The Council of The Chinese University of Hong Kong has approved the appointment of Professor Martin D.F. Wong as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering with effect from 4 January 2019. He will serve for a term of 5 years. Professor Wong is also appointed as Choh-Ming Li Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Professor Martin D.F. Wong obtained his B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1979, and received his Master’s degree in Mathematics in 1981 and Ph.D. degree in Computer Science in 1987 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is currently the Edward C. Jordan Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Executive Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at UIUC. Professor Wong is a world-renowned scholar in the area of Electronic Design Automation (EDA). A prolific scholar, he has published over 450 refereed articles at top journals and conferences. Professor Wong has graduated 50 Ph.D. students and many of them now holds leadership position in industry and academia.  His research interests include EDA, combinatorial optimisation, graph algorithms, parallel processing, cloud computing and machine learning. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to the algorithmic aspects of EDA, and he has won a number of prestigious awards from ACM and IEEE. He has also been given the Distinguished Alumni Educator Award in Computer Science at UIUC. 

As Executive Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at UIUC, Professor Wong is the second highest rank administrator in the College. He has accumulated rich administrative experiences in overseeing faculty hiring and promotion, academic program review, financial and resource planning, international partnership and industry engagement at one of the largest College of Engineering in the United States. College of Engineering at UIUC has 10 academic departments, 420 tenure-track faculty and 12,000 students. Professor Wong oversees a period of unprecedented growth of the College with successful recruitment of over 150 new faculty members in the past 5 years. He has also established numerous student exchange programs with universities all over the world. Two major joint research and educational programs recently established under Professor Wong’s leadership are the ZJU-UIUC Institute offering UIUC Engineering curriculum at the International Campus of Zhejiang University (ZJU) and the Chinese-American Railway Transportation Joint Research Center at UIUC in partnership with China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). 

Professor Wong remarked, “I am honoured to have been offered the position as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at CUHK - a world class faculty with excellent teaching and research professionals and high-quality research facilities. The Faculty has been well recognised internationally for its excellence in engineering research. I am looking forward to working with a team of very talented colleagues for continued excellence in research and education that contribute to Hong Kong, China and the world.” 

In accordance with the guidelines and procedures for the search and appointment of faculty deans, the University formed a search committee to launch a worldwide search for the next Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. Having thoroughly considered the nominations/applications received, the Search Committee finally recommended Professor Wong for the position. Pursuant to the appointment procedures, Professor Wong met with teachers and students of the Faculty of Engineering earlier to exchange views on the future development of the Faculty and the Council subsequently appointed him as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

This article was originally published on CUHK Communications and Public Relations Office website.

A genetic engineering team of 12 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Business Administration, the Faculty of Engineering, the School of Biomedical Science of the Faculty of Medicine, and the School of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Science has been awarded a Gold medal at the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) 2018 Giant Jamboree held in Boston, USA, for developing a novel rapid test for influenza subtypes. This is the seventh time that a CUHK team has won gold in the annual premier synthetic biology competition. The winning project has extensive potential applications and may help doctors and even the general public to detect the threat of an influenza virus. 

The winning project designed by the CUHK iGEM team was named “Rapid: RNA aptamer probe influenza detector” (RAPID). Transmissible diseases such as influenza have threatened the lives of people in Hong Kong and worldwide. However, while cold-flu differentiation remains difficult for non-experts, many people fail to receive appropriate treatment in time. Even if the doctor diagnoses the flu, a laboratory test is still required to confirm its type (i.e., type A, B or C) and subtype (such as H1N1, H5N1 and H7N9). It often takes a day or more and may miss the prime time for epidemic control. The RAPID designed by the CUHK team can distinguish the virus’s type by detecting its RNA target sequence and it takes only around thirty minutes for the results. The detector is small and light. Patients can use it at home to detect whether they are infected with the flu, and seek medical advice in time, which will improve anti-epidemic efficiency. 

This novel tool is based on the switchable light-up RNA aptamer, which undergoes conformational change upon hybridisation with another strand of nucleic acid, leading to an observable fluorescent signal. This tool can be modified to detect theoretically any RNA target sequence, including influenza and other viruses’ genome. The CUHK iGEM team designed a mobile phone-based fluorometer to detect the signal of the aptamer, as well as an accompanying software which makes use of the technique of machine learning to analyse the testing result. This tool can make it more convenient for the general public to detect an influenza virus by themselves. 

To provide a self-testing tool for the general public to test for influenza when they experience flu-like symptoms, the team distributed questionnaires in local and nearby countries during the preliminary stage of the project. Based on the result, the team realised that there is a real need in the market because the majority of the general public cannot differentiate between the symptoms of flu and cold. Also, people expressed interests in such a device and are willing to pay for it. 

The team has also interviewed an epidemiologist, to gain feedback and advice on the project design. As a result, the team has improved the sensitivity of the quick test accordingly, as sensitivity would have the utmost importance for a self-test. Students also interviewed a family doctor to learn more about the existing quick tests for influenza so as to make the tool more competitive than existing tests. 

Professor Chan King-ming, one of the instructors of the team and associate professor of the School of Life Sciences at CUHK, remarked, “Students from different majors work together collaboratively, with their own expertise, from designing the hardware to making biobricks and doing experiments as a team. It’s been a great experience for them to compete with other teams from top universities in the Jamboree.” 

About iGEM Competition

There were 365 teams from around the world participating in this year’s world giant jamboree and, of them, only 114 teams achieved gold. 

iGEM is an annual premier synthetic biology competition worldwide for high school, undergraduate and postgraduate students.  It was established by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004 to foster students’ learning in synthetic biology, promote collaboration among students and nurture biology talent.  Participating teams are required to specify, design, build and test simple biological systems made from standard, interchangeable biological parts.  The accomplishments of these student teams often lead to important advances or provide solutions to tackle problems in medicine, food and nutrition, energy and the environment.