SENG News, Issue 25

Abstract

HKUST Receives HK$20 Million from Mr. Andy FEI Chi-En in Support of the University’s Innovation & Technology Research and Education Development HKUST has named an iconic facility at the academic building after Mr. Fei, as the “Fei Chi En Dream Team Open Lab”. Prof. CHEN Kai Designs Next-Generation AI Computing Hub and Sets New Paradigm His project was awarded HK$33 million funding in the Research Grants Council's Theme-based Research Scheme 2020/21. HKUST Researchers Develop the World's Strongest Polymer Nanomembrane The novel advanced material shows potential for multiple biomedical and environmental applications. Prof. WANG Jiguang Marries Math with Biology to Help Find Cure to Rare Brain Cancer He is pivotal in the development of a gene-guided treatment that has prolonged lives of some brain cancer patients. Novel Cathode Design Significantly Improves Performance of Next-Generation Battery Prof. ZHAO Tianshou’s research marks a big step towards the practical use of lithium–sulfur batteries. New Method Identifies Adaptive Mutations in Complex Evolving Populations Prof. Matthew MCKAY developed a method to study how HIV mutates to escape the immune system in multiple patients, which could inform HIV vaccine design. Prof. KWOK Hoi-Sing Named a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors Prof. Khaled BEN LETAIEF Named by Tunisian Government as Best Tunisian Researcher Living Abroad Prof. LI Zexiang Selected as a Model Innovator and Entrepreneur Geotechnical and Mobile Computing Innovators Elected as Fellows of Royal Academy of Engineering Prof. Pascale FUNG Elected a Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics Two Engineering Professors Named Highly Cited Researchers 2020 Prof. Matthew MCKAY Elected 2021 IEEE Fellow Prof. Francesco CIUCCI Elected a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry Prof. CHEN Qing Named Excellent Young Scientist by National Natural Science Foundation of China HKUST Won First Runner-Up in ABU Robocon Festival and 10th Championship in Robocon HK Contest The team was commended by the judges for their highest-speed robots in the competition and superb and futuristic presentation. HKUST Launches HK's First Degree Programs with Extended Major SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2019-20 Experiential Common Core Course Debunks Misconceptions About Food Students Gain STEM Internship Experience in Tech SMEs and Start-ups HKUST Announces Appointment of Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen as Vice-President for Administration and Business The appointment will start from July 1, 2021. Prof. Kei May LAU Shares her Approach to Life and Research She has never let her gender limit her aspirations and advises young women who dream of being successful professionals that deciding on their own destiny matters the most. Chemical and Biological Engineering Alumna, Students and Faculty Join Hands in Product Commercialization The "Design Come True" Experience of Developing Antimicrobial Hand Cream PhD Alumnus Dr. YAO Quanming Selected in Forbes China 30 Under 30 List If you have any difficulties viewing this email, please click here. SENG eNewsletter (Issue 25, Dec 2020) UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT TEACHING & LEARNING APPOINTMENT WOMEN IN ENGINEERING ALUMNI CONNECTIONS To comment: sengpr@ust.hk To unsubscribe: click here Copyright © 2020 School of Engineering, HKUST ALL Rights Reserved.

06/11/2020 Thumbnail Title Making History Prof. Kei May LAU Became the First-Ever Woman Recipient of IET J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics Content Banner Prof. Kei May Lau is the first-ever woman winner of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics since it was first presented 44 years ago. Prof. Kei May Lau is the first-ever woman winner of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics since it was first presented 44 years ago. [Download Photo] Body Prof. Kei May LAU, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the 2020 J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for her fundamental work in compound semiconductor materials and device physics.

Prof. Lau is the first woman winner of this prestigious international accolade since it was first presented in 1976.

Her work has not only led to the development of technologies critical to present-day energy-efficient and high-performance photonics and electronics, but also had major impact on current high-speed and low power optoelectronic devices for ubiquitous internet communication. She is one of the few female world-renowned researchers in the electronics and optoelectronics technology sector, and serves as a prominent role model for generations of women engineers entering this promising field.

The J. J. Thomson Medal is one of IET’s Achievement Awards. Recognizing some of the world’s top engineering talents, the IET Achievement Awards acknowledge individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the advancement of science, engineering and technology in any sector, either through research and development in their respective technical field or through their leadership of an enterprise.

Prof. Danielle George, IET President, said: “We are honored to present these talented individuals with our Achievement Awards. They have each excelled in their professions and have made a vast contribution as pioneers of important areas in the engineering and technology industries. They should all be very proud of their achievements – they are amazing difference makers.”

The winners, who were nominated by their peers, and selected by a panel of IET judges, are leading engineers and technologists across the globe.

“I am truly humbled and honored to be placed in the same league as other electronics giants such as Prof. HU Chenming (2019 winner),” said Prof. Lau.

Prof. Lau is internationally known for her work in heteroepitaxy of III-V photonics (lasers, LEDs and photodetectors) and electronics (millimetre wave, logic and power transistors), as well as GaN LEDs on Si substrates. Among her most notable work is the development of the world’s first bufferless telecommunication wavelength (1.5 micro-meter) III-V semiconductor lasers grown directly on industry-standard 220-nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The innovation heralds a way forward for achieving the long-sought and challenging goal of fully integrated silicon (Si)-based photonic integrated circuits with truly on-chip laser sources. Such significant global optoelectronic advance has brought the prospect of major improvements to the infrastructure of high-speed network communications in data centers one step closer, potentially leading to faster, cheaper services as well as novel applications once practically applied and integrated.

Prof. Lau was born and raised in Hong Kong. She went to the United States for her bachelor and master’s degrees in physics at the University of Minnesota and her PhD in electrical engineering at the Rice University. She worked on microwave devices at an engineering company in Massachusetts, before switching to academic at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she became a full professor in 1993. She joined HKUST in 2000 and established the Photonics Technology Center.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), The Optical Society (OSA), and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES). She has received numerous awards including the OSA Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award, the US National Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers, and the Hong Kong Croucher Senior Research Fellowship.

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SENG news (Nov 29, 2020): Prof. Kei May LAU Shares her Approach to Life and Research IET press release (Nov 6, 2020): World leading engineers win IET Achievement Awards Prof. Kei May Lau’s citation NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Optoelectronics Electronic and Computer Engineering Women in Engineering LED Lighting SHARE

The J. J Thomson Medal is a significant international award to honor distinguished contributions in electronics.

Supporting Students to Chase Their Dreams HKUST Receives HK$20 Million from Mr. Andy FEI Chi-En in Support of the University’s Innovation & Technology Research and Education Development Content Banner Mr. Andy Fei Chi-En (left) and Prof. Wei Shyy, President of HKUST, officiate at the naming ceremony. Mr. Andy Fei Chi-En (left) and Prof. Wei Shyy, President of HKUST, officiate at the naming ceremony. [Download Photo] Body The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) received a donation of HK$20 million from Mr. Andy FEI Chi-En for the enhancement of HKUST’s development in innovation and technology (I&T), research and education.

This donation will be used to set up a fund called the “Fei Chi En Education and Research Fund” in support of HKUST’s I&T research projects and related facilities. HK$2 million of it will be used to set up a scholarship called “Y-Lot foundation scholarship” under the name of Y-Lot Foundation founded by Mr. Fei, to reward students with outstanding academic achievements and encourage them to strive for excellence.

In appreciation of Mr. Fei’s benevolent support, HKUST has named the “Dream lab” - an iconic facility at the academic building where students and teams across schools and disciplines work together to turn their I&T ideas into projects or prototypes for competitions - after Mr. Fei, as the “Fei Chi En Dream Team Open Lab”.

The naming ceremony was held at HKUST today (December 16). Mr. Andy Fei Chi-En and Prof. Wei SHYY, HKUST President, officiated at the ceremony and unveiled the commemorative plaque of the Lab. Ms. Elaine WONG, Vice-Chairman & Secretary General of Y-Lot Foundation; Prof. Lionel NI, HKUST Provost; Prof. Yang WANG, HKUST Vice-President for Institutional Advancement, and other senior executives of both parties attended the ceremony.

Mr. Fei praised HKUST’s tireless efforts in encouraging innovation and nurturing I&T talents over the years. “Hong Kong has broad space for innovation and technology development, and our young people have great potential to become one of the driving forces behind the trend. Through our collaboration with HKUST, we hope we are able to create a platform which allows more space for I&T research for young people, so as to support them to chase their dreams, develop more innovative products, and drive the development of I&T industry in Hong Kong,” he said.

HKUST President Prof. Wei Shyy said he was grateful for Mr. Fei’s generosity and trust in the University. “We share the same mission with Mr. Fei on nurturing talents with global vision and commitment to serve the society. Mr. Fei has been supporting youth development all along and we are very thankful for the flexibility that he has given us on the allocation of the donation. The University will continue to promote cross-disciplinary learning and provide our students with an open and diverse study environment, to equip them with the skills required in resolving current and future societal challenges.”

About the Y-Lot Foundation Founded in 2016, the Y-Lot Foundation is a charitable non-profit organization focusing on youth development. With the aim of “To Give, To Love, To Share”, the Foundation seeks to help youngsters build positive attitude and values through collaborations with various sectors of the community, so as to encourage them to stay independent, positive and optimistic toward study and life, and to bear social responsibility in different roles with versatility and a clear mind, after they step into the society.

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2020. Its graduates were ranked 26th worldwide and among the best from universities from Asia in Global University Employability Survey 2020.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Donation Research and Technology University Development SHARE

Mr. Andy Fei Chi-En (third left), Prof. Wei Shyy (third right), Prof. Tim Woo (second right), Founding Director of Center for Global & Community Engagement, School of Engineering, and students unveil the commemorative plaque. Mr. Andy Fei (seventh left); Prof. Wei Shyy (sixth right); Ms. Elaine Wong (sixth left), Vice-Chairman & Secretary General of Y-Lot Foundation; Prof. Lionel Ni (third right), HKUST Provost; Prof. Yang Wang (second right), HKUST Vice-President for Institutional Advancement; other senior executives of both parties and students attend the ceremony.

