SENG News, Issue 12

Abstract

SENG NEWS APR 2016 – ISSUE 12 Announcement Appointment of Associate Dean of Engineering The School of Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof Siu Wing Cheng, Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies), with effect from 1 January 2016. Read More Academic Excellence Three SENG Faculty Members Appointed to Named Professorships Three of the School of Engineering’s leading academics have recently been awarded the prestigious named professorships in HKUST’s Named Professorship Program, which honors eminent faculty and recognizes donor supporters of the University. A total of eight professorships were conferred at the third inauguration ceremony of named professorships held on March 9. Read More Global Engagement HKUST and CentraleSupélec of France Signed an Academic Cooperation for Dual Degree in Engineering The School of Engineering and CentraleSupélec, a leading French institute of science and technology and founding member of the University Paris-Saclay, have established an academic cooperation that will allow students to simultaneously earn a dual degree in engineering from both institutions. Read More SENG Introduces Three New MSc Programs The School of Engineering is introducing three new Master of Science (MSc) programs, namely MSc in Big Data Technology, MSc in Aeronautical Engineering and MSc in International Air Transport Operations Management. Read More Upcoming Event hackUST 2016 hackUST is a 24-hour coding event where programmers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs come together for 2 days to turn their boldest ideas into reality. It is open to all university students in Hong Kong. This year hackUST is based on the themes of:

1) Mobile Gaming - Sponsored by Madhead 2) FinTech - Sponsored by Bank of East Asia 3) WomenTech - Sponsored by Google 4) Any other creative ideas - Sponsored by Microsoft Read More RPg Summer Camp for Elite Students 2016 The Summer Camp for Elite Students is open for senior undergraduate students and master's students who demonstrate outstanding qualities of academic performance, research potential, and communication skills. This exciting Summer Camp is a combination of leadership training session, research talks, lab tours, industry visits, interactive activities as well as off campus sight-seeing. It gives participants the opportunity to explore their research interest and have diversity exposure. Read More

Faculty Achievements Faculty Achievements Recognized in SENG Research Excellence Awards 2015-16 Three outstanding faculty members have had their achievements recognized through the School of Engineering Research Excellence Awards 2015-16. Read More Prof Guohua Chen Elected AIChE Fellow Prof Guohua Chen, Head and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the organization’s highest grade of membership which recognizes service to the profession and significant professional accomplishment. Read More Prof Huamin Qu Received Merit Award in APICTA Awards 2015 Prof Huamin Qu, Computer Science and Engineering, received the Merit Award in the e-Learning category of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2015 held in Sri Lanka for his work on Visual Analysis of Massive Open Online Courses (VisMOOC). Read More Industry Collaboration MAE Department Received State-of-the-Art Equipment Donation from Beijing Jingdiao Beijing Jingdiao Co Ltd, a leading five-axis machine manufacturer in China, and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of HKUST signed the Joint Development Agreement on March 10. Read More Alumni Achievements Alumnus Ir Dr Derrick Pang Received Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong 2015 2014 Civil Engineering PhD alumnus Ir Dr Derrick Pang was awarded the Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong (YIAH) 2015 by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries for his contribution to the industry and society. Read More Women in Engineering Alumni Series: Women in Engineering – meet Andrea Villaroman Andrea Villaroman is the first undergraduate student from the US in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at HKUST, graduating in 2013. She is now working in the University of California, San Francisco as Clinical Research Coordinator and Project Manager. Read More

Student Achievements Engineering Students won Global Youth Innovator Award in iCAN CES Show for Second Consecutive Year Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering MSc students Lixie Hu, Xiaoyang Liu and Hao Lu, supervised by Prof Yi-Kuen Lee, won the Global Youth Innovator Award for their De-snore project at the 2016 iCAN Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, US on 6-9 January 2016. Read More PhD Research Excellence Recognized in SENG Awards Two recent graduates have been named the recipients of the School of Engineering PhD Research Excellence Awards 2015-16. The awardees are Dr Langston Wai Leung Suen, 2015 graduate from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Dr Edwin Chi Yan Tso, 2015 graduate from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Read More Alumni Connections HKUST Celebrated 25th Anniversary in San Francisco HKUST organized a highly-successful global alumni reunion in San Francisco on February 13, 2016, drawing over 150 alumni, friends, faculty and students to an inspiring seminar followed by an enjoyable dinner. The event was co-organized by the School of Engineering, with 70% of the participating alumni from engineering. Read More SENG Alumni Gathered in Shenzhen to Celebrate 25th Anniversary About 100 School of Engineering alumni from Hong Kong and Shenzhen had a happy get-together in Shenzhen on December 12, 2015. The activity was organized in celebration of HKUST’s 25th anniversary and aims to strengthen bonding among Hong Kong and Shenzhen alumni. Read More Alumni Brothers Set Up Student Emergency Fund The Student Emergency Fund, established by alumni Terry Tsang and Terence Tsang, provides financial assistance for HKUST students facing unforeseen financial emergencies and tragic events that may disrupt their studies. Read More

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08 / 01 / 2016 Appointment of Associate Dean of Engineering Prof Siu Wing Cheng

The School of Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Prof Siu Wing Cheng, Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), as Associate Dean of Engineering (Undergraduate Studies), with effect from 1 January 2016. Prof Cheng is succeeding Prof Hong K Lo upon his move to the role of Head with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Concurrently, Prof Cheng will also be in charge of the operations of the Center for Industry Engagement & Internship (IEI) and industrial training.

Prior to his service as the Associate Dean, Prof Cheng has been serving the CSE Department as the Acting Head from 2013 to 2014, and the Associate Head from 2007 to 2011. Besides his positions at HKUST, Prof Cheng is also the Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of several international academic journals, including the Journal of Computational Geometry, Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications, and more. Prof Cheng was also the program co-chair of the Annual Symposium on Computation Geometry, 2014, the flagship conference in the field. His research interests include computational geometry, algorithms, and data structures. In recent years, he has been focusing on geometric optimization, mesh generation and manifold. During his service at HKUST, Prof Cheng has over 120 academic publications, including books, book chapters, conference papers and articles.

The School would also like to pay tribute and thank Prof Hong K Lo for his dedication and contributions to the School as Associate Dean over the past years. During his term of service he has pushed forward the development of the School, including the provisional accreditation by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) via outcome-based education approach, the advancement of first-year advising and mentoring for undergraduate students, the promotion of Engineering among high school students, and much more. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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18 / 03 / 2016 Three SENG Faculty Members Appointed to Named Professorships [Download Photo]

Three of the School of Engineering’s leading academics have recently been awarded the prestigious named professorships in HKUST’s Named Professorship Program, which honors eminent faculty and recognizes donor supporters of the University. A total of eight professorships were conferred at the third inauguration ceremony of named professorships held on March 9.

Officiating at the inauguration ceremony, President Prof Tony F Chan said, “I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to the donors for their generosity and support in establishing the named professorships. By giving due recognition to our exceptional faculty, the named professorship appointments help HKUST to recruit distinguished talents from around the world and to continue its unrelenting quest for excellence and innovation in education and research for the good of the University and the community.”

Prof Chan congratulated the appointed faculty and said, “The named professors all excel in a diverse range of disciplines encompassing science, engineering, business, social science and others. Their drive for excellence in teaching and research will set an inspiring example to students and assist HKUST to fortify its position as a world-class research university. HKUST will continue to garner support from the society with an aim of enhancing its strengths in fulfilling its mission.”

