PG Guideline

Note: The following materials or links are dedicated to my students only. Don't disclose to others.

Our Research Group Resource

  1. Our research group directotries

    We have two kinds of research group directories as shown below. It is recommended that you use the second one since the disk quota of the second one is extremely large compared with the first one.

    1. Our research group directory (with limited disk quota) (hosted in the common server pool of the CSE department)
      1. You can visit our research directory with the path "/project/kdd" under any UNIX/linux machine which has public direct access. The following shows the list of the servers which have public direct access.
        • Department servers
        • Raymond's servers which has public direct access (e.g., rwcpu8 and rwcpu9)
      2. You can create your own files under this directory
        Note: After you upload your files or you update your files,
        please type "chmod 770" for all files and directories so that we can access your files


    2. Our research group directory (with sufficieintly large disk quota) (hosted in one of Raymond's server called "rwcpu4")
      1. You can visit our research directory with the path "/rwproject/kdd-db" under Raymond's UNIX/linux machines only
      2. You can create your own files under this directory
        Note: After you upload your files or you update your files,
        please type "chmod 770" for all files and directories so that we can access your files


  2. Our research group machines (or simply Raymond's servers)

    We have 4 non-GPU machines for our group, namely "rwcpu2", "rwcpu3", "rwcpu4" and "rwcpu5". They have no public direct access.
    We have 5 additional GPU servers, namely "rwcpu8", "rwcpu9", "rwcpu10" and "csl16". The first 4 GPU servers have public direct access and the last one has no public direct access.

    Note that all servers which have no public direct access need to use the password of Raymond's Server (given by Raymond in a separte email) for log-in
    and all servers which have public direct access need to use the CSE password for log-in.

    1. General Description
      1. These machines/servers are not accessible to all people. Thus, your jobs will be running without any disturbance.
      2. Please note that when the memory used by your program is more than the physical memory of a server, the virtual memory (i.e., HDDs) will be used by the server.
        In this case, the execution time of your program must be very long since the program tries to frequently read and/or write HDDs, which will hurt the HDDs.
        Then, the HDDs will be broken easily with this frequent access. Consequently, the server will be broken.
    2. Configuration:
      1. "rwcpu1" (Retired already due to broken equipments)

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu1" (IBM X3650 2U server) is:

        - 2xQuad Core 3GHz
        - 32GB RAM

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution
        - Software: http://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/home.php?docbase=Facilities&req_url=Facilities/intelx64linux.html

      2. "rwcpu2"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu2" (IBM X3650 2U server) is:

        - 2xQuad Core 2.26GHz
        - 32GB RAM

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution
        - Software: http://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/home.php?docbase=Facilities&req_url=Facilities/intelx64linux.html

      3. "rwcpu3"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu3" (IBM X3650 2U server) is:

        - 2xQuad Core 2.26GHz
        - 32GB RAM

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution
        - Software: http://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/home.php?docbase=Facilities&req_url=Facilities/intelx64linux.html

      4. "rwcpu4"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu4" (IBM X3650 M3 server) is:

        - 2x6-Core 2.66GHz
        - 48GB RAM

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution
        - Software: http://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/home.php?docbase=Facilities&req_url=Facilities/intelx64linux.html

      5. "rwcpu5"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu5" (IBM X3650 M3 server) is:

        - 2x6-Core 2.66GHz
        - 48GB RAM

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution
        - Software: http://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/home.php?docbase=Facilities&req_url=Facilities/intelx64linux.html


      6. "rwcpu8"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu8" (ASUS WS X299 SAGE CEB) is:

        - CPU: Intel Core i9-10920X (12 cores, 24 thres, 3.5GHz)
        - GPU: ASUS RTX2080Ti Turbo 11GD6
        - RAM: 32GB

        - OS : AlmaLinux 9 (upgraded from CentOS linux distribution)
        - Software:

        a. OpenSSH Server
        b. Unzip
        c. Tmux
        d. Git
        e. Miniconda
        ( https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/linux.html )
        f. PyTorch
        ( https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/ )

        - You could log in this machine with your CSE account.
        - Details of how to install use Miniconda and PyTorch could be found in this PDF file.
        - Cssystem also has a guideline how to use Python in our server ( https://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/UGuides/python/index.html )

        Note that rwpcu8 has a large storage at "/export/data".

      7. "rwcpu9"

        The configuration of the server with host name "rwcpu9" (Supermicro SuperServer 4029GP-TRT) is:

        - CPU: 2 x Intel Xeon Gold 5220R 2.2GHz (24c48T) processors
        - GPU:
        a. 2 x dual-slot Nvidia GeForce RTX3090 GPUs w/ 24GB memory, blower fan type
        b. 2 x Nvidia RTX 8000 w/48GB GPU (with NVLink for RTX 8000)
        c. 2 x Nvidia RTX 5000 Ada w/32GB GPU
        - RAM: 512GB (=8 x 64GB (512GB)ECC 2933MHz DDR4 RDIMM)
        - SSD: 1 x 1TB Saumsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 NVMe SSD
        - HDD: 3 x 2.5" SATA 7.2k rpm 2TB HDDs

        - OS : AlmaLinux 9 (upgraded from CentOS linux distribution)
        - Software:

        a. OpenSSH Server
        b. Unzip
        c. Tmux
        d. Git
        e. Miniconda
        ( https://conda.io/projects/conda/en/latest/user-guide/install/linux.html )
        f. PyTorch
        ( https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/ )

