Of all outputs from our endeavors in research, the quality of students graduated is considered as the most important gauge of excellence or failure.  As one of the new boys in town, City University lacks the clout in attracting the brightest school leavers to enroll in our programs.  Moreover, the general misperception of a dying manufacturing industry in Hong Kong is detrimental to our effort in filling student quota, not to mention the delusion of getting triple A’s or quadruple A’s students.  Under this handicapped milieu, every one in the research center has to try harder.  With dedication and commitment, our inspiring professors have demonstrated year after years that we can convert these “mediocre” inputs into well-prepared engineers welcome by the local industry. 

Actually, our best graduates are as good as, if not better than, their counterparts outputted by other universities.  This assertion is supported by our students’ second-to-none performance in open competitions.  Besides those ad-hoc competitions, there are four contests organized by the local chapters of the US-based Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the UK-based Institute of Electrical Engineers, equally divided between undergraduate and graduate students.  These competitions are open to more than one thousand students and recent graduates in five disciplines, namely, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, computer science, information technology, industrial and production engineering.  Here, we are extremely proud that our alumni have captured more than one half of first-prizes since the research center was established.  In particular, we are pleased to note that our students were awarded 3 champions in 2004.  In fact, we would like to emphasize that most of the winners are local students and we take it as an indication of the high level of value-added in our programs.

Our students are not just good in local competitions; they are also successful in international ones.  As winners in local contests, they are invited to participate in the IEEE Region 10 Postgraduate Project Competition.  Facing elites from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, and the Mainland China, our student won the first prize in 1996, probably the first non-Japanese champion.  This feat was repeated in 1999, and again in 2004.  In addition to the prize won by a student from the Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management in 2003, our students have captured 4 champions in 9 years!!

Contrary to most believes, our students are prepared to win everywhere, including the Mecca of electronic engineering, the United States of America.  To this end, we are proud to note that one of our graduate students succeeded in getting the first prize in the Best Student Paper Contest in the Annual Meeting of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society held in Texas in June 2004.  Of course, we are equally proud of the winners of the following international prizes:

• Ø   Special Prize in the Challenger Cup, the only one in electrical and electronic areas in the most prestigious national competition in all scientific disciplines;

• Ø   Both first prizes in categories of antenna designs and microwave circuitry in the fifth IEEE (HK/Macau) AP/MTT Postgraduate Conference held in Macau;

• Ø   Winner of the US$6,000 IEEE Graduate Student Fellowship.

Another indicator of our quality is job placement of our graduating students.  In good and bad years, almost all project students of our professors can find relevant jobs by September.  Our alumni are readily found in companies strong in product design and development, such as the Applied Research Institute in the Science Park.  Actually, many leaders in industry have asked us to increase our output of students in antenna and RF/microwave circuit designs.  Some of them are so eager that they are prepared to give us adequate donations for recruiting young professors in these disciplines. 

Similar to their counterparts in undergraduate programs, most graduate students are able to find relevant jobs before or shortly after graduation, including posts in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Mainland China, Macau, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States of America.  In this connection, we are excited to find that two of our alumni have landed teaching posts in world-renowned universities, such as

• Ø      Assistant Professor, University of Queensland, Australia;

• Ø      Lecturer, University College, University of London, United Kingdom.