HKUST Business Review

5 HKUST Business Review Cover As I look back at our history, I just feel tremendously proud of our accomplishments at HKUST The view from Clear Water Bay has always inspired bold thinking. On any given day, the HKUST campus hums with ideas — scientists exploring new frontiers, visionaries testing daring concepts, and students chasing the next breakthrough. As the University celebrates its 35th anniversary, it stands at a defining crossroads. It is a time to honor the legacy of a generation of dreamers while stepping confidently into a new era marked by artificial intelligence (AI), entrepreneurship and the recently announced establishment of Hong Kong’s third medical school. At the heart of this transformation is Council Chairman Professor Harry Shum, whose own journey from a young researcher in Hong Kong to a world renowned technologist and academic leader mirrors HKUST’s story of vision, persistence, and reinvention. In reflecting on his decades long relationship with the University, and the forces that have shaped its rise, his insights reveal how HKUST has become a center of innovation and a community built on integrity, curiosity, and a shared belief that knowledge must serve humanity. A Serendipitous Beginning The Chairman’s first encounter with HKUST occurred in Pittsburgh in 1995. “Professor Roland CHIN (Professor Emeritus at the Department of Computer Science & Engineering) actually came to Carnegie Mellon University on a snowy day, and stopped by my lab to check out my demos,” Professor Shum recalls. “He was trying to recruit me, so that started my long term relationship with the University.” Though Professor Shum’s career path subsequently took him to Microsoft Research in Seattle, then as Managing Director of Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing and later back to Seattle as Executive Vice President working on product and business at Microsoft Corporation, the idea of collaborating with academia and HKUST remains close to his heart. He was offered the position of adjunct faculty at universities like Tsinghua and HKUST. Over the years, Professor Shum has supervised over 40 PhD students, some of them from HKUST, who went on to become successful innovators and faculty leaders. Today, he takes the title Professor- at-large Emeritus at Institute of Advanced Study, and continues to supervise PhD students, a testament to his belief that a University’s strength lies in its people. One of his most touching moments came when he was bestowed an HKUST Honorary Fellowship in 2011. “I had the honor to receive it from the late Honourable Sir CHUNG Sze-Yuen (founding Council Chairman of HKUST),” he says with humility and fondness.