COMP 4900 Academic and Professional Development (Spring 2019)

Coordinator: Dr. Cindy Li
Email:

This course is for academic and professional development of students in the programs offered by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Activities may include seminars, workshops, advising and sharing sessions, interaction with faculty and teaching staff, and discussion with student peers or alumni. Graded P/PP/F. It is a required course for both COMP and COSC curriculum.

  • Develop relationships with faculty members and staff;
  • Examine the value of and assume ownership of his/her education;
  • Become self-directed in planning and accomplishing short and long-term academic goal;
  • Identify short and long-term career and personal plans and aspirations and work towards these by establishing realistic development plans.

Each student is assigned to a faculty academic advisor, and followed up by a department academic counselor. In order to "pass" the course, you are required to meet with your faculty advisor and attend seminars during your undergraduate study.

  • First term in CSE (e.g. Year 2 Fall for DSE): Your respective faculty academic advisor will initiate a welcome meeting in a context of social gathering. Meeting will be arranged in Sep or Oct depending on the schedule of your faculty academic advisor. You are also required to attend the department UG orientation and one seminar.
  • All in-between terms in CSE (e.g. Year 2 Spring to Year 4 Fall for DSE): Attend two seminars each term for COMP students, and one seminar each term for COSC students.
  • Last term in CSE (e.g. Year 4 Spring/Summer for DSE): No seminar attendance required in Spring term. Instead, you need to fill an online graduation survey. You will be also be invited to an optional casual gathering (e.g. tea gathering or graduation dinner) in late Apr or early May.

Further clarifications of the COMP 4900 course requirements due to the various study pathways taken by students:

  • You will not be registered to COMP 4900 in a term with 'leave' status, and therefore don't need to attend any seminars in that term.
  • For students who graduate in Summer (or Winter), the requirement is the same as those who graduate in Spring (or Fall). There is no COMP 4900 offered in Winter/Summer term.
  • DE students usually join the department with status as Year 2 Fall, we'll still treat the term as your first term CSE. You will need to meet the faculty academic advisor, attend the department UG orientation and one seminar.
  • For those who have extended length of study
    • You need to attend 2 seminars in all in-between terms in CSE (regardless of your Year status).
    • If your last term in CSE is Year 5 or Year 6 Fall: 1 seminar attendance is required for that Fall. There is NO graduation survey conducted in Fall.
    • If your last term in CSE is Year 5 or Year 6 Spring/Summer: You need to fill an online graduation survey and attend an optional casual gathering. No seminar attendance is required.

Of course, you're welcomed to request meeting with your faculty academic advisor or department academic counselor whenever you feel necessary.

For students with unsatisfactory academic progress (UAP), you're required to have individual meeting with your academic advisor and/or departmental academic advising staff every term.

You are registered to COMP 4900 during your whole stay in CSE. Its grade for each term is PP (Permitted to Proceed). The P (Pass) grade will be given at the final term before you graduate.

Failure of fulfilling the above requirement in any term may lead to an 'F' grade in COMP 4900 for that term, and be permanently recorded in your transcript. Please be reminded that it is a required course and an 'F' grade will affect your graduation according to university policy.

COMP 4900 Spring 2019
*********************
T   Advisor             Class Alias
*   *******             ***********
02  Qiong Luo           comp4900t02
03  Shing-Chi Cheung    comp4900t03
04  Chi-Keung Tang      comp4900t04
05  Long Quan           comp4900t05
06  Cunsheng Ding       comp4900t06
07  Lei Chen            comp4900t07
08  James Kwok          comp4900t08
09  Pedro Sander        comp4900t09
11  Sunil Arya          comp4900t11
13  Kai Chen            comp4900t13
14  Gary Chan           comp4900t14
15  Cindy Li            comp4900t15
16  Nevin Zhang         comp4900t16
18  Dik Lee             comp4900t18
19  Andrew Horner       comp4900t19
23  Ke Yi               comp4900t23
24  Fangzhen Lin        comp4900t24
25  Chiew-Lan Tai       comp4900t25
26  Brian Mak           comp4900t26
27  Jogesh Muppala      comp4900t27
29  Wilfred Ng          comp4900t29
30  Albert Chung        comp4900t30
31  Cecia Chan          comp4900t31
32  Mordecai Golin      comp4900t32
33  Ngok Lam            comp4900t33
34  Bo Li               comp4900t34
35  Desmond Tsoi        comp4900t35
36  Charles Zhang       comp4900t36
37  Yangqiu Song        comp4900t37
38  Tao Wang            comp4900t38
39  Wei Wang            comp4900t39
40  David Rossiter      comp4900t40
41  Raymond Wong        comp4900t41
42  Gibson Lam          comp4900t42

Seminars organized under COMP 4900 are scheduled on Wednesday 6pm - 7pm. The attendance of a seminar is valid when you

  • Arrive the seminar venue before 6:10pm and take attendance with the TA who's in charge, and
  • Submit a reflection report for that seminar in time and get a Pass grade. Deadline of reflection report submission is within one week of the seminar. Minimum length of the report is 200 words.