        - You could log in this machine with your CSE account.
        - Details of how to install use Miniconda and PyTorch could be found in this PDF file.
        - Cssystem also has a guideline how to use Python in our server ( https://cssystem.cse.ust.hk/UGuides/python/index.html )

        Note:
        a. rwcpu9 has large storage at "/data".

        b.When we need to use a specific GPU card, we have to specify a particular GPU card. You could type "nvidia-smi" to know the GPU no. of each GPU card. Then, in PyTorch, you could call "cuda:0" to use the GPU card with GPU no. 0 and could call "cuda:2" to use the GPU card with GPU no. 2. It is worth mentioning that we need to include the following line.

        os.environ["CUDA_DEVICE_ORDER"] = "PCI_BUS_ID"

        If we do not include this, PyTorch will assign another ordering of the GPU cards based on the speed of GPU card (specifically, called FASET_FIRST).

        c. The configuration of DataLoader in Pytorch is associated with the performance of CPU. It is recommended to set the hyper-parameter of "num_worker = 4 * num_GPU", where "num_GPU" is the number of GPUs the program is running on. More information can be found in https://discuss.pytorch.org/t/guidelines-for-assigning-num-workers-to-dataloader/813/4 and https://pytorch.org/docs/stable/data.html.


      8. "rwcpu10"

        - 2 x Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650 v4 (30M Cache, 2.20 GHz)
        - 512 GB (=16 x 32GB) DDR4 2400MHz RAM
        - 8 x 2TB 7.2k rpm SATA Enterprise HDD
        - Onboard Intel RST RAID supporting RAID 0,1,5,10
        - 4 x Nvidia GeForce GTX1080 8GB GDDR5X GPU (2 x Nvidia GeForce GTX1080 8GB GDDR5X GPU)
        - Dual, Redundant Power Supply TitaniumLevel, 2000W

        - OS : AlmaLinux 9 (upgraded from CentOS linux distribution)

      9. "rwcpu11" (integrated with rwcpu10 so that rwcpu10 has 4 GPU cards)

        - 2 x Intel Xeon Processor E5-2650 v4 (30M Cache, 2.20 GHz)
        - 512 GB (=16 x 32GB) DDR4 2400MHz RAM
        - 8 x 2TB 7.2k rpm SATA Enterprise HDD
        - Onboard Intel RST RAID supporting RAID 0,1,5,10
        - 3 x Nvidia GeForce GTX1080 8GB GDDR5X GPU
        - Dual, Redundant Power Supply TitaniumLevel, 2000W

        - OS : CentOS linux distribution


      10. 143.89.76.18

        The configuration of the server with host with IP address "143.89.76.18" is:

        - CPU: Ryzen 2700X (8 cores, 16 threads, 3.7GHz)
        - GPU: GTX 1070Ti 8GB x 2
        - RAM: 32GB

        - OS: Manjaro Linux
        - Software: GCC 11.1.0, Python 3.9.7, OpenSSH 8.8

        - Details of how to use this machine could be found in this PDF file.
        - Note: Before you use this GPU server, you have to send an email to Raymond (raywong@cse.ust.hk) and Qixu Chen (qchenax@connect.ust.hk) to create a local account in order to access this GPU server.

    3. How to Use those Servers
      1. For non-GPU servers, please follow the following instructions.
        • How to Log-in
          1. You should first log in "ras.cse.ust.hk" or "rwcpu8.cse.ust.hk" via SSH (e.g., type "ssh ras.cse.ust.hk" or "ssh rwcpu8.cse.ust.hk")
          2. Then, you could log in "rwcpu4.cse.ust.hk" (called the gateway server) via SSH.
          3. If it is your first time to log in "rwcpu4.cse.ust.hk", please follow the instrcution in the initial prompt just after your log-in at "rwcpu4" (e.g., entering "/usr/local/bin/setup.keyauth").
          4. After that, log in one of the following servers.
            1. rwcpu2
            2. rwcpu3
            3. rwcpu5
              (Of course, you have already logged in rwcpu4 and you do not need to re-log in rwcpu4.
              It is suggested that we should NOT use "rwcpu4" to execute time-consuming operations since "rwcpu4" is currently used as a gateway for those non-GPU servers. )
          5. Then, you could execute your program there.
        • How to Upload/Download
          1. Option 1
            1. Use "rwcpu8" for a directly sftp
          2. Option 2
            1. You could following the following URL (in Chinese) to set up the sftp upload/download.

              https://blog.csdn.net/kenhins/article/details/108669144

              The gateway is "ras.cse.ust.hk"
              and the target server is "rwcpu4.cse.ust.hk".

      2. For GPU servers, please follow the following instructions.
        • How to Log-in
          1. You should first log in the server via SSH directly (e.g., type "ssh rwcpu8.cse.ust.hk")
          2. Then, you could execute your program there.
        • How to Upload/Download
          1. Use the server for a directly sftp

    4. Some Special Roles of Some of these Servers

      1. Our Storage server
        1. You can visit the storage server of our research group set up at machine "rwcpu4" with the following steps.
          1. SSH one of Raymond's servers (e.g., "rwcpu8") (not the general CSE machine like "ras")
          2. Change the directory to "/rwproject/kdd-db"
          3. All files under this directory corresponds to the files stored at the storage server.