17/11/2020 Thumbnail Title Building the Brain of Hong Kong as a Smart City Prof. CHEN Kai Designs Next-Generation AI Computing Hub and Sets New Paradigm Content Banner Prof. Chen’s research sets a new paradigm for Hong Kong as a smart city. Prof. Chen’s research sets a new paradigm for Hong Kong as a smart city. [Download Photo] Body Prof. CHEN Kai, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), excels in building big projects from scratch. Born and bred in rural China, he is now the brain behind what will become Hong Kong’s ‘brain’ in future – the next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) computing hub for the entire city that encompasses smart bus schedules, taxi dispatch, typhoon warning, medical diagnosis, fintech and others. As the key scientist collaborating with the government to set up the IT infrastructure for Hong Kong’s smart city development, the professor is setting a new paradigm for the decades to come.

Setting new paradigm for Hong Kong’s AI hub Hong Kong’s Smart City Blueprint, announced by the government in 2017, aims at using innovation and technology to address urban challenges, enhance effectiveness, and improve quality of living and sustainability. It covers smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, smart government, and smart economy.

Awarded Research Grants Council’s Theme-based Research Scheme funding in July this year, Prof. Chen is working with the government to build the infrastructural core of the city’s AI hub. Leveraging on his high-performance distributed machine learning framework for graph-based streaming data with smart city applications, Prof. Chen will lead his research lab, intelligent System Networking (iSING), to conduct research on the next-generation AI computing hub. The hub will enable researchers and practitioners to participate in data collaboration through a high-performance privacy-preserving computing platform that will drive Hong Kong’s smart city applications.

His brainchild, the next-generation AI computing hub for smarter Hong Kong, boasts the benefits of having high performance and privacy preservation. “Firstly, there is high performance as we can handle big data within short time frames, often reducing work duration from weeks to days or even hours for certain processes. This is done by training up our models with data analytics and machine learning. Secondly, there is privacy preservation as we use encryption to enable technologies that can learn from data and do so without disclosing identities in relation to the data.”

Take hospital data for instance. Whereas individual hospitals need to protect data of their own patients, there is need for the medical community to combine data from different hospitals to enlarge the sample size for research. To address hospitals’ concerns, Prof. Chen and his team deploy advanced encryption technologies such that data can be combined to establish models for collective learning and disease diagnosis. Most importantly, the encrypted data somehow never leave individual hospitals. This is a milestone in privacy preservation. The same principle applies to financial services across banks.

His AI-enabled smart city infrastructure and applications, with millions of nodes to represent different entities and locations including buildings and road intersections in continuous data streams, have the advantage of enhancing efficiency and convenience. Currently working with the Transport Department and the Hong Kong Observatory, Prof. Chen’s team has collected massive spatial-temporal graph-based city data in various aspects. These data can be leveraged by deep neural networks such as graph convolutional networks to build powerful models for different smart applications. Planning to apply their machine learning methodology to optimize the Hong Kong transportation system, the team’s research can be applied to the reduction of waiting time and traffic jam by smart bus scheduling, flexible rearrangement of directions regarding traffic lanes during rush hour, as well as prediction of passenger hot spots for taxi dispatch.

With the government grant, Prof. Chen will continue to build the mega AI system with data center and cloud computing capacities to drive transportation optimization, healthcare, fintech and other areas for the entire Hong Kong. Prior to this, he had been building the system in his lab with his students and had generated impact in Google, Nvidia, Huawei etc with their designs adopted. “I have been building the system since as early as 2012 when I joined HKUST, and it involves time-consuming research on hardware, software, design, theories and implementation. We now anticipate that this AI computing platform system will be open to HKUST faculty by 2021, and to all local universities by 2022. It will ultimately be adopted by the whole city.”

Pioneer in AI As a young professor barely in his late 30s, how did Prof. Chen rise to the important position he is assuming now?

Born and bred in a small village with only seven families in Anhui province in Mainland China, he had learned to be persistent and resilient since a young age. “From my village, I had to walk 10km, or two hours every day across a small mountain to go to school in town and return home. My family used to raise goats for meat to be sold in the market, and I played with the goats after school. My dad was a teacher. I was aware of my sensitivity to numbers when I was young. For example, I can remember the 11-digit phone numbers by just looking at them once.”

When he was a teenager in the 1990s, his parents took him for a short trip to Shanghai. The experience of going to a big city for the first time became a memorable episode in his life and sowed the seeds for studying abroad later. “Growing up in a rural village surrounded by big mountains, I was extremely excited and impressed when I saw the contrasting scene in the modern city full of skyscrapers and people. I learned that the world is colourful and it inspired me to go out and explore when I grew up.”

Always coming first in class, the hardworking and outstanding student later became one of the only two in his junior middle school to be promoted to a prestigious senior high school in his province. He then went on to the University of Science and Technology of China in Anhui’s capital Hefei for bachelor’s and master’s degree studies in computer science. “At that time, computer science was becoming popular and I foresaw that it would be very useful. Also, my interest in math and sensitivity to numbers provided a solid foundation for my studies.”

He attained his goal of seeing the world when he pursued doctoral studies, also in computer science, at Northwestern University in Chicago, US between 2007 and 2012. In late 2008, he read one of the first papers about data center and cloud computing just as the emerging field was beginning to become popular. “I was very interested and I knew it would become huge and influential,” he said. He has been pursuing this topic ever since. No wonder he refers to his time at Northwestern as an experience that changed him a lot.

In August 2009, one month after his first child was born, he went from Chicago to Beijing’s Microsoft Research Lab for a three-month internship. Feeling most inspired and returning to the US in the Fall, he was so fascinated that he worked for several months non-stop, even during Christmas and New Year when there was no one else in the university’s computer laboratory, to write a paper on data center and cloud computing. His efforts paid off and the paper was accepted by the flagship conference in the field, ACM SIGCOMM, as a Best Paper Candidate in August 2010 when he was still a PhD student. The achievement of publishing his paper in an international conference, known for its extremely low acceptance rate, marked a turning point in his life.

“My wife was very supportive; she sacrificed a lot to make that happen,” he said. Today, he talks about his three children, aged 11, eight and one, with a big, happy smile. He has also continued to contribute to the conference with the first two homegrown papers from Hong Kong in ACM SIGCOMM 2016. He explained the challenge behind his research. “Unlike theory research, research on data center and cloud computing requires a lot of time to build a real system using many computers. So it could take two to three years to build one system for one paper.” (To learn about the hard work behind, read the article on the CSE Department’s WeChat public account.)

As one of the few who started working on cloud computing back in 2008 and who continues to work on cutting-edge research, he is now the Executive Vice-President of the Hong Kong Society of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (HKSAIR). With Hong Kong’s AI and robotics research quickly developing and receiving lots of government attention, he hopes to accelerate the process by contributing to AI cloud computing infrastructure that lays the foundation for faster applications, algorithms, and models.

Setting goals The professor finds HKUST a quiet and peaceful place for research, which is also conveniently located near urban hubs. “As the best university in Asia, HKUST has one of the top computer science and engineering departments and engineering schools. I enjoy the mix of Asian and Western cultures, the academic and research environment as well as the beautiful campus here. I can easily visit my parents in my hometown in China.”

Being diligent and target-oriented, Prof. Chen encourages young people to set goals. “Falling in love with and pursuing cloud computing since 2008, I can tell from my personal experience that one has to follow one’s passion. It is important to set goals at different stages and work towards them. Work hard, and never give up.”

21/12/2020 EN 繁 简 Thumbnail Title Showing Potential for Multiple Biomedical and Environmental Applications HKUST Researchers Develop the World’s Strongest Polymer Nanomembrane Content Banner Prof. Gao Ping (second left), her PhD student Gu Qiao (second right), as well as Cheung Shu-Kwan (first left) and Walter Lee (first right) from Design and Manufacturing Services Facility of HKUST Prof. Gao Ping (second left), her PhD student Gu Qiao (second right), as well as Cheung Shu-Kwan (first left) and Walter Lee (first right) from Design and Manufacturing Services Facility of HKUST [Download Photo] Body Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed an ultrathin polymer nanofilm, which is not only 25 times stronger1 than stainless steel with the same mass, but is also extremely transparent, gas-permeable and water-proof with adjustable porous properties, making it suitable for use as wearable devices, medical protection, desalination, electronics, solar cells and many other cutting-edge technologies.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team led by Prof. GAO Ping, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Acting Head of the Advanced Materials Thrust at HKUST(GZ), has been studying how to build a transparent and breathable face mask with their novel advanced material. After months of efforts the team has finally produced a prototype with a 99% filtration efficiency for virus, bacteria and particulate matters under tests in line with NIOSH NaCI (N95 respirator testing standard)2.

“This novel material has many potential, but since the pandemic struck, we focus on turning our nanofilm into a face mask that is not only transparent and breathable, but is also highly efficient against virus and bacteria, as we haven’t yet seen one in the market which bears all three properties,” said Prof. Gao. “While common opaque surgical masks can protect the wearer from infection, they are not convenient for the hearing-impaired people who need to communicate via lip reading and facial language; or teachers, child carers or performers who rely heavily on facial expressions in teaching, nurturing or performance.”

Apart from face mask, the team has also filed six other patents for the material’s application in other areas. The nanofilm’s adjustable porous property, for example, has made it the world’s most potent polymeric membrane for membrane distillation desalination so far, with an efficiency 10 times higher than existing products in the market and almost three times above world record.

Meanwhile, its conformity, antibacterial, transparent yet strong properties has also made it an ideal material for various biomedical causes, including a new generation of wound dressing which requires no daily replacement and allows direct application of medicine.

