Building a smarter campus at M.U.S.T.

Founded in 2000, Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.) is now the largest multi-disciplinary university in Macao. It has more than 17,000 students and research programs in fields from planetary science to cybersecurity.

In recent years, the university has expanded its digital infrastructure as part of a broader effort to support research, teaching, and campus management. That work includes upgrading data centers and campus networks, rolling out centralized digital services, and forming new partnerships focused on AI and advanced computing.

Supporting deep-space research

One of the university’s most ambitious projects is linked to deep-space research. M.U.S.T. houses China’s first Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences and has participated in national space programs, including the Chang’e lunar missions and the Tianwen-1 Mars exploration project.

In 2019, Macao launched its first scientific satellite project, Macao Science 1. To support the project’s data requirements, M.U.S.T. and the Chinese Academy of Sciences later established the Macao Satellite Science and Application Data Center.

The center processes and stores large volumes of scientific data related to geomagnetic activity and Earth system science. According to the university, the scale and complexity of that work exceeded the capacity of its earlier infrastructure.

To address this, M.U.S.T. worked with Huawei to build a new data center combining high-performance computing, distributed storage, and virtualization technologies. The system allows computing and storage resources to be shared more efficiently across research workloads while also making future expansion easier.

Scanning electron microscope at MUST Macau

The infrastructure currently provides a high-performance computing platform with hundreds of teraflops of processing power and petabyte-scale storage. The university says the platform is designed to support increasingly data-intensive scientific research over time.

Building a connected campus

Beyond research, M.U.S.T. has also been modernizing the digital infrastructure used across its campus.

The university began developing its “WeMust” smart campus platform in 2007. Today, the platform combines services related to teaching, administration, payments, research, and campus operations into a single system accessible through web and mobile applications.

The goal is to reduce fragmentation between departments and give students and staff unified access to campus services, whether they are on campus or working remotely.

To support those services, M.U.S.T. upgraded its campus network using Huawei’s CloudCampus architecture, integrating wired, wireless, and IoT systems into a unified network. The system allows students and staff to move between locations without repeatedly logging in to different services or networks.

Wireless connectivity has become a particular focus as universities adopt more video-intensive and collaborative forms of teaching.

At M.U.S.T.’s Building R, a large teaching and activity complex containing lecture halls, labs, studios, and offices, the university has deployed Wi-Fi 6 access points designed for high-density environments. The system was intended to improve performance during online classes, livestreaming, video sharing, and other bandwidth-heavy activities.

The school has also introduced AI-assisted network management tools through Huawei’s iMaster NCE-CampusInsight platform. The system helps IT teams monitor network performance, identify faults more quickly, and visualize how applications are performing across the campus network.

Satellite dish used in MUST’s space and planetary science programs

Digital teaching tools have expanded alongside the network upgrades. Smart classrooms equipped with interactive digital whiteboards (called Huawei IdeaHub Boards) support a mix of online and in-person teaching. This allows instructors to share materials and collaborate with students across locations.

Digital upskilling

At the same time, the university has built partnerships aimed at workforce development in areas including AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data science.

M.U.S.T. and PwC Macau jointly established the Macau Cybersecurity Collaboration Center to support cybersecurity research and talent development. The university has also partnered with Huawei to establish a Huawei ICT Academy focused on skills training in cloud computing, big data, IoT, and AI.

The broader objective is to support Macao’s transition toward a more technology-driven economy while strengthening its role within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.