          4. Important note: Since storage directories (i.e, "kdd-db" and "kdd") are for storage purpose, if you do expreiments on medium-sized files (each file of size < 1GB), it is reasonable to conduct experiments on these storage directories. However, if you do experiments on large-sized files (each file of size >= 1G), you are suggested to conduct experiments on the additional HDD of server "rwcpu5" (to be described next).

      2. Our SSD Storage and Our Additional HDD
        1. In machine "rwcpu5", there is an SSD (128 GB) and HDD
        2. The SSD could be accessed via the path "/ssd"
          (Note: You could also access this SSD drive/storage in server "rwcpu4" with path "/rwcpu5/ssd".)
        3. The HDD could be accessed via the path "/data"
        4. The purpose of using SSD is to speed up your experiments since SSD could be accessed in a faster way compared with HDD.
        5. The purpose of using this additional HDD is to allow you to *avoid* accessing the storage directory (i.e., kdd and kdd-db) too much.
          If you have many experiments accessing very large files (e.g., files each with size >= 1GB), you are suggested to copy your data files from the storage directory to this HDD. After you finalize all your experiments, please copy back all data and result files back to the storage directory.

      3. Our Web server
        1. You can visit the web server at this link.
        2. All files in this web server could be found in our project directory "/project/kdd/public_html"

      4. Our GitLab server
        1. You can visit the GitLab server of our research group set up at machine "rwcpu4" via this link.
        2. The instruction could be found at this link.

  3. Resources Available Outside Our Research Group

    1. In our CSE department, there is another server called "COMPUTE" with a lot of resources (e.g., many GPU cards and a large memory size).
      You could use it.
      Details could be found in this link.

    2. In our CSE department, there is another server called "TACC" with a lot of resources (e.g., many GPU cards and a large memory size).
      You could apply for it.
      Details could be found in this link.

    3. In our university, there are other servers called "hpc" servers hosted at ITSC with some resources (e.g., some GPU cards and some memory).
      You could also apply for it.
      Details could be found in this link.

    4. In our university, we are given a "free" pilot run from Feb 2024 to Jun 2024 to use a power GPU server (HKUST SuperPOD). More details could be found in this link.
      We are given with one node (with 8 GPU Cards). The storage given to us is shown as follows.
      • Personal Area (for Raymond) (200 GB)
      • Project Team Share (5 TB)
      • Project Scratch Storage (5 TB)
      How to use this server could be found in the above link.

      The following shows the detailed description in an email sent from ITSC.


      Dear all, 

      HKUST SuperPOD accounts have been created for all members of your research team.  You can now access the system using your own ITSC accounts.  Please use superpod.ust.hk as the hostname to log in. 

      Your project has been granted the following resources:  

      • Up to 1 DGX node (8 GPU cards) for 6 months 
      • Project Team Share – 5 TB 
      • Project Scratch Storage – 5 TB 
      • Personal Area - 200GB 

      Your project “Harnessing the power of Large Language Models for Data Visualization” is assigned with the project name llmdatav which is both a UNIX group name and a Slurm accounting parameter.  Please note that this is a project-based account, and the computational resources allocated are shared among the group members, and the utilization of HKUST SuperPOD is strictly limited to HKUST-affiliated research and projects exclusively 

      If there are new members (not in the recipient list of this email) who need to access the system, please let us know. 

      Please refer to the following website for details on how to access the system and available resources.    
      https://itsc.hkust.edu.hk/services/academic-teaching-support/high-performance-computing/superpod 

      If you have any questions, please email to spodsupport@ust.hk . 

       
      Regards, 

      HKUST SuperPOD Operation Team 

How to Write a Review Report

(Important: Please write in your own words.)

The first paragraph : summarize the major ideas/contributions
of the paper
The second paragraph: Justification for Decision
The third paragraph: ask for clarifications
...
The next paragraph : disadvantage of the proposed ideas/paper
...
Last paragraph : typos/grammatical mistakes

[Please write in plain texts since usually, we fill in a web form which accepts plan texts only.]

Note: Please remember to write this service in your CV as a contribution to the research community so that you will not forget your contribution in the future. It is important to write it down in your CV if you go for academic in the future. Reviewing papers can improve your research skill by judging something bad and something good.

How to Write a Readme for Coding

There are two ways of preparing the readme for coding.

  1. The first way is to prepare all materials of the code in a single zipped file.

    The requirement of writing a readme for coding is shown as follows.

    1. When a reader reads your paper, he understands your paper.
    2. He wants to use your coding by reading your "readme" file *only*.
    3. He can create all configure files and all input files by himself *without* reading your program/your input files.

    Please also include the sample of input files and configure files for the coding so that the reader can have some concrete file for trial runs.

    An example can be found in the following paper.

    Raymond Chi-Wing Wong, M. Tamer Ozsu, Philip S. Yu, Ada Wai-Chee Fu and Lian Liu
    "Efficient Method for Maximizing Bichromatic Reverse Nearest Neighbor",
    the 35th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB'09), Lyon, France on 24-28 Aug, 2009
    (code)
     

  2. The second way is to prepare all materials of the code in a public coding repository like GitHub.

    The guideline for the previous way is still applied to this way.
    But, all materails should be uploaded to the public coding repository.

