Dear Students,
Welcome to the new year and welcome to ITSO! As we continue to enhance your digital experience on campus, we are pleased to share the latest updates and improvements in our IT services, aligned with recent technological advancements and your valuable feedback we received in our ITSO annual User Satisfaction Survey and other channels
Open WebUI is an enhanced generative AI platform based on open-source software and hosted by ITSO, intended for handling University data safely. It features web search, broad document upload support (including XLSX and PPT), image and Cantonese voice input, web page querying, and the ability to switch between AI models for comparison. Users can customize interactions through system prompts and personal memory, and benefit from a 30-day chat retention policy with export options. Open WebUI offers a flexible, user-friendly AI solution for academic and administrative tasks. We encourage you to explore these innovative tools in accordance with the Generative AI Usage Guidelines.
Advanced Research Computing Facility
HKUST SuperPOD is an advanced AI supercomputing platform built on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD H800 systems. It supports all HKUST researchers in AI‑for‑Science initiatives, including large‑scale model training, deep learning, data‑intensive analysis, and high‑performance simulations.
HKUST HPC4 is HKUST’s fourth‑generation high‑performance computing cluster. The system uses liquid‑immersion cooling and offers Intel and AMD CPU nodes and NVIDIA GPU nodes to support advanced scientific research.
Both SuperPOD and HPC4 operate on a project‑based model to enable team collaboration. Please refer to their websites for account application, charging, and subsidy details. Please contact spodsupport@ust.hk or hpc4support@ust.hk .
Please help foster a secure and sustainable digital environment and ensure you receive all official University communications by managing your HKUST email and OneDrive effectively. We encourage you to regularly delete unnecessary emails, save large attachments elsewhere, and clean up unnecessary files in OneDrive. These actions will optimize resources and help respond to Microsoft's global storage reduction. Find more storage management tips here.
Legal software: PDF Editor - Foxit and more
Using legal software is essential for maintaining the integrity of our academic community and protecting yourself from potential legal issues. HKUST is committed to providing students with access to a wide range of such resources, supporting academic success and ethical computing practices. We strongly encourage all students to utilize these offerings, ensuring compliance with copyright regulations and maintaining a secure computing environment. For example, Foxit PDF Editor, which supports advanced PDF editing and annotation, is available for both students and staff. You can find it, along with other software available for students here.
We're committed to providing you with a seamless and reliable Wi-Fi experience across campus. We've identified and resolved a recent Wi-Fi authentication issue that caused disconnections during peak times. To further enhance connectivity and address concerns about speed in crowded areas and coverage in specific locations, we're undertaking a comprehensive Wi-Fi site survey to identify and address any remaining gaps and continue rolling out Wi-Fi 7, the next generation of wireless technology.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adds an extra layer of protection by requiring multiple steps of verification, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Microsoft Azure MFA is now the University's standard, replacing DUO. Please follow the instructions here to set it up.
ITSO offers IT training sessions and workshops throughout the year to help you leverage the latest IT technologies effectively. You may review Effective Storage Management, Introduction to Foxit PDR Editor, and participate in our upcoming workshops.
We hope these updates will support your learning and research activities effectively. You can also get a general idea of ITSO’s services through the Information for Students. For a comprehensive overview of all IT services, please refer to our Service Catalog or chat with our AI-Assistant anytime.
If you require further assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to our Service Desk.