“Wound dressing made with this nanofilm is particularly useful for patients who suffer large-scale burns,” said Prof. Gao. “It acts like a temporary skin to the burn victim. Doctors can apply medicine directly over the film, which would filter through to the wound beneath. As the film is completely water-proof, wearers can even take a shower without fearing of wetting the wound.”

The material also makes a much better motion sensor for people, as it can be adopted for the design of robotic motions. Apart from biomedical and environmental use, the nanofilm can also be applied to electrical appliances, such as nanovibrational speaker with higher resolution of audio output or ultrathin batteries and high-energy density capacitors.

This nanofilm developed by the team - measuring just 20 nanometers or less than one thousandth the thickness of a hair strand - is made from the ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) - a light-weight material used in bullet-proof vest. It was very difficult to reduce UHMWPE to nanoscale as the powder-like material breaks at a certain level under the conventional methodology which stretches it in opposite directions to change the intrinsic orientation of the disordered and entangled polymeric chain.

But Prof. Gao found a way to detangle the polymer chains. Similar to applying conditioner to smoothen the hair, Prof. Gao’s team put UHMWPE into a lubricant and transform the material into a gel form, successfully enhancing its drawability while preventing the polymer chains from knotting. The team is thus able to rearrange the polymer chains into a topologically triangulated stable structure - a structure where some of the strongest material built upon.

Prof. Gao’s PhD student GU Qiao as well as CHEUNG Shu-Kwan and Walter LEE from Design and Manufacturing Services Facility of HKUST have helped designing the transparent face mask.

1. Stronger in terms of specific strength. While strength is commonly known as the amount of force a material could bear per unit area, specific strength is another concept which takes density into account. For example, steel and titanium can hold the same amount of force in the same area but titanium has higher specific strength as it is lighter than steel. Specific strength is especially important in the field of aerospace technology, as lightweight but robust mechanics are necessary for making aircrafts.

2. Sodium Chloride Aerosol Challenge (NaCl) is a respirator prequalification test adopted by The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to evaluate particle penetration and air flow resistance properties of a variety of filtration materials. This testing method is much stricter than U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved surgical mask testing method. More details on this video

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2020. Its graduates were ranked 26th worldwide and among the best from universities from Asia in Global University Employability Survey 2020.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Research Advanced Materials and Technology Innovation Chemical and Biological Engineering

21/10/2020 Thumbnail Title The Altruistic Mathematician Prof. WANG Jiguang Marries Math with Biology to Help Find Cure to Rare Brain Cancer Content Banner Prof. Wang Jiguang contributes to biomedical research with expertise in applied mathematics. Prof. Wang Jiguang contributes to biomedical research with expertise in applied mathematics. [Download Photo] Body Traditionally, mathematics and biology were considered to be two separate streams. Prof. WANG Jiguang on the other hand, an applied mathematician having a crossover with bioinformatics, is shedding light on biomedical research to give hope to patients with one of the deadliest types of cancer.

Uncovering the mutational mechanism of secondary glioblastoma (sGBM), a rare and an extremely deadly brain cancer, and discovering mechanisms to explain why glioma patients progress into sGBM and develop chemo-resistance, Prof. Wang is pivotal in the development of a gene-guided treatment that has prolonged lives of some patients.

Determined to bring hope “Young kids with malignant brain cancers were running around in hospital wards but some of them were going to die within months. Parents of babies, severely sick, did not know what to do. Some doctors told parents to give up since surgeries would only prolong the pain of their kids and could hardly prolong their lives for more than a year,” said the young HKUST assistant professor with joint appointments at the Division of Life Science and the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, recalling his work-related visits to hospitals.

“This is very sad. As a parent of two kids, I do not want to see this desperation in others. Hoping to help patients and parents see the future, I encourage my students to work harder together.” The strong will to help others becomes huge driving force for his research and studies.

The kind-hearted scientist aspired to help others since a young age. “As a child, I wondered why people got sick and how they got healed. Fascinated by mathematics and physics, I had the dream of becoming a scientist when I grew up.”

Born in Hebei province in Mainland China, he was raised in a family of teachers. Interestingly, his educated and liberal-minded parents always encouraged him to go out and play, and did not give him much pressure.

Being self-motivated, the young Wang was a frequent winner of national mathematics competitions. Achieving First Class in the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad during the last year of senior high school, he was admitted into the Beijing Institute of Technology directly and was waived from taking the National College Entrance Examination.

It was the time when information technology was hottest and the big data era was coming. There was a saying in China, “If you master the skills of mathematics, physics and chemistry, you can go anywhere in the world without fear (學好數理化，走遍天下都不怕).” As an undergraduate student of Information and Computational Science, Wang continued to reap awards in competitions including the Chinese Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, and the four-day International Mathematical Contest in Modeling during which team members stayed awake overnight to work out solutions.

All sciences become mathematics With superb performance, he was accepted by the Master-cum-PhD program in Applied Mathematics specializing in Operations Research and Cybernetics from the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science (AMSS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He had the postgraduate entrance examination waived because of his outstanding academic results.

He later pursued postdoctoral research at Columbia University in the United States, where he was named as an Irving Institute Precision Medicine Fellow. There, he integrated data of cancer patients from different hospitals to learn about cancer mutations. Specializing in computational biology and bioinformatics, he helped biologists and clinicians solve their biomedical problems by analyzing enormous amount of data using statistics and machine learning.

Yet how did the mathematician tackle biological and medical fields professionally? “Be question-driven and ask important questions. When you try hard to answer questions, do not be limited by the method or approach. For instance, when we tackle a rare disease, we cannot be limited by only one discipline. That gives us the motivation to learn new things and not to stay in our own comfort zones. Also, whereas many science disciplines are already well-developed, biology and medicine are relatively young with lots of room for exploration; I like challenges,” the problem-solver replied.

“All sciences, at higher levels, become mathematics. They become data with the need for data analysis, and thus we have to think quantitatively.”

The road less traveled Glioblastoma (GBM), the rare brain cancer that he is tackling, has seen little research breakthrough in the past 15 years. The disease, affecting three to four persons among 100,000 persons per year, is one of the deadliest types of cancer. While it can be treated with surgery or an oral chemotherapy drug called temozolomide (TMZ), most of the malign tumors would mutate and return again with mortality rate reaching almost 100%. It has no cure and patients on average only survive for 15 to 16 months. So why did he choose this field?

“I want to bring hope to patients. If we can understand the mutation mechanism, there are some chances that people get treated. Even though most attempts may be unsuccessful, we still keep on trying. It is indeed challenging,” said the professor.

To explore GBM from different perspectives, Prof. Wang is working on a few major projects. He leads an HKUST team in his Wang Genomics Laboratory and collaborates with Beijing Tiantan Hospital to uncover the mutational mechanism of sGBM. Analyzing and integrating genomic data of 188 patients with a specifically designed computational model, the team found that about 14% of patients displayed mutations in the gene METex14 – the gene that the team had identified as the major culprit for aggressive progression.

He also plays a leading role in an international team co-led by HKUST, Beijing Neurosurgical Institute and the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) that has discovered a mechanism to explain why a subgroup of patients develops chemo-resistance. These findings potentially allow early identification of drug-resistant brain cancer patients. Locally, he is collaborating with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales Hospital to expand samples to local patients since the beginning of this year.

Comparing big data among patients in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Korea, the team found that cancer cells of these patients see similar changes after drug treatment, and the changes seem different from those of Caucasians. There are various mutations among Asian patients, who are nevertheless less likely to contract the disease than Caucasians.

“Ultimately, patients will develop drug resistance. Yet knowing why and how that works may help us overcome it.” Prof. Wang recalled that some patients asked him whether or not they should continue taking drugs. Although he is not a doctor and does not provide treatment, he can provide data analysis to help patients receive optimized disease management.

Led by Beijing Tiantan Hospital, a new drug is now undergoing clinical trial, and two patients out of 18 have had good response. Their tumors shrank or were even reduced to become almost non-existent. Their life expectancies have been prolonged for a couple of months.

“I feel driven to help patients suffer less, since research is supposed to serve people. Unlike some other types of cancer that are close to having cures, treatment for GBM has lots of room for improvement. My team published a paper in the journal Cell in 2018, and I believe it was accepted because it really helps people. As data scientists, we develop tools that can be used for this disease as well as other diseases.”

The generous scientist shares his results on open platforms. “Whereas researchers in certain fields may be less open about sharing their findings, in our field people help one another. We get data from others, and we share ours with others.”

Reaping awards The young professor, who is barely in his mid 30’s, has received a number of awards. He was named a National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)’s 2019 Excellent Young Scientist (EYS), which is one of the most prestigious awards for young scientists under 38 and involves a RMB1.3 million research grant. He is among the first batch of scholars in Hong Kong and Macau to be awarded since it is open to applicants from the two special administrative regions last year.

Prior to that, he has published more than 18 papers with an impact factor higher than 10, including papers in top journals such as Nature, Cell, Nature Genetics and Nature Communications. His study has been selected as China’s top 10 research advances in life science in 2018 by the China Union of Life Science Societies. He also recognized with the School of Engineering Young Investigator Research Award 2018-19 at HKUST.

Being genuinely humble, Prof. Wang stated that he was far from being successful. “I just tried to do whatever I think is important to society and to the world.”

HKUST being family-friendly The father of two always talked about his two lovely daughters with deep affection and happy smiles. “The best thing about my five years doing postdoctoral research in New York was the birth of my two daughters.”

Today, his daughters aged six and eight enjoy playing at HKUST’s seaside. “I did not see the seafront when I first came for job interview on a foggy day after much jet lag. Then when I came on board four years ago, I found the campus most beautiful and my kids love it.”

He was attracted to HKUST by world-renowned scholars such as Prof. Nancy IP and Prof. ZHANG Mingjie who interviewed him. After talking to department heads and faculty members from dawn to dusk during two fully-packed days of interviews, he knew HKUST was the place to be.

