Prof. W. Wang was re-appointed as Head of Department of Computer Science from January 1, 2015. We are delighted to have a nice chat with Prof. Wang.
Reporter: What achievements do you wish to share with readers during your headship?
Prof. Wang: Reflecting on the current development of the Department in teaching and research is immensely gratifying. We’ve smoothly passed the 3-to-4 year transition and the rapid growth of our M. Sc. program without compromising teaching quality. The performance of our teachers has consistently stood among the best in the university, thanks to their admirable efforts and the tremendous leadership skills of Prof. Ben Kao, Prof. Tak-Wah Lam and Dr. Siu-Ming Yiu.
Looking back at the past three years, I’d say that the most satisfying thing to have happened to us is the addition of new faculty members and Ph.D. students of outstanding quality. This was achieved through the joint effort of the entire department, especially the colleagues of DRPC led by Dr. Reynold Cheng. All of this success has benefited the increasing reputation of our research programme.
Reporter: What is your vision in assuming your re-appointment?
Prof. Wang: My vision as the Head of Department is simple: to lead the department to a higher tier of excellence in education, research, and knowledge transfer. In this way, we will continue to play our roles in building HKU into the best university we can be. The landscape of computer science research is very competitive in Hong Kong, which boasts three of the top 20 computer science programmes in the world according to the QS ranking, with the CS Department of The University of Hong Kong CS ranked tenth, fourteenth and twelfth in the past three years. While my colleagues and I are pleased with this distinct international recognition, we realise that we must strive to enhance our research and teaching/learning environment to make our department a first-rate international centre of research in computer science.
In the coming three years of my term, emphasis will continue to be placed on recruiting the best talents and providing full support to both junior faculty members and Ph.D. students, facilitating their research and studies and encouraging them to engage the international research community. Performance assessment and resource allocation will continue to be based on merit and competition, again with more support to our younger colleagues, the future of the department. While the department has established its solid reputation in the fields of data engineering, software engineering, computer systems, theory, bioinformatics, computer graphics, and vision, we definitely expect to see more development in the directions of robotics, programming languages, quantum computing, and financial computing.
Reporter: Given your busy schedule, how would you strike a balance between this role, teaching, research & life?
Prof. Wang: Life used to be more fun.
Joking aside, “Head of Department” is a duty-when-called-for, so I must maintain my obligations to teaching and research. I believe in leading by example. Over the years, I’ve found that teaching can be time-consuming, but not difficult; you are willing to spend as much time as it takes to figure out the best way to teach if you are motivated by the joys of interacting with students, seeing them enjoy learning, and the gratification that I believe is exclusive to educators. In my view, it is professionally unethical not to deliver the best education to your students. That’s why I can often understand why some colleagues may become inactive in research, but it is difficult to sympathise with poor teaching performance. Research is a different matter. Thanks to my natural passion for research, I can spend all of my spare time on it, however limited. I wish that I could have more time to conduct research, so I genuinely appreciate the understanding and tolerance of my graduate students who now have to work more independently than before. In the long run, I hope that this will be good for their growth.
I’m fortunate to have the privilege of working with an excellent team of colleagues and advisors, especially the superb supporting staff of the General Office, led by Ms. Wandy Tong and Ms. Maria Lam. Among a very long list of colleagues who assist me on a daily basis in shouldering my job as Department Head, I would like to thank in particular Prof. Ben Kao, Dr. Reynold Cheng and Dr. K. P. Chow, who have to cope with a huge amount of work in managing our UG, RPG, and TPG programmes. I honestly cannot imagine surviving without the aid of my colleagues.
Sleeping well and exercising regularly are the two top conditions for me to physically prepare for my daily workload. Now, I cut the time watching NBA games to spend more time on the sports field.