    An example coudl be found in the following paper.

    Weicheng Wang, Raymond Chi-Wing Wong and Min Xie,
    "Interactive Search for One of the Top-k",
    the 2021 ACM Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), Xi'an, Shaanxi, China on 20-25 June, 2021
    (GitHub link)

How to Prepare a Paper for Submission


In order to submit a "high-quality" paper, I need you to write a complete paper (without experiments/implementations) one month before the *real* deadline. For example, if the deadline of KDD is 2 Feb, 2010. I would like to have the draft complete (without experiments/implementations) on 2 Jan, 2010.
(NOTE: This one-month period for the earlier draft can be shortened if your draft achieves a high standard for publication. Usually, well-experienced students and excellent students can make this period shorter.)

This can also be applied on VLDB where you should complete your draft on 9 Feb, 2010. Same principles are still applied on the journal submission.

This is because I need time to polish your paper to a high-quality standard paper. Currently, you still need some trainings on this issue (according to what I read from your writings before). Don't think that I can be a "full-time" on your single paper only. I may need to handle multiple papers of the other students simultaneously. At the same time, I also have other tasks to be done.
The best strategy for you is to come up with your finalized idea with me ASAP and finish your drafts ASAP such that I can spend more time on your paper. If finally I think that your paper cannot meet the standard, I prefer you not to submit your paper for the current conference (because the paper will probably be rejected) and suggest that you should submit it to the next conference.

Of course, before you start to write a draft, your idea has been discussed with me and I have agreed on the discussed idea which can be published in a top conference.

Lastly, note that a paper which has good technical materials but has "bad" writings is *hardly* accepted. Training on writing needs a lot of time. It is just like learning a new language. Different people have different learning speeds. I hope that you know how to do it before you graduate (esp, PhD students with longer training time).

Similarity Check: Note that you should better check the similarity of your submission with some existing papers before your real submission. The following shows how you could do that.
========================
You could check the similarity score of your paper/report in a system called "iThenticate" via link ( https://app.ithenticate.com/en_us/login ).

You could apply for the iThenticate system with their UST account.
Note that iThenticate is used for originality checking for Thesis Submission, only eligible for active RPg students approaching graduation [MPhil students (year 2 or above), PhD students (year 3 with a relevant research postgraduate degree earned prior to entering the PhD program) and PhD students (year 4 or above)], who should fulfil coursework requirement and in the final stage of Thesis preparation.

If you do wish to apply for an account, please kindly seek endorsement (by email) from your thesis supervisor (i.e., Raymond) and department for FYTGS's approval.

Then, you could activate your account by sending an email to pgsec@ust.hk . After your activation, you could upload your paper/report (in PDF) to check the similarity with existing papers.

========================

How to Prepare a Response for Revised Submission


In some conferences, you may receive a request to revise the paper for re-submission so that the revised paper will be re-considered.

You could use the following template to start with. Please keep it confidentia.

 

How to Prepare Your (Proposal/Final) Defense and PQE


When you prepare for your (proposal/final) defense and PQE, there are the following 3 tasks.
Task 1. Writing Thesis/Report
Task 2. Arranging an oral presentation with Committee Members
Task 3. Conducting an oral presentation

Task 1. Writing Thesis/Report

You could find the thesis template of my previous PhD student, Yu PENG, for your reference.

Besides, you could find a template provided by a student in GitHub as follows.

The following shows a sample of the 3 important reports during the PhD life of my previous PhD student, Cheng LONG, for your reference.
Note: Staring from 3 Feb, 2025, the thesis should have the following requirement. Thus, the above sample/template obtained before 3 Feb, 2025 may not satisfy this requirement. Please follow the following requirement.

Task 2. Arranging an oral presentation with Committee Members

  1. Discuss with Raymond whether you could go for an oral presentation.
  2. If yes, please propose 8-10 time slots for an oral presentaiton to Raymond so that Raymond will be free in all the time slots.
    Please discuss with Raymond for the examiners in the oral presentation.

    Note: In the proposal defense and PQE (for PhD students), there are 3 other internal examiners (which could be 3 CSE professors).
    In the defense (for PhD students), there are 3 other internal examiners (which could be 2 CSE professors and 1 non-CSE professors) and 1 external examiner (which could be a non-UST professor) together with a chair (which will be assigned by the university).

  3. Write an email draft about the inviation email to each internal CSE examiner and give Raymond to take a look first.
    One sample of the final defense is
    -------------------------------------------
    Subject: Invitation of Examiner of Defense

    Dear XXX,

      I am writing to invite you to be one of the committee members of my defense. The title of my defense is "XXXX".
    I am YYY, one of the PhD students of Prof. Raymond WONG.

      It would be my great honor to have you as one of the committee members of my defense.
    If you accept my invitation, could you indicate your available time slots according to the following list of time slots?

    1. 12 May, 2022 (10am-12 noon)
    2. 12 May, 2022 (2pm-4pm)
    3. 12 May, 2022 (4pm-6pm)
    4. 13 May, 2022 (10am-12 noon)
    5. 13 May, 2022 (2pm-4pm)
    6. 13 May, 2022 (4pm-6pm)
    7. 16 May, 2022 (10am-12 noon)
    8. 16 May, 2022 (2pm-4pm)
    9. 16 May, 2022 (4pm-6pm)

      Looking forward to hearing from your positive reply!

