Welcome to the Information Technology Services Center
A world transformed
Over the past two decades, the world has witnessed huge advances in information and communications technology (ICT). The rise of the internet and consumerization of ICT products have substantially changed how we work, learn, do business, interact, and entertain ourselves. The on-going impact is ubiquitous and felt by us all.
ICT at HKUST
At HKUST, the Information Technology Services Center (ITSC) is fully alert to the need to stay at the forefront of key initiatives in the rapidly developing ICT world. We strive to employ ICT wisely and well to inspire and drive forward research, teaching, learning and administration activities.
As a world-class research university of science and technology, HKUST needs to optimize ICT developments. The campus is covered by a high-performance data network that is effectively connected to international research networks as well as the regular internet. In addition, the campus network provides a comprehensive set of Wi-Fi access points to facilitate different mobile smart devices.
On top of the campus network, a set of enterprise applications and services are available for research, teaching, learning, and administration. Most applications are provided through in-house endeavor. However, new services, including mission-critical ones, are starting to tap “cloud” service providers. Indeed, HKUST’s campus ICT infrastructure is constantly being updated to benefit from the latest cloud computing breakthroughs, which many believe will revolutionize ICT in the coming decade.
In the past few years, our 120-plus lecture theaters and classrooms have also been progressively revamped to take advantage of developments in digital audio/visual technologies. This has brought better quality, and more remote control and automation capabilities, improving integration of classroom setups and campus ICT infrastructure. It has enhanced the in-class teaching and learning experience and provided opportunities for innovative concepts to be put into practice.
Listening to and meeting your needs
With technology evolving at such a rapid pace, ITSC understands the importance of listening to your needs and seeking to generate services to answer them. Along with user meetings and individual feedback, we carry out surveys among colleagues and students to help shape the development of our campus ICT infrastructure and services.
We conduct training and briefing sessions regularly to keep users in touch with ICT developments and how new services may benefit their teaching, learning, research and administration efforts.
The ITSC Service Desk (2/F, Lift 2), ITSC Helpline (ext. 6200), and ITSC Service Support email (CCHELP@ust.hk) serve as additional useful contact points to understand your needs as well as resolve issues encountered in the use of our services.
Full-service portal vision
Our vision is to move the ITSC website from a source of information to a full-service portal, a platform where you can register requests, problems, track progress, and obtain online services anytime anywhere with any smart device.
To do so, we definitely need to hear from you how ICT can help in general, and what the ITSC website should be doing in particular. You can tell us your thoughts by phone or drop us a line at CCLISTEN@ust.hk, our "electronic opinion box".
We look forward to advancing HKUST together.
Samuel Kwan, PhD
ITSC Director
to help you
At ITSC, our goal is to help you gain the most out of your time at HKUST by keeping the University’s IT environment in peak condition and making it convenient and straightforward for you to access and use.
Specifically, the Center seeks to:
- Maintain the University’s IT infrastructure at the leading edge so as to provide a reliable and secure IT environment for teaching, learning, research and administration
- Advise, assist and train students, faculty and staff on how to use the University’s IT services
- Cooperate with technical staff in schools, departments and offices to maintain a coherent IT structure
- Develop University-wide IT standards and policy
what we do
ITSC’s work encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, including the foundational setup for the University’s IT systems, develop university-wide standards & IT policy, general assistance for users, care of servers, email service, security, support for academic and research computing activities, and much more. We support and collaborate with the Information Systems Office (ISO), which mostly handles development and support for various administrative information systems.
At a University that has a particular focus on science and technology, the quality and capacities of information technology systems take on renewed significance. Members of ITSC are proud that through our work we are able to assist the University community as a whole and contribute to advancing HKUST’s education and research achievements.
Below are our main areas of responsibility:
IT Infrastructure and Basic Services
- Maintain the campus network, internet, cloud computing infrastructure, enterprise infrastructure (central directories & authentication), central servers, central email, campus portal, storage, telephone system and other services
- Design and support the general desktop and office environment for the campus
User Support and Training
- Maintain the central service desk to support general users
- Provide support to departmental IT staff
- Coordinate and provide training in IT
Teaching & Learning IT
- Design and maintain IT and Audiovisual (A/V) systems of central physical teaching facilities - computer barns, lecture theaters and classrooms
- Maintain central eLearning system
- Support participation in global teaching & learning partners
Research IT
- Provide support to central research and academic computing activites
- Develop and enhance Research & Education Network
- Provide high performance storage for research data
Administrative Information Systems
- Provide solution architecture system administration and support for administrative information systems
Cybersecurity
- Design and maintain the University IT security policies and appropriate hardware/software protection
meet our teams
ITSC has around 70 colleagues organized into dedicated teams to ensure all areas of our work gain the benefit of specific expertise and experience, ensuring continuity and quality service to our users.
Here’s how our management team is organized:
Near the end of every Spring semester, ITSC will conduct an annual user satisfaction survey to solicit feedbacks from staff and students on various ITSC services. This has been a very important exercise in our IT service management framework emphasizing continuous service improvement. Namely, the survey helps us learn directly and objectively whether the services provided do meet our users’ needs, and identify those areas that need improvement or enhancement. These feedbacks have been helping steer the upcoming development of the campus IT infrastructure and services.
To view the survey results, please click the following links:
