Wei Shyy JP (Chinese: 史維; pinyin: Shǐ Wéi; Wade–Giles: Shih Wei) is a Taiwanese aerospace engineer who served as the 4th President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) from 2018 to 2022 with his acting presidency starting from 1 February 2018.[3] He also holds a concurrent appointment as Chair Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He first joined HKUST in August 2010 as Provost.[4]

Wei Shyy
史維
4th President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
In office
1 September 2018 – 18 October 2022
Acting: 1 February 2018 – 31 August 2018
ChancellorCarrie Lam
John Lee
ProvostHimself (during acting presidency)
Lionel Ni
Preceded byTony F. Chan
Succeeded byNancy Ip
Executive Vice-President and Provost of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Provost (2010 – 2013)
In office
1 September 2010 – 31 August 2018
PresidentTony F. Chan
ChancellorLeung Chun-ying
Carrie Lam
Preceded byRoland Chin[a]
Succeeded byLionel Ni (designate)[b]
Personal details
Born (1955-07-19) 19 July 1955 (age 69)
Hsinchu, Taiwan
CitizenshipUnited States[2]
ResidenceHong Kong
Education
Scientific career
FieldsAerospace engineering
Institutions
ThesisAnalysis of hydrocarbon emissions from conventional spark-ignition engines (1982)
Doctoral advisorThomas Charles Adamson
Doctoral studentsMarianne Francois

Education and early life

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Born and raised in Taiwan, Shyy received his Bachelor of Science from National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan in 1977 and then went to the United States in 1979 to study at the University of Michigan where he received a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering in 1981.[5] He later received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1982.[6] He was subsequently employed by the University of Florida and GE Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York.[7]

Academic career

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Shyy was Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson Collegiate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Michigan.[8] In August 2010 he joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as Provost. In 2013 he additionally became Executive Vice-President at HKUST. He was appointed the fourth President of HKUST in September 2018, succeeding Tony F. Chan.[4]

In November 2021, Shyy announced that he would depart from his position with effect from October 2022, almost a year before the end of his five-year term. Shyy gave no reason for his early departure.[9]

While the societal challenges in Hong Kong were escalating to an unprecedented level in July 2019, he called for the underlying root cause of the society's reaction to the extradition bill to be identified and addressed.[10][11]

On 8 November 2019, during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, Shyy was presiding over a graduation ceremony when he was notified of the death of Chow Tsz-lok, a HKUST student. He paused the ceremony for a period of silent mourning. Later he called for an independent enquiry into the death. Shyy was one of three university heads in Hong Kong who did not express support for the imposition of the national security law, telling reporters that as it had already become law, he had "no need" to support it.[12]

A signature view he promoted while presiding HKUST was to commit the university to addressing grand societal challenges. When COVID’s damaging impact was globally spreading in 2020, he promoted the university’s role to help find solutions in broad areas.[13] In the context of sustainability and global warming, he was an early advocate to treat university as a living laboratory, to experiment, assess and test lab-based invention and solutions. If/when successful, these innovations can be scaled up to address society-wide needs.[14] A key cornerstone for making such efforts successful is to develop system-wide, versus locally customized, cross-disciplinary pursuits. This view was a defining priority when HKUST (Guangzhou) was envisioned.[15]

Research

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Shyy has made substantial contributions to air and space flight vehicle research and development, fluid machinery design optimization, and computational methods for complex unsteady flows. His work in flapping wing aerodynamics, surrogate-based optimization for space propulsion components and battery technologies, computational modeling for gas turbine combustor flows, cavitating and multiphase dynamics, power generation devices, biomechanical systems, and high performance materials processing are internationally recognized.

He and his collaborators were the first to:

  • Identify the main sources of hydrocarbon emissions from spark-ignition internal combustion engines;[16]
  • Compute gas-turbine combustor flows for GE using 3-D Navier-Stokes equations on body-fitted meshes;[17][18]
  • Recognize and propose to adopt structural flexibility for micro air vehicles;[19][20] and
  • Offer an analytical framework to model the characteristics of glow discharge type of plasma actuator.[21]

In addition, research by him and his collaborators has offered

  • original insight into low Reynolds number aerodynamics for small scale flight vehicles and Mars helicopter blades (due to Mars' low density atmosphere)[20][22]
  • comprehensive framework and tools for surrogate model-based data analytics and optimization techniques using artificial neural network, statistical techniques and diver sources of data input[23][24][25]

Professional services

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His professional views have been quoted in various news media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, the USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Scientist and the U.S. News & World Report. He also contributed multiple articles to the World Economic Forum.[26]

He is the author or a co-author of five books and numerous journal and conference articles dealing with computational and modeling techniques involving fluid flow, biological and low Reynolds number aerodynamics, combustion and propulsion, and a broad range of topics related to aerial and space flight vehicles. He is General Editor of the Cambridge Aerospace Book Series published by the Cambridge University Press, Co-Editor-in Chief of Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, a major reference work published by Wiley-Blackwell.[27] His photos on birds and insects in motion have been collected as books, entitled Flight InSight and Flapping.

