KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung receives LC Chadwick Award 2014 for Arboricultural Research

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung has been awarded the LC Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research by the International Society of Arboriculture. He is the first Asian winner of the highest honour in the field of arboriculture. Apart from his academic impact, he is one of the pioneer academics to bridge town and gown by transferring research-based knowledge to the community for direct adoption and application. Recently, he has successfully convinced the government to set up a tree management office and a landscape planning office at a high-level policy branch, providing for the first time a professional arborist grade in the civil service establishment.

International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society (ICGB) held at HKU

Over 1,000 scholars, health professionals and experts took part in the tri-annual conference, which was held in Asia for the first time. Over 250 papers and reports were presented during the four-day conference and 20 professional training workshops were held to enhance the skills of healthcare professional and practitioners. According to a study conducted by the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, death avoidance score of Hong Kong adults aged under 59 (which ranged from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating greater fear) had reduced significantly from 4.23 in 2007 to 2.2 in 2014, which reflected the general public's attitude towards death had become much more open.

HKU to expand "Youth Quitline" services to contribute to a smoke-free Hong Kong

HKU's "Youth Quitline", established to help young people quit smoking, has received over 5,000 telephone enquiries and provided cessation counselling for 1,257 (up till September, 2013) youth smokers over the past eight years. 21.9% of participants quitted smoking after receiving services of the "Youth Quitline". It was found that the main reasons for young people to quit smoking were to lead a healthy life and save money. The Tobacco Control Office has granted further funding for the University to continue the existing services, as well as to expand the services through multi-media platforms to reach more youth smokers.

UGC's TV Programme on KT/KE

The University Grants Committee (UGC) recognizes that knowledge transfer (KT)/knowledge exchange (KE) has become an important mission of Hong Kong's higher education institutions. In order to increase public awareness of the good work that has been done by institutions in this area, the UGC has commissioned TVB to produce a 30-minute programme in the form of a documentary, and selected a KT/KE project from each of the 8 UGC-funded institutions to be featured in this programme. The programme will be broadcast on TVB Jade on December 18, 2013 at 7pm.

HKU Young Brain Scientist Program holds its first public lecture on December 13, 2013

The HKU Department of Psychology will hold six public lectures designed for secondary students to raise their awareness of the potential impact of brain science from December 2013 to June 2014. Outstanding participants will be invited to tour brain science laboratory and take part in workshops.

HKU Researchers and Press Council members urge responsible suicide reporting

Professor Paul S.F. Yip, Director of the HKU Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention said some new suicide methods spread out quickly in Hong Kong and to other Asian countries after the media's sensational and misleading coverage. He warned that irresponsible media reporting of suicides encouraged copycats. At a symposium on ''the Contagion of Suicide Reporting'' held at HKU on September 7, 2013, the Hong Kong Press Council released a proposed guideline for the media on how to report suicide cases responsibly and avoid becoming a catalyst for copycat suicides.

Knowledge Exchange Awards 2013

The Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards were introduced in 2011 in order to recognize each Faculty's outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organizations. Results of the 2013 Faculty KE Awards are now available.