Media

HKU and University of Zurich collaborative events

20 Oct 2017

 

The University of Hong Kong and the University of Zurich will jointly hold a series of events on HKU campus and outside venue on October 25 and 26, 2017 (Wednesday and Thursday). Media representatives are welcome to attend and interview participants.

October 25, 2017 (Wednesday)

Working together towards the WHO Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020 – 2030
Public Forum

Time: 9:30am to 12:30pm
Venue: Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House, the University of Hong Kong

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set one of its goals to push for a 2020-2030 “Decade of Healthy Ageing”. The concept represents a paradigm shift in international thinking about ageing and health. Instead of focusing on illness symptoms alone, it puts the functional abilities of ageing individuals in their real-life environments on the centre stage. It requires innovative ways to measure healthy ageing in real life environments and provides a framework for systematically tailoring and incentivizing individualized healthy ageing interventions to improve real-life functioning on a population and global scale.

The public forum will highlight the opportunities open to the two universities of combining high-level expertise on big health data with state-of-the-art conceptual frameworks, allowing to determine on the population scale how our environments can be designed to maximize opportunities for healthy ageing in both regions and worldwide.

The forum will be hosted by Professor Terry Lum, Head of Social Work and Social Administration, and Associate Director of the Sau Po Centre on Ageing at the University of Hong Kong; and Professor Mike Martin, Professor of Gerontopsychology, Director of the Gerontology Competence Center, and Managing Director of the Dynamics of Healthy Aging University Research Priority Program (URPP) at the University of Zurich. Both professors are members of the WHO’s Working Group on Metrics and Research Standards for Healthy Aging. They are currently working together to plan a study to develop a new approach to health metrics that is to become the international standard.

The President of the University of Zurich Prof. Dr. Michael Hengartner and Vice President Law and Economics Prof. Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger (CV of Prof. Hengartner and Prof. Schwarzenegger) will attend as the guests of the forum. They and Prof. Martin (Prof. Martin’s portrait) will be available for interviews during their stay in Hong Kong. For the arrangement of interviews, please contact Mr Beat Müller, Head of Media Relations, University of Zurich, Phone: +41 079 536 66 00/ E-mail: beat.mueller@kommunikation.uzh.ch; or Prof. Mike Martin directly at Phone +41 44 635 74 10/Email: m.martin@psychologie.uzh.ch.

Date: October 26, 2017 (Thursday)

Two workshops jointly organised by the Center for Information Technology, Society, and Law (ITSL) of the University of Zurich and the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) and the Law and Technology Centre of the University of Hong Kong.

FinTech and Data Ownership: Legal Issues of Digital Business Models
Public Workshop

Time: 2:30pm to 5pm
Venue: Academic Conference Room, Faculty of Law, Centennial Campus, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, the University of Hong Kong

“FinTech” refers to new technologies that are used in the financial services sector that have the potential of being a transformative force to traditional financial services. Some of these new financial technologies have focused on ways of easing payments, whether domestic or trans-border, investments, asset management or on novel ways of lending credit by using peer-to-peer platforms.

This workshop will feature a distinguished group of scholars and practitioners in both Hong Kong and Zurich working at the cusp of this new financial transformation. The workshop will explore FinTech from both the Asian and European perspectives, as well as the role that the ownership of data could play in the FinTech environment and in many other sectors of the digital economy, especially when data becomes ever more valuable as the technologies to analyse such data evolve.

Participants (in alphabetical order):   
- Prof. Douglas W. Arner; Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, the University of Hong Kong 
- Janos Barberis; Asia Lead for the Digital Finance Institute and Founder of SuperCharger, the Hong Kong-based FinTech accelerator 
- Prof. Gary Meggitt; Associate Professor and Director of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL), the University of Hong Kong 
- Dr. Thomas Puschmann; Head of Swiss FinTech Innovation Lab, University of Zurich (Dr Puschmann’s portrait)
- Prof. Dr. Florent Thouvenin; Chair for Information and Communication Law and Co-Chair of ITSL, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich 
- Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber; Professor Emeritus of Private, Business and European Law and Co-Chair of ITSL, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich

The Future of Privacy Public Symposium

Time: 6pm to 7:30pm
Venue: Academic Conference Room, Faculty of Law, Centennial Campus, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, the University of Hong Kong

Rapid advances in information and communication technology have made information more accessible, bringing tremendous changes in people’s daily life. Nowadays, individual users can access easily information content, shop, book holidays, find directions, or track one's fitness simply by typing words or voicing questions. However, at the same time, how each person searches for and later uses the information can be tracked, collected and stored by third parties. Our digital footprints have raised important privacy concerns which are made even more critical in light of the seemingly ubiquitous internet, the increasing connection between things and people, and the ease with which personal data can be transferred across jurisdictions.

The symposium features presentations on privacy by four leading scholars/practitioners working on the topical issue of privacy and data protection in Switzerland and Hong Kong. This symposium aims to address different dimensions of privacy challenges in today’s environment and will conclude with a lively panel discussion on the future of privacy.

Participants:
- Moderator: Professor Zhao Yun; Head of the Department of Law, the University of Hong Kong        
- Commissioner Stephen Kai-yi Wong; Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Hong Kong
- Professor Anne S.Y. Cheung; Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong
- Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber; Professor Emeritus of Private, Business and European Law and Co-Chair of ITSL, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich
- Prof. Dr. Florent Thouvenin; Chair for Information and Communication Law and Co-Chair of ITSL, Faculty of Law, University of Zurich
(Portraits of Prof. Florent Thouvenin and Prof. Weber)

October 26, 2017 (Thursday)

Before the Screen, Behind the Curtains: Ye Si and Postcolonial Culture. A Conversation about Roasted Chestnuts in Zurich and beyond

Time: 6pm to 9pm
Venue: Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, HK

“All I bought was a bag of roast chestnuts from a stand / the crisp shells and sweet kernels are like the local scenery of my hometown” (“Roast Chestnuts in Zurich”)—Leung Ping-kwan (Ye Si) magically connects Zurich and Hong Kong through roast chestnuts that can be found in both cities. Being a renowned writer and scholar in Hong Kong, and a recipient of the Honorary Doctoral Degree conferred by the University of Zurich, Leung Ping-kwan himself is certainly an exemplar of how Hong Kong and Zurich cross path with one another, culturally and intellectually. Leung’s creative works thereby serve as an entry point to explore how Hong Kong literature and culture are perceived, and interpreted in various local and global contexts.
 
Following an introduction by Ben Wong who directed Boundary, a documentary on Leung Ping-kwan which was partly filmed in Zurich and Switzerland, guest speakers from Zurich and Hong Kong will give insights on the poet’s relation to the two cities.

Guest Speakers:
- Prof. Chu Yiu-wai, Stephen (University of Hong Kong)
- Prof. Andrea Riemenschnitter (University of Zurich)( Prof. Riemenschnitter’s portrait)
- Dr. Wong King-fai, Ben (Director of Boundary)
- Prof. Wong Shuk-han, Mary (Lingnan University)

END

Media contact:
University of Zurich
Beat Müller
Head of Media Relations
University of Zurich
Phone: +41 079 536 66 00
E-mail: beat.mueller@kommunikation.uzh.ch

The University of Hong Kong
Melanie Wan
Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office
Phone: 2859 2600
Email: melwkwan@hku.hk