Awards and honors

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ Chin took the office as Vice-President for Academic Affairs (Deputy to the President).[1]
  2. ^ The Office of the Executive Vice-President and Provost has been renamed as Office of the Provost since September 1, 2018.

References

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  1. ^ "HKUST Appoints Prof Roland Chin as Deputy to the President". HKUST. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
  2. ^ "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). HKUST. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  3. ^ "HKUST Appoints Prof Wei Shyy as Fourth President". HKUST. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  4. ^ a b "HKUST Appoints Prof Wei Shyy as Fourth President". 18 January 2018.
  5. ^ Lai, Catherine (19 January 2018). "Incoming HKUST chief Wei Shyy says he will continue university's stance on Hong Kong independence". Hong Kong Free Press.
  6. ^ Shyy, Wei (1982). Analysis of hydrocarbon emissions from conventional spark-ignition engines (Ph.D.). University of Michigan. OCLC 35386273 – via ProQuest.
  7. ^ "Wei Shyy". HKUST. n.d. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  8. ^ Chiu, Peace (15 January 2018). "Veteran aerospace engineer Wei Shyy preferred candidate for top job at HKUST". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  9. ^ "President Wei SHYY to Step Down from His Position in October 2022". 9 November 2021.
  10. ^ "【立法會衝擊】科大校長史維:譴責暴力同時 更要討論問題根源". 2 July 2019.
  11. ^ "Protesters who stormed Hong Kong's legislature condemned". 3 July 2019.
  12. ^ Shum, Yin Hang (9 November 2021). "University chief who called for enquiry into Hong Kong student's death to step down". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  13. ^ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/how-can-universities-fight-coronavirus/ [bare URL]
  14. ^ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/universities-sustainability-hong-kong/ [bare URL]
  15. ^ "視頻-凤凰秀".
  16. ^ Shyy, W., and Adamson, T.C. Jr. (1983). "Analysis of Hydrocarbon Emissions from Conventional Spark-Ignition Engines". Combustion Science and Technology. 33 (5–6): 245–260. doi:10.1080/00102208308923679.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Shyy, W., and Bratten, M.E. "CONCERT – Cartesian Or Natural Coordinates for Elliptic Reacting Turbulent Flows: A Package of Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Computer Code". GE Technical Information Series Report No. 86CRD187, GE Research and Development Center, Schenectady, NY.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Burrus, D. L., Shyy, W. and Braaten, M. E. (1988). "Numerical Models for Analytical Predictions of Combustor Aerothermal Performance Characteristics". AGARD Conference Proceedings No. 422: Combustion and Fuels in Gas Turbine Engine: Paper No. 25.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ Shyy, W., Berg, M., and Ljungqvist, D. (1999). "Flapping and Flexible Wings for Biological and Micro Air Vehicles". Progress in Aerospace Sciences. 35 (5): 155–205. Bibcode:1999PrAeS..35..455S. doi:10.1016/S0376-0421(98)00016-5.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ a b Shyy, W., Lian, Y., Tang, J., Viieru, D. and Liu, H. (2008). "Aerodynamics of Low Reynolds Number Flyers". Cambridge University Press, New York.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Shyy, W., Jayaraman, B. and Andersson, A. (2002). "Modeling of Glow Discharge-Induced Fluid Dynamics". Journal of Applied Physics. 92 (11): 6434–6443. Bibcode:2002JAP....92.6434S. doi:10.1063/1.1515103.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ Shyy, W., Klevebring, F., Nilsson, M., Sloan, J., Carroll, B. and Fuentes, C. (1999). "A Study of Rigid and Flexible Low Reynolds Number Airfoils". Journal of Aircraft. 36: 523–529. doi:10.2514/2.2487.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Queipo, N., Haftka, R.T., Shyy, W., Goel, T. Vaidyanathan, R. and Tucker, P.K. (2005). "Surrogate-Based Analysis and Optimization". Progress in Aerospace Sciences. 41 (1): 1–25. Bibcode:2005PrAeS..41....1Q. doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2005.02.001. hdl:2060/20050186653.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ Shyy, W., Papila, N., Tucker, P.K., Vaidynanthan, R., and Griffin, L. (2000). "Global Optimization for Fluid Machinery Applications". Keynote Paper, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Fluid Machinery and Fluid Engineering (ISFMFE): 1–10.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Mack, Y., Goel, T., Shyy, W. and Haftka, R.T. (2007). "Surrogate Model-Based Optimization Framework: A Case Study in Aerospace Design". Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments, Edited by Shengxiang Yang, Yew-Soon Ong, and Yaochu Jin, Springer-Verlag. 14: 323–342.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ "Papers contributed by Wei Shyy, World Economic Forum".
  27. ^ "Cambridge Aerospace Series". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  28. ^ "Academia Sinica - Press Releases | 2024 Academicians and Honorary Academicians Announced".
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Academic offices
Preceded by 4th President of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2018 – 2022
Succeeded by