农历二月初二刚过，春风化雨、气象更新：新的学期，新的机遇，新的期待。有细心的小伙伴，可能在一段时间前便在咱们CSE官网的页头附近，也发现了一些新的东西：一则CSE系系主任的招聘广告！
咦？
是的你没看错，CSE系前系主任杨强教授在前不久已经期满卸任了。现在，CSE系正面向全球招聘新一任的系主任。杨强教授在过去几年里在系里工作组织、CSE系学术影响力等方方面面均有着出色的表现。在这里也要对杨强教授所作的贡献和努力表示衷心的感谢！
那么问题来了。系主任的位置不能空了呀？
不必担心。CSE系可是个人才辈出的地方。正巧，系里也有另一位能力和科研水平都非常优秀的“杨教授”，将暂时挑起这个大梁：从2018年1月份起，港科大CSE系由系里的杨瓞仁(Dit-Yan Yeung)教授代理系主任的职务。在这期间，杨教授将负责系里的领导工作。杨瓞仁教授是机器学习、人工智能领域的专家。在这个如今十分火热的领域里，杨瓞仁教授能一直保持务实、淡然的心态开展研究。不仅成果斐然，还培养出一大批年轻有为的人工智能领域的研究者，实在令人钦佩。在这里，小编有幸能为大家展示杨教授的一些独到的分享，讲述他对CSE系以及每一位研究者科研发展的深刻见解与建议。相信在杨瓞仁教授的强力“续航”下，咱们港科大CSE系一定能够乘风破浪，延续辉煌！
个人简介
杨瓞仁教授
杨瓞仁(Dit-Yan Yeung)，香港科技大学计算机科学及工程学系(CSE)教授，现任代理系主任。杨教授于香港大学取得学士、硕士学位，并于1989年在美国南加州大学取得博士学位。杨教授在港科大创校之际便选择了加入港科大，迄今为止已经在CSE系工作了超过20年。他的研究兴趣包括：机器学习与人工智能领域中的计算统计方法，以及机器学习技术在计算机视觉，机器学习分析和社交网络计算等领域的应用。
大家好！
从今年1月份起，我非常有幸能够担任CSE系的代理系主任，为大家服务。我在港科大的CSE系已经工作了20多年了。我非常热爱港科大，特别是CSE系。上世纪90年代时，港科大还是一所鲜为人知的新的大学。当时我便放弃了在美国的教职而选择了来到港科大，我能深深地感觉到，我的选择是十分正确的。
CSE系在前二十年里取得的成就一直被同行视为奇迹。数据显示，港科大CSE系在全球高校计算机系排名中位于前列。虽然我不是十分看重排名，但这些数据确确实实地表现出了我们的努力和成绩，让我们在短短二十年内便能名声大噪。
还记得当时吸引我来到港科大的，是港科大创始者们所描述的创校愿景：为香港、中国乃至亚太地区带来深远的社会影响。在现有的评判标准之外，我们应该问自己一个问题：如何在那些难以量化的方面提升我们的影响力。我认为以下几点值得我们关注：
1. 研究和教育之间的相互作用
大学，包括港科大这样的研究型大学，与研究机构有着本质上的差异。研究和教育是大学的核心，高质量的研究和教育相辅相成。因此，全球顶尖大学往往能同时在研究和教育、教学创新方面都表现得相当出色。实际上，大多数杰出的研究人员同时也是优秀的教师，他们能够激励并改变许多年轻人的人生。作为研究生我们必须懂得，做研究和发表论文只是漫长旅程的开端，在会议、或是面向公众发布研究报告都将更为重要。要做好这一点，我们必须重视提升在面对不同类型听众（无论专业与否）时的演讲技能。此外，无论是写论文还是准备课堂幻灯片，都绝不能马虎，需要像对待艺术品一样对待自己的任何作品，哪怕在格式或拼写错误等小缺陷上也丝毫不能怠慢。我们要努力成为一名学者，而不仅仅是一名研究人员，更不是一台写论文的机器。
2. 基础与应用研究之间的相互作用
基础研究和应用研究是互相依存的，尤其是在计算机科学领域。在稍大点的学系中，难免有人对基础研究更感兴趣，而另一些人更喜欢应用研究。虽然尊重个人偏好很重要，但学系也应该提供一个良好的学术环境，鼓励所有研究人员（包括教师和学生）在基础、应用研究方面加强合作，共同解决长期的重大挑战。我知道这说起来容易做起来难，但只有在意识上达成共识，我们才能有所成就。
3. 戒除从众心理
从众心理（羊群心理）十分普遍，特别是在学术领域。当决定选择什么专业或者研究领域时，许多学生会蜂拥到那些热门的领域。作为在机器学习领域工作了20多年的研究者，经历了这个领域的风风雨雨后，我对这方面已经十分淡然了。大多数研究者扎堆选择了少数研究领域，导致在其他领域工作的人变少，这对计算机系的发展是十分不利的。虽然大学或学系有时确实有必要更多地侧重一些领域，但我们需要非常小心，不能以牺牲在其他领域的投入作为代价。在这之间找到平衡点，不仅仅是对系主任的挑战，也是所有CSE系的成员们需要考虑的问题。
最后祝大家在2018年狗年里，万象更新，收获满满！
DY
2018年3月
以下为英文原文：
Dear all,
I am humble to take up the acting headship since January this year to serve the department that I joined more than 20 years ago. I love HKUST and particularly the CSE department and feel very strongly that I made the right decision to quit my tenure-track faculty position in the United States back in the 1990s and join the then brand new university that not too many academics outside Asia knew about.
Our successes in the first two decades or so have been considered miracles by many of our peers. According to many quantitative performance measures, our department is among the top tier of computer science departments worldwide. Although I am not a fan of rankings, they do show that we have done something right to put us on the world map in a relatively short period of time.
What attracted me to give up my tenure-track faculty position in the 1990s was the vision of our university founders, particularly the charismatic Founding President, in bringing about significant societal impact not just to Hong Kong but also to the Greater China and even this region of the world. Beyond the many quantitative performance measures, we should now ask ourselves how we can make even greater impact also in areas that may not be easily quantifiable.