    Regards,
    YYY
    -------------------------------------------

  4. After my confirmation on your email draft, you could send an email to each internal examiner and CC me.

    Please reserve 2 additional weeks before the last day of the submission of the oral presentation arrangement.
    For example, if the submission of the oral presentation arrangement is 6 weeks before the oral presentation, please send the email to professors involved 8 weeks before the oral presetation (including the 2 additional weeks for the professors to reply).

    (Note: Due to the difficulty of communicating with a non-CSE professor and an extneral professor, you are NOT required to send this email. Instead, I will do that for you.)
  5. After you receive all email replies from those professors, just consolidate the combined available time slots.
    Discuss with Raymond to select the final time slot.
  6. After we finalize the time slot, you could confirm with all internal (CSE) examiners via email.
  7. Then, arrange this oral presentation with the CSE admin staff (i.e., Isaac).

Task 3. Conducting an oral presentation

  1. In the CSE department, it is a common practice that a student will prepare one bottle of water (about 500ml) for each committee member who will attend the oral presentation. Please purchase them before the presentation and bring them to the presentation.

    Some students will prepare some snacks (e.g., chocholate, chips, biscuits and coffee) for the presentation. This is also a common practice in another department (e.g., ECE). It is optional. Raymond recommended that there is no need to prepare for snacks because our CSE professors usually do not take them.

  2. [Optional] Some students will print some handouts (i.e., hardcopies) about the slides and will bring them to the presentation. Raymond's recommendatin is up to the student's decision. There is a pro/con. The pro is that some professors really want to have some handouts and they will really ask whether there are some handouts. The con is that if your slides are not good, professors could stick to those slides and could ask a lot of questions to challenge the students.

  3. Since the "main" person of the oral presentation is you, please go to the presentation venue earlier. It is suggested that you should come to the venue at least 10 minutes earlier. You have to set up the computer and the projector. Then, you could have time to open your PPT slides and could have time to distribute the materails (e.g., bottles of water and handouts (if any)).

  4. Usuallly, the presentation consists of the following parts.
    1. Public Presentation from Student
      (Usually, it lasts for 30 minutes for the PQE exam.
      It lasts for at most 45 minutes for the PhD proposal defense.
      It lasts for at most 1 hour for the PhD final these defense.)
    2. Public Q&A session
      (Public audience and committee members could ask questions during this public Q&Asession.)
    3. Closed Q&A session
      (Public audience will leave the presenation. Only committee members could ask questions to the student during this closed Q&A session.)
    4. Closed Private Discussion session
      (The student should be asked to leave the venue but s/he will stay near to the entrance of the venue to wait for the final discussion result from committee members.
      In the closed private discussion session, committee members will discuss the performance privately without the presence of the student.
      After the discussion, the chair of the committee will invite the student back to the venue to announce the result.
      There are the following results: (1) Pass, (2) Pass with Minor Revision, (3) Pass with Major Revision and (4) Fail.
      In CSE, usually, students obtain "Pass with Minor Revision".
      After the announcement of the result, usually, the suprvisor will stay in the venue to discuss the details about the result (e.g., revision details) for submission.)