The professorships were made possible by donations given to HKUST from eight long-standing contributors to higher education. The three engineering-related ones are: Crown Worldwide Group, Fang Brothers Group and Tencent Charity Foundation Limited.

Among the officiating guests at the inauguration ceremony were HKUST Council Vice-Chairman Prof John Chai Yat-Chiu, President Prof Tony F Chan and other senior management. Donors, corporate sponsors and their representatives were also present at the ceremony. The engineering-related ones are: Mr Reagan Dou, Dr Kenneth Fang and Dr James E Thompson.

The appointed professors from the School of Engineering are:

[Download Photo]

Prof Guillermo Gallego, Crown Worldwide Professor of Engineering Chair Professor and Head, Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management

Prof Gallego moved to Hong Kong in January 2016 as Head of Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management at HKUST. Prof Gallego aims to invigorate the undergraduate program to have a stronger core and to allow students more flexibility to specialize on a variety of domain specific topics. Another objective is to foster collaboration with companies in Hong Kong, Mainland China and other parts of Asia. Prof Gallego is an INFORMS Fellow, an MSOM Fellow, and has been the recipient of many awards including the INFORMS Revenue Management Section Prize, the Revenue Management Historical Prize and the Revenue Management Practice Prize.

School of Engineering Prof Kei May Lau, Fang Professor of Engineering Chair Professor, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Prof Lau’s field of expertise is in semiconductor devices such as LEDs, transistors and lasers. Her research is primarily experimental in nature involving exploration of novel materials and nano-structures for device and system integration. Among her most notable work is the incorporation of compound semiconductor devices on the mature silicon platform, to enable the realization of electronic and photonic integrated circuits for energy-efficient high-performance systems. Prof Lau was born and raised in Hong Kong, going to the US to study for her bachelor and master’s degrees in physics, at the University of Minnesota; her PhD in electrical engineering, is from Rice University.

[Download Photo]

Prof Qian Zhang, Tencent Professor of Engineering Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

On joining HKUST in 2005, Prof Zhang first worked on cognitive radio networks and the concept of dynamic spectrum access and management. However, always eager to develop new ideas, she moved away from the “crowded” cognitive networks research field and is now building a remote digital healthcare monitoring program. Prof Zhang received her BSc, MS and PhD, all in computer science, from Wuhan University, China. She is an IEEE Fellow, and the co-director and founder of the Huawei-HKUST Innovation Lab, and is the inventor of about 30 international patents.

With three newly appointed named professors, there are currently eight named professors at School of Engineering. The five existing named professors are:

Prof Hoi-Sing Kwok, Dr William M W Mong Professor of Nanotechnology Chair Professor, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Prof Chung-Yee Lee, Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering Chair Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management

Prof Qiang Yang, New Bright Professor of Engineering Chair Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Prof Xin Zhang, Swire Professor of Aerospace Engineering Chair Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Prof Matthew McKay, Hari Harilela Associate Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering Associate Professor, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

These professorships were created with generous donation from Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund, Stephen Kam Chuen Cheong Education Fund, Wong Check She Charitable Foundation, The Swire Group Charitable Trust, and Dr Hari & Mrs Padma Harilela respectively. Related Link(s) Ceremony brochure HKUST press release Website of named professorships at HKUST FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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17 / 03 / 2016 HKUST and CentraleSupélec of France Signed an Academic Cooperation for Dual Degree in Engineering (From left, back row) Prof King Lun Yeung, Associate Dean of Engineering (Research & Graduate Studies), HKUST; Dr Eden Woon, Vice-President for Institutional Advancement, HKUST; Mr Eric Berti, Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau; Dr Isabelle Saves, Attaché for Scientific & Academic Affairs, Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau; (from left, front row) Prof Tongxi Yu, Acting Dean of Engineering, HKUST; Prof Marc Zolver, Dean of International Affairs & Partnerships, CentraleSupélec [Download Photo]

The School of Engineering (SENG) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and CentraleSupélec, a leading French institute of science and technology and founding member of the University Paris-Saclay, have established an academic cooperation that will allow students to simultaneously earn a dual degree in engineering from both institutions.

Prof Tongxi Yu, Acting Dean of Engineering of HKUST, and Prof Marc Zolver, Dean of International Affairs & Partnerships of CentraleSupélec, signed an agreement of academic cooperation for dual degree in engineering at HKUST on March 17, 2016. The partnership, which will begin next academic year (2016/2017), forges a strong academic alliance between the two institutions.

“The signing of the agreement turns a new page in the collaboration between SENG and CS. It will have significant impact not only on SENG’s expanded role in education in Europe but also on the enhanced development of higher education and the training of talents in the region,” said Prof Yu.

Prof Zolver said “The establishment of the dual degree program testifies to CentraleSupélec’s determination to extend the international opportunities for our students and faculties to the very best institutions in Asia. This education partnership will allow candidates from two very best institutes to build a foundation on which to establish further academic and research collaborations.”

According to the agreement, dual degree students from CentraleSupélec studying at HKUST and from HKUST studying at CentraleSupélec may be awarded, upon successful fulfilment of all requirements for graduation at each institution, the academic degrees and diplomas of comparable academic levels conferred separately by each institution.

Over the past years, SENG continued to expand its scope of collaboration with academic and research institutions around the world, apart from further strengthening the ongoing collaboration with existing partners, e.g. establishing a long-term relation with Zhejiang University in China. A number of new partnerships were also established, e.g. Academic Cooperation with the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC) in 2014, University of Zaragoza in Spain in 2015, and Queensland University of Technology in Australia in 2014. The School has also liaised with some other renowned universities on the establishment of dual degree programs, e.g. Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) in Italy in 2016 and University of Waterloo in Canada in 2015.

CentraleSupélec is a truly international institute. It boasts 193 academic and research partnerships in 45 countries, more than 80 double degree agreements, along with exchange agreements for term or annual intra-European mobility arrangements. Some 30% of CentraleSupélec students are internationals and its engineering students must spend at least 6 months abroad during their program. Lately, CentraleSupélec has signed partnership agreements with Politecnico de Milano (Italy), Georgia Tech (USA) and the University of British Columbia (Canada) in the field of academic and research collaborations as well as student, teacher and researcher mobilities.

About HKUST School of Engineering The HKUST School of Engineering has a strong international reputation and consistently ranks high among major engineering schools around the world. In the 2015-16 Times Higher Education World University Rankings in Engineering and Technology, HKUST was ranked No.1 in Greater China and No.16 globally. In the QS World University Rankings by Faculty 2015 – Engineering and Technology, HKUST was ranked No.14. The School has a strong network of academic and research collaboration with world-class institutions in the Mainland and overseas. For more information about the School, please visit www.seng.ust.hk.

About CentraleSupélec CentraleSupélec is a Public Higher Education Institution, resulting of the merger of the Ecole Centrale Paris and Supélec in January, 2015. Since 2009, the two Schools have continually strengthened their partnerships and collaborations with the aim of encompassing the whole of their activities (engineering education, research and post graduate programs) and confirmed their shared values of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, internationalization and leadership. CentraleSupélec has 4,700 students, whose 3,500 are engineer-students, 32% of international students, 525 PhD candidates, 16 research departments or teams, 200 partner universities in 45 countries, 140 corporate partners and 35,500 alumni. CentraleSupélec has 3 offshore implantations in Beijing (China), Hyderabad (India) and Casablanca (Morocco). Today it aims to become a reference in the field of engineering and systems sciences and a leading engineering College in the area of higher education and research. CentraleSupélec is a founding member of University Paris-Saclay and leads the Ecole Centrale Group. For more information about CentraleSupélec, please visit www.centralesupelec.fr.

