01 Speech by School Dean

Graduates of Class 2024, Professor Tom Luo, Mr. K.C., Mr. Lu, colleagues, and friends, good evening.

This evening, we gather here to celebrate. We celebrate together with 398 graduating students from the School of Data Science. To each of the Class 2024 students, congratulations!

For each of the graduating students of Class 2024, you deserve this special moment. We all share your pride in your accomplishment at CUHK-Shenzhen. We share your hope for your journey ahead. 

For all Class 2024 students, I know you have overcome many difficulties to reach this point. No one makes it to graduation alone. I would like to ask you to say thank you in the next few days to your parents, friends, teammates, teachers, and admin staff. Please join me to give a round of applause to yourself and those who helped you on this journey.

Four years ago, when you first enrolled at CUHK-Shenzhen in 2020, the world was thrust into the COVID-19 pandemic. Many courses were forced online, and you were suddenly faced with a new, unfamiliar way of learning. Despite these unprecedented challenges, your resilience and dedication prevailed. I want to particularly acknowledge the enormous difficulties our international students faced. For more than two years, you could not come to campus, taking all your courses online, often isolated from friends and classmates, without the vibrant campus community that is an integral part of the university experience. Your determination to succeed, despite the lack of in-person interactions, is truly commendable. To our international students, may I ask you to stand up? Let's give them a heartfelt round of applause for their unwavering resilience and courage in overcoming these formidable challenges.

Tonight, as we gather here, we are still in the process of collecting statistics from this class of graduates. I want to mention four noteworthy observations in order.

First, we have more students going to pursue Ph.D. degrees this year. The number is far more than that in the past. Our students have received Ph.D. offers from top universities like Columbia, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, University of Chicago, University College London, and many other places.

Second, the School of Data Science was established four years ago. This year marks a significant milestone for us as we celebrate the graduation of our very first cohort of Data Science and Big Data Technology graduates. I know the graduates of this major have been doing very well in terms of further education and employment offers. In particular, I would like to congratulate Wang Xiuyuan, who is heading straight to Yale University to pursue his Ph.D. in computer science.

Third, a much higher percentage of CS students are getting offers for graduate studies.  As you may know, CS graduate programs have been very competitive, particularly in North America. This success reflects positively on the quality of our students, faculty, and programs. I would especially like to congratulate Jing Zilin, who is going to do his Ph.D. at Columbia University CS department. As I said, many students are going to Ph.D. programs. I'm not going to list all of them here. We are very proud of you.

My fourth and last observation is, despite the Chinese economic condition in 2024 being unfavorable, quite a few of our graduates choose to work directly without going to graduate schools. They have received offers from Huawei, Honor, DJI, ZTE, Bloomberg, and local governments. Here I would like to mention three such students:

One is Yu Xinyuan. Xinyuan was admitted into Emory University in Atlanta. She joined CUHK-Shenzhen because of the Covid. During her studies at SDS, she pursued multiple internships. This summer, she will start to work for Bloomberg at the Shanghai office.

The second such student is Chen Baihua. Baihua is one of our first batch of DSBDT graduates. During his studies at SDS, he also gained experience through various internships at different companies. Today he graduated and chose to work for a district government, the Futian Tax Bureau.

The third student is DHARMA SETIAWAN. DHARMA is from Indonesia.

He received multiple offers for graduate study. He has also explored the possibility of work directly, and he has received employment offers from Shenzhen and Hong Kong. I am very happy to learn that he plans to work first and do a graduate study later.

These three examples show that, here at SDS, we celebrate diversity in every form, recognizing that each student's journey is uniquely valuable. There is no single path to success. Our graduates exemplify this diversity.

As you embark on the next journey, let me take this opportunity to emphasize one point. I've stated repeatedly during orientation and in conversations with students, that university is a journey for you to find your passion, interests, goals, and dreams. For those who have already found what you love to do in the next few years, congratulations. For many, you perhaps still do not know what to focus on in two or three years. I want to say that this is completely normal, even for those who are going to Ph.D. studies.

Let me share a story from Aaron Ciechanover. Professor Ciechanover is a professor at Technion in Israel. He is also the director of the Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine at CUHK-Shenzhen. I met him on the CUHK-Shenzhen campus in 2018. Professor Ciechanover graduated from Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem in 1974. He worked as a medical doctor after graduation. Soon, he found out that he did not enjoy the profession, so he went for a Ph.D. in biochemistry, receiving his Ph.D. from the Technion in 1981. As you may know, he later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004. In a speech to students at CUHK-Shenzhen in 2018, he mentioned that he couldn't believe Technion was willing to pay him for his research. He loved his work so much that he was willing to do it without any pay.

I hope each of you will eventually find your true passion, like Professor Ciechanover. This may not necessarily mean pursuing another degree or getting another job. Regardless of whether you were at the top of your class or faced challenges along the way, whether you are entering the workforce now or going to graduate school, know that success is not defined by a single measure, but by your passion, persistence, and willingness to pursue your dreams. Please continue the exploration of your passion and have a dream that is unique to you, not the one imposed upon you by others.

Finally, let me share some latest developments at SDS. As of today, SDS has 73 full-time faculty members. Later this summer, by September 1, SDS will have 79 full-time faculty members. We are not chasing the number, but rather the quality. On August 30, 2024, we had a joint retreat with four departments of CUHK, and I'm extremely proud that they commented that your faculty is just as excellent as ours.

SDS is in the process of establishing the Career Development Center that will facilitate the placement of our students, including improving internship opportunities and developing capstone projects. SDS is also in the process of joining the university’s effort to develop signature courses that will maximally benefit our students. SDS is determined to transfer the quality of faculty to the quality education of our students.

During these past four years, you have worked closely with many of our outstanding professors. Through this process, I hope you've gained valuable insights from them. As you graduate, the relationship between you and SDS remains unbroken. Your professors and SDS admin staff will always be part of your support network. As graduating students, you will always remain part of the SDS family. This is the first part of your journey with us. We will always welcome you back with open arms, during your up times or down times. I hope, in turn, you will be proactive in helping future CUHK-Shenzhen students. I wish you all the best as you embark on the next chapter of your lives. Thank you, and let’s continue to grow as a family!

02 Awarding of the Certificate of Appreciation

03 Interactive Session

04 Performances by Professors and Students

Scan the QR code to view the 2024 Undergraduate Graduation Dinner Gallery