Subject: KAHANER Report on Computing in Hong Kong

From: [email-masked] (Shun Yan Cheung)
Date: 23 Jul 91 19:52:46 GMT

I found the following report on Computing in Hong Kong. Hope it arouses
some interest and discussion in this newsgroup.
--

To: Distribution
From: David K. Kahaner, ONR Asia [[email-masked]]
Re: Computing in Hong Kong
11 July 1991
This file is named "hongkong.91"

ABSTRACT. Computing activities in Hong Kong are described.

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.
China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong) has almost 1.3 billion people,
five to six times the population of the United States, and more than ten
times the population of Japan.

Both Taiwan and mainland China consider themselves part of one country,
although there is a small difference of opinion as to who is in charge.
We presented a report on computing in Taiwan earlier, (see Taiwan, 17
Jan 1991), and a forthcoming report will discuss mainland China
explicitly.  This report is limited to Hong Kong.

Comprising several small islands and a section of the Chinese mainland,
Hong Kong has been under British control for two hundred years. Hong
Kong Island is the best known of these islands and the location of a
spectacular array of large modern skyscrapers, dominated by the Bank Of
China Building, and Victoria Peak, the latter the location of former
British summer residences. The adjacent mainland portion (Kowloon) is
another tourist center, packed with hotels and shops.

Hong Kong will revert to China in 1997. At the moment it is officially
under British control, although mainland Chinese are being incorporated
into its administration and government. There are the expected disputes
between Britain and China about how much money should be left in Hong
Kong's treasury, who should make decisions concerning contracts that
overlap 1997, etc.  Plans to construct a new multi-billion dollar
international airport were the focus of this controversy while I was
there, with China, Britain, and Hong Kong all claiming they had the
right to have final say. Among Hong Kong's population, there are
differing points of view on this transition. Most of the professionals
are apprehensive because of the uncertainty, while some feel that
ultimately it will be a good thing to be united. But many industrial
firms are packing up and moving, and there has also been a well
publicized exodus of Hong Kong citizens to Canada and other hospitable
countries.  Other people are hedging their bets and attempting to obtain
foreign passports with the hope that they won't be forced to use them.
One Hong Kong scientist asked me if I knew how he could get a British
passport (I didn't). Britain has set up a quota system for a limited
number of British passports depending on age, education, and vocation of
the applicants.  Apparently there is an excess of some scientists and
engineers who have applied, and not enough managers.  I was told a story
about 2,000 well-to-do (and shrewd) Hong Kong citizens who purchased
East German passports shortly before Germany was reunited.  The general
feeling was very well expressed by one scientist, who put it this way,
"we are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst." The nearby
Portuguese-run island of Macau will revert to Chinese control in 1999,
two years after Hong Kong.

Computing and related research in Hong Kong is fragmented, with
individual universities going their own way; laissez faire is a good way
to describe the state. This might equally apply to other aspects of
activities within Hong Kong, which appears to be the ultimate "free
market".  There is a great deal of creative energy, especially at the
University of Hong Kong, but I had very little sense that there were any
coordinated programs among the universities. This assessment is
tentative however, as I had no opportunity to speak to government
officials who might be promoting such things. Also, the situation might
change as Hong Kong's new Science and Technology university begins
operation; the government has identified information technology as a key
area this university should focus on.  Nevertheless, the computing world
here is quite different from, say, Singapore (see my report, 19 June
1991, Singapor) in which coordination is dramatically apparent.  About
three years ago a study was commissioned to determine if the Hong Kong
government could justify the purchase of a supercomputer for use at the
universities and other public facilities.  That study concluded that
such a purchase was not justified at the time, although perhaps there
was also some concern about where this machine would ultimately end up.
I sensed that a mini-super, at least, would be very useful.

There are six main college/universities in Hong Kong.
    The University of Hong Kong
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    The Hong Kong Polytechnic
    The City Polytechnic of Hong Kong
    The Hong Kong Baptist College
    Ling Nam College
The first two have both graduate and undergraduate programs and have
faculty members engaged in research. The remainder are more focused on
vocational training and some postgraduate (mostly MS) programs. Their
faculty also do some research.  There is a brand new university
    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
which will open its doors to students this fall (1991). 

I visited U-HK, HK-Poly, and HKUS&T.  All three are either bursting at
the seams or in the midst of a frantic building program. I had no
opportunity to visit ChineseU-HK but was told that this is a fairly
traditional university that has heavy emphasis on the social sciences.
HK-U, HK-Poly, and ChineseU-HK have enrollments in the range 10-13,000,
and HKUS&T is anticipating similar numbers within a few years. Hong Kong
has a population of about 6,000,000 so there does not appear to be much
doubt that this level can be maintained as long as the government
provides financial support (these are all public institutions).