Conference Trip Application

Before Conference

  1. Apply for the leave letter from our department
    1. Obtain the quotation (or price) of an air ticket from Hong Kong to the conference venue. You can obtain the quotation in one of the following ways.
      1. Method 1 (Email Contact with a staff in a travel agency called "Lotus"):
        1. send an email to Elaine Luk ( elaine.ck.luk@lotusint.com.hk ) and ask her to obtain the quotation of an air ticket.
        2. please provide the following information to her when you send an email to her and please also mention that you are a UST member (for a discounted price)
          • Departure Date
          • Return Date
          • Source City (Hong Kong)
          • Destination City (Conference Venue)
      2. Method 2 (Online Webpage): You can obtain the quotation from some online websites. You can choose one of the following websites to obtain the quotation.
        1. Airline Company Website (You can discuss with Raymond for this).
        2. Trip.com
        3. Hutchgo.com.hk
      3. It is suggested that you choose the most expensive quotation to apply for the travel grant (which will be discussed next).
      4. After you select this expensive quotation, please print it in the PDF file (which will be used in the travel grant application).
      5. But, when you buy the air ticket, you can choose the most reasonable quotation for purchase.
    2. Obtain the travel grant application form from http://rtg.ust.hk/
    3. Fill in the application form online
    4. Submit the online form. (Note: After the submission, Raymond will sign "electronically" with his comment and our Department Head will also sign "electronically").
  2. Register for the conference for your accepted paper
    1. If you apply for some conference student travel award, when you obtain the award, usually, your registration rate could be waived.
      But, it depends on the policy of the conference organizers. Some organizers do not waive your registration even if you obtain the award.
    2. Visit the registration page of the conference
      If the paper is accepted in a conference, we need to register to attend the conference.
      This registration is associated with your accepted paper. Usually, in the registration page, we need to fill in your paper information (e.g., paper ID and paper title).
    3. Usually, the page shows a list of different options for registration. Some examples are
      • regular non-member registration
      • regular member registration
      • student non-member registration
      • student member registration
    4. Check carefully whether the paper registration must come with the *regular* member/non-member registration .
      If a student non-member/member registration (usually cheaper) is allowed, please use this registration method.
    5. When we go for a registration, please check the following options to see which option is the cheapest.
      (Note: The following shows the student status only. It could also be applied to the regular registration status).
      1. Option 1: the cost for student non-member registration
      2. Option 2: the cost for student member registration + the cost for becoming a member
      Usually, Option 2 is cheaper.
      We will go for the cheaper option.
      When we do the reimbursement, please provide a document showing the above calculations for Option 1 and Option 2.
      Then, this could help to justify that we will go for Option 2. Please keep all receipts and the banking/credit card statements for all expenses.
  3. Apply for Visa of the country you will go
    1. Prepare the following before you go to the consulate of the country
      1. your bank account statement
      2. the conference webpage showing the conference period and the conference venue
      3. the paper acceptance letter or email
      4. the "official" invitation letter issued by the conference organizer (usually, in a PDF file (and/or a physical mail) with a letter head and a signature) (you need to ask for the conference organizer)
      5. the exact roundtrip air ticket for your trip (Note: you can print an air flight schedule (called flight itinerary) between Hong Kong and the destination even if you haven't bought bought air tickets.)
      6. the hotel you plan to accomodate (Note: you can print a hotel at the destination even if you haven't booked any hotel. Besides, some hotels could be booked in advance with FREE cancellation fee).
      7. the whole itinerary of the whole trip (which place you will visit during the trip per day)
      8. *both* your current passport and your previous passport(s) (if any)
      9. your CV (including the publication list and projects)
      10. your paper to be presented
      11. the photo for the consulate
      12. the Call For Paper of the conference
      13. the contact information of conference organizers
      14. the request form for leave (within UST CSE) called "Absence-from-Hong Kong Form" (which will be used in CSE to record your leave)
        https://cse.hkust.edu.hk/pg/forms/absence_from_hk.pdf
      15. the request from for leave (within UST) called "Travel Outside Hong Kong Application Form" (which will be used for reimbursement)
        (Note: You just need to fill in Item 1, Item 2 and Item 3 for Part I. In Item 1, there is a field called "Staff No.". You just need to write down your student ID.)
        https://fo.hkust.edu.hk/sites/default/files/fo-files/fo-forms/FOF139_95_11.pdf
      16. the letter issued by Raymond (or our CSE department) stating that you will return
      17. Testimonial (from UST) (showing your study status and your expected graduation date)
      18. Prepare for the following answers before you go to the consulalte (esp, the US consulate)
        • A list of countries traveled in the past 15 years
        • All current and previous addresses
        • All email addresses in the past 5 years
        • All social media account in the past 5 years (e.g. Facebook)
      19. other necessary materials
        • the visa application form
        • the receipt of the application form payment
    2. Make a reservation for an interview in the consulate via the online webpage
  4. Prepare Name Cards for you (optional)
    1. If you want that somebody you will meet during the conference can remember you,
      you can prepare some name cards for you
    2. You can make it via this link.
  5. Apply for a Roaming Service for your mobile phone (optional)
    1. You may want to make phone calls and receive some calls abroad (during conference). Then, you can apply for a roaming service.
    2. Go to the phone service provider to apply for an international roaming service.
    3. Usually, the application is free of charge. The fee will be charged when you use the service abroad.
  6. Obtain money in a foreign currency
    1. You need to exchange some cash for transportation fares and meals
    2. You can do a foreign exchange in Hang Seng Bank.
    3. In fact, some foreign countries like US, Canada and Europe accept Credit Card. But, the exchange rate for Credit Card is higher than a normal cash exchange rate.
  7. Prepare a laptop for conference
    1. Some conference organizers may provide a desktop or a laptop for presentation.
    2. In case that there are no desktops and laptops provided, please prepare a laptop for the trip

During Conference

  1. Please collect the following during the trip
    1. boarding passes (for flight)
    2. the receipt for the conference registration
    3. the receipt of hotel accommodation

After Conference

  1. Please write a conference report and hand in the report to OCGA and the Head of our department. The suggested format can be found as follows.


    First Paragraph
    ===============
    - Purpose of this trip (e.g., present a paper)
    - What conference you attended
    - The conference period
    - The conference venue
    - Title of your paper
    - Authors of the paper

    Second Paragraph
    ===============
    - What date and what time you leave HK
    - What date and what time you arrive at the airport (or the conference venue)
    - What transportation means you use from HK to the airport (for the conference venue)
    - What transportation means you use from the airport to the conference venue

    Third Paragraph
    ===============
    - The description of what you did on the first day

    Fourth Paragraph
    ===============
    - The description of what you did on the second day

    ...

    Second-to-Last paragraph
    =========================
    - The description of what you did on the last day

    Last paragraph
    ==============
    - What date and what time you leave the conference venue
    - What date and what time you arrive at HK
    - What transportation means you use from the conference venue to the airport (for the conference venue)
    - What transportation means you use from the airport (for the conference venue) to HK
     
  2. Please reimburse your expenses within 2 months from the proposed travel start date
  3. Please also collect the statement of your Credit Card showing the amount you paid in HK dollars for some items
    For example, the conference registration fee is shown in some foreign dollars (e.g., USD).
    It is better to claim with the statement by showing the exact amount (in HK dollars) you paid.

