Annual Report 1998

Contents

5 Macau-oriented activities

1. The Director of UNU/IIST, Prof. Zhou Chaochen, has been invited by the Macau Government to serve on the Macau Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, and on the Macau University Council. The nominations were announced in the Boletim Oficial de Macau on 5 and 14 January 1998 respectively.

2. UNU/IIST organised a course for MSc students from University of Macau, Fundamentals of Software Engineering in 1997/98. This course consisted of a weekly 3 hour lecture which was attended by 25 students.

3. The Macau IT Congress, organised by Macau Computer Association, was held in Macau from 14-16 January; UNU/IIST was one of the sponsors. Dr Tomasz Janowski gave a presentation on "Modelling for Competitive Manufacturing", and UNU/IIST, with Macau Foundation, invited 2 speakers from Institute for Educational Software of Guangzhou Normal University to give presentations on computer-aided instruction. UNU/IIST also organised an exhibition of its work with demonstrations of prototype software developed on its projects.

4. Prof. Zhou Chaochen gave a presentation at the 4th International Symposium on the Coordination System for Chinese Economies, 23-27 February 1998, Macau. His presentation, which was entitled: "A Possible Modality to Develop Science and Technology in the Coordination System", also included an overview of the achievements of UNU/IIST in the past five years.

5. UNU/IIST participated in the EUREKA initiative held in Macau from 31 March to 4 April. EUREKA is a Europe-wide network for research and development on industrial technology and the aim of the meeting was to strengthen technological and economic cooperation between Europe and Asia.

6. The first phase of the joint "Information Network Centre of Macau" Project (INCoM) is now completed. This phase covered the design, implementation and in particular gathering and scanning of data for a database on study in China for overseas students. This project is part of the collaborative effort between Macau Foundation, State Commission for Science and Technology for China and UNU/IIST. One Fellow, Mr Fu Guoyi, is working on this project. The project costs have been shared by UNU/IIST and Macau Foundation (USD24,000) and the Chinese partner has provided hardware. The second phase of the project has been started.

7. UNU/IIST gave a three week training course on home page design and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) for the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Centre (CPTTM). This evening course was given by Mr Fu Guoyi.

8. UNU/IIST has completed a project with TransMac, a local bus company, to develop jointly a Management Information System with respect to the application of IC card in its business. A joint agreement was signed with TransMac.

9. On the occasion of the Conference of Portuguese-Speaking Rectors (Macau, April 1998), Macau Foundation and UNU/IIST met with the Vice Minister of Education of Angola, Rectors and other senior officials from African countries (Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Sao Tome e Principe) to discuss future cooperation and more specifically the proposed "Joint Fellowship Programme for Lusophone Countries". As a result of this meeting, UNU/IIST is planning to hold a Course on Formal Software Development Methods in Mozambique in 1999.

10. UNU/IIST provided support for the Macau Exposition of High Technology and Innovation '98 as well as the Symposium on Science and Technology and the Development of Macau which were held in Macau in the Macau Science and Technology Week from 1st to 4th December 1998. The objective of this event was to advance science and technology in Macau. Over 100 research institutions and companies from Portugal, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan presented their research achievements and discussed business opportunities. The organisers were University of Macau, INESC-Macau, Macau Foundation and Tsinghua Science and Technology Development Centre.

11. UNU/IIST joined with CPTTM to promote Y2K solutions in Macau. It participated on the Macau Y2K Consultative Committee, and gave a presentation at the Macau Y2K Exhibition in December 1998. It also invited the Hong Kong office of Tata Consultancy Service to give seminars on Y2K solutions in Macau.

12. In 1998, UNU/IIST received about 90 visitors from Macau and from the neighbouring area in China. (see details in Appendix A)

    Jointly with Macau Foundation, UNU/IIST also hosted visits to Macau of high-level policy-makers and scientists from institutions in China. The objective of such visits was to discuss and to establish joint science and technology activities as Macau prepares to return to China in 1999.

    In April of this year the Ministers of Science and Technology of China and of Portugal paid a joint visit to UNU/IIST, on which occasion the Director presented UNU/IIST's achievements to date and plans for the future.

    UNU/IIST also received a visit from the European Union's Eminent Persons Group who are preparing a report on the status of Macau for the European Union.

13. UNU/IIST and the University of Macau agreed to co-organise the third "Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education" in Macau from 23-25 June 1999.

    Prof Zhou will serve on the Organizing Committee as an Advisor, Prof He Jifeng as a Vice-Chair and Dr. Xu Qiwen will be on the Programme Committee.

Annual Report 1998

Contents