“It is most important to have great colleagues at HKUST. There is good environment, and we are most grateful to be able to reside on this scenic and family-friendly campus.”

Finding one’s own question Having supervised close to 12 postgraduate students and several postdocs thus far, he is pleased that his students get a variety of awards including the School of Engineering Top Research Postgraduate Award, George K. Lee Foundation Scholarship, School of Science Postgraduate Research Excellence Award, Joseph Needham Merit Scholarship, and one of his former postdocs has already started working at Tencent in Shenzhen.

“Young people need to ask questions; asking questions is more important than finding answers. Students need to ask their own questions, as everyone has a different question in life. Find the right field and right route for yourself, and do not think too much about status and all that. Be yourself, and never give up.”

Needless to say, this altruistic and non-calculating attitude is fully manifested by the young and high-achieving professor himself.

Related links:

HKUST press release (5 Aug, 2020): HKUST Researchers Uncover Chemo-resistance Mechanism in Glioma Patients HKUST press release (8 Dec, 2018): HKUST Researchers Discovered Mutation Route That Helps Find New Therapeutic Lead for Deadly Brain Cancer Patients NEWS TAGS News Tags Biomedical Engineering Cancer Genomics Research Recognition Teaching and Learning Chemical and Biological Engineering

01/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Practical Cell Development of Li–S batteries Novel Cathode Design Significantly Improves Performance of Next-Generation Battery Content Banner Prof. Zhao Tianshou with his research group Prof. Zhao Tianshou with his research group [Download Photo] Body Ateam led by Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering and Environment Prof. ZHAO Tianshou, Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of HKUST Energy Institute, has proposed a novel cathode design concept for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) battery that substantially improves the performance of this kind of promising next-generation battery.

Li–S batteries are regarded as attractive alternatives to lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that are commonly used in smartphones, electric vehicles, and drones. They are known for their high energy density while their major component, sulfur, is abundant, light, cheap, and environmentally benign.

Li–S batteries can potentially offer an energy density of over 500 Wh/kg, significantly better than Li-ion batteries that reach their limit at 300 Wh/kg. The higher energy density means that the approximate 400km driving range of an electric vehicle powered by Li-ion batteries can be substantially extended to 600-800km if powered by Li–S batteries.

While exciting results on Li–S batteries have been achieved by researchers worldwide, there is still a big gap between lab research and commercialization of the technology on an industrial scale. One key issue is the polysulfide shuttle effect of Li-S batteries that causes progressive leakage of active material from the cathode and lithium corrosion, resulting in a short life cycle for the battery. Other challenges include reducing the amount of electrolyte in the battery while maintaining stable battery performance.

To address these issues, Prof. Zhao’s team collaborated with international researchers to propose a cathode design concept that could achieve good Li–S battery performance.

The highly oriented macroporous host can uniformly accommodate the sulfur while abundant active sites are embedded inside the host to tightly absorb the polysulfide, eliminating the shuttle effect and lithium metal corrosion. By bringing up a design principle for sulfur cathode in Li–S batteries, the joint team increased the batteries’ energy density and made a big step towards the industrialization of the batteries.

“We are still in the middle of basic research in this field,” Prof. Zhao said. “However, our novel electrode design concept and the associated breakthrough in performance represent a big step towards the practical use of a next-generation battery that is even more powerful and longer-lasting than today’s lithium-ion batteries.”

Their research work was recently published in Nature Nanotechnology under the title “A high-energy and long-cycling lithium–sulfur pouch cell via a macroporous catalytic cathode with double-end binding sites”.

Team members from HKUST include Prof. Zhao and his current PhD students ZHAO Chen, ZHANG Leicheng, and former PhD student REN Yuxun (2019 graduate). Other collaborators include researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and Stanford University in the US, Xiamen University in Mainland China, and Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia.

NEWS TAGS News Tags Energy Research and Technology Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

01/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Better Treatments Against HIV New Method Identifies Adaptive Mutations in Complex Evolving Populations Content Banner Mutant frequency trajectories exhibit complex dynamics due to linkage affects. Top left panel shows frequency trajectories of all mutant alleles, the lower three panels on the left show the trajectories of beneficial/neutral/deleterious mutants in blue/orange/red. The right panel shows their estimated fitness values using the proposed inference method. Vertical lines indicate the true fitness values. Mutant frequency trajectories exhibit complex dynamics due to linkage affects. Top left panel shows frequency trajectories of all mutant alleles, the lower three panels on the left show the trajectories of beneficial/neutral/deleterious mutants in blue/orange/red. The right panel shows their estimated fitness values using the proposed inference method. Vertical lines indicate the true fitness values. [Download Photo] Body Aresearch team co-led by a scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a method to study how HIV mutates to escape the immune system in multiple patients, which could inform HIV vaccine design.

HIV, which can lead to AIDS, evolves rapidly and attacks the body’s immune system. Genetic mutations in the virus enable it to evade immune responses mounted by T cells and antibodies, which makes it all the more difficult to design an effective solution. While there is no effective cure for the virus currently available, it can be controlled with medication.

Now, the international research team has devised a new method from conventional statistical physics to reveal patterns of selection in HIV evolution using 14 patient data sets, providing a means to efficiently distinguishing the mutations that help the virus escape the immune system from those that are only random variations.

“Our novel method enables us to sort out which genetic changes provide an evolutionary advantage from those that offer no advantage or have a deleterious effect,” said Prof. Matthew MCKAY, a Professor from the Departments of Electronic and Computer Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering, who co-led the study with Prof. John BARTON, an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Riverside.

“The method is quite general and could be used to study diverse evolutionary processes, such as the evolution of drug resistance of pathogens and the evolution of cancers. The accuracy and high efficiency of our approach enable the analysis of selection in complex evolutionary systems that were beyond the reach of existing methods,” he added.

“Understanding the genetic drivers of disease is important in the biomedical sciences,” said Prof. Barton. “Being able to identify genomic rearrangements is key to understanding how illnesses occur and how to treat them.” Notable examples of genetic drivers of disease include mutations that allow viruses to escape from immune control, while others confer drug resistance to bacteria.

“It can be difficult, however, to differentiate between real, adaptive mutations and random genetic variation,” he added. “The new method we developed allows us to identify such mutations in complex evolving populations.”

“However, it is computationally difficult to extract this information from data,” he said. “We used methods from statistical physics to overcome this computational challenge. Our method can be applied generally to evolving populations and is not limited to HIV.”

Some well-known diseases that have known genetic causes are cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, colorblindness, and Huntington’s disease.

“Our approach isn't limited to HIV, but there are a few reasons why we focused on HIV as a test system,” Prof. McKay said. “HIV has an extraordinary capability to mutate within humans to escape from the immune system. However, the details of these immune escape dynamics are not well understood. If we can gain a clearer picture of how HIV evolves within a person, this may help to develop better treatments against the virus.”

Their findings were just published in high impact scientific journal Nature Biotechnology on November 30, 2020.

The research team also consists of postdoctoral fellow Dr. Muhammad Saqib SOHAIL of HKUST and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Raymond LOUIE of the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales in Australia, who were joint first authors on the paper.

(This news was originally published on EurekaAlert on Nov 30, 2020.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Research Innovation HIV Biomedical Science Electronic and Computer Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering

17/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Prolific Spirit of Innovation Prof. KWOK Hoi-Sing Named a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors Content Banner Display technologies expert Prof. Kwok Hoi-Sing is recognized as a truly prolific academic inventor. Display technologies expert Prof. Kwok Hoi-Sing is recognized as a truly prolific academic inventor. [Download Photo] Body Prof. KWOK Hoi-Sing, Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been elected a 2020 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia.

The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors.

A total of 175 prolific academic innovators from 115 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide are elected to the 2020 fellow class. They collectively hold over 4,700 issued US patents. Among them are recipients of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Nobel Prize, as well as other honors and distinctions. They will be inducted at the 2021 Fellows Induction Ceremony at the NAI 10th Annual Meeting in June in Tampa, Florida.

Prof. Kwok studied with Prof. Nicolaas BLOEMBERGEN (Nobel Laureate, 1981) at Harvard University, where he received his PhD degree in Applied Physics in 1978. He joined the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at HKUST in 1992. An expert in display technologies and nanotechnologies, Prof. Kwok has published over 700 journal and conference papers, written three monographs and edited six conference proceedings. He holds more than 90 patents and is active in technology transfer. He is the Executive Director of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Displays and Optoelectronics Technologies.

Prof. Kwok is a Fellow of The Optical Society (OSA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society for Information Display (SID), and Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES). He is also an elected member of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM). He was awarded the prestigious 2019 Jan Rajchman Prize by SID.

NAI has inducted fellows into the organization since 2012. To date, it has 1,228 fellows worldwide representing more than 250 prestigious universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes.

Related link:

NAI news (Dec 8, 2020): National Academy of Inventors Announces 2020 Fellows

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Electronic and Computer Engineering Innovation Nanotechnology Optoelectronics

15/09/2020 Thumbnail Title Recognition from Home Prof. Khaled BEN LETAIEF Named by Tunisian Government as Best Tunisian Researcher Living Abroad Content Banner Prof. Khaled Ben Letaief was presented with the national accolade for the Best Tunisian Researcher or Inventor Abroad by Tunisian President Kais Saied on the national science day. Prof. Khaled Ben Letaief was presented with the national accolade for the Best Tunisian Researcher or Inventor Abroad by Tunisian President Kais Saied on the national science day. [Download Photo] Body Prof. Khaled B. LETAIEF, New Bright Professor of Engineering and Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, was awarded Tunisia’s national accolade for the Best Tunisian Researcher or Inventor Abroad. A maximum of one award is given every year based upon the review of a national committee.

