Our Hong Kong Section Computer Chapter was founded in 1982 and the Founding Chairman was Anthony H W Pau. Since then our Chapter has grown rapidly not only in terms of the size of our membership, but also in terms of the numbers and the qualities of our technical activities. During the past 13 years, the following persons had served as the Chairs of our Chapter after Mr Pau: N V Balasubramanian - 1984 & 85, Wanbil Lee - 1986, 87 & 88, Francis Lau - 1989 & 90, Daniel Yeung - 1991 & 92, Chan H Lee - 1993, Lai-Wan Chan - 1994, and Richard M M Chen had served as the Chair for 1995 and has been re-elected for 1996.
During the last decade, our Chapter has organized, financially sponsored, and supported numerous international conferences on various computer themes. The first International Computer Science Conference (ICSC) was held during 19-21 December 1988 at the Excelsior Hotel, Hong Kong. The theme was Artificial Intelligence: Theory and Applications, K W Ng served as the General Chair of the Organizing Committee, and Jean-Louis Lassez and Francis Y L Chin served as the Program Co-Chairs. ICSC'88 was very successful and had a good surplus financially. In the Chapter's Extraordinary General Meeting held on 31 May 1991, it was resolved that the surplus money from ICSC'88 shall be used in its entirety to finance the next computer conference organized by this Chapter, any balance income generated from the latter shall be made part of Chapter's general fund. The second ICSC was held during 16-18 December 1992 at Shangri-la Hotel, Kowloon. The theme was Data and Knowledge Engineering: Theory and Applications. The General Chair was Ernest C M Lam, and the Technical Program Co-Chairs were Frederick H Lochovsky and Dennis C Tsichritzis. The third ICSC was held during 11-13 December 1995 at Nikko Hotel, Kowloon. The theme was Image Analysis Applications and Computer Graphics. The General Chair was Horace Ip, and the Program Chair was Roland Chin. Since all these three ICSC's were not only technically very successful, but also financially sound with surpluses, the Chapter has used part of the surplus to sponsor many computer conferences held in Hong Kong and to provide financial support to the scholars from mainland Chinese universities to visit us and to give technical seminars in Hong Kong. In addition to the three ICSC's, the Chapter also organized and supported many other activities, such as seminars, short courses, student software project competition, etc. The Chapter's membership had reached 1060 in 1995 which is 61% of the total IEEE members in Hong Kong.
Two IEEE Computer Society Presidents had visited us in Hong Kong and the 1996 President is scheduled to visit us. They are 1994 President Laurel V Kaleda, 1995 President Ronald G Hoelzeman and 1996 President Mario Barbacci. The Society's Executive Director Michael Elliott had accompanied the 1994 and 1995 Presidents' visits and will join Mario Barbacci to visit Hong Kong in late May this year.
The Chapter's 1996 Executive Committee members are: Chair - Richard M M Chen, Vice Chair - Karl Leung, Honorary Secretary - Joseph Ng, Honorary Treasurer - H F Ting, Past Chair - L W Chan, Student Activity Coordinator - Ken Law, Membership Development Coordinator - M W Mak, Industrial Liaison Coordinators - Vincent Yuen and Timothy Y M Siu, and Technical Activity Coordinators - S C Cheung, Wai Wong and Allen Yeung.
Richard M.M. Chen
Chairman, 1996
Computer Chapter, IEEE H.K.