Community Outreach Merit Program

Nice to meet quite a few of COMP members in the Departments’ Annual Dinner last night!!
Again, thank you for your support and encouragement. It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join the community service of the Department. More COMP services are coming, let’s keep it up!

Click here for original size 080228_AnnualDinner_original

Here comes the video for all of you (including our future members), enjoy!

A HUGE thanks to all of you yesterday (and perhaps some others who didn’t make it, I have no idea!) for your lovely surprise! I can’t believe that you all managed to get into the common room without me noticing you — hmmmm, maybe I ought to be more careful next time I bring you kids somewhere, if you’re that good at sneaking into places under my nose! And to whoever did the coordinating (I have my suspicions :-)), thanks so much. I was totally not expecting it and it was a lovely start to the week. You guys are all simply awesome!

We’ll need to have a party at my place at some point and now we have two games to play! And those people who don’t want to pretend to be a guard dog (hint hint, you know who) can play Cat-opoly instead :-D.

Thanks again, everybody, and hope that we can actually go hiking next week!

-Grace

由於天氣不穩定，基於安全考慮，活動將延期舉行。
詳情將於日內公佈。

不便之處，敬請原諒！

Now that we have officially kicked off our New Year (well, the Chinese version of it), I think it’s appropriate that we express our gratitude to some people whose help has been invaluable in the past…

First of all, we would like to thank our project team: Edith, Cat, Alice, Timothy and Mark. Thanks for all your hard work, for all the emails and phone calls, for all the late nights and weekends that you pulled. You have been our hands and legs, and you have multiplied what we have managed to achieve.

Of course, we need to thank our students, the participators. Thanks for your enthusiasm — and as Stephen and Keith said on Friday — we certainly hope that in the midst of helping others, you have learned some stuff yourself that can’t be taught in the classroom. We hope to see you — and your friends — often in the future! If you have enjoyed our activities, why not tell your friends so that they get to benefit along with you!

To our partners outside of PolyU: Hong Chi, the Police Department, Evangelical Community Church, Jubilee Cares, Braincare, all the primary and secondary schools whom we have worked with, and a bunch of people and organizations whom I am sure that I am forgetting: a big thanks for your support and collaboration. Thanks for giving us this opportunity, and we certainly hope there will be more to come.

A HUGE word of thanks must go to our Department Head, Professor Keith Chan, for his wholehearted support of all our projects. Without his support, I don’t think that we could have done but a fraction of what we have managed, especially the China projects. Thanks again for your encouragement and blessings!

And finally, we need to thank our families for being so understanding of all the late nights, weekends and holidays that we spent at work. Thanks for being so supportive, even when it meant spending less time at home with you all.

I am sure I am missing people out. Please feel free to comment and add in those whom I have forgotten! As is said, “Silent gratitude isn’t of much use to anyone.” (G.B. Stern)

- The COMP faculty-in-charge
Stephen, Vincent and Grace

感謝各位支持，活動已完滿結束~ 願大家對COMP的活動有進一步了解，亦希望大家有一個歡樂開懷的晚上！
密切留意 [COMP224] COMP 激發潛能戶外活動日的最新消息!!

【日期】2008年2月15日, 年初九 (星期五)
【時間】傍晚6時正 至 晚上8時正
【地點】PQ703
【活動】新春盆菜、賀年糕點、07-08上學期精彩活動分享、下學期活動預告、新會員招募、師生團拜
【費用】全免 (由COMP贊助)，歡迎各COMP會員及有意加入COMP的同學參加
【報名】為方便預計食物數量，請於2月11日前以網誌留言、電話(2766-7253)、電郵(cscomm@comp.polyu.edu.hk)或任何方式與我們聯絡，謝謝！

順祝各位新春愉快，萬事如意！

We are glad to announce that the Hong Chi Wireless Networking Project has been completed in Feb 08! All 4 children houses are now covered with steady wireless network!

About
Hong Chi Association is a non-profit making organization, dedicated solely to serving people with mental handicap. To support Hong Chi in assisting the people with mental handicap to develop their potential to the full, the Department has organized a series of activities such as Christmas parties and special computer training workshops for 2 consecutive years since 2006.

The Hong Chi Little House ang Hong Chi Santa House are located at Pinehill Village, Tai Po. They are four small group homes with attractive natural scenery for children with mild grade mental handicap. In view of the needs of Internet access of the houses, we’ve started up a wireless network project in 4 phases:

Phase 1 – Investigating the possibility of setting up the wireless network at Hong Chi Children Home [4 Apr, 07]

Objectives:
-To find out the possible spots for installing wireless network equipment
-To find out any source of interference
Results:
-The laptops with wireless adaptor (802.11g) in house 2 and 4 received weak signals from the wireless access point (AP) in house 3 due to the interference of the stone walls of the houses

Phase 2 – Testing the wireless network equipments [11 Sept, 07 & 23 Nov, 07]

Objectives:
-To test the Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) router, which maintains the wireless connection up to 3 times farther than standard Wireless-G
-To test the signal expanding ability of the Wireless-G Range Expander
Results:
-The laptops with wireless adaptor (802.11n) in house 2 and 4 received nice signals from the wireless access point (AP) in house 3. However, since house 1 is far away from house 3, only weak signals can be detected

Phase 3 – Network setup 1 [28 Dec, 07]

Objectives:
-To setup the wireless network of the four houses using the Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) router and adaptors
Results:
-the performance of the Wireless-N router was not stable, house 2 and 4 receive unsteady signals
-after installing the Wireless-G Range Expander in house 4, the wireless network works nicely in house 2-4

Phase 4 – Network Setup 2 [1 Feb, 2008]

Objectives:
-To expand the wireless signal with another Wireless-G Range Expander to house 1
Results:
- All four houses can access the Internet finally!

Photos

Special Thanks to…
This is a great chance for students to get involved into networking project, to apply what they’ve learned in the lectures to the real situation. I would like to thank you all who helped in the project, firstly Dr. Stephen Chan, Dr. Vincent Ng and Dr. Grace Ngai who provide not only the support but also professional advices about networking…
And also our students who have participated:
* Carlos Au Yeung
* Ivy Chan
* Mary Cheng
* Joey Cheung
* Alvin Hui
* Fiona Lai
* Stephen Lam
* Esther Leung
* Lozen Liu
* Bryan Pun
* Yan Tao
* Rick Tong
* Kobe Yang
* Yvette Yu

Last but not least, our ex-colleague, Mr. Keo Lo for initiating the project!

I am here to express my gratitude to our students: Li, KC, Chin Ho, Rina, Siu Wai, and Kayan; my colleagues: Cat, Edith and Mark; and also our COMP faculty-in-charge, Dr. Vincent Ng, Dr. Stephen Chan and Dr. Grace Ngai for their support.
Without their helps, this event would not be that successful.

Snapshots of this carnival