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01 / 04 / 2016 SENG Introduces Three New MSc Programs

The School of Engineering is introducing three new Master of Science (MSc) programs, namely MSc in Big Data Technology (BDT), MSc in Aeronautical Engineering (AE) and MSc in International Air Transport Operations Management (IATOM).

MSc in Big Data Technology Jointly offered by HKUST’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Department of Mathematics, the MSc in Big Data Technology (BDT) is the first MSc program in big data to be launched in Hong Kong.

While there are some data science programs in Hong Kong or other places sharing similar courses about statistics learning and analytics, they do not offer any fundamental knowledge about big data access, integration, computing and visualization solutions, which are essential techniques for many big data applications. BDT is offered to address this urgent need.

In the era of technology and advancement, there are large demands of expertise in big data in different sectors worldwide, such as scientific and technical services, IT, retail trade, sustainability, and waste management and remediation services. Accordingly to a recent survey by Hays, a British company providing recruitment and human resources services across the globe, big data in the workplace ranks top 3 in the top 10 talent trends for 2015 in Hong Kong. In the foreseeable future, big data is taking the main stage for employment of our students.

The key challenges for IT or IT-related professionals are big data. They need to regularly upgrade their knowledge to address challenges such as how to collect data from different sources, are all the collected data useful, how to identify the data from different sources referring to the same thing, which could be an event or an object, and how to find useful knowledge from these huge volume and heterogeneous data.

Offered in full-time (one year) and part-time (two years) modes, the BDT program caters for applicants who have special interests in big data analytics and big data management. It helps to integrate different disciplines together and students will learn the major components of big data in the aspect of infrastructure, integration, storage, modeling and management, computing systems, analytic and mining systems, security, policy and social implications, as well as human factors and applications in various data science fields. Upon graduation, the students can look for jobs in the area of big data applications, such as finance, logistics management, business intelligence and data visualization around the world.

The program is now open for application. Application deadlines for Fall 2016 will be May 5 (for full-time program) and June 2 (for part-time program).

MSc in Aeronautical Engineering# MSc in International Air Transport Operations Management# AE and IATOM are jointly offered by the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC), the largest aeronautical university in Europe and the only aviation-oriented university in France offering a comprehensive range of aeronautics-oriented degree programs. Upon graduation, students shall receive a joint institutional Master of Science in IATOM degree or AE degree from ENAC and HKUST. Since the IATOM degree is accredited and recognized by the French Ministry of Higher Education, a separate certificate recognized by the ministry will be issued by ENAC.

Hong Kong has the world’s busiest airport in terms of cargo handling, and is the hub of Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, and one of the world’s leading aircraft engineering and maintenance groups, such as Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO) group. The development of the third runway system further creates demand for air transport professionals to maintain the thriving aviation industry.

New talented aeronautical engineering professionals are needed to join the local aerospace industry each year to carry out extensive airframe services, engine services and line services. As a multidisciplinary branch of engineering that mainly encompasses aspects of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, aeronautical engineering challenges aviation staffs to improve their capabilities and skills in developing and managing effectively and efficiently their respective domains. The AE program is therefore designed and offered to exactly address those market needs and challenges.

The AE program aims to equip those who have an interest in aerospace engineering and want to enter the aeronautical engineering profession or to enhance the knowledge of those who are already in the field. The program complements the existing undergraduate and graduate curricula in mechanical and aerospace engineering, therefore allows students to get exposure to the various core aspects of aeronautical engineering and how those scientific and technology disciplines can be used in the aeronautical engineering profession. This program will also help students to gain an international view through completing various carefully designed teaching and practicing activities.

The program will last about 2 years for part-time students and about 1 year for full-time students. Students are required to complete a total of 30 credits of coursework. Both HKUST and ENAC will provide a number of courses covering aerodynamics, aircraft design, propulsion, structure, design and management, etc.

The IATOM program aims to equip those who want to enter the positions of versatile managers, air transport professionals or to enhance the knowledge of those who have already been working in the sector. This program combines the technical, economic and managerial skills that are specific to air transport which will improve the capabilities of students supporting engineering work for aeronautics and air transport. It will allow students to get exposure to the various core aspects of air transport and how they are integrated with the technology development in the real world. This program will also help students to gain an international view through completing various carefully designed teaching and internship activities.

The local aeronautical industry requires new talented executives and managers, who must have technical knowledge, managerial skills and a thorough understanding of the regulatory context associated with air transport. This multidisciplinary system creates major challenges that call for improvements of their capabilities and skills in developing and managing effectively and efficiently their respective domains. IATOM is developed to respond to these challenges.

In the 2-year full-time IATOM program, each student has to complete a total of 120 ECTS (i.e., equivalent to 60 HKUST credits), including 30 ECTS (i.e., equivalent to 15 HKUST credits) of internship. Students are required to complete the first term at HKUST in Hong Kong, the second and third terms at ENAC in Toulouse, France, and then a 6-month internship in the air transport industry in the last term.

An information session for AE and IATOM will be held on April 9, 2016 at HKUST campus.

# In accordance with Non-Local Higher and Professional Education (Regulation) Ordinance (CAP. 493), the program is undergoing the process of applying for exemption from registration as non-local courses conducted in Hong Kong leading to the award of non-local higher academic by a non-local institution. Related Link(s) MSc in Big Data Technology MSc in Aeronautical Engineering MSc in International Air Transport Operations Management FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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hackUST 2016

16 - 17 April ( Sat - Sun )

@ HKUST, Hong Kong

hackUST2016 competition will start on:

APRIL 16 - 17, 2016 8DAYS

22HOURS

22MINUTES

22SECONDS

Your most creative weekend!

hackUST is a 24-hour coding event where programmers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs come together for 2 days to turn their boldest ideas into reality.

hackUST is open to ALL university students in Hong Kong Frequently Asked Questions WHO CAN ATTEND?

As long as you are a university student (UG, PG) or alumni you're welcome to join. Don’t worry that you are not experienced enough - what matters is how fast you can learn and how willing you are to step out of your comfort zone! WHAT CAN MY TEAM BUILD?

We will have three main themes, but there are absolutely no restrictions to limit your imagination, anything has a potential to win - from powerful apps, innovative hardware, to services that make life better. WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE A TEAM?

Don’t worry- we have pre-hackathon activities as well as team forming sessions. Make sure to leave us your email and we will let you know about the schedule of the workshops. WHAT SHOULD I BRING?

A laptop, a charger, and a super passionate heart. Tip: Bring a sleeping bag to grab comfortable naps during the coding marathon! WILL YOU PROVIDE HARDWARE HACKS?

We do not provide hardware on the spot, but you are very welcome to bring yours (e.g. Arduino, building blocks, etc). HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Not a penny! Admission is free and includes unlimited food, drinks, a t-shirt, support and loads of fun! WHAT WILL I EAT?

We will provide FREE vegetarian and non-vegetarian food for you - dinner, breakfast and tons of snacks. WHAT IF MY QUESTION WAS NOT ANSWERED HERE?

If you have any questions, please email us at hackust2016@gmail.com - and we’ll reply as soon as possible! THEMES

This year hackUST is based around 4 main themes. Your team can choose to make a product that fits into one of these and compete for the prizes of a combined value of more than 100,000HKD. If you want to carry out an entirely different idea - simply go for the Creative section!

