HKU Bulletin October 2004 (Vol. 6 No. 1)

21 STUDENTS ARTS F resh from final examinations, a group of engineering students put their studies to practical use over the summer and built robots for competition. With little instruction or guidance, they designed two types of robots, one controlled manually and the other pre-programmed with built-in sensors. Three robot teams were entered into the Radio Television Hong Kong-sponsored Robocon contest in June, in which the manual robot had to build a bridge and the pre-programmed robot travelled over it. Two of the teams nabbed the top two positions against teams from other local universities. Over the summer, the winning robots also travelled to Seoul for a regional Robocon contest. Although they did not earn a place, the students said they gained valuable experience for next year’s competition. “We put in a lot of hours. For most of us, it was the first time we’d built anything like this and we spent a lot of time Students Go Robotic getting it wrong,” Victor Fung, now a third-year mechanical engineering student, said. “I think we’ll be able to do better next time because most of us are staying with the team and we have experience and don’t have to start from nothing. We can improve what we have done and try something more sophisticated.” The project involved about 20 first- and second-year students from mechanical, computer and electrical engineering and was the f irst time they had worked with classmates from other disciplines. Dr Cheung Kie Chung, Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who supported the students, said the project also provided new challenges for students. “It’s a more difficult task than what they would encounter in their studies, where they get structured problems, and it’s been very demanding on the students, when you take into account they had exams and summer internships. They’ve done very well,” he said. T he Chinese affinity with wood expressed itself in complex and sensual works of art by seven sculptors at the University Museum and Art Gallery during September and October. Concepts in Wood: Contemporary Hong Kong Wood Sculptor showcased the ancient skill of transforming trees into unique works of art depicting animal and human forms as well as more abstract pieces. The Chinese have long manipulated wood in building houses, temples and bridges as well as sculpting it into Buddhist figures, Confucian sages and Taoist monks. In this exhibition seven leading artists displayed work ranging from the conceptual to the sensual. Concepts in Wood Three generat ions of art ists include the master wood sculptors Cheung Yee, Tong King Sum and Li Ki Kwok who built the foundations in the 1970s for a fine sculpting tradition in Hong Kong T . he younger sculptors include Chow Shun Keung, Kevin Fung Lik Yan and Victor Tai Sheung Shing who have shown similar focus in exploring the art of wood sculpting over the last decade. The only woman amongst them was the youngest of the group, Jaffa Lam, who has been keenly involved in numerous artistic activ T it h ie e s. scope and variety of the works reflected the vibrancy of the Hong Kong sculpting scene. 20