Held on the national science day, the award ceremony was presided by the President of Tunisia Kais SAIED and government officials and was broadcast live on national TV.

Prof. Letaief is an internationally recognized leader in wireless communications and networks with research interest in artificial intelligence, big data analytics systems, mobile cloud and edge computing, tactile Internet, 5G systems and beyond.

He served in many high-level administrative positions in universities, including Dean of Engineering (2009-2015) and Head of Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (2003-2009) at HKUST, and Provost of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (2015-2018) in Qatar. He also took leadership roles in professional societies, such as President of the IEEE Communications Society (2018-2019), the world’s leading organization for communications professionals, and Founding Editor-in-Chief (2002-2006) of the well-regarded IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

In his research areas, he has over 640 papers with over 37,500 citations and an h-index of 88. He has given keynote talks as well as courses all over the world. He also has 15 patents, including 11 US inventions, and served as a consultant for different organizations, such as Huawei, ASTRI, ZTE, Nortel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Motorola.

Over the years, he has received numerous prestigious awards and honors. These include a top 30 internet of things scholar on the 2020 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar List by Tsinghua University; 2019 Distinguished Research Excellence Award by HKUST School of Engineering; 2019 IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award; 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award; 2016 IEEE Marconi Prize Award in Wireless Communications, and 2011 ISI Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters. He is also a Fellow of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and HKIE (Hong Kong Institution of Engineers).

Other than research achievements, he has earned many teaching excellence awards, including the 1998 Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching, HKUST’s top teaching award for one outstanding educator across all Schools annually, Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award by HKUST School of Engineering on four occasions, and 1990 Mangoon Award for Best Graduate Instructor by Purdue University.

Prof. Letaief holds BS with distinction, MS, and PhD degrees, all in Electrical Engineering, from Purdue University in the US. He was a faculty member at the University of Melbourne in Australia before joining HKUST in 1993.

Related link:

Facebook post of Embassy of Tunisia in Beijing (Sept 14, 2020)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Wireless Communications Networking and Computer Systems Research Electronic and Computer Engineering

20/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Top 40 in 40 Years Prof. LI Zexiang Selected as One of the 40 Model Innovators and Entrepreneurs for the 40th Anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Content Banner Prof. Li Zexiang is recognized as a model innovator and entrepreneur who made distinguished contribution to the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Prof. Li Zexiang is recognized as a model innovator and entrepreneur who made distinguished contribution to the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. [Download Photo] Body Prof. LI Zexiang, Colin Lam Ko Yin Professor of Engineering and Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, was selected as one of the 40 model innovators and entrepreneurs for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone by the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government.

Prof. Li is the Chairman of the Changsha Intelligent Driving Institute, Googol Technology (Hong Kong) Limited, Songshan Lake Xbot Park, and DJI.

He was among the earliest Mainland China students to study robotics in leading US research universities in 1980s. He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, his MA degree in Mathematics and PhD degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as a research scientist in the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of MIT and later as an assistant professor in the Robotics and Manufacturing Laboratory of New York University, before joining HKUST in 1992 in its formative days. He is the Director of the HKUST Automation Technology Center, which he set up in 1998.

He has been an appointed member of the Hong Kong government’s Committee on Innovation, Technology and Re-industrialization since 2017. He received “The InnoStars Award” by Our Hong Kong Foundation in 2018. He and his former student Frank Wang, who is CEO & Founder of DJI, are the recipients of the prestigious IEEE Robotics and Automation Award in 2019.

An exemplary academic-entrepreneur, Prof. Li has been committed to bringing lab results to the market and helping students to be entrepreneurs. He hopes to make use of his own entrepreneurship experience to develop a sustainable and systematic model to train innovative talents when they are still students.

The 40 honorees have made distinguished contributions in driving the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone over the past 40 years. They are the role models who dare to reform, innovative and explore, making influential impact on technological innovation, management innovation, system innovation, and cultural innovation. They are determined to break new ground, overcome technical difficulties, innovate business models, and lead the development of their fields and industries.

Related link:

HKUST WeChat news (Oct 17, 2020): 港科大李澤湘教授獲評為深圳經濟特區建立40週年創新創業人物和先進模範人物 NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Innovation Entrepreneurship Robotics Electronic and Computer Engineering

07/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Prestigious International Fellowships Geotechnical and Mobile Computing Innovators Elected as Fellows of Royal Academy of Engineering Content Banner Prof. Charles Ng Wang-Wai (left) and Prof. Hui Pan were elected as the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Fellow and International Fellow respectively. Prof. Charles Ng Wang-Wai (left) and Prof. Hui Pan were elected as the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Fellow and International Fellow respectively. [Download Photo] Body Two engineering faculty members were recently elected as 2020 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) in the United Kingdom in recognition of their outstanding and continuing contributions to the profession.

CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability and Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof. Charles NG Wang-Wai, who also serves as the Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School, was named a Fellow. Prof. HUI Pan, Computer Science and Engineering, was named an International Fellow.

They are among the 53 leading engineers from the UK and around the world elected this year. The new Fellows will add their expertise to a fellowship of almost 1,600 eminent engineers from both industry and academia. They join the academy on a mission to use the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and create an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

RAEng President Sir Jim MCDONALD said: “As the UK’s National Academy for engineering and technology, we bring together an unrivalled community of leading business people and industrialists, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics from every part of engineering and technology.

“The new Fellows are among the most talented and successful engineers working in the field today, leaders in areas from transport and our essential data infrastructure to lifesaving developments in medical research. We look forward to working with them and benefiting from their ideas and insight as we strive to inform public debate and provide workable solutions to our shared national and global challenges.”

Prof. Charles Ng Wang-Wai’s citation (from the RAEng website)

Elected President of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering in 2017, Prof. Charles Ng is a civil engineer with expertise in the interaction of soils and structures. An authority on unsaturated soils, and on landslide risk mitigation, he has been an associate editor of Canadian Geotechnical Journal and Landslides since 2002 and 2003, respectively.

He collaborated with botanists to define the benefit of ‘greening’ slopes in the Far East, using plant roots both as reinforcement and to maintain helpful suction. He leads a multi-disciplinary team aiming to reduce the threat of landslides and fast debris flows using novel multiple flexible barrier systems, enhancing safety and improving the environment.

Prof. Hui Pan’s citation (from the RAEng website)

Prof. Pan Hui has made significant contributions to multiple aspects of the field of mobile computing and communications. The work spans a wide spectrum from foundational work on mobility characterization and networking approaches, to the design and development of software systems, to conceptualization and engineering of innovative applications. The work is documented in around 300 research papers that have received over 16,000 citations according to Google Scholar.

His innovative work has resulted in 28 published European and US patents and four patents under submission. All his patents have been transferred or licensed to companies (e.g. Deutsche Telekom, AT&T, and China Mobile). Overall, Prof. Hui’s extensive body of work is extremely impressive and has inspired numerous examples of follow on work by leading researchers in the field.

Related links:

Academy welcomes 53 leading UK and international engineers as new Fellows (Sept 22, 2020) Biography of Prof. Charles Ng Wang-Wai Biography of Prof. Hui Pan

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Geotechnical Engineering Scientific Computation Civil and Environmental Engineering Computer Science and Engineering

21/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Contributions to Statistical NLP Recognized Prof. Pascale FUNG Elected a Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics Content Banner Prof. Pascale Fung is recognized for her significant contributions toward statistical NLP, comparable corpora, and building intelligent systems that can understand and empathize with humans. Prof. Pascale Fung is recognized for her significant contributions toward statistical NLP, comparable corpora, and building intelligent systems that can understand and empathize with humans. [Download Photo] Body Prof. Pascale FUNG of Electronic and Computer Engineering was elected a 2020 Fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) for her significant contributions toward statistical natural language processing (NLP), comparable corpora, and building intelligent systems that can understand and empathize with humans.

The fellows program recognizes ACL members whose contributions to the field have been most extraordinary in terms of scientific and technical excellence, service to the association and the community and/or educational or outreach activities with broader impact. Nine fellows are elected for 2020.

Prof. Fung’s research interest lies in building intelligent systems that can understand and empathize with humans. To achieve this goal, her specific areas of research are using statistical modelling and deep learning for natural language processing, spoken language systems, emotion and sentiment recognition, and other areas of AI. She is the Director of HKUST Center for AI Research (CAiRE) and co-founded the Human Language Technology Center. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).

Prof. Fung has been active in providing professional services to the international community. She is an expert on the Global Future Councils, a think tank for the World Economic Forum, and she represents HKUST on Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society. She is on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and is a member of the IEEE Working Group to develop an IEEE standard - Recommended Practice for Organizational Governance of Artificial Intelligence. She is a past president and a board member of the ACL Special Interest Group on Linguistic Data and Corpus-Based Approaches to NLP. Her research team has won several best and outstanding paper awards at ACL annual meeting, ACL and Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) workshops.

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Human Language Technology Artificial Intelligence Data Science Women in Engineering Electronic and Computer Engineering Computer Science and Engineering

02/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Making Cross-Field Impact Two Engineering Professors Named Highly Cited Researchers 2020 Content Banner Named 2020 Highly Cited Researchers, Prof. Zhao Tianshou (left) and Prof. Jang Jyo Kim were among the world’s most influential researchers who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade. Named 2020 Highly Cited Researchers, Prof. Zhao Tianshou (left) and Prof. Jang Jyo Kim were among the world’s most influential researchers who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade. [Download Photo] Body Two professors from the Department of Mechanical an Aerospace Engineering have been named on the Highly Cited Researchers 2020 list by Clarivate.

They are Chair Professor ZHAO Tianshou, Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering & Environment and Director of HKUST Energy Institute, and Professor Emeritus Jang Kyo KIM. Both of them were recognized in the cross-field category that identifies researchers with substantial influence across several fields. This is the sixth time Prof. Zhao received the honor and second time for Prof. Kim since the list was introduced in 2014.

