Teaching Development Grants
    Completed TDG Projects

    Curriculum or Pedagogical Innovations

    Incentive Programme for Undergraduate Research Excellence in Science

    Abstract

    The proposal is intended to enhance the quality of undergraduate education of science students by providing the students with opportunities and support to participate in advanced research project; and to identify outstanding science students early on, provide them with close supervision and, by way of their successful research participation, encourage them to consider advanced studies in science. The Faculty of Science believed the programme can enhance the image of The University of Hong Kong as a top-rated research university, and can potentially become the provenance of a university-level center for undergraduate research.

    The programme had been identified as one of the key areas of development in the Faculty Development Plan 2006-09.

    Principal Investigator

    Professor L.S. Chan, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of ScienceContact

    Project level

    Faculty-level project

    Project Completion

    September 2008

    Deliverables

    1. The TDG projects served as a pilot programme on promotion of undergraduate research in science. The programme is now run annually.

    2. Supported by the grant, the faculty instigated the programme nicknamed I-PURES (Incentive Programme for Undergraduate Research Excellence in Science).  For the year 2007, a total of 22 undergraduates were supported by IPURES.

    3. Undergraduate research has been designated one of the acceptable forms of experiential learning in science:

    List of project titles

    No. Programme Project Title

    1

    Animal and Plant Biotechnology

    Effect of AA and EPA on gene expression of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line PLC

    2

    Mathematics

    Difference Sets and Geometry

    3

    Statistics & Actuarial Science

    Markov Queuing Models with Batch Service

    4

    Animal and Plant Biotechnology

    Comparison of ligand specificity between receptors for zebrafish glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide goldfish, glucagon-like peptide 1 and goldfish glucagon

    5

    Environmental Life Science

    Inhibition of bacteria on nano-coated surfaces

    6

    Earth Sciences

    Geological Field Study of Lai Chi Chong

    7

    Animal and Plant Biotechnology

    Transcriptional Regulation of the Human Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Gene

    8

    Biochemistry

    Inhibition mechanism of thioredoxin reductase by NADPH

    9

    Mathematics

    Disjoint Congruence Classes Conjecture

    10

    Earth Sciences

    Detrital provenance of Songpag-Ganzi Triassic sedimentary record

    11

    Environmental Life Science

    Avoiding Sunburn: Why do Sea Urchins Wear Hats?

    12

    Environmental Life Science

    Proteomics Profile of Biodegradation of Dimethyl Phthalate Isomers

    13

    Ecology and Biodiversity

    The relationship between DNA damage and imposex level in neogastropods along a pollution gradient

    14

    Statistics & Actuarial Science

    Ruin Probability Approximation by Moment Fitting

    15

    Earth Sciences

    Evaluating field-scale shear strength behavior of rock joints

    16

    Environmental Life Science

    Ecology of Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)

    17

    Earth Sciences

    Osmoregulation of Stomatopods from Hong Kong Waters

    18

    Biology

    Genetic Variation of NA and HA of influenza Virus under Repeated  Co-infection with Newcastle Disease Virus

    19

    Chemistry

    Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Lithium Receptors

    20

    Statistics & Actuarial Science

    Using Technical Analysis to Test Weak-From Market Efficiency of China B Share Stock Market

    21

    Mathematics,
    Economics and Finance

    Analysis of Derivative Security Pricing

    22

    Mathematics

    Quadratic Extensions of Cyclic Project Planes