MOBILEGAME PRIZE HK$80,000 FINTECH

PRIZE HK$30,000 WOMENTECH

PRIZE HK$16,000 CREATIVE

PRIZE Surface 3 Laptop Special Prizes

PRIZE BLACKPINE hackUST AWARDS Audience's Favourite at hackUST 2016 Award HK$5,000 Most Interesting Clip at hackUST 2016 Award HK$3,000

PRIZE RADIX hackUST AWARD HK$5,000 $50 Amazon gift cards Domain name for each team member

PRIZE PRESIDENT's 1-HKUST AWARDS - HKD 30,000 2 prizes for the best teams with HKUST students 1 prize for the best team with HKUST alumni PRIZE Radica Think Out-of-the-Box Award PRIZE MBA Tech Club Award (HK$5,000) EXTRA ACTIVITIES

YOGA & MEDITATION

Exercise more than just your brain.

MENTORSHIP SESSIONS

Hear from leaders who are taking their ideas beyond the whiteboard. Learn how to develop and scale your idea after hackUST.

PITCHING WORKSHOPS

Learn some hacks to nail your next big pitch.

SCHEDULE Click the buttons to learn more

PRE-HACKATHON EVENTS DAY 1: SATURDAY April 16,2016 DAY 2: SUNDAY April 17,2016 PLATINUM SPONSOR GOLD SPONSOR SILVER SPONSOR SUPPORTING UNITS "A recipient of the President's 1-HKUST Student Life Award (2015-16 Spring)" CO-ORGANIZERS

Copyright (c) 2016 hackUST

Enquiry: hackust2016@gmail.com

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RPg Summer Camp for Elite Students 2016 Date(s) : 3 Jul 2016 (Sun) - 9 Jul 2016 (Sat) Venue : HKUST Campus, Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park, Ngong Ping & Lantau Island, etc. Organizer(s) : HKUST School of Engineering Target Audience : Elite students in the globe Language : English Enquiries : Miss Kammy Chan (23588353) The Summer Camp for Elite Students is open for senior undergraduate students and master's students who demonstrate outstanding qualities of academic performance, research potential, and communication skills. This exciting Summer Camp is a combination of leadership training session, research talks, lab tours, industry visits, interactive activities as well as off campus sight-seeing. It gives participants the opportunity to explore their research interest and have diversity exposure. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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16 / 03 / 2016 Faculty Achievements Recognized in SENG Research Excellence Awards 2015-16

Three outstanding faculty members have had their achievements recognized through the School of Engineering Research Excellence Awards 2015-16. The decisions are the result of a rigorous review by the Engineering Research Award Selection Committee, which is chaired by Prof Hoi Sing Kwok and includes Prof Guohua Chen, Prof Chung Yee Lee, Prof Irene Lo, Prof Qian Zhang and Prof Tianshou Zhao.

Distinguished Research Excellence Award Prof Qiang Yang

This year’s Distinguished Research Excellence Award, the most prestigious accolade, was awarded to Prof Qiang Yang, Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Prof Yang is a world leader in transfer learning, an important subfield of machine learning, data mining and big data. Transfer learning solves a long-standing challenge in data mining and machine learning, where it is often difficult to obtain high-quality labeled training data. Prof Yang was among the first to have designed a series of transfer learning solutions to compute the domain and dataset differences and to extract useful common knowledge to enable knowledge transfer.

Prof Yang’s solutions made use of instance-based transfer, feature-based transfer, and heterogeneous subspace transfer for transfer learning. A classic paper is his paper at the 2007 International Conference on Machine Learning, in which he and his students proposed a system known as TrAdaboost to improve the generalization ability in a target domain by boosting the weighted instances in auxiliary data. Another approach is to exploit the feature spaces and find common component subspaces to enable the transfer in transfer component analysis. His paper titled “A Survey on Transfer Learning” is a must-read in the transfer learning area, and has had 1,779 Google Scholar citations at the time of the nomination. He was also the first to propose the use of transfer learning in collaborative filtering and recommender systems, which has been applied to large-scale electronic commerce applications. His transfer learning solutions won the 2005 ACM KDDCUP competition on a dataset with over 800,000 real-world queries, as well as winning the 2012 Nokia Mobile Data Challenge in two out of three categories.

Prof Yang has also been well recognized in the engineering and science communities. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has been invited to give numerous invited and keynote talks in such top conferences as Conference of the Association for Computational Linguistics, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining. At present, he has a Google Scholar citation of more than 25,000, where many are attributed to his works on transfer learning, data mining and AI Planning. He also has a Google Scholar h-index of 77 at the time of the nomination.

Research Excellence Award Prof Daniel P Palomar

The Research Excellence Award went to Prof Daniel P Palomar, Professor of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering.

Prof Palomar’s research on optimization has had a profound impact on the engineering research community. He has particularly excelled at combining mathematical tools with practical engineering applications.

One example is his series of papers where he successfully employed the mathematical theory called majorization theory in the design of optimal signaling for multi-antenna communication systems. In his groundbreaking paper in 2003, he solved a long-standing open problem precisely by employing majorization theory, which at the time was an unheard of mathematical tool in his research area. That paper gained a number of awards including the 2004 Young Author Best Paper Award by the IEEE Signal Processing Society and became a Highly Cited Paper (ISI Web of Knowledge) with 1,000+ citations. More recently, his work on distributed optimization methods for big data systems is drawing significant attention from the research community and has received the 2015 Young Author Best Paper Award by the IEEE Signal Processing Society. Currently, he is exploring signal processing and optimization methods in financial engineering.

Prof Palomar has published three books, six book chapters, 74 published journal papers with an h-index of 42 and about 9,000 citations, and holds seven Highly Cited Papers (ISI Web of Knowledge). He is an IEEE Fellow for “contributions to convex optimization-based signal processing for communications” and a Fellow of the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study.

Young Investigator Award Prof Zhiyong Fan

The Young Investigator Award went to Prof Zhiyong Fan, Associate Professor of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Prof Fan is a rising star at SENG. He joined the ECE Department in May 2010, after three years of postdoctoral research at University of California, Berkeley. As a young and innovative scientist, he has been very active in solar energy and nanotechnology research. He has invented a number of world-leading technologies with great impact on his research field. For example, he has invented a set of technologies to harvest sunlight more efficiently using various three-dimensional nanostructures. With these technologies, the performance of solar cells can be significantly improved. He has also invented a technology that can achieve self-cleaning function on solar panels, which has attracted broad interest from solar industry. These researches have significant long-term impact on the sustainable development of Hong Kong and the rest of the world.

As an associate professor with early promotion in 2015, Prof Fan has published over 60 peer-reviewed research papers in the past five and a half years ever since he joined HKUST in 2010. Many of them were published on top-tier journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Energy and Environmental Science, Nano Letters, and IEEE Electron Device Letters. In 2014, he was named by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) as one of the top 1% highly cited authors in the RSC journals. Including his previous publications, also on top journals such as Nature Materials and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, he has published over 100 journal articles which have received over 9,000 Google Scholar citations with an h-index of 43. This achievement is truly rare and exceptional in his age.

Acting Dean of Engineering Prof Tongxi Yu said that he was happy to see the achievements of the faculty members. “We continue to sustain our leadership position as a research powerhouse to make contribution to the humanity,” he noted. “With our top-notch faculty members, we are proud to be one of the best education hubs in Asia.”

