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Director of ICMS Prof. Wang Yitao (middle) and other members of the research team |
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| UM’s progress in microelectronics research |
The University of Macau (UM)’s microelectronics research team, whose core members include Prof. Rui Martins, Prof. Ben U Seng Pan, Dr. Elvis Mak Pui In and Dr. Terry Sin Sai Weng, has been dedicated to the research in high-tech microelectronics over the past decade. The team’s impressive achievements in the field of VLSI (very-large-scale integration) circuits design has resulted in the first US patent in the field for Macao. The team has repeatedly broken world records in the field of integrated circuits and has proposed the most advanced wireless solutions. It is fair to say that UM is now at the world’s forefront in the field of microelectronics at both the industrial and academic levels.
The Chinese medicine research team at the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences (ICMS) of UM, led by director of ICMS Prof. Wang Yitao, has also attained impressive achievements through many years of effort. The team consists of doctors well-versed in various disciplines from more than a dozen world-renowned universities. The team now boasts world-class research facilities and state-of-the-art technologies in various fields, such as chemistry, analysis, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, medicine and molecular biotechnology. The team’s research in the evaluation of the quality of Chinese medicines by using cross-disciplinary, state-of-the-art biomedical technologies and innovative methodologies has had major influence both at home and abroad.
UM is now preparing for the establishment of two state key labs
The excellence of the faculty team has further strengthened UM’s determination to accelerate its progress in innovative research as well as its confidence in becoming a world-class university. In the field of microelectronics, UM will cooperate with Fudan University in establishing a state key laboratory called the State Key Laboratory of Analog and Mixed-Signal VLSI (AMS-VLSI Lab). In the field of Chinese medicine, UM will cooperate with Peking University in establishing another state key laboratory called the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research of Chinese Medicine (QRCM Lab). The microelectronics research team hopes to seize the opportunity brought by the state key laboratory to develop UM into a silicon chip research centre, while ICMS aims to develop UM into an open base for international cooperation in Chinese medical sciences and technologies, thereby advancing the development of medical, health and Chinese medical sciences industries in Macao and promoting the internationalization of Chinese medicines.
Becoming a state key laboratory guarantees powerful financial support from the central government, which will in turn lead to a substantial improvement of the capacity for research innovation. Up to the end of 2007, there were only 258 state key laboratories countrywide, with no laboratories in Chinese medicine. The approval for UM’s establishment of two state key laboratories, to be headed by UM Vice Rector (Research) Prof. Rui Martins and director of ICMS Prof. Wang Yitao respectively, will help to push UM’s research level in the two fields to new heights and allow UM to make greater contribution to society.
Construction of the new UM campus will be completed in less than three years. There will be three open research bases on the new campus, one for Information and Electronics (that will include the Microelectronics Lab), one for Chinese Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and one for Energy and Environment. The improved facilities will surely create more favourable conditions for UM to carry out research and will also bring more opportunities and breakthroughs for UM and Macao as a whole.
(This article was published in the Macao Daily News at B03 on 11 November, 2010)