HONG KONG UNIVERSITY.
HK-U is on Hong Kong island, in a very hilly setting. Buildings are
stacked, and it is difficult to walk more than a few meters in any
direction without encountering steps. There are some beautiful views.

HK-U has a very active Computer Science department, established in 1988.
I had met the Chairman in Taiwan, where I was impressed with one of his
research papers.
        Prof. Francis Yuk-Lun Chin
        Department of Computer Science
        University of Hong Kong
        Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
        Tel: +852 859-2178, Fax +852 559-8447.
         Email: [email-masked], or [email-masked]
The current department has about 15 faculty. In the 89-90 academic year,
there were about 120 students, 43 CScience undergraduates, 60
CEngineering undergraduates, and 14 graduate students.  Almost all of
the faculty have PhD from Western universities such as Princeton,
Columbia, Waterloo, Wisconsin, Illinois, London, etc. Research interests
span the usual range of those in Computer Science departments, although
I did not sense much activity in numerical computation, and none in
numerical analysis (I had no opportunity to visit the Mathematics
department), although at least one faculty member (W.W.  Tsang) is
interested in statistical computation.  There is some work in parallel
and distributed computation, related mostly to programming environments,
networking, systems, and object oriented programming.  Chin's research
that caught my attention in Taiwan was concerned with computation on a
hypercube. It is somewhat theoretical and was done while he was on
sabbatical in the US. His current responsibilities leave little free
time for research.  There is a generous collection of modern Unix
workstations, but I did not see any parallel computers at the
University. There may be some at local industries however.

The department has generated a credible number of publications, mostly
in English, many in well known journals. There is an active visitor
program. While I was there Prof Robert Uzgalis (retired from UCLA) was
ending a year's visit.  The University provided him with support and
housing.  Uzgalis claimed that the Chinese students he met were very
creative and diligent, and more suited for creating new software than
some other Asian groups he had dealt with. He also commented that there
was an excess of skilled computer talent in Hong Kong, and many
graduates are forced to accept positions in financial or other fields.
In fact, I did not see any evidence of an information industry, although
I was told that there is at least one PC clone (Sigma) produced in Hong
Kong. (The new HKUS&T has as one of its goals to build the information
industry in Hong Kong.) However, while I was in Hong Kong I watched an
exceptionally well done computer video that was presented on TV as an
advertisement for the proposed new airport. It showed the bay surrounded
by tall buildings, water disappearing and slowly being replaced by
runways, followed by a 747 on its final approach and landing.
Unfortunately I was not able to get any information about where this was
made.

HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
The most interesting new scientific development in Hong Kong is its new
university, HKUS&T, which will consist of a grouping of professional
schools emphasizing science, technology, engineering, management and
business.  There is a deliberate decision to make the university focus
on technology transfer to industry. In fact there is a plan to create
two separate types of positions to attract scientists from both the
academic research community and the industrial/commercial R&D sector.
Initially, the teaching language will be English, but university
administrators acknowledge that Chinese will also be pervasive to
satisfy "a practical need for our graduates to be able to flourish up
north". At the time of my visit, the university staff were located in an
office building one block from the center of the downtown portion of
(the mainland-Kowloon) Hong Kong, but a brand new campus is being built
outside central Hong Kong and is visualized as more like a college town
than an urban campus, set along the ocean on 60 hectares, including not
only the university complex but sports facilities, student residences
for over 2,000, senior staff apartments of 1500- 2000 sq.ft, shops, etc.

Academic staff are being recruited actively. Senior members are being
sought by all traditional methods including academic "head hunting".
Advertisements in scientific journals are also used. I noticed a large
ad in a recent SIAM Newsletter, indicating very handsome salaries and
benefits.  Many of these senior positions have now been filled, and
there is a long list of scholars who have spent many years at very well
known universities in the West, including Berkeley, Princeton, USC,
CalTech, Brown, Oxford, MIT, and the like. Roughly two thirds of the
senior staff have Asian names, the remainder appear to be Western. The
university reluctantly has acknowledged that they will have to pay
department salary differentials based on market conditions.

There are many growing pains, and some chaos as the first students will
appear this fall. More than 10,000 applicants vied for about 560
undergraduate positions.  The following year about 2000 students are
expected. Plans are to have about 10,000 students by the end of the
decade.  (Regardless of the long term future of the university, I think
that its first students will have a very rich and rewarding educational
experience.)

The following chart describes the planned enrollments. Figures are
undergraduates/graduate students/faculty & staff.

