Expanding Sphere of Innovation@CityU
A major exhibition and a series of seminars will provide a unique opportunity for the public to learn more about CityU's research centres and discover their inspired achievements in applied research, product development, and advanced technology. The exhibition, titled Expanding Sphere of Innovation@CityU, will be held from 7 May to 10. It will be possible to get an introduction to the exhibits and technology demonstrations on 7 and 8 May.

The seminars will be led by five leading CityU academics as part of the University's efforts to showcase its research excellence to a wider audience. The speakers will be Professor Roderick Wong Sue cheun, Director, Liu Bie Ju Centre for Mathematical Sciences; Professor Luk Kwai-man, Director, State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves; Professor Lee Chun-sing, Director, Center of Super-Diamond and Advanced Films; Professor Paul Lam Kwan-sing, Director, State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, Professor Xue Quan, Deputy Director, City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute. The Expanding Sphere of Innovation@CityU festival provides a unique opportunity to learn about the 32 research centres at CityU, the CityU Shenzhen Research Institute and the CityU Knowledge Transfer Office. The seminars will take place on 7 and 8 May.

Distinguished lecture
Professor Martyn Poliakoff of the University of Nottingham has reached millions of young people through the internet, inspiring curiosity in the sciences, especially the area of "green chemistry". In this City University Distinguished Lecture, Professor Poliakoff, one of the world's great science communicators, will discuss insight into developing environmentally acceptable chemical processes and materials that can increase efficient global access to chemicals, and find cleaner ways for making chemicals and materials. The talk takes place on 23 May at the Connie Fan Multi-media Conference Room.

Interdisciplinary conferences
The Centre for Functional Photonics under the direction of Professor Andrey Rogach, Chair Professor of Photonics Materials in CityU's Department of Physics and Materials Science, is hosting an interdisciplinary research workshop in the field of optically active nanostructures. The event will look at a recent progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology, exploring photonic functions of artificially fabricated nano-structures, expanding fundamental studies of light-matter interactions and their potential applications in photonics, plasmonics, and biomedicine to the nanoscale. Titled "Photonics of Functional Nanomaterials", the workshop has been organised by CityU, The University of Hong Kong, and Chinese University Hong Kong, and will be held from 6 to 9 May.

The biennial International Roundtable on Discourse Analysis from 23 to 25 May at the Department of English focuses on the theme of Discourse and Digital Practices, looking at how digital practices impact the construction of discourse, literacy and learning; identifying tools that can be used to understand such digital practices; and trying to better understand how digital practices themselves are discursively constructed.

New department head
Professor Lo Tit-wing has been appointed as the Head of the Department of Applied Social Studies with effect from 1 May 2013. Professor Lo has served the University for over 22 years and is a Professor in the department.

Kudos
Mr Mok Ho-leung, a 2012 graduate of the BSc (Hons) Computer Science programme, received the Silver Award for his project titled "Mobile Live Broadcasting Application-iLiveCast" in the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2013: Best Innovation & Research Award (College & Undergraduates). The project previously won the Gold Award of the 7th Amway Pan-Pearl River Delta Region Universities IT Project Competition 2012, the Merit Prize of APICTA Awards 2012: Tertiary Student Project, and the Merit Prize of HKEIA Innovation & Technology Project Competition Award 2012.

Other successes at the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2013 included Bato Yeung Ting-hung who won the Best Digital Entertainment (Student & Independent Group) Silver Award with the project "Magnetic" which was recently demonstrated at the International ICT Expo 2013 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre; Dennis Wong Chi-ho and Mr Koko Tang Tsz-chung who won Best Digital Entertainment (Student & Independent Group) Special Mention (Mobile Game) with "G-Kart"; and Lam Kit-yung and Davi Leung Hin-sang who won the Best Lifestyle (Student Category of Social, Communications & Media) Bronze Award with "Movie Partner".

Students from the BSc (Hons) Computer Science (CS) have performed strongly at the IBM Inter-University Programming Contest 2013. The five CS teams scored the most points among participating universities from Hong Kong and Macau to win the Champion University Award. This is the third time in four years that CS students have won this award. In addition, Ho Sze-nga, Kwong Ka-wa and Chan King-hin won the 1st runner up and were awarded a trophy and cash prize worth HK$15,000.

Lam Ho-tak, a Year 3 student in the School of Creative Media, was awarded Special Prize in the Short Film Competition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival this year. This award is rarely given to student film-makers.

Leung Yee-ting, also a Year 3 student in the School of Creative Media, won the gold award at the comic competition organised by the Hong Kong Mucopolysaccharidoses and Rare Genetic Diseases Mutual Aid Group.

Mr Ho Wai-hong, a graduate of the MFA in Creative Media in 2012, has won the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum Award 2013 with his film Doomsday Party.