HKUST Opens Multimedia Technology Research Center


	From left, Prof Ming Lei Liou, President Woo, Prof Ahmad, Prof Otto Lin and Mr Francis Ho unveil the commemorative plaque at the ceremony.

The Multimedia Technology Research Center (MTrec) formally opened today at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) with the mission to develop and commercialize multimedia technologies, and to collaborate with local and international industrial partners.

Mr Francis Ho, Director-General of Industry of the HKSAR Government, was the Guest of Honor at the ceremony. He was joined by Prof Chia-Wei Woo, President of HKUST, Prof Otto Lin, the University's Vice-President for Research and Development, and Prof Ishfaq Ahmad, MTrec's Director.

The Center has been established to conduct leading-edge research and development activities into audio-visual technologies, to engage in the transfer of advanced technologies to industries in Hong Kong and overseas, and to act as an advanced training laboratory for students and engineers.

The Center has successfully developed advanced multimedia technologies, notably MPEG-2 (the standard for DVDs and digital TVs) and MPEG-4 (the standard for multimedia on the web) technologies, which can be applied in audio-visual products such as encoders, video-phones, video conferencing systems, multimedia players, multimedia emails, and web page creation tools, etc. These new products will help enhance the competitiveness of the computer, entertainment, consumer electronics, and telecommunications industries and eventually, improve the quality of life of the general public in many different ways.

"As Hong Kong progresses to a new level in the hi-tech era, we now invite academic and industrial partners to join hands with us to build up Hong Kong as a knowledge- and technology-based society," said Prof Ahmad.

The Center has received research grants amounting to over HK$20 million from the government and, funding agencies, as well as from local, Mainland and international industrial partners. Its major sponsors are the Industry Department, the Research Grants Council, and the Hongkong Telecom Institute of Information Technology housed at HKUST.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Jacky Tsang of the Office of University Development and Public Affairs on 2358-6306, or email pamedia@ust.hk. More information of MTrec is available at http://www.cs.ust.hk/mtrec/.