The new Dean of Engineering, Professor Christopher Chao, has long been an advocate of reaching out and crossing boundaries, making him a perfect fit for today’s HKU. AN ENGINEER AHEAD OF HIS TIME When Professor Christopher Chao, son of a school maintenance assistant and homemaker, was admitted to study engineering at the University in 1985, it was a major event for his family. He was the first member to enter university at a time when only a few per cent of school leavers got a place, and when social and political uncertainty made a portable engineering degree highly desirable. But even with that achievement, he kept his mind open to something more. As it turned out, he was decades ahead of his time. Professor Chao enjoyed reading and writing as a youth, which were mostly not part of a curriculum that focussed exclusively on maths and sciences. “I worked very hard to go to college but I also have a genuine interest in learning, so I read a lot of books – George Orwell, Stephen King, Bertrand Russell, books like that. I wanted to upgrade myself and pick up knowledge,” he said. He was also keen to venture to new places. After graduating in 1988, he worked for two there was no opening then for his kind of research.) “My head of department warned me at the time to focus more on my publications because I might not get tenure. I was a bit nervous, but I decided to keep doing what I was interested in. Later I found society also changed from focussing on purely academic research – which is still important – to nowadays encouraging technology transfer and start-ups,” he said, adding: “I’m a very lucky guy because I’ve been able to do what I’m interested in.” His career never suffered from this approach. He was head of mechanical and aerospace engineering at HKUST before taking up his new post at HKU in the spring and he recently was awarded a HK$7 million Collaborative Research Fund grant to develop advanced cooling technology to make buildings more energy-efficient. And as the new Dean of Engineering at HKU, he is fulfilling a wish to be a scholar at his alma mater . “It’s good timing for me to try out something new. I think it will be a more exciting platform for me to look after five different departments rather than one department,” he said. New horizons Professor Chao’s immediate tasks include helping smooth the rollout of three new Bachelor of Arts and Sciences (BASc) degrees. This is a new initiative by the University to promote interdisciplinary study and Engineering is joining forces with various Faculties to offer BAScs in FinTech, artificial intelligence and design. He is also keen to see students be creative and develop their ideas into prototypes and even start-ups. The new Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, funded by a HK$100 million donation from Mr and Mrs Tam, will open in 2020. In the meantime, students can experiment in the DreamLab in Haking Wong Building and are being encouraged to pursue interdisciplinary projects. “We want to train engineers who not only can solve technical problems but are well rounded and can communicate with stakeholders from different disciplines,” he said. Professor Chao also wants the Faculty’s departments to set their sights high when recruiting new talent and bring in top-flight people of diverse backgrounds – a necessity for staying competitive, even with his former employer HKUST. “This will be good for Hong Kong as a whole because when we compete in a friendly way, the whole standard of engineering in Hong Kong will go up,” he said. years at Swire Group’s industrial division before applying to do a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. Few of his colleagues were interested in studying in the United States at the time because it was a longer PhD programme than in Commonwealth countries, but it suited him just fine. “I wanted to be independent and live away from my family and I wanted to experience something new,” he said, and he drove up and down the country on his own to get a firsthand look. He also tried something new in his PhD by focussing on combustion and energy engineering. “This is a cross-disciplinary area that includes chemical engineering, physics and other areas like that in addition to mechanical engineering. And when you talk about energy, it also relates to climate change and environmental protection, so I built up an interest in these topics, too,” he said. A warning fortunately unheeded Crossing disciplinary and physical boundaries was not the only way that he pushed the envelope. When he joined Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 1997, he became a proponent of building ties with industry and encouraging students to start their own companies, at a time when it was unfashionable. (He tried HKU, too, but We want to train engineers who not only can solve technical problems but are well rounded and can communicate with stakeholders from different disciplines. Professor Christopher Chao Professor Christopher Chao (sixth from left) with the donor of the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, Mrs May Tam and her team, including Professor T H Tse, Mr Edward Ho and Mr Heman Hsuan and colleagues of the project team. Professor Christopher Chao (sixth from right in the first row) was joined by President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Xiang Zhang (centre in the first row), Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Tam (sixth from left in the first row) and Dean of Student Affairs Dr Eugenie Leung (fifth from left in the first row) to meet new students at the Faculty’s Inauguration Ceremony for New Students 2018–2019. Professor Christopher Chao (centre) with students at the Engin’ Nite at Loke Yew Hall, HKU. 47 | 48 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | November 2018 People
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