The Engineering Research Excellence Awards scheme was established in 2011. The annual honors highlight academics who are at different stages of their careers and their contributions to respective fields. It also aims at recognizing and rewarding faculty members for their research impact and contributions in a local, regional and global context. The Distinguished Research Excellence Award honors a distinguished faculty member with exceptional research achievements and significant impact at the local and global scenes. It is the most prestigious award among the three. The Research Excellence Award recognizes the efforts of an outstanding faculty member with a proven record of research excellence. The Young Investigator Research Award recognizes the achievements of a promising and rising faculty member.

Criteria for the awards include originality of research output, impact on society and the field, research training provision for students, and leadership in national and international collaborative partnerships. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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23 / 03 / 2016 Prof Guohua Chen Elected AIChE Fellow

Prof Guohua Chen, Head and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the organization’s highest grade of membership which recognizes service to the profession and significant professional accomplishment.

Demonstrating long-term excellence in research and education, Prof Chen is not only a world-renowned expert in electrochemical technologies for environmental and energy applications, but also an authority in solid drying, especially freeze drying of high value products. He has completed over two dozens of research and development projects in the past decade, graduated 10 PhD students and 27 master’s students, and is currently supervising 10 PhD and 6 master’s students.

A prolific scholar with great impact in his field, Prof Chen has published over 230 journal papers which received more than 9,000 SCI citations with a SCI h-index of 48. He also holds two US patents and six Chinese patents and is the recipient of the School of Engineering Research Excellence Award in 2011.

He has been active in the academic field and has served as a conference organizer, evaluation panelist, and on the editorial board of prestigious journals. For example, he is an associate editor-in-chief for Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering published by Chemical Industry Press and Elsevier and an editor of Separation and Purification Technology published by Elsevier. Highly respected in his field, Prof Chen is a well sought-after speaker to give keynote or plenary lectures at national and international symposia and is the President of Asian Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of FDG Kinetics, a Hong Kong listed company focusing on advanced materials for electric vehicles.

AIChE is the world's leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 50,000 members from over 100 countries. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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02 / 03 / 2016 Prof Huamin Qu Received Merit Award in APICTA Awards 2015 Prof Huamin Qu

Prof Huamin Qu, Computer Science and Engineering, received the Merit Award in the e-Learning category of the Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2015 held in Sri Lanka for his work on Visual Analysis of Massive Open Online Courses (VisMOOC).

VisMOOC is the first visual analytic system to provide interactive, in-depth and user-friendly analysis of e-learning behavior for MOOCs. The system creates a useful way for instructors to find out more about how learners use MOOC videos so as to improve teaching quality and tailor design and implementation of course materials in line with participants’ needs.

The APICTA Awards program aims to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the digital divide. Hong Kong captured a total of 10 awards, out of 185 entries, and is the best result among the 14 participating economies.

Other than the APICTA Merit Award, the same project of Prof Qu had earlier received the Best Innovation (Innovative Technology) Silver Award at the Hong Kong ICT Awards in 2015. Related Link(s) APICTA 2015 Winners and Merits HKUST Develops First Visual Analytic System on E-learning Behavior VisMOOC Won HKICT Innovation Award

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繁體 简体 21 / 03 / 2016 MAE Department Received State-of-the-Art Equipment Donation from Beijing Jingdiao Faculty members from the School of Engineering and representatives from Beijing Jingdiao Co Ltd [Download Photo]

Beijing Jingdiao Co Ltd (JD), a leading five-axis machine manufacturer in China, and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of HKUST signed the Joint Development Agreement on March 10. Under the agreement, JD donates a state-of-the-art high-precision five-axis machine (worth more than RMB1 million in market price) and the accompanying CAD/CAM software to HKUST and will collaborate with HKUST on research topics such as tool path generation, cutting force, kinetic and kinematic performances in five-axis machining. The machine, which was officially handed over to the department on March 10, is expected to be widely used in teaching, research and demonstration activities in the University.

Five-axis machines play a crucial role in various engineering disciplines such as aerospace engineering. They are an essential part in the manufacturing of high-precision aero components such as blades of aero engines. JD provides five-axis machines and CAD/CAM software for big names in the industry such as Apple, Foxconn, and has wide collaboration with Mainland universities.

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12 / 01 / 2016 Alumnus Ir Dr Derrick Pang Received Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong 2015 Ir Dr Derrick Pang was awarded the Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong (YIAH) 2015 by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries. [Download Photo] 2014 Civil Engineering PhD alumnus Ir Dr Derrick Pang was awarded the Young Industrialist Award of Hong Kong (YIAH) 2015 by the Federation of Hong Kong Industries for his contribution to the industry and society. Currently the Deputy Chairman of Chun Wo Development Holdings Limited, Dr Pang shares the valuable insight he gained from the PhD studies and his memorable experience in leading Chun Wo.

1. Why did you want to do a PhD program at HKUST? How did the thought of studying a PhD start?

Originally I didn’t think of or plan to study a PhD program! It was more a wish of my late father than my own. Back in the old days, my father didn’t have the chance to go to university or study a PhD program, so I guess he wanted me to fulfill his unrealized dream. With recommendation from a professor friend of my late father, my relationship with HKUST began as a PhD student in Civil Engineering.

2. How was your study experience in the PhD program? Was it more difficult or easier than you expected? Did you gain any insight from the experience?

There are not many things in my life that I feel proud of, but getting this PhD degree is one of them. It is not because of how big or small the achievement is, but because of the considerable effort I put into it. I faced a lot of struggles throughout the course of studies, and these experiences enabled me to learn much more about myself and to be a better person. For example, in the past, I did not understand the reasons behind my colleagues’ lack of effort in their duties. If people are not interested in their tasks, they will not be engaged. During the first few years of my PhD studies, I was merely going through the motion, and only once I got interested into the subject of my research, I can focus on my work. Therefore, at work, the answer is not to manage colleagues from procrastinating but how can tasks be structured to stimulate colleagues and establish engagement.

3. Did you encounter any difficulties during your PhD studies? How did you overcome and what did you learn from them?

I encountered quite a lot of difficulties during my PhD studies and there was a time when I nearly gave up. My father passed away around my fourth year of studies. At that time, I had to put aside my studies for two years to focus on looking after my company. I had finished collecting research data in my first two years, and I needed to start writing the thesis. My supervisor Prof Charles Ng also called me because of such delay. He encouraged me not to give up easily and shared his insights with me. At that time, my brother also told me that I should not give up easily. Taking both Prof Ng’s and my brother’s advice, I decided to grit my teeth and continue with the PhD program. There are times in life that we all need a little push and encouragement. That was the time.

Since then, I set a schedule for myself, I targeted to do my thesis daily so that I can catch up gradually. As I got into a routine, I found that things got more interesting. When I explored more and learnt more from my research project, my interest grew and I was more engaged in it. As time went by, I found that the final stage was not the most difficult because I got the gist of it.

The process of obtaining a PhD degree enabled me to understand myself better and know what I was made out of. I always think I am a tough person, but still cannot escape from the moment of giving up. Most importantly, I think having strong determination in reaching a goal can definitely be a driving force to make an achievement.

4. Why are you interested in your particular area of focus?

My focus is on geotechnical engineering. My master’s degree in MIT is also on geotechnical engineering. I am interested in it because it requires more interpretation and application of basic theories rather than following a code book.

5. What were your role and responsibilities when you first joined Chun Wo and how did they change over the years? How did the early-day experience help you as you later moved to the management level?

