Lingnan University's President S. Joe Qin announces the opening of the first phase of new High-Performance Computing Data Centre

Lingnan University held its 2025 Chinese New Year Media Reception today, 18 February, at its Tuen Mun campus. Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science, presided for the first time with the three Vice-Presidents: Prof Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Vice-President (Academics) cum Provost and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Scientific Computing; Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning; Mr Ernest Chan Chi-man, Vice-President (Administration), as well as Prof Lau Chi-pang, Associate Vice-President (Institutional Advancement and External Affairs) cum Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs, and announced the University’s latest developments to the media, as well as the completion and official opening in February of its first High-Performance Computing (HPC) Data Centre, “Lingnan HPC NexT”, which represents the “Nexus of HPC technology”. The centre houses dozens of supercomputers comparable to some of the current top 100 supercomputers worldwide, providing approximately 6,000 TFLOPS of computing power to support the University’s researchers and students.

President Qin said that in the past year Lingnan University has attained spectacular goals in teaching, research, innovation, and community service. In addition to establishing the Lingnan University Institute for Advanced Study (LUIAS) and the School of Data Science (SDS), significant progress has been made in setting up the School of Interdisciplinary Studies (SIS). Notably, Lingnan has enabled traditional humanities disciplines through AI digitisation, incorporating AI into every aspect of teaching and learning as well as academic innovation. President Qin emphasised the University’s commitment to strengthening its global standing in higher education, and playing a pioneering role in educational innovation in the digital era, with the aim of becoming a globally recognised comprehensive university in the arts and sciences.

The President also said that, in line with the government’s focus on developing artificial intelligence (AI) and data science as key technological industries, the University’s academic research computing capabilities will be significantly upgraded. With the support of the University Grants Committee's (UGC) AA & I funding, the first phase of the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Data Centre, Lingnan HPC NexT, was completed earlier this month. The facility is a considerable step forward for the University to provide next-generation computing technologies for the rapid advancement of AI research projects. The second phase will soon be hosted in Lingnan Hub, where the most advanced cooling technology will greatly reduce the electricity cost and carbon dioxide emissions. The new facility houses dozens of supercomputers, collectively providing around 6,000 TFLOPS of computing power (one TFLOP equals one trillion floating-point operations per second), comparable to some of the top 100 supercomputers in the world as of recent rankings, which is expected to reduce the computing time of some AI research projects from several months to just a few hours, greatly accelerating the pace of research and innovation.

As Lingnan’s teaching facilities improve, its attraction grows. According to the first round application data for JUPAS 2025, the University has recorded the highest increase in both total applications and Band A applications (its first three priorities) of the eight UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong, and was also first in two key performance indicators of the UGC’s University Accountability Agreements for the 2022-2025 Triennium: “Undergraduate satisfaction with the quality and value gained from their teaching and learning experience” and “Student engagement in start-ups and entrepreneurship”.

Leading AI expert Prof Xin Yao has been elected a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (HKAE) for the year 2024. He is the fourth member of the Lingnan faculty to be elected to the Academy as a Fellow or in the Young Member Section (YMS), and joins President S. Joe Qin, Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research) and J.K. Lee Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence, and Prof Paulina Wong, Head of the Science Unit.

Lingnan’s students and faculty have achieved tremendous successes in several international competitions over the past year, and the University's research projects have made groundbreaking progress. Prof Sam Kwong’s research teams won three awards—one gold and two silver—at the 4th Asia Exhibition of Innovations and Inventions Hong Kong for their three AI projects. Humanitarian technology product the mini air purifier PureAura, developed and designed by the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) research team, has won 14 international awards to date, including the iF Design Award 2024 Gold, the Red Dot Design Award, the Good Design Award Best 100, and the IDEA Design Gold Award. These cutting-edge digital innovation projects have received widespread recognition both locally and internationally, and been displayed at several international conferences.

President Qin said that Lingnan University will continue to actively promote advanced digital teaching methods, leveraging the latest technologies to improve both the quality of the teaching and students’ learning experiences. He mentioned the innovative IDEAL-Gen.AI platform (Instructional Design Enhanced Active Learning through Generative Artificial Intelligence), developed and led by Lingnan University, which assists educators in creating more effective personalised teaching methods, and was recently shortlisted for the prestigious 2024 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Reimagine Education Awards in the Best Use of Generative AI category.

Looking ahead, the University will uphold its vision of liberal arts education and whole-person development, and remain dedicated to cultivating outstanding talents with a global perspective, an innovative spirit, and a strong sense of social responsibility. It will also continue to increase collaboration with leading institutions worldwide, promote interdisciplinary research, and contribute further wisdom and insights to societal development.