Innovation is in our DNA, and we welcome everyone to join our mission to transform peoples’ lives for the better—as long as you are willing to defy the odds and push beyond your limits to make a difference.

The emblem of our University is in several ways symbolic of the institution. Lyrically we visualize the golden head of wisdom over the open book of knowledge. Between the arms holding the book can be seen as a flask representing science. Alternatively, it is a transmission tower representing engineering and technology or communication and management. We can also see a sun radiating gold, that very traditional Chinese color, over an ocean glowing with the deep blue representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Supporting these emblems are the three Greek letters upsilon, psi, and tau, that is: υψτ transliterating as UST. The emblem entwines many meanings, as does the University itself.

Few symbols represent an institution like our sundial represents us, entitled "Red Bird", the sculpture standing in the center of the Entrance Piazza was commissioned by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and created by two Irish-born, Perth (Western Australia) based sculptors, the husband-and-wife team of Charles and Joan Walsh-Smith

The sculpture is based on one of mankind's earliest scientific inventions: a sundial. The ability to integrate technology and nature into a seamless form personifies who we are as a university. Its elegance marries elements of the past, while remaining timeless, invoking the future with its minimalist lines, though instantly recognizable as the form of fire, the unity of these incongruent ideas stand as a testament to what can be accomplished by the ambition of man. 

The sundial is made of steel and mounted on a paved podium of broad steps in the center of a pool of flowing water—a metaphor for the passage of time. The podium also incorporates a carved mural depicting 39 Chinese achievements in all fields of science and technology. The installation took place on October 8, 1991. The red sundial has then become an icon of our University, with its facets reflecting the interplay of form, function, history, and futurism.

From the Design theme:

"This major focal-point is a great, 8.5m tall 'Timepiece', which is a synthesis of art and science, in that it is a sculpture which actually functions as a sundial, and a sundial which is also a sculpture, irrespective of its functional element. The soaring, sweeping, graceful forms of this centerpiece, is suggestive of dynamic movement and complex rhythms of shape, which uses the Sun and its shadows as an intrinsic element of its function, both visually and aesthetically."

The future of Chinese science and technology cannot be met without a firm recognition of its past. Taming the challenges in nature requires an understanding of its essential relationship with the sciences. The utility of an object cannot be separated from its artistry and the form that it takes. The Red Bird, shows that only through the mastery of these dualities we can surpass our wildest dreams, being more than equal to any challenge ahead of us. At HKUST, our will is greater than our ambition.