Prof Chung Yee Lee, recipient of the HKUST School of Engineering Distinguished Research Excellence Award 2013, delivered a fascinating keynote on December 5 to an enthusiastic audience, including HKUST Executive Vice-President and Provost Prof Wei Shyy, faculty members, students, industry representatives and members of the academic community.

 

The Distinguished Research Excellence Award is the highest level of recognition bestowed by the School. The keynote forms part of the award, and is an honor in itself. Prof Lee, Chair Professor of Industrial Engineering & Logistics Management and Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering, shared his insights on "Ocean Container Transport Logistics: Challenges and Opportunities". Production scheduling and semiconductor manufacturing, business process management, and logistics management are Prof Lee's specialist research areas, in which he has made significant contributions. 

 

In his talk, Prof Lee reviewed the current status and trends of ocean container transport. Logistics is a pillar industry in Hong Kong but is facing severe competition. He outlined that Hong Kong can reinforce its core competence and identify new directions by shifting its focus from physical flows more toward financial and information flows, yet still keep the logistics service as the foundation for other flows and services. 

 

In his introduction, Prof Khaled Ben Letaief, Dean of the School of Engineering, extended his sincere congratulations to Prof Lee for his achievements throughout his career, and highlighted the fact that it is thanks to the distinction of the likes of Prof Lee that the University is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world in engineering. A reception was held at the Engineering Commons following the keynote.