You can upload your reflection report and check your COMP 4900 seminar attendance in Canvas.

Here is the reflection report template, and some sample reflection reports for your reference.

Seminars offered by ENGG 2010 can be double-counted to fulfill COMP 4900 seminar requirement.

Kindly note

  1. ENGG 2010 is managed by School, and the attendance is passed to CSE at the end of the term to consolidate. Please send inquiries of ENGG 2010 seminar to E2I.
  2. COSC students can't use ENGG 2010 seminars to fulfill COMP 4900 requirements since they're not officially registered to ENGG 2010.

CSE Information Seminars

To facilitate your study, the department offers information seminars, including department UG orientation (compulsory for Year 2 students), Final Year Project (FYP), job hunting, internship and exchange, IT job markets, CV writing training, etc. List of CSE information seminars:

Date Time Venue Event Target group Speaker
13 Mar 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC COMP 1991 Internship / Industrial Training Information Seminar CSE UG taking COMP 1991 Prof. James Kwok
Internship Coordinator
10 Apr 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC 2019-20 FYP/FYT Information Seminar UG taking CSE FYP/FYT in 2019-20 Prof. Nevin Zhang
FYP/FYT Coordinator

CSE Talk Series to General CSE UG students

Interesting general talks by our CSE professors, alumni, or students to share their research, profession or experience with fellow students. List of CSE UG talks:

Date Time Venue Event Target group Speaker
13 Feb 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC Introduction to Ethical & Fairness Issues in AI All CSE UG Prof. Mordecai Golin, CSE HKUST
06 Mar 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC Morgan Stanley Technology Insights All CSE UG Representatives from Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd. HK
03 Apr 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC Disruption from inside out All CSE UG Representatives from Goldman Sachs
24 Apr 2019 (Wed) 6-7pm LTC AI Powered Robotics for Logistics All CSE UG Mr. Zhang Hao, Founder and CTO, Dorabot

Dr. Cindy Li () is the COMP 4900 coordinator for Spring 2019. Inquiries of COMP 4900 attendance can be sent to Luke Lo ().

Q1. Is the attendance cumulative?

No. For example, taking one seminar is Fall term and three other seminars in Spring term won't fulfill the two seminars per term requirement in Fall term.

Q2. Can ENGG 2010 seminars be double-counted in COMP 4900?

If you're officially registered to ENGG 2010 in a particular term, the ENGG 2010 seminars you attended in that term can be double-counted to COMP 4900. Note a valid attendance in ENGG 2010 includes 'sit-in the seminar' and 'submit the reflection report and obtain a passing grade'. E2I will hand over the attendance record to us at the end of the term so you won't see the attendance in COMP 4900 Canvas. ENGG 2010 seminars can't be double counted to COMP 4900 for COSC students and COMP students who're year 4 or above, since they're not officially registered to ENGG 2010.

Q3. Do I need to fulfill COMP 4900 requirement when I'm on exchange?

If you're in 'leave' academic status, you won't register any HKUST courses including COMP 4900.

Q4. What happens if I fail COMP 4900 in one term?

Your COMP 4900 grade for that term will be F, and it's shown permanently in your transcript. COMP 4900 will still be pre-enrolled to you in following terms. If you fulfill the requirements, you will eventually get a P grade for COMP 4900 upon your graduation.

Be aware that double failure of COMP 4900 will put you in potential dismissal case.

Q5. I'm busy on Wed 6pm - 7pm for other commitment, can I be exempted for the seminar attendance requirements?

You're officially registered in COMP 4900 so we would assume you're available during the time slot.

Q6. I can't find my attendance of a particular seminar on COMP 4900 Canvas but I did go there and register with TA.

Attendance is taken by scanning the barcode in the back of your student ID card. If you change your student ID card in the middle of the term, barcode changes too and we might not be able to recognize you. Please email Luke Lo () with your student ID number and new barcode to fix the problem.

Another reason might be you fail the reflection report. Pass requirement of reflection report can be found in reflection report template.

Q7. Is there any makeup seminar near the end of the term?

No. Please check seminar schedule of COMP 4900/ENGG 2010 and plan ahead.

Q8. I applied to transfer to CSE in the middle of the term, what is the COMP 4900 requirement for me?

Normally, the transfer, if approved, will not be effected until the following term. COMP 4900 will be registered to you in the following term. However, since you're a seasoned student, the requirement is to attend two seminars each term. That is, there is no compulsory requirement on department UG orientation.

Q9. Do I need to take COMP 4900 if COMP/COSC is my second major?

If your first major program offers similar "Academic and Professional Development" courses, normally you can use those courses to fulfill the COMP 4900 requirement in COMP/COSC program. You need to submit Form GR-23 (Application for Deviation from Curriculum) together with curriculum document of your cohort of admission and unofficial transcript to CSE Admin Office. We'll review the application case-by-case.

Otherwise, you have to take COMP 4900.


Dr. Cindy Li () is the COMP 4900 coordinator for Spring 2019.

COMP 4900 Archive