Between 2012 to 19, Patrick Hwang is the coordinator of the Thesis Project at CUHK, and since then have retuned the program to minimize the bifurcation of the two semester project. The change in the pedagogical organization have since earned numerous positive comments from External Reviewers. Starting 2016-17 a series of seminars were introduced to address the particularities of thesis research, allowing students to feel a part of the greater collective despite working independently on their thesis. Each year, a kind of social-economic barometer of Hong Kong could be observed from reading some 50 to 60 topics proposed by the students. On issues that the students found to be reflective of their contextual experience, or simply topics they deemed interesting, urgent, relevant or original. Over the years, there are some recurring themes, such as studies relating to housing, healthcare, water, museum, ageing, tourism etc. While at times the proposals have attempted to capture the zeitgeist of a particular moment, with the most recent example being the Umbrella Movement from two years ago, many are themes that remains to be confronted and addressed.
