject leader, is the Chair Professor of HKUST (GZ), the Head of Artificial Intelligence Thrust, and the Director of Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Frontier Cross-Science of Artificial Intelligence. He was a Distinguished Professor of Rutgers-New Jersey State University, an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellow, an IEEE Fellow, an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and was also the Vice President of Baidu Research Institute.

The declared institution must meet the requirements of the Guangzhou Postdoctoral Innovation and Practice Base, which include having a high-level R&D team, strong economic and scientific research capabilities, and the ability to offer postdoctoral researchers better research conditions and the necessary living security, among other things.

The work of talents is highly valued by the HKUST (GZ). From its founding, the university has prioritized talent work and used superior policies and kind treatment to attract high-level leading talents and exceptional young academics from around the world. In 2022, HKUST (GZ) established a unique Talent Service Office. Currently, a number of high-level talent services, such as the declaration of major talent projects, the enrollment of children of talents, academician services, etc., have been carried out in an organized manner to allay concerns about talent development and provide strong support for the university to attract, nurture, and retain talents. The External Relations Office and the Talent Service Office jointly declared the main disciplines and postdoctoral innovation practice base. The relevant departments of the university will summarize the successful experience and make further efforts to strive for more key disciplines and projects to settle in HKUST (GZ).