I joined Chun Wo in 2001. In the first three years, I was in construction sites where I learned to run projects from the operational perspective. Those three years are extremely important to me because even nowadays I draw on those experiences to solve problems that I face. My proactive attitude also created ample opportunities where I can learn. I would often be the one to roll up my sleeves and get myself into that particular job from time to time.

In those days I was quite strong headed with people, not receptive to others’ opinions and did not compromise. Such strong personality might fit if I am just to oversee projects, but not if I am to manage the whole company. After the initial three years I moved to the head office where my father had trained me to be a person with a broader perspective. He was very demanding of me and I didn’t understand why he treated me so harsh. But now as I looked back, my father was preparing me for the reality before I came to realize it. Whether you can succeed depends on hard work and the support from other stakeholders.

6. How is it like to lead a big company like Chun Wo? What major initiatives did you introduce and how successful are they?

After my father passed away, my brother and I continued to pursue transforming our company. Instead of focusing on system only, we also focused on the corporate culture. We introduced vision, mission and core values in our company four years ago. We have seven “C”s in our core values in which a key one is “Commitment” which means “We build trust through commitment”. I believe that is the building block in working in the construction industry. It is because people only trust you if you can fulfill your promise. The contracts we signed in the construction industry are multi-year contracts, and we are signing up for a long-term relationship. The biggest challenge is how to let our key stakeholders (not just our clients, but also suppliers and fellow colleagues) feel that we fulfill our promise when we finish the job. To achieve this, continuous communications and solving problems with our stakeholders together throughout the process would enable us to fulfill our promise. I think this core value has completely changed our corporate culture. I would say that the achievement of our company to date is a result of our colleagues’ trust in the company.

7. What is your most memorable experience in leading your company?

One memorable experience I would like to share is the tough times our company was facing during 2003-09. Due to the dramatic decrease of workload, by more than 50%, in the industry, our business has to downsize because we didn’t have enough projects. In order to keep our colleagues in the company, especially the long-serving ones, we had no choice but to reduce the salary. Even though the economy recovered afterwards, I kept thinking how I should prepare ourselves to handle similar crisis because those difficult times would come again. I would consider myself lucky to have dealt with the crisis in such an early time. That experience serves as a good reminder that there are solutions for even the most difficult problems, and we just work as a team to devise and execute.

This experience also made me think about the future during the boom times. The company needed a strategy to maintain its workload even during down times in Hong Kong. Our plan is to expand to overseas and into the real estate business with the help of strategic partners. We introduced a strategic shareholder China New Way to Chun Wo last year and reduced our shares to 10%. It injected capital to our company and gave us lots of opportunities for development. For example, we now have new projects in different places worldwide and we have diversified our business into overseas property development and management and also construction finance, aside from construction business. This major change gives our company higher stability and provides our colleagues with bigger room for development outside Hong Kong.

8. How did you help young engineers in your company develop their careers?

We launched the “Elite Training Program” 10 years ago to groom fresh graduates. The reason for setting up this is because I hope my colleagues have a wider perspective to understand the construction progress, from operations, commercial, safety, and other administration. Trainees under this 7-year program will rotate to different departments in the first three years. They would be placed in each department for three to six months and learn to make judgments from various roles. They should be able to understand the difficulties and problems faced by each position. I hope that in the future when they become managers, they could handle tasks from a wide perspective rather than focusing on their own job area.

After the three years in the initial stage, they would choose their most interested area for further development in the second stage. The special part about this program is that I would often spend time to meet the trainees so that they get to know more about me, and I also learn about their strengths and weaknesses. I hope that with my understanding of them, I could offer them useful advice when they encounter problems. I enjoy having developed trust between us through building up a strong working relationship.

9. Any advice will you give to engineering students in university who will start their engineering career soon? What are the essential qualities future engineers should possess?

Being innocent and having ideals are privileges of the young generation, but as we grow and experience difficulties and failures, our passions for such ideals often fade away. Many of us would not remember when exactly we started giving up; eventually we become indifferent to ideals that were once dear to us. While these experiences can be discouraging and sometimes painful, these mental scars define who we are and will be the guiding stars for our future encounters. Such maturity would also give us better perspectives of problems that our city and people are facing. Because we have become one of them. Do not shy away from these failures and difficulties, and by facing these difficulties day by day, we will persevere. Painful processes will become meaningful experiences. Actions stirred by emotions are short-lived, and only with perseverance can we achieve sustainable progress on the ideals that we once are so passionate about.

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01 / 04 / 2016 Alumni Series: Women in Engineering – meet Andrea Villaroman BEng in Chemical and Bioproduct Engineering (2013), HKUST; Master of Translational Medicine (2014 ), UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco; First US undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at HKUST; Currently Clinical Research Coordinator and Project Manager at UC San Francisco

Andrea Villaroman is the first undergraduate student from the US in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBME) at HKUST, graduating in 2013. She is now working in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as Clinical Research Coordinator and Project Manager.

1. Engineering has traditionally been a male-dominated profession. Why did you choose to study engineering for your undergraduate studies?

At the time I had to choose my undergraduate discipline, I had medicine and engineering in mind. My preference was a discipline in which I could spend less time studying and more time serving people. In the US, medicine means at least eight years of studying before you can serve people – this was too long for me. So I chose engineering.

I also found that as an engineer, I can make a great contribution to the medical field where critical thinking and innovation are paramount. For instance, I can make solid improvements to the electronic medical record systems. Also, clinical engineers can improve the layout of hospitals and the clinical workflow. 2. Why did you choose to come to Hong Kong for your undergraduate studies?

By nature I am adventurous and I had always looked forward to studying abroad. So upon completion of high school, I started to apply for universities abroad. Hong Kong is the heart of Asia and a place of East meets West. In addition, it has a flexible admission system which accepted both my SAT and AP scores and the language of instruction is English, which is my native tongue.

After submitting my application at HKUST, I had a lot of communication with Prof Ying Chau, who gave me great encouragement and I was even offered a full-tuition scholarship.

3. What did you find most memorable about your days at SENG?

We had some very unusual experiences, like buying pig hearts from the wet market for experiments, visiting a neurological unit in a hospital, and of course winning the Silver Award in the HKUST President’s Cup!

In my soul searching, I received a lot of guidance from Prof Ying Chau and Prof Henry Lam. Both believed in my potential and provided solid support when I faced various difficulties in Hong Kong. Indeed, the hours they spent on me guiding me through my academic and personal life were a million times more valuable than any recommendation letter they wrote for me. Because of their influence, I decided to accept, among other attractive graduate school options, an offer at a joint UC San Francisco / UC Berkeley program (Master of Translational Medicine) which placed me at the heart of engineering, healthcare and business disciplines in the dynamic and innovative San Francisco Bay Area.

4. What exactly do you do now?

The San Francisco Bay Area is a funny place – almost everyone knows, or wants to learn, a programming language. In my current position as Clinical Research Coordinator at UCSF, I manage our databases using SQL, a very important project in my lab, and I have started my own data analysis project using Python. Actually, neither SQL nor Python were skills I learned in my undergraduate studies in chemical engineering. So I am learning on the job, but I know full well that the experience will be valuable in our future, which is very much driven by technology and data. I see biomolecular engineering and biotechnology principles in action but I look at them from a patient- and data-driven perspective.

It also happens that UCSF is very close to hospitals and patients, which are the targets I am going to serve in my career. After completing my master’s degree, I knew I wanted to shift my focus from pure engineering to a more patient-oriented world, such as clinical research.

So in short, you can say that my general goals are to enter hospital leadership and bring more engineering talent onto the frontlines of healthcare.

5. How did you get to where you are now, after graduation from HKUST?

I grew up in California so the US is my home. I had always wanted to move back and be an example to others.

I graduated from my undergrad studies at HKUST in May 2013 and went straight to a one-year master’s program jointly organized by UCSF and UC Berkeley. So I attended two graduation ceremonies! I have been working at UCSF for a year and I love the fact that I am at a teaching hospital where so much innovation takes place.

6. Could you quote an interesting achievement?

Sure! With the guidance of my previous boss at UCSF, I implemented and launched a pilot platform for eye cancer patients to log in and report how they are feeling. This data, called Patient Reported Outcomes, would be sent to our doctors for analysis with an aim to improve the quality of their care. Riding on this achievement, I was invited to Paris to give a presentation at the International Society of Ocular Oncology Conference Working Day.

7. What are your current projects and your next step forward?

The project I am now managing is called SuperAlarm, and we are creating a platform that will help predict cardiac arrests in intensive care units (ICUs) before they occur. If the project goes well, I may be entering the startup world. After that, I will consider furthering my education. For instance a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, but that will be far on my horizon.

The objective of the SuperAlarm project is to reduce alarm fatigue in hospitals. If you have been to an ICU, you will hear beeps all the time. When patients are put on monitors, if anything physiologically changes that goes beyond the normal threshold of, say, their heart rate or breathing rate, the alarm will go off. As ICU patients are suffering from a lot of abnormalities, the alarm goes off all the time. And because of this, the doctors and nurses tend to ignore these alarms because they just cannot cope with all of them (information overload!). And this may have dire consequences.

So the SuperAlarm project aims to reduce the number of these alarms by combining the monitor data and coming up with patterns using a machine learning approach. For instance, if a patient has had a cardiac arrest in the ICU, and they have a different sequence of alarms that is different from the control patients, the SuperAlarm platform will alert the doctor or nurse to pay close attention.

I joined my current lab because I had experience working with the electronic medical records in ocular oncology. So my professor wanted to train me further to be more of a data scientist and learn to analyze clinical data, and because I desired project management experience, he assigned me to manage this project.

My main focus is in healthcare technology, and with the rapid development of informatics, big data, and computer-user interaction, the healthcare system will be radically different a decade from now.

8. How do you feel about being a woman in engineering?

I am proud of this. Women typically have good communication skills and right now there is a great need for communicators between the engineering and clinical fields. Engineers primarily care about the science and data, while clinicians are more concerned about patients. So this is where I come in, as a bridge between both disciplines.

Now, my lab is very international in nature, and my experience at HKUST (a very international university) helps a lot in being an international communicator. It really helped that the CBME Department was and is very diverse, with a lot of international and female students. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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24 / 03 / 2016 Engineering Students won Global Youth Innovator Award in iCAN CES Show for Second Consecutive Year

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering MSc students Lixie Hu, Xiaoyang Liu and Hao Lu, supervised by Prof Yi-Kuen Lee, won the Global Youth Innovator Award for their De-snore project at the 2016 iCAN Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, US on 6-9 January 2016. It is the second consecutive year that School of Engineering students won the award.

The De-snore is a smart senor system devised to detect the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), monitor the sleep quality and make alerts when danger happens due to OSA. OSA is a very common disease, affecting at least 2-4% of the adult population and is increasingly known by the public. It is characterized by a partial or total collapse of the airway during sleep, resulting in sleep-related breathing disorders.

In the students’ project, a low-cost MEMS microphone has been successfully used to collect the audio signal from the patients while sleeping and a computer program was designed to calculate apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). If the AHI is larger than certain threshold, the smart system will automatically send an alert email and SMS. In addition, an Android app was also designed to monitor the patient’s OSA. The project attracted the interest of many people at the show, including senior engineers, venture capitalists and managers in international companies. Related Link(s) De-snore on Youtube 2016 iCAN Consumer Electronics Show SENG news on 2015 iCAN Consumer Electronics Show FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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14 / 03 / 2016 PhD Research Excellence Recognized in SENG Awards At the award ceremony: (from left) Prof Ping Gao, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; Prof Tongxi Yu, Acting Dean of Engineering; Prof Christopher Chao, Head of Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Edwin’s supervisor; Dr Edwin Chi Yan Tso; Dr Langston Wai Leung Suen; Prof Ying Chau, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Langston’s supervisor; Mr Enis Terzioglu, School of Engineering MPhil student and emcee of the ceremony [Download Photo]

Two recent graduates have been named the recipients of the School of Engineering PhD Research Excellence Awards 2015-16.

The awardees are Dr Langston Wai Leung Suen, 2015 graduate from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Dr Edwin Chi Yan Tso, 2015 graduate from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The School of Engineering has established the PhD Research Excellence Award scheme since 2011 in recognition of the outstanding achievements by its PhD students and recent graduates. The awards are granted to those who have made influential contributions to their discipline during PhD studies at HKUST.

Dr Suen’s research work at HKUST mainly focuses on ultrasound technology for ocular drug delivery applications. Current treatment for retinal diseases requires eye injection, which is highly invasive and known to have side effects. With the ultrasound technology, drugs can be delivered into the eye painlessly. This new technology is a revolutionary alternative to the eye injection treatment.

During the past four years, he investigated the mechanism of ultrasound on the transport enhancement and biological barrier modulation. He has published four high-impact journal publications including one in the Journal of Controlled Release and one in Controlled Release Society Newsletter. His research works were presented in five international conferences. In addition, one US patent is granted based on his research findings. Besides academic achievements, Langston founded Sonikure Technology Ltd in 2014 to transform his research excellence into a market-available medical device. The company became a Kairos Society Top 50 Global Startup in 2015. He received five awards in business competitions at local, regional and global levels, including the 2015 TiE International Business Plan Competition HK Chapter championship, Asia Region championship and Asia Rising Star Award; being a semi-finalist (top 9 out of 42 teams) in the 2015 Rice Business Plan Competition; and second prize in 2014 HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition. Notably, his research work was featured as a Moonshot in Google Solve for X. These achievements are all excellent proof of the high quality of his research work at HKUST.

Upon his completion of his PhD studies, Langston is currently managing the medical device company, dedicated to translating his research excellence into an approved product to benefit patients in need.

Dr Tso’s research work at HKUST mainly focuses on nanofluids heat transfer and adsorption cooling systems. Adsorption cooling systems can be an energy efficient strategy for smart green building operation since they need neither CFCs nor HCFCs and can be integrated with waste heat from industrial processes, boilers in hospitals and hotels, commercial kitchens, or solar panels, etc., thus greatly reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, adsorption cooling systems have not been widely commercialized due to their large size and low cooling efficiency. During the past five years, Edwin has built a prototype of an adsorption cooling system, together with a novel composite adsorbent as well as a high-performance adsorbate (nanofluids). Besides, he also developed a mathematical model for estimating the cooling performance of the adsorption cooling systems. These works have led to eight high-impact journal publications and he has presented his research works at six international conferences. Notably, his works have been cited over 83 times during the past five years. Moreover, one US patent, three Chinese patents and one Hong Kong patent are accepted based on his works, which shows that his works are not only academically interesting, but also have potential commercial value. In addition, two General Research Fund (GRF) grants totaling HK$2 million and one Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) grant of HK$3 million were also funded based on his PhD thesis work. He also won some competitive awards in the past few years, including the Fulbright-Research Grants Council Hong Kong Research Scholar Award 2014/15, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship (for Postgraduate Research Students) 2013/14, Hong Kong PhD Fellowship in 2012 and second prize in 2012 HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition. These achievements are all excellent demonstration of the high quality of his research work at HKUST.