The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the 11-year period from 2009 to 2019. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

In 2020, fewer than 6,200, or about 0.1%, of the world's researchers, in 21 Essential Science Indicators research fields and across multiple fields, have earned this exclusive distinction. The researchers come from more than 60 countries and regions.

Related link:

2020 Highly Cited Researchers list and executive summary NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Research and Technology Scholarly Publications Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

23/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Prestigious Fellowship Prof. Matthew MCKAY Elected 2021 IEEE Fellow Content Banner Prof. Matthew Mckay Prof. Matthew Mckay [Download Photo] Body Prof. Matthew MCKAY, Departments of Electronic & Computer Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the class of 2021, bringing the total number of IEEE Fellows among School of Engineering faculty members to 42.

Prof. McKay was recognized for his contributions to random matrix theory in statistical signal processing. His research interests include communications and signal processing, random matrix theory, high-dimensional statistics, financial engineering, and computational biology/immunology.

Prof. McKay has received multiple awards in his high-achieving career. These include 2010 Young Author Best Paper Award by the IEEE Signal Processing Society, 2011 Stephen O. Rice Prize by the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), 2011 Young Investigator Research Award by the School of Engineering at HKUST, and 2013 Best Young Researcher Award (Asia Pacific Region) by IEEE ComSoc.

Prof. McKay serves as the Area Editor of Feature Articles for the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. Previously, he served on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and of the mathematics journal, Random Matrices: Theory and Applications. In 2018, he was selected as a Young Scientist of the World Economic Forum. In 2020, he was selected to participate in the World Laureates Forum as a Young Scientist.

The IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. It is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. IEEE members total over 419,000 in more than 160 countries. The number of fellowship recipients each year does not exceed 0.1% of the total voting IEEE membership.

Related link:

Newly elevated 2021 IEEE Fellows

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Research Data Analytics Electronic and Computer Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering

16/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Advancing Solid-State Materials Chemistry Prof. Francesco CIUCCI Elected a Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry Content Banner Prof. Francesco Ciucci Prof. Francesco Ciucci [Download Photo] Body Prof. Francesco CIUCCI, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering, was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). The honor is conferred to individuals who have made major contributions to chemistry, including solid-state materials chemistry.

Prof. Ciucci’s current research centers on solid-state energy storage and conversion technologies. His group uses materials chemistry to design high-temperature reversible fuel cells and solid-state batteries. His research articles have been featured in major journals, including Nature Chemistry, Advanced Energy Materials, Chemistry of Materials, and Chemical Reviews.

He pursued his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, US, where he was supported by the internationally renowned Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. Before joining HKUST, he did his postdoctoral work at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he received a Heidelberg Graduate School Fellowship and a Marie Curie Reintegration Grant from the European Union (2010-2013). Prior to his PhD, he graduated with a dual MSc degree in Engineering Science (~applied physics and applied mathematics) at Ecole Centrale Paris, France, and in Aerospace Engineering (cum laude) at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Founded in 1841, RSC is a world-leading chemistry society based in the United Kingdom and is the largest organization in Europe for advancing chemical sciences. Its membership totals over 54,000 worldwide. RSC fellows hold positions of influence in the community and have invaluable experience, expertise and commitment to promoting the value of chemical science.

NEWS TAGS News Tags Recognition Chemistry Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering

22/09/2020 Thumbnail Title Young Pioneer in Energy Storage Prof. CHEN Qing Named Excellent Young Scientist by National Natural Science Foundation of China Content Banner Prof. Chen Qing will conduct research on percolation dissolution and nanoporous metals for electrochemical energy storage with the award funding. Prof. Chen Qing will conduct research on percolation dissolution and nanoporous metals for electrochemical energy storage with the award funding. [Download Photo] Body Prof. CHEN Qing, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was named a 2020 Excellent Young Scientist (EYS) by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He will receive RMB 1.2 million over a period of three years to conduct pioneering research on percolation dissolution and nanoporous metals for electrochemical energy storage.

The NSFC-EYS is one of the most prestigious honors for young scientists (under 38 for male and under 40 for female) in China. It supports promising scholars who have already achieved good results in basic research to pursue innovative research in self-chosen areas and aims to foster the rapid development of young talents who will eventually be at the forefront of world-class scientific and technology research.

The EYS scheme was first open to Hong Kong and Macau scholars last year. Each year, only 25 scientists from the two regions are selected. A total of five HKUST faculty members were awarded this year, including Prof. Chen Qing as well as Prof. LIU Junwei, Prof. PAN Ding, Prof. WANG Yi (all from Physics) and Prof. YU Man (Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management).

Related links:

NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Scheme HKUST-led Research Successfully Develops Rechargeable Liquid Fuels to Power Electric Vehicles and Electricity Grid (Aug 29, 2019)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Energy Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Award

14/12/2020 Thumbnail Title Never Give Up HKUST Won First Runner-Up in ABU Robocon Festival and 10th Championship in Robocon HK Contest Content Banner (Back row, from right) Prof. Tim Woo, Director of the Center for Global & Community Engagement, and Associate Professor of Engineering Education; and Dr. Crystal Fok, Chairperson of Robocon 2020 Hong Kong Contest Organizing Committee, and Director of AIR Platform and Precision Engineering, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, together with the leaders (front row, from right) Yiu Cheuk-Tung and Lam Cheuk-Hei as well as members of the HKUST Robocon Team (Back row, from right) Prof. Tim Woo, Director of the Center for Global & Community Engagement, and Associate Professor of Engineering Education; and Dr. Crystal Fok, Chairperson of Robocon 2020 Hong Kong Contest Organizing Committee, and Director of AIR Platform and Precision Engineering, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, together with the leaders (front row, from right) Yiu Cheuk-Tung and Lam Cheuk-Hei as well as members of the HKUST Robocon Team [Download Photo] Body The HKUST Robocon Team won three awards, namely the First Runner-Up, Best Presentation Award, and a Special Award in ABU Robocon Festival 2020, which was joined by 21 winning teams from 11 places in Asia-Pacific on December 12. Organized annually by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the ABU Asia-Pacific Robot Contest (ABU Robocon) was held online for the first time this year as “Robocon Festival” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The HKUST team was commended by the judges for their highest-speed robots in the competition and superb and futuristic presentation. The Special Award was selected by the sponsor Nagase Brothers Inc. for their robots’ excellent agility. Their robots can accelerate and decelerate quickly, but at the same time can catch the rugby balls softly and gently.

Previously on September 6, the team formed into two sub-teams and scooped three awards in the Robocon 2020 Hong Kong Contest, which was organized annually by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) to nurture future engineers with a passion for robotics. The War Dragon sub-team was crowned champion, which marked HKUST’s 10th championship in the contest since 2004, while the Fiery Dragon sub-team received the Best Engineering Award and Best Artistic Design Award.

Themed “ROBO Rugby 7s”, this year’s contest required teams to build two robots to collaborate in picking up, passing, receiving, and kicking the rugby ball to score successful goals. The two sub-teams consisted of a total of 29 multidisciplinary undergraduates, including eight non-local students who come from India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. With almost all competitions this year cancelled, postponed or moved online due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Robocon contest has become the first physical robotics competition in Hong Kong since the pandemic hit the city.

Adapting swiftly to unprecedented challenges Because of the evolving epidemic situation, students faced unprecedented challenges in preparing for the contest since the beginning of this year and they needed to keep adjusting their strategies, manpower and psychological state. The Fiery Dragon team, which was made up of half local students and half non-local students, was affected by the manpower shortage when the non-local members who went back to their home during the winter break could not come back to Hong Kong after the Chinese New Year. With only half team in Hong Kong, the task of designing and building the robots, which was a fundamental first step in the whole work cycle and normally taken up by at least six students, was now undertaken by three students only.

While the problem less affected the War Dragon team, which was comprised of all local students, anti-epidemic measures such as social contact reduction and gathering restrictions posed difficulties to the students’ usual practice of working together in the lab. “Preparation for a robotics contest requires a lot of teamwork as well as physical interaction, such as assembling, testing and fine-tuning the robots. To adjust to a new way of working, we met in regular Zoom meetings, moved tasks to finish at home as much as possible, and staggered working time in lab so fewer people stay at one time,” said Fiery Dragon’s team leader LAM Cheuk-Hei, a Year-3 mechanical engineering student.

Determined to continue despite uncertainty In March when the pandemic crisis escalated globally, the participating institutions voted and came up with a consensus that the contest would be postponed from end June until next year for safety reason. While some students changed their plans to look for summer internships to utilize the suddenly available time, most of them decided to continue with the unfinished work. “The students were discussing among themselves if they should continue the work, and if they do, what are they doing this for?” said Prof. Tim WOO, Director of the Center for Global & Community Engagement and supervisor of the HKUST Robocon Team. “After deliberation, their answer was simple and clear – they joined the team because they wanted to learn and hone their skills. So they wanted to continue to achieve these goals even though the contest may not take place.”

In May when the local epidemic situation stabilized, HKSTP announced that the contest would be resumed in August. Since then, the non-local members gradually returned to Hong Kong. They rejoined the team after 14 days of quarantine. However, since some members already committed to internships, they cannot devote as much time as before to the contest. Yet, they still came back to help in the lab after they are off from work. To catch up the schedule under the constraint of gathering limit, the students had to stagger working hours in the lab to 24 hours a day and the lights in the lab stayed bright day and night.

As the teams worked feverishly towards the competition, the third wave of epidemics in July forced the competition to be postponed once again until early September. To minimise social contact, the game was to be held behind closed doors and the format was changed from elimination matches between two teams to an individual competition by each team. This change meant that each team only had one chance to perform to their best, unlike in the past when each team competed in a few rounds and they have more chances to recover lost marks if mistakes were made in one of the rounds.