                     1991        1993          1995           1999
                     ----        ----          ----           ----
 Science          180/30/49   835/130/129   1503/365/192   2024/430/263
 Engineering      230/42/39  1054/126/120   2070/433/209   3192/726/317
 Business & Mgt   150/60/31  1034/210/104   1963/474/161   2798/627/226
 Hum & Soc Sci      0/ 8/15     0/ 61/ 50     0/155/ 80    0/200/110

Within the School of Engineering, Computer Science and EE will be
co-equal as the largest programs. Surprisingly, Mathematics will
eventually be the largest program in the School of Science, half again
as large as physics, and almost twice as large as chemistry. Perhaps
this is related to the strong Mathematics faculty, of whom five have
already been selected, including two professors from Brown (Hsieh and
Shen), a former department head from Princeton (Hsiang), and a research
mathematician who spent 20 years at the US Naval Research Laboratory
(Yang). The Computer Science program will be headed by a Princeton PhD
and former MCC program manager (Shen). The university President (Woo)
was formerly President of San Francisco State University.

The university is planned to be a first class research establishment,
and funding has already been secured for programs in biotechnology and
information technology. There are a large number of additional proposals
in areas such as advanced materials, energy, scientific computation,
manufacturing, cognitive science, and others. A Materials
Characterization Center, Microfabrication Center, CAD/CAM Lab, and
others are being built. A computer environment is also being developed.
It will consist of heterogeneous microprocessors such as micros and
workstations, connected with a few large minis and mainframes via a FDDI
(Fiber Distributed Data Interface) network.  The network is in the form
of a dual ring of trees; optical fiber will be routed to various central
locations, and then Ethernet cables will connect to individual users.
The net will not only be connected to offices but also to all campus
housing.  Some of this network is already installed. There is at least
one HP 70MIP workstation and many other workstations are presently in
boxes waiting for installation. The university claims that every
department will have or share a computer lab for use by graduate
students and faculty, and every faculty member will have a workstation.

Well known software such as IMSL and SAS is installed and available
through the computer center.  The new campus will be connected to others
in HK via a 9,600 baud line, and a T-1 line to Britain will be installed
sometime in 1992. Plans are to link the university via real-time video
and data paths to Asia, Europe (via London) and US (via California), to
allow it "to become one of the most international of all the world's
universities"! Certainly, the failed supercomputer for Hong Kong would
have been very useful. As things stand now users will have to find
creative ways to use distributed workstations.

I have no special insight about the future prospects for this
university.  Unfortunately, I did not meet with senior members of the
administration or the research faculty, but only with staff from
Computer Services, and one member of the new computer science
department.  At this point the university has no track record and only
an energetic new faculty and developing physical plant.  The university
could become the high-class research center that it hopes to be.  Mostly
it will depend on the commitment of the Chinese government to maintain
the path set out by university founders, as well as that government's
ability to sustain the university's financial requirements.  For senior 
Western scientists who have joined the faculty I believe that things are 
more clear.  Most of these people are in the later stages of their 
professional careers and the university now has more than enough momentum 
to carry them along for a number of years.  The same would be true for 
visitors.  It will be interesting though, to see how successful the 
university is at recruiting mid career faculty, and it will be important 
to follow progress here during the coming decade.  

My primary contact at HKUS&T is
        Dr William Max Ivey
        Director, Computer Services and Telecommunications
        Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
        12/F, World Shipping Centre
        Harbour City
        7 Canton Road, Tsimshatsui
        Kowloon, Hong Kong
         Tel:  +852 302 1411, -1533; Fax: +852 736-7088
         Email: [email-masked]
although his address and telephone number will change within the next
few months as the new campus is opened.

THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC
HK-Poly is within walking distance of the center of Kowloon, thus an
urban campus, which is being expanded.  As mentioned above HK-Poly is
more of a vocational center than a research university. Nevertheless it
has about 13,000 students, although only about 60% are degree
candidates. I met with
        Mr. Dennis M.T. Yek
        Head of Department
        Hong Kong Polytechnic
        Computer Center
        Hung Hom, Kowloon
        Hong Kong
         Tel: +852 766-5940, -5932; Fax: +852 764-2647
Poly's computing facilities include about 8 Vax 11/780s or equivalents,
some PCs, and terminals. There are no Unix workstations yet.  Software
includes ACSL (for system simulation, including solution of differential
equations), IMSL, GLIM, Ansys, LP/Protran, Macsyma, SAS, SPSS, AutoCAD,
various database products such as Oracle, and a fair selection of
graphics software such as Movie, Gino, etc. As usual, the computer
center is overworked and understaffed.  I had no opportunity to speak
with any members of the scientific faculty.

All these schools are connected together via electronic networking
(Harnet: Hong Kong Academic & Research Network). The individual nodes
are connected either by leased/dedicated circuits or through the Hong
Kong Telephone Company DATAPAK service. There is a common gateway for
access to international networks. Interestingly, there is a printed
directory of electronic mail users that integrates all the universities
(very helpful). This might be available on-line as well.

ROYAL OBSERVATORY (300 staff)
Main contact.
        Mr. Yeung Kai Hing
        Senior Scientific Officer
        Royal Observatory
        134A Nathan Road
        Kowloon, Hong Kong
         Tel: +852 732-9331, Fax: +852 721-5034
This is a department of the Hong Kong Government, that primarily operates 
weather forecasting, cyclone warning and related meteorological and 
geophysical services. The main facility stands on a wooded hill in the 
center of downtown Kowloon. In crowded Hong Kong the land value alone 
must be astronomical. The administration is housed in a beautiful British 
colonial building dating from the 19th century, and one expects to see 
white-suited moustached men with cold drinks sitting on the veranda. In 
many ways the Observatory is a world apart from the frantic activity in 
most other parts of Hong Kong.  

Various weather information is collected from ships, weather buoys,
aircraft, island and land stations, and data (including video) is also
transmitted by weather satellites and microwave.  This includes such
things as air and sea soundings (wind, temperature, pressure, humidity,
solar radiation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, sea temperatures, sea
waves, tides, etc.), radar, microwave cloud pictures, rainfall, and
others.  A Royal Navy officer is attached to the Observatory with the
function of liaising with Navy ships in the China Seas and western
Pacific.  The Observatory is also responsible for coordinating marine
data for the South China Sea.  Advice on marine climalogical conditions
is given to various companies, especially those engaged in offshore oil
activities. Staff from the Observatory also teach courses in atmospheric
science at Hong Kong universities.

The main activities of the Observatory are as follows.
 * Record keeping and climatological services
 * Radioactivity monitoring and assessment in order to determine 
     background radiation levels in conjunction with Daya Bay Nuclear 
     Power Station.  There is also a Monitoring and Assessment Center.  
 * Time service based on Caesium Beam Atomic Clock, and broadcast by 
     various radio stations.  
 * Geophysics and astronomy, primarily to monitor earthquake activity and 
     gravimetric measurements, via seismometers, and accelerographs, etc.  
 * Hydrometeorology, mostly via raingauges for water resources 
     information and flood forecasting models.  
 * Oceanography, including storm surge simulation, tidal monitoring and 
     modeling, and wave and swell numerical models.  
 * Applied meteorology, effect of terrain on wind flow and participates, 
     and in particular various studies related to locating the new Hong 
     Kong airport.  

Generally, weather related activities account for about 90% of the
Observatory's expenditures ($10-15M US).

There are communications links between the Observatory and meteorological
centers in Tokyo, Bangkok and Beijing (9600 baud). All together, these
amount to 4-5 MBytes per day. This data, plus that generated locally is
processed into various charts and forecasts.  Most of the computing is
being handled by several minicomputers, such as Data General Eclipse
S/140, MV20000, etc.  There is a substantial amount of data acquisition,
plotting, display and tape archival equipment. Databased weather data
amounts to about 300MBytes/year, and Oracle is the main database product
in use. There were two IBM RS/6000 Unix workstations in crates yet to be
installed when I visited. The Observatory decided to purchase these
after the decision was made not to obtain a supercomputer for Hong Kong.
The staff is heavily involved in day-to-day forecasting, but would like
to do more serious numerical modeling and a small supercomputer
maintained elsewhere would have been ideal.  The IBMs will also be
useful but will require maintenance and training. These will be the
first Unix machines at the Observatory.

More computer horsepower will also enable them to work on image
enhancement techniques, computer animation, etc. Storm surge models have
been carried out at NOAA, and a single layer vertically integrated bay
model has been run at the Observatory. The staff would like to increase
this to a multilayer model as well as to perform various finite element
computations. Hong Kong weather is subject to the vagaries of both
tropical and extratropical weather systems as well as Asian monsoons.
Hilly terrain and large land/sea contrasts give rise to complex small
scale atmospheric circulations, leading to significant local weather
variations. Some very interesting modeling is being done using a limited
area model developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency. On current
computers this is run once each day to give forecasts up to two days
ahead. Some of this computation will be very much improved with the new
workstations.

Observatory staff do not appear to be active in research, although there 
are clearly many fascinating topics that could be examined.  I also did 
not get the impression that there was much collaborative activity between 
the Observatory and universities in Hong Kong, even though there is an 
active international meteorological community that they do interact with.  
There is no electronic mail, a serious deficiency, and until recently not 
enough computer power for significant numerical research.  Nevertheless 
the Observatory has many interesting problems, a long scholarly history, 
and a wonderful setting. I think that the new HKUS&T would be well served 
by developing some cooperative projects.  

----------------------------END OF REPORT------------------------------

-- 
Shun Yan Cheung     |  [email-masked]      | Office: (404) 727-3823
Emory University    |  [email-masked]          | Fax:    (404) 727-5611
Dept of Math and CS |  "Obtaining freedom is easy, using it responsibly is hard"
Atlanta, GA 30322   |  "If the people lead, the leaders will follow."