There are several areas that I think are worth paying more attention to, even though these alone are by no means the “silver bullets” to all the problems:
• Interaction between research and education
Universities, even research-intensive universities like HKUST, are fundamentally different from research institutes. Both research and education are central to us. High-quality research and high-quality education often reinforce each other. No wonder all top universities in the world also excel in high-quality education and teaching innovations, besides doing high-quality research. In fact many outstanding researchers are also excellent teachers who inspire and change the lives of many young souls. Research students should understand that doing research and publishing papers is only the beginning of a long journey. Traveling around to present their research in conferences or even to the general public (not unlike traveling salesmen) is at least as important, if not more. Being able to do so effectively requires us to pay special attention to presentation skills for a wide range of audience, both expert and novice. Whether we are writing a paper or preparing the slides for a class, we should have zero tolerance towards sloppiness and treat whatever work we produce like a piece of art with an uncompromising stance to even minor defects like a formatting error or a typo. We should strive to become a scholar, and a scholar is not just a researcher and certainly not a paper-generating machine.
• Interaction between basic and applied research
Basic research and applied research can benefit each other. This is particularly the case for the computer science discipline. In a relatively large department, it is inevitable that some people are more interested in basic research while others are more interested in applied research. While respecting the preferences of individuals is important, the department as a whole should provide a supportive and nurturing environment to encourage a wide range of people (both faculty and students) in terms of both research area and basic/applied research inclination to work together to address longer-term grand challenges. I know this is easier said than done, but without a consensus on this mentality we will never be able to make any step forward.
• Doing away with the herd mentality
Although the herd mentality (從眾心態/羊群心態) is universal, it is particularly common in this part of the world. When it comes to deciding what major to choose or what research area to work on, we end up seeing many students rushing to popular ones. Having worked in a research area (machine learning) for more than two decades seeing the ups and downs over the years, I have become somewhat indifferent to them. It is not healthy for the computer science discipline if most people choose to work in a small number of areas, leaving very few people working in others. While it is necessary for a university or a department to develop some areas more for whatever legitimate reasons, we need to be very careful in doing so not at the expense of some other areas. Striking a good balance is a challenge not just to the department head but also to all stakeholders of the department.
Let me wish you all a refreshing and rewarding 2018 and the Year of the Dog!
Best regards,
DY