Briefs | City Fringe Festival open for proposals

The 19th Macao City Fringe Festival, organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), will be held in January next year adopting the concept of “All around the city, our stages, our patrons, our artists.” In a note distributed yesterday, IC says the call for proposals of programmes and performance venues is now open and “all local arts and cultural associations, programme curators, producers, individual art practitioners and those who are interested in artistic creation are invited to submit proposals.” In addition, the Fringe also invites the general public to participate in it as venue provider. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 21 June 2019. The regulations, application form and the Fringe venue registration form can be downloaded on IC’s website.

US universities retract mainland student intake

Following the restriction by the US State Department of visas issued to Mainland Chinese students who are seeking to study aviation, robotics, and other advanced technologies, some US universities have ceased taking in students from China, as reported by local Chinese media outlet Macao Daily News. The paper claims that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has not taken in any Mainland Chinese students as part of its early admission, while Stanford University has canceled its interview points in Mainland China. The University of California at Berkeley has changed its policy which now requires students to finish their high school education in the US to be considered local students; which has also been implemented by Harvard and Cornell.

5G-assisted buses tested in Guangzhou

Guangzhou is testing its first batch of public buses with 5G mobile networks in the hopes of achieving safer and easier public transport. In the future, public bus fares may be collected by a face scanner. The bus route is 30.9km long with 41 stops. As 5G is expected to be 10 times faster in transmission speed than 4G, real-time high-definition video streaming between the bus and the control center may be feasible. Offsite repairing may also be conducted in the future if the bus breaks down en route. Any emergency situations can also be dealt with remotely.