Good preparation to facilitate last-minute change in strategy With the shorter game time, the on-site trial run held on the day before the competition became more critical than ever. Yet, the time for each team this year was shortened to one and a half hours. “To fully utilize every second, we planned carefully and made a do-to list that included the items to be tested and allocation of time and manpower,” said War Dragon’s team leader YIU Cheuk-Tung, a Year-3 computer engineering student.

Both the War Dragon and Fiery Dragon sub-teams were using the independent steering driving system for their robots. The system has been developed by the HKUST Robocon Team since 2018 and first put into use in the competition this year. It can increase the speed of the robots substantially and is adopted by many strong teams in the Asia-Pacific Robocon.

Both sub-teams planned to make the best use of the system by running the robots in automatic mode, which is much faster than the manual mode. Yet during the trial run, the sensors on Fiery Dragon’s robots were damaged and War Dragon’s performance was also not as stable as in the lab – both due to the minor discrepancy between the lab environment and the actual game field. Given that there was not enough time to make big modifications to the robots, the two teams decided to sacrifice the speed for a more stable performance by changing to manual mode and semi-automatic mode respectively. Luckily, both teams had prepared for the worst and trained to operate in both auto and manual modes over the past few months. They were therefore able to change their strategy quickly and delivered their best performances.

The War Dragon sub-team finally became the only team in the competition to achieve full marks and took the championship. Following the victory, the students went on to participate in the ABU Robocon Festival 2020 and gained three awards, including the First Runner-Up.

Related links:

A video of how the HKUST Robocon Team prepared for the contest Official website of ABU Robocon Festival 2020 NEWS TAGS News Tags Robotics Student Competition Award Achievements Experiential Learning

15/10/2020 EN 繁 简 Thumbnail Title Engineering + AI HKUST Launches HK’s First Degree Programs with Extended Major Content Banner Prof. Pong Ting-Chuen (left), Chairman of the Undergraduate Admissions Subcommittee and Prof. Emily Nason, Director of Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions Office explain the benefits of the new “Major + X” framework. Prof. Pong Ting-Chuen (left), Chairman of the Undergraduate Admissions Subcommittee and Prof. Emily Nason, Director of Undergraduate Recruitment & Admissions Office explain the benefits of the new “Major + X” framework. [Download Photo] Body The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) will introduce a novel academic framework “Major + X” as a new degree option for undergraduates. Blending traditional programs with emerging hot topics such as artificial intelligence, this new degree structure not only offers students with greater flexibility, but also allows timely curriculum adjustment and better integration between existing and new knowledge to meet with the emerging need of the society.

Under the new framework, two new bachelor degree programs – Science (Group A)* with an extended Major in Artificial Intelligence (“Science-A + AI”) and Engineering with an extended Major in Artificial Intelligence (“Engineering + AI”), will be launched in the 2021/22 academic year. Students enrolled in the two programs will choose their major – such as Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Civil Engineering or Ocean Science and Technology from either science (group A) or engineering before the second year begins, while taking AI courses as an extended major.

“New technology and knowledge are emerging at an unprecedented pace in this digital era, while it may not be the most effective to launch a new program on every emerging knowledge, it is essential to incorporate new knowledge such as AI into our system so students could make sense of such novel technologies in real-life applications. Physics students, for example, would want to learn how to analyze billions of fast-disappearing data on particles with AI; while Civil Engineering students may wish to find out the most optimal location and materials for a project and its relevant risks with AI, this is why we launch the major + X initiative,” said Prof Lionel NI, Provost of HKUST.

This major + X approach allows students to finish their study within a four-year timeframe with a well-defined study pathway, and graduate with a title bearing both the traditional major subject they selected, and the extended major X which covers emerging areas such as AI and probably data science, FinTech or digital media and arts later.

“When computer science or Internet first emerged several decades ago, they were studied under traditional disciplines. Eventually, computer science has developed into a standalone discipline, while Internet remains as a subject area. Our major + X approach could offer more flexibility to our students, so they can seize the opportunities when a new area emerges, while also remain adaptable if an area becomes obsolete,” said Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen, Senior Advisor to the Provost and Chairman of the Undergraduate Admissions Subcommittee.

“Science-A + AI” (JUPAS code: JS5181) and “Engineering + AI” (JUPAS code: JS5282) have an intake quota of around 40 and 150 respectively for the year 2021/22. Students of the two programs will be given priority in selecting AI subjects – both mandatory and elective courses, which comprise around 21 to 24 credits in total. Students will also have to complete a capstone project on applying AI in the area of their major study.

“HKUST has always been a pioneer in innovative education, we are among the first to realize interdisciplinary teaching, e-learning, introduce research opportunities to junior students and novel programs that meet latest societal needs. We hope this new “Major + X” model would again, help us groom the right talent for this era,” said Prof. Ni, adding that the University will consider launching more programs under this new framework in the future.

HKUST will hold a Virtual Information Day this Saturday (October 17) on the University’s latest academic programs and admission requirement. Interested parties can register in advance.

* Science (Group A) major covers Mathematics, Physics, Ocean Science & Technology.

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About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2019. Its graduates were ranked 10th worldwide and top in Greater China in Global University Employability Survey 2019.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Artificial Intelligence Undergraduate Teaching and Learning

30/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Outstanding Teachers Recognized SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2019-20 Content Banner Excellence in teaching demonstrated by Prof. David Rossiter (second right), Prof. Ben Chan (second left), Prof. Henry Lam (first left) and Prof. Raymond Wong (first right). They were presented with the School’s teaching awards by Dean of Engineering Prof. Tim Cheng (center). Excellence in teaching demonstrated by Prof. David Rossiter (second right), Prof. Ben Chan (second left), Prof. Henry Lam (first left) and Prof. Raymond Wong (first right). They were presented with the School’s teaching awards by Dean of Engineering Prof. Tim Cheng (center). [Download Photo] Body Four faculty members were honored in the School of Engineering (SENG) Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2019-20. The award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate continuous excellence in undergraduate teaching, foster students’ interest in the subject, promote students’ learning, develop innovative and effective teaching methodologies, and more.

Prof. David ROSSITER, Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Teaching Award. He taught about 2,000 students in four undergraduate courses in the past three years, with an average instructor overall score of 90. In one of the courses, COMP 1021 Introduction to Computer Science, he made significant contributions by creating a new tool for students’ interactive learning and enhancing another tool for program memory visualization. To facilitate the transition to online teaching, he changed the mode of lab teaching from face-to-face to self-study, and ensured real-time Q&A support during lectures.

A dedicated and inspiring teacher, Prof. Rossiter has earned an astonishing number of teaching awards over the past years. The new accolade marks his seventh SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award and the third Distinguished Teaching Award, both of which set a record among engineering faculty members so far. His list of awards also include the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching in 2017, which is the University’s top teaching award for one outstanding educator across all Schools annually, the Best Instructor for the Master’s Degree in Information Technology on five occasions, and the Best Ten Lecturers awards, to name a few.

Prof. Ben CHAN, Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of Center for Engineering Education Innovation, Prof. Henry LAM, Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Prof. Raymond WONG, Computer Science and Engineering, received Teaching Awards.

Prof. Ben Chan incorporates a wide spectrum of attributes in his courses, for example, innovativeness in ENGG 1100 First Year Cornerstone Engineering Design Project Course, creativity in ENGG 1200 Engineering Team Design Experience: Airship, professionalism in ENGG 1010 Academic Orientation, leadership in ENGG 1900 Service Learning Program, and global vision in ENGG 1110 Engineering Solutions to Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. Dedicated to promoting engineering education in Hong Kong and Asia, he serves as a founding member of The Asian Society for Engineering Education and reviewer of a few top engineering education journals. He received HK$8.038 million under the University Grants Committee’s Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals (2016-19 Triennium) on fostering innovation and entrepreneurial mindsets in MakerSpace environment via flipped cornerstone design framework.

Prof. Henry Lam is the architect who designed the curriculum of the new undergraduate program in Bioengineering. He made substantial contributions in converting the CENG 2210 Chemical and Biological Engineering Thermodynamics course and BIEN/CENG 2310 Modeling for Chemical and Biological Engineering course into blended learning courses and obtained a Departmental Teaching Development Grant from the University’s Center for Education Innovation. In particular, BIEN/CENG 2310, a new course in mathematical modeling developed by him, received excellent evaluations from students. In addition, he championed several co-curricular initiatives in the department, including revamping the advising system, establishing an undergraduate teaching assistantship program, and designing a well-utilized undergraduate lounge for students.

Prof. Raymond Wong taught the COMP 1942 Exploring and Visualizing Data course three times over the past three years, with an average enrolment of 181 students and instructor overall score of 93. Pioneering new teaching methods to engage students, he devises a special “coupon” in class to motivate students to answer questions (that students who answer a selected question in class correctly will receive a coupon, which can be used to waive a question in an assignment), designs role-play activities in class to illustrate complicated concepts, and gives highly interactive demonstrations. He also made great contributions in re-designing the COMP 4332 Big Data Mining and Management course and received excellent evaluations from students.

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About the SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award NEWS TAGS News Tags Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Computer Science and Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Chemical and Biological Engineering

02/09/2020 Thumbnail Title Tasty Food Science Experiential Common Core Course Debunks Misconceptions About Food Content Banner The self-taught food scientist practices what he preaches by starting the day with the same, wholesome breakfast for the last 20 years. [Download Photo] Body The Common Core Program, an integral component of the undergraduate curriculum at HKUST, aspires to bring students from all disciplines a balanced and broad education that nurtures them to be responsible citizens and independent thinkers with the heart and aspiration to excel in their endeavors. Among a wide array of common core programs, “Introduction to Food Science and Technology” remains the top choice of students because it serves up an appetizing experience: they get to make bread, cookies, tofu, and beer, and learn why some food tastes better deep fried.

Moreover, students taking this course have classes in an extraordinary half-kitchen half-laboratory setting: besides standard kitchen equipment, including stoves, ovens, and blenders, its dedicated and spacious laboratory is also fitted with geekier contraptions, like incubators, evaporators, and centrifuge equipment.