Currently, he is working in Prof Christopher Chao’s team at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering for postdoctoral research.

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26 / 02 / 2016 HKUST Celebrated 25th Anniversary in San Francisco [Download Photo]

HKUST organized a highly-successful global alumni reunion in San Francisco on February 13, 2016, drawing over 150 alumni, friends, faculty and students to an inspiring seminar followed by an enjoyable dinner. The event was co-organized by the School of Engineering (SENG), with 70% of the participating alumni from engineering.

HKUST President Prof Tony F Chan kick-started the seminar with his opening remarks. He shared the latest developments of HKUST, including unique learning experiences such as tri-modal education, MOOCs and blended learning, new facilities such as the Water Sports Center, as well as the University’s continued rise in international rankings.

This was followed by an introduction by Prof Tim Cheng, Dean of Engineering Designate, updating the audience on SENG’s success stories, in particular the School’s milestones in the past five years.

A special speech was made by Dr Christopher Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO of Arimo on the topic of “Innovation: Silicon Valley vs China – What It Means for HKUST”.

The main part of the seminar, themed “The Role of HKUST in the East and West”, featured three well-received presentations. “Breaking New Ground: Aviation Education and Research at HKUST” by Prof Christopher Chao, Head and Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; “Artificial Intelligence Meets Data Science at HKUST” by Prof Qiang Yang, New Bright Professor of Engineering and Head & Chair Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; and “Leading the Way for a New Robotic Industry in China” by Prof Zexiang Li, Electronic and Computer Engineering.

The event concluded with a delightful dinner, during which three HKUST alumni gave a sharing and congratulated HKUST on its silver jubilee. Two of them were from SENG – Dr Junfeng Pan, 2008 PhD in Computer Science, and Mr Harry Kai Keung Chan, 1995 BEng in Electronic Engineering and 1997 MPhil in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Vice-President for Institutional Advancement Dr Eden Y Woon delivered a closing remark at the end of the dinner.

Guests who attended the gathering included Mr Bill Coughran, Partner of Sequoia Capital, Prof Cindy Fan, Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement, University of California, Los Angeles, Prof Alecia A DeCoudreaux, President of Mills College, Prof Alec Scranton, Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Iowa, Prof Mos Kaveh, Associate Dean for Research and Planning, University of Minnesota, and Prof Hsiu-Zu Ho, Associate Dean of the University of California Education Abroad Program.

In addition to Dr Christopher Nguyen, one of the seminar speakers and a former SENG faculty, there were a number of engineering ex-faculty members joining us. They were Drs Emily Au, Aaron Buchwald, Paul Chang, Yang Leng, Curtis Ling and K C Smith. The reunion provided a valuable opportunity for former and current faculty, alumni and students to catch up, share experiences and strengthen ties.

The celebration in San Francisco is one of the four worldwide gatherings held by the University to share its 25th birthday with alumni and friends in different parts of the world. The inaugural one was successfully held in London in Nov 2015, with upcoming ones in Beijing, Singapore, and the grand Gala Banquet will be held in Hong Kong on June 19, 2016.

The School also made use of the opportunity to visit alumni who are working or studying in San Francisco. These included visiting 16 alumni at Google Inc, five at Apple Inc, one each at Facebook and University of California, San Francisco, and two who are pursuing PhD at Stanford. They showed gratefulness to HKUST for offering them fruitful learning experiences and a multi-cultural environment while reminisced about the old days in such a stunning campus.

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21 / 12 / 2015 SENG Alumni Gathered in Shenzhen to Celebrate 25th Anniversary [Download Photo]

About 100 School of Engineering (SENG) alumni from Hong Kong and Shenzhen had a happy get-together in Shenzhen on December 12, 2015. The activity was organized in celebration of HKUST’s 25th anniversary and aims to strengthen bonding among Hong Kong and Shenzhen alumni.

The reunion kicked off at the HKUST Shenzhen Research Institute where alumni were warmly welcomed by Associate Dean of Engineering Prof C Y Tsui and had a tour of the institute. Following these were a number of sharing sessions featuring SENG entrepreneurs and their working partners. They included Ms Shu Lu, Director of the Institute of Motion Control, Googol Technology, Mr Anik Dey, 2010 BEng in Electronic Engineering and 2015 MPhil in Electronic and Computer Engineering, Chief User Experience Officer of Ivo Technologies Co Ltd, Mr Zhijian Liu, 2006 MPhil in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Founder and CEO of GMF Network Technology, and Mr Cheuk-lam Chan, 2011 BEng in Mechanical Engineering, Founder of CyberArts.

In addition, Mr Liang Cheng, 2009 MSc in Mechanical Engineering, General Manager of Yunzhou-Tech, and Dr Luke Lu, 2011 PhD in Civil Engineering, Assistant Director of HKUST Shenzhen Green Intelligence R&D Center, introduced the recent development in the field with the audience.

After a bustling afternoon, alumni and faculty enjoyed a delightful dinner, featuring lots of good food, wine and socializing. Acting Dean of Engineering Prof Tongxi Yu kicked off the proceedings with welcoming remarks. Prof C Y Tsui shared about the latest university development and the 25th anniversary celebration activities. Prof Bert Shi, Head of Electronic and Computer Engineering, provided an update of the department.

The dinner also included sharing of two alumni. Mr Dennis Tang, 1998 MPhil in Mechanical Engineering, Attorney Partner of Yingke Law Firm, spoke on “Intellectual Property and Legal Issues of Starting a Company in China”. He was from Hong Kong and now works in Shenzhen. Prof Haiyan Ming, who gained his PhD in Civil Engineering in 2001 and currently a professor at Shenzhen University, talked about promoting alumni events with HKUST alumni at Shenzhen University. He is one of the 50 plus HKUST alumni currently working at Shenzhen University.

The memorable occasion provided a wonderful opportunity for alumni in Hong Kong and Shenzhen to foster solidarity, expand networks and share work experiences.

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31 / 03 / 2016 Alumni Brothers Set Up Student Emergency Fund

The Student Emergency Fund, established by alumni Terry Tsang and Terence Tsang, provides financial assistance for HKUST students facing unforeseen financial emergencies and tragic events that may disrupt their studies. Terry is the Founder and CEO of Madhead, who gained his BEng in Civil and Structural Engineering in 2004 and MPhil in Civil Engineering in 2006. Terence is the Founder and CTO of Madhead, who completed his BEng in Computer Science (Information Engineering) in 2006.

Terry and Terence have contributed HK$2 million to the HKUST Alumni Endowment Fund to provide perpetual support to students in need, brining their accumulative donations to HK$3 million. Their strong devotion to help students in financial emergencies can be dated back to their university studies at HKUST. Their father, being the sole bread winner of the family, passed away while they were undertaking bachelor degrees and the family was in immediate financial hardship. Thanks to the emergency fund of the Student Affairs Office, their family was able to go through that rough time. This always reminds them of the importance of lending a helping hand to students in need.

+ ENQUIRY Students can simply call Scholarship and Financial Aid Office (SFAO) at 2358 6663 or email sfao.fa@ust.hk to enquire. FacebookTwitterEmailPrintMore

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