3
Celebration capped two years of hard work by
the 29 students who were in the first cohort of
graduates from the HKUST MBA Program in
Saudi Arabia.
After completing the final module, “Time to Lead,”
the students were invited to a Graduation Dinner on
campus on 6 June.
In addition to senior management from the
University including the President Prof Tony F Chan,
also attending the dinner were guests from Aramco
Asia on behalf of Saudi Aramco. Mr Ibrahim Al-
Buainain, President of Aramco Asia, told the
graduates their achievement was not only personal,
but also a contribution to the company’s human
capital.
Mr Mohanad Alamdar, who graduated with the
highest GPA, gave the valedictory speech. “We
were all committed and determined to reach the
finish line and here we are celebrating together the
results of our collaboration and hard work.”
Mr Alamdar was named Most Outstanding MBA
together with Mr Stewart Underwood and Mr Badr
Alherbish.
First Class of HKUST MBA Program
in Saudi Arabia Graduates
Young Entrepreneurs
Shine at Hackathon
An HKUST-HKU team has notched up
three awards at the Hackathon Global
Demo Day held in San Francisco on
29 October.
The team – a startup called “Plain
Exchange” had four members from
HKUST and two from HKU. Their
creative idea of developing a peer to
peer currency exchange platform was
showcased in the highly regarded
competition that is well known for
nurturing young entrepreneurs. The
team won the titles of the Best
FinTech, Best Startup and Overall
Global Demo Day Winner.
The team members from HKUST
included three Global Business
students – Johannes Jaeger, Rachel
Cheng, and Sandra Sobanska – and
Computer Science & Engineering
student Long Hoang. Their team
was one of 18 teams from around
the world to participate at the
event, which was organized by the
world’s largest hackathon organizer,
AngelHack.
Students Win Spot
in Case Competition
An HKUST team has beaten out four
other Hong Kong university teams
to win the Hong Kong qualifier
round of the Ptak Prize Global Case
Competition. They will compete in the
final to be held online in December.
Student Achievements
The annual competition is organized
by the International Supply Chain
Education Alliance and attracts
students and young supply chain
professionals from around the world
to compete in a case study and
simulation game. The HKUST team
comprises Kimi Chan, Kerri Lam,
William Wu, and Yoki Yiu.
Top of the World for
Benjamin Huber
Exam results are a fact of life for
students everywhere, sparking
happiness or despair, but seldom
making headlines. Until Benjamin
Huber’s results, that is.
Huber scored the world’s highest
mark on the internationally recognized
Certified Information Systems Auditor
(CISA) exam, a credential often
required of professionals in IT security
management. Huber, an HKUST
Information Systems undergraduate,
sat the four-hour exam infamous for
its high failure rate in 2014.
“Despite lack of prior work
experience, I was fortunate to have
ideal circumstances to prepare for the
exam: highly experienced professors,
a supportive department, a tailored
ISACA (the association that gives the
exam) curriculum, a close group of
like-minded peers, and being a full-
time student.”
Scholarships
for Outstanding
Management
Students
The Department of Management
awarded its annual Outstanding
Management Student Scholarship
for 2015-16 to six students. They
were: Clarissa Adisaputra, Christina
Michelle Chan, Yetta Chan, Cheung
Kin-lok, Ng Pui-yin and Wong Chiu-
yee. Set up in 2009, the award honors
the top academic achievers identified
by the department at the start of Fall
semester.
Students Win
Financial Planner
Contest
An undergraduate team won top prize
in the university student category
of the 2015 SCMP/IFPHK Financial
Planner Awards. The competition, co-
organized by SCMP and the Institute
of Financial Planners of Hong Kong,
tests the financial planning knowledge
of both working professionals and
students.
The HKUST team, comprising Jean Li,
Dexter Mak, Sam Tsang and
Steven Yu, impressed the judges
in the competition’s final round on
19 September with their sound
analysis, recommendations and slick
presentation skills.
Challenge to Assess
Real-World Risks
More than 60 HKUST undergraduates
participated in the “Risk Insights
Challenge”, jointly organized by global
professional services firm KPMG and
visual analytics company Qlik.
The students were grouped into
17 teams and asked to develop
applications using Qlik products to
solve one of four business problems—
digital risk, credit risk, business risk
and estimation risk.
The contest champions were “The
Amazing Four”, who developed an
application that can compare historical
land transactions and show the
potential estimation risks of a specific
company. Their prize was a 10-week
paid summer internship in KPMG’s
Hong Kong office.