“We cook together, but it’s not a cooking class. I always make it clear in the first class. The lab’s not a kitchen. It’s a chemical engineering lab,” emphasizes course instructor Prof. Marshal LIU Yuanshuai, Assistant Professor of Engineering Education from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

In laboratory experiments, Prof. Liu guides students to reflect on the science behind while making food together. In the bread session, for instance, he would demonstrate and explain some intriguing phenomena: What does fermentation do to the dough? How does kneading help bread get the perfect crust and crumb?

“Equally importantly, the experiments also lead to discussions of a healthy diet when students realize how much sugar goes into their cookies,” he says. While eating and drinking is usually banned in class, an exception was made for this course as tasting is an essential final leg in the journey of food.

Designed by Prof. Liu from scratch and launched in 2017, the course, regarded as “eye-opening”, “thought-provoking”, and “rewarding and unforgettable” by his students, has just earned him the HKUST Common Core Teaching Excellence Award 2019.

Offered in summer, Prof. Liu’s course has a cap of 60 students, and experiments are done with two groups as safety regulations limit the laboratory to a maximum of 30 students. In the first class, he typically opens the course with a sobering slide entitled “Which of the following is wrong?” with dozens of statements of popular or cultural health beliefs, including “bone soup can be used to supplement calcium significantly” and “herbal teas can expel heat from our body and combat sticky humidity”. Students almost always fall for them, but none is supported by science.

So this “experiential” course aims to debunk misconceptions about food and provide students with fundamental knowledge of food science, which incorporates multiple scientific disciplines, including chemistry, nutrition, and microbiology. It also explores food safety and inspires thought about food processing technologies.

An ongoing trend that worries Prof. Liu is the common habit of having functional food or supplements that claim to promote well-being or bolster resistance to disease. “If a food could help fight disease, scientists would make drugs out of them. So, when you are well, you eat food; when unwell, you take drugs,” he says. “You shouldn’t have to have drug-like food when you’re well.”

“This course is also about critical thinking. I try to inspire students to step back and think scientifically before they make food-related decisions in their daily lives,” he says.

Prof. Liu puts the popularity of the course down to his passion for the subject, love for students, and working hard and smart. “I try to teach different students with different strategies, depending on their needs,” he says.

The self-taught food scientist, whose doctorate was in chemical engineering, practices what he preaches by starting the day with the same, wholesome breakfast for the last 20 years: “Oatmeal, milk, egg, fruits, and some nuts. Every single day. Oatmeal and bread for the carbohydrate, egg for protein, nuts and fruits for fiber and vitamins,” he explains.

As Prof. Liu sees it, the need for accurate knowledge about food is especially compelling, given false information is spreading widely on social media nowadays. “For something as important as food, we should always be guided by science,” he says.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Teaching and Learning Health Common Core Chemical and Biological Engineering

28/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Building a Tech Talent Pool Students Gain STEM Internship Experience in Tech SMEs and Start-ups Content Banner FutureNow hired three interns – all from HKUST. FutureNow hired three interns – all from HKUST. [Download Photo] Body Unlike big tech corporations, tech SMEs or start-ups usually do not have dedicated resources to hire interns who are enthusiastic about innovation and technology. Yet, internships at big tech firms are highly competitive. To help bridge this gap, HKUST has joined the Hong Kong government’s STEM Internship Scheme, through which more than 300 HKUST students have secured internships – the highest among all universities taking part.

The Scheme, offered by the Innovation and Technology Commission to students from UGC-funded universities, aims to foster students’ interest in pursuing a career in IT after graduation to enlarge the local IT talent pool in the long run.

Monesh Govind LALWANI, a Year 3 computer engineering major, took on a two-month summer internship with homegrown mobile education platform FutureNow Data Technology Limited, and was tasked with developing the firm’s website, from its design, architecture, to marketing. He was happy that he was not only be able to hone his IT skills, but also required to learn how the company operated holistically, including its business.

FutureNow hired three interns – all from HKUST – through the Scheme. Jaspreet Dhaliwal SINGH, also a Year 3 major in computer engineering, was another. He was appointed team leader for quality assurance and server migration, helping to optimize customer experience on the backend.

“One of my main tasks was to work with the team to try to find bugs in the app and websites, so after every build, we would go through the features and think of every possible way to spot and fix logical errors,” Jaspreet recalls.

The internship was a way for him to build on the knowledge gained from the University’s courses and find inspiration for a career in technology, specifically in the areas of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, among others, he says. “The tech industry is competitive, and if we want to hit the ground running, we need to go a step further with internships like this,” he adds.

For Ken YEUNG, a Year 3 student in risk management and business intelligence, who worked at a beauty and clothing e-commerce company YesStyle as project management intern, the experience was a way to learn about current industry practices that may not be covered in class.

“I have learned a lot about IT project management which couldn’t be learned in the classroom, from industrial standard to practical usage of productivity software. My supervisor taught me a lot about current practices in the IT industry that I believe are rarely known to outsiders,” Ken comments.

In addition to obtaining industry knowledge, this internship also changed his career aspiration. “Before this internship I only wanted to work at banks or other financial institutions. But now I found that IT is actually an interesting industry. I will be excited to work in the Fintech industry, if I have the chance,” Ken says.

Another YesStyle intern, Herman WONG, a Year 3 major in computer science and business management, worked mainly as a programmer for the start-up, but also supported other projects, including migrating a blog of more than 2,000 entries to a cloud server.

“We heard about cloud computing a lot in class and in the news, and this internship let me use and experiment with one of the major providers,” Herman says. “I’m excited because this helps provide better performance, security, and reliability to the company.”

FutureNow’s founder and chief executive Raymond YEUNG was extremely impressed with the performance of HKUST interns. “They showed confidence, grit, and creative thinking when they faced challenges. They also sent a strong signal that they wanted to learn and do well,” he comments. He has since brought some of them on board to work on a part-time basis.

Cathy TSANG, who leads YesStyle’s talent acquisition, says the two HKUST interns showed they were quick learners with good attitude. “Internships are more than just work – learning is also important. The internship program is what makes it a win-win situation for employers and students. We’re delighted to see them being eager to learn as much as they can. Their line managers say they are very good-natured and not afraid to ask questions,” she says.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Internship Information Technology Computer Engineering Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate

24/11/2020 EN 繁 简 Thumbnail Title University Leadership HKUST Announces Appointment of Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen as Vice-President for Administration and Business Content Banner Prof. Pong Ting-Chuen Prof. Pong Ting-Chuen [Download Photo] Body The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced today the appointment of Prof. PONG Ting-Chuen to succeed Mr. Mark HODGSON as the Vice-President for Administration and Business (VPAB), starting from July 1, 2021.

Prof. Pong is a founding faculty member of HKUST, he has served in many senior administrative positions both within the University and in the external tertiary education sector. He is currently Senior Advisor to the Provost and Acting Director of Center for Education Innovation at HKUST, as well as a member of the Research Assessment Exercise Group and the Quality Assurance Council of the University Grants Committee. Prof. Pong is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, his research interests span computer vision, artificial intelligence and e-learning. His latest appointment is the result of a rigorous global search.

The Vice-President for Administration and Business is responsible for planning and management of manpower, financial, physical and other resources to ensure delivery of services in support of the academic and research activities of the University, as well as providing oversight of administrative resources at HKUST.

Mr. Andrew LIAO Cheung-Sing, Chairman of HKUST Council, was pleased about the new appointment, “Prof. Pong possesses a good understanding and knowledge of HKUST’s operations as well as the opportunities and challenges facing the University. With his broad and extensive experience, his strong passion and dedication towards the University and students, I am certain that Prof. Pong has the vision, capacity and commitment for leading the University to go forward.”

Prof. Wei SHYY, President of the HKUST, added, “Prof. Pong has deep, first-hand experiences and has contributed substantially to both academic and numerous administrative matters within HKUST as well as in Hong Kong. As HKUST is actively pursuing multiple major endeavors, I am confident that Prof. Pong will bring his insight, proactive and pragmatic approaches, and dedication to lead the University’s administrative operation.” The University also takes the opportunity to thank Mr. Hodgson for his dedicated leadership, comprehensive efforts and contributions to the University in the past years.

Prof. Pong received his BS degree in Mathematics & Physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1978 and obtained his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1981 and 1984 respectively. Prof. Pong was an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota before joining HKUST in 1991.

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research intensive university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2020. Its graduates were ranked 10th worldwide and top in Greater China in Global University Employability Survey 2019.

(This news was originally published by the HKUST Public Affairs Office here.)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Announcements University Development Computer Science and Engineering

29/11/2020 Thumbnail Title Illuminating the Way Prof. Kei May LAU Shares her Approach to Life and Research Content Banner Prof. Kei May Lau says she has never let her gender limit her aspirations and advises young women who dream of being successful professionals that deciding on their own destiny matters the most. Prof. Kei May Lau says she has never let her gender limit her aspirations and advises young women who dream of being successful professionals that deciding on their own destiny matters the most. [Download Photo] Body The next time you switch on the lights, consider this: powering traditional lights consumes about 20% of the electricity that we produce. For more than 20 years, Prof. Kei May LAU, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been one of the early contributors to the research of LED technology, a revolutionary energy-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative. In recognition of her fundamental contribution to research on compound semiconductor materials and device physics, she was awarded the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics, becoming the first woman to receive the honor in its 44-year history. She shares with us her life experiences as a researcher, female engineer, teacher, and mother.

“Choosing a research topic to focus on is a bit like predicting the future. Some predictions come through, many others don’t,” Prof. Lau says. “When conducting engineering research, we want to do something people care about and that will pan out; the most challenging part is coming up with visionary ideas. The timing of getting into a new topic is critical as well.”

While light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for lighting are ubiquitous today, