15 November, 2017
HKUST’s first batch MSc students graduated on November 15th, 2017
HKUST’s first batch Master of Science (MSC) students on big data technology (BDT) graduated and the graduation dinner organized by SENG MSC office was held on the evening of November 15th, 2017. The Big Data Institute (BDI) of HKUST supported the whole event. HKUST launched the first Master of Science program on big data technology at Hong Kong in September 2016. The program was created for satisfying the increasing demand of Big Data Technology education and was supported by many industry players, such as Microsoft Hong Kong, Wechat, Digitial China, Thales and SAIC Motor.
There is no doubt that the first batch of the graduate students are all excellent, they (93) were selected from over 500 applicants. Many of them have got offers from famous IT companies including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, as well as some financial institutions, such as Citi Bank. Also some of them will continue their Ph.D. study in HKUST.
The success of MSC on big data technology can't depart from the support of the industry. In the past years, BDI has a good cooperation with many famous enterprises, such as Microsoft, Tencent, SAIC Motor，Radica, and Digital China. Through the internship in these enterprises, our BDT students not only made themselves a workout, but also produced certain contribution for the enterprise. In the graduation dinner, BDI has expressed the heartfelt thanks to all these enterprises. Specifically, in the evening, MSC BDT director, BDI associate director, Prof. CHEN Lei presented the Appreciation Award to Microsoft Hong Kong, as it sponsored around USD 40,000 Windows Azure cloud service to our BDT program so that our students are able to have on hand experience on cloud computing.
In the dinner, Prof. CHEN Lei also gave the award to the Prof. YI Ke, who is the winner of Best Teaching Award. Prof. YI taught MSCBD 5002, Big Data Computing, which used Windows Azure as programing platform.
Meanwhile, top graduate students award were given to Mr. LAU Tsz Kit, Mr. ZHU Ziqi, Mr. OU Qihao and Mr. GENG Xu.
During the dinner, Prof. CHEN Lei has invited industry sponsors, Microsoft Hong Kong, CMS, Thales, Digital China and Radica to address graduates.
In addition to cultivate excellent students, BDI will still have several influential events in the next three weeks.
Fintech Education Forum: 24th Nov, 2017 (http://www.cse.ust.hk/BDI/FinTech)
Organized by FDT, BDI and Microsoft Research Asia
Utilizing new technologies, like machine learning and predictive behavioral analytics, Fintech will help institutional clients further refine their investment decisions and open new opportunities for financial innovation.
BigDatathon: 2nd Dec (http://bdi.ust.hk/datathon)
Organized by HKUST & Radica
BigDatathon is a competition focusing on the application of big data, data analytics, and data science. The competition gathers some real business challenges and data from actual companies for students to solve.
Smart City Competition: 10th Dec (https://www.cse.ust.hk/smartcitycompetition)
Organized by Digital China BDI and Energizing Kowloon east office
Encouraging HKUST and surrounding community members as well as Hong Kong citizens has an integrative learning experience to create and evaluate new data analysis technology to fulfill and improve the city service. Smart city in Hong Kong aim to use the latest cool data mining and analysis technologies to change the city!
In the future, BDI hopes to create more and more talents and scientific and technological achievements for the society.