Poster Preparation

You could prepare your poster (in PPT file) according to the dimension given from the conference. Different conferences have different requirements on the dimension.
  1. Firstly, prepare a PPT file for the oral presentation.
  2. Secondly, extract the most important parts from the oral presentation slides for this poster preparation. There are two alternatives for the poster preparation.
    1. Alternative 1: Calculate the total number of A4-sized sheeets needed for the poster dimension. Then, extract this number of the slides from the oral presentation slides (possibly with some slide modifications) for the poster preparation. In the conference, you just need to print the colorful sheets and bring them to the conference. For this alernative, it is easy to carry since all printed copies are just A4-sized sheets.
    2. Alernative 2: Prepare a single PPT file with the dimension size consistent with the required dimension. In this PPT file, please include the following.
      1. The title of the paper
      2. The paper ID (if any)
      3. The author list (including the names and the affiliation of all authors)
      Usually, the poster has this format. It is like the first page of our conference two-column paper.
      The first part is the paper information (which is described above). This is just placed in the header row.
      The second part and the third part occupy the space under the header row. This space is partitioned vertically such that there is a left column (for the second part) and a right column (for the third part).
      Then, you just fill in the slide contents one-by-one in the left column and the right column until all of the contents are filled.
      There is a link showing a sample of a poster.
      https://ecologyforlifeblog.wordpress.com/2018/07/31/how-to-design-a-conference-poster/

      For your reference, you could see some samples of the posters done by some previous students as follows.
      1. Poster (Multiple A4-sized Pages)
      2. Poster (One Large Page)

You could print the poster in one of the following ways.
  1. Paper Poster
    You could print it in PTC of UST. Please go to PTC for printing.
  2. Fabric Poster
    You cold print it in the Taobao link (here). Please choose "白画布" (i.e., white canvas) (for the material to be printed).
    (Note: The current Taobao link does not show "白画布" but we could chat with the staff in the chatbox to request for it. We did that before before we order it.)

Since Fabric Poster could be folded easily, it is easily carried.
I suggest that you could choose the Fabric poster.

How to Do Reimbursement

Usually, the reimbursement process from the student's side involves the following steps.
  1. Before you submit an online form for reimbursement, please send an email to Raymond together with your electronic receipts for the funding source of the reimbursement.You could ask with the following details.

    ================
    Project No.: XXXX
    Project ID: XXX
    Budget Item: XXXXX
    Reimbursement Amount: HKD XXXX

    Reimbursed Items:
    a. XXX (HKD XXX) (USD XXXX (Original Currency))
    b. XXX (HKD XXX) (USD XXXX (Original Currency))
    ...
    ================

  2. Submt an online form (including the details of the reimburesment and the receipts of the reimbursement) via the link.
    In the form, you could include the funding source information in "Remark".

  3. After you submit the form, send an email to Isaac and me after you submit the form so that Isaac will follow up with your reimbursement.

Research Visit Trip Application

The following shows the steps of applying a research visit.

  1. Firstly, you should discuss with Raymond for the research visit details.
    1. The professor in the visit
    2. The visiting period
  2. Secondly, Raymond will send an invitation to the professor to see whether the professor will host your research visit.
    If the professor is fine with the visit, please continue the following steps.
  3. Thirdly, you should obtain an official inivtation email from the professor which includes the following.
    1. the professor name
    2. the univeristy in the visit
    3. the city and country of the university
    4. the visiting period
    5. the purpose of the visit (e.g., research collaboration with a professor)
  4. Fourthly, you should obtain an email from Raymond which includes the following.
    1. your visit details (professor name, univeristy, city/country, visiting period and the purpose of the visit)
    2. you are still a PG student of HKUST during the visit
    3. you will come back to Hong Kong after the visit
    4. you will still have financial funding support from UST
  5. You should apply for a testimonial from ARO showing your student status and your PG studentship status.
  6. You should approach Connie (in CSE admin staff) to officially apply for the research visit.
    You need to fill in some forms with Raymond's signature.
  7. You should also apply for Oversea Research Award in UST.
  8. Then, you should go to the consulate of the country to obtain a visa.
    Please see the details about how to apply for a visa and other details (e.g., roaming service) under "Conference Trip Application".

    If you go to US, there are different types of visas. One is B1/B2 (business and travel). Another type is J1 visa.
    You could discuss more with Raymond which visa you need to apply for.
    But, if you apply for some specific types of a J1 visa, please take note that you may not be allowed to work (e.g., PostDoc) in US after your PhD graduation.
    This link shows the details of different specific types of J1 visa.
    This link shows the details of the 212 policy (which is related to J1 visa).

Note: For students who will go on exchange study and take part in activities or internships organized and arranged by the University outside Hong Kong, they will be covered by the University's travel insurance plan. Please visit here for details. In case you wish to have additional insurance protection, you may consider the optional travel insurance plan on voluntary basis.

How to Go to the Airport

There are at least four ways to go from HKUST to the airport.

If you want to save money and have the least number of transportation transfers, you can choose Method 3.

No. Travel Method Amount Duration
1 Taxi HK$380 45 mins
2 Taxi and Airport Express

Taxi (HKUST to Kowloon Station)
Airport Express (Kowloon Station to Airport)


HK$80
HK$90


20 mins
1
8 mins
3 Bus

Bus (792M) (HKUST to Tseung Kwan O MTR Station)
Bus (E22A) (Tseng Kwan O MTR Station to Airport)


HK$4.8
HK$24


20 mins
1 hr
4 MTR and Bus/Minibus

Bus (91M) or Minibus (11,11M) (HKUST to Choi Hung Station)
MTR (Choi Hung Station to Tung Chung Station)
Bus (S1) (Tung Chung MTR Station to Airport)


Bus$4.9/Minibus$5.5.

HK$20
$3.5



15 mins
45 mins
15 mins

 

Health-Related Issue

HKUST provides free medical (simple) diagnosis and (simple) medicine to you.
The details can be found at this link.

But, the HKUST medical service operates during the daytime of weekdays.
If you need to see a medical doctor during weekends or at night, you have to go outside for diagnosis.
There are at least four ways for that.

  1. Public Clinic

    I suggest that you should go to public clinic if your disease is not serious (e.g., cold and flu).
     
  2. Public Emergency in Public Hospital

    I suggest that you should go to public emergency in public hospital if your disease is serious (e.g., serious burn).
    In Hong Kong, a public hospital provides some services.
    One of the services is the "emergency" service (
    急症室). If your disease is serious, the medical doctors will treat you immediately.
    Otherwise, you will be treated very slowly. Usually, you will have to wait for at least 4  hours to see the medical doctors.
     
  3. Private Clinic

    I suggest that you should go there if you are rich. Usually, it costs about HK$200.
    You can see a lot of private clinics when you walk outside. Usually, every "estate" (or "village") has at least one private clinic.
     
  4. Private Hospital

    I suggest that you should not go there. This is because if your disease is serious, you can go to the public hospital.
    The health service in the public Hong Kong hospital is already good enough. There is no need to go to private hospitals.
    But, if you are rich, you can consider going private hospitals.

 






Out-time Student Financail Support Issue

 

   You can submit the continuing student form as full-time.
Due to the funding restriction of the out-time student issue,
you will be employed as a part-time RA in the coming year.
You will not be given any studentship in the coming year.

  Firstly, I want to highlight 2 points for you.
-------------------------------------
1. I can save some money from my funding (due to the lower intuition fee)
2. You can earn some money (a little bit more) overall (due to the lower intuition fee)

Note that the monthly salary rate *shown* in the coming year
is lower than what you obtained in the previous year
but what you will obtain finally in the coming year
is more than what you obtained in the previous year
------------------------------------- 

  The detailed explanations can be found as follows.

A. What you obtained in the previous year
B. What you obtained in the coming year
C. Summary

A. What you obtained in the previous year
-----------------------------------------
1. Your monthly studentship is $14,490 per month.
   The total income is $14,490x12 = $173,880.
2. Your intuition fee is $42,100 per yaer
3. There are no tax and no MPF.
   (Note: MPF is a HK policy for retirement. Under this MPF scheme,
    some amount of your salary will be transferred to this scheme and
    at the same time, I will transfer an additional amount of money to this scheme.
    The money in the MPF account/scheme can be obtained when you retire or when you
    leave HK *permanently*.)

4. The net income is $173,880 - $42,100 = $131,780


B. What you obtained in the coming year
---------------------------------------
1. Your monthly salary (not studentship) is $12,950 $12,700 per month.
   (This amount is the greatest amount we can give as part-time suggested by UST PG Office.)
   You will be entitled with a "part-time RA" with salary which means that
   there is a tax for you.
   The total income is $12,950x12 = $155,400 $12,700x12 = $152,400.
2. Your intuition fee is $10,530 per year.
3. There are tax and MPF.
   a. For tax,
      I have used the following tax calculation site to compute the tax for your case.
      http://www.ird.gov.hk/eng/ese/st_comp_2014_15/stcfrm.htm
      Your total income is $155,400 $152,400. According to this site,
      the tax you will give is $708 $648 (if you are still single. :) ).
   b. For MPF,
      in your case, 5% of your income will be deducted and will be transferred to you MPF account.
      (I will also need to give 5% of your income to your MPF account directly).
      Thus, the MPF money you will give is $155,400x5% = $7,770 $152,400x5% = $7,620.

      Besides, your MPF account will have $7,770 $7,620 (given by you) and $7,770 $7,620 (given by me). But, you will obtain this when you want to terminate the MPF scheme (e.g., retirement).

4. The net income is $155,400 - $10,530 - $708 - $7,770 = $136,392. $152,400 - $10,530 - $648 - $7,620 = $133,602

C. Summary
----------

1. In the previous year, you obtained $131,780
2. In the coming year, you will obtain $136,392 $133,602
3. You can get $136,392-$131,780 = $4,612 $133,602-$131,780 = $1822 extra in your bank account.
4. Besides, you will obtain the MPF amount of $7,770 + $7,770 = $15,540 $7,620 + $7,620 = $15,240
   in your MPF account (which can be obtained when you want to terminate the MPF
   scheme).
5. You can view that you obtain $4,612+$15,540 = $20,152 $1822+$15240 = $17,062 extra finally.

For your reference, note that at my side, in addition to your salary,
I have to give the 5% MPF amount and your medical insurance ($500).

D. Documents
------------
You have to hand in the following to me.
1. A copy of No-Objection-Letter (NoL) (issued by the Immigrant Department)
(A sample of the NoL which is one of my previous students can be found in this link. Please keep it confidential).
2. A copy of passport/travel document with a valid visa to stay in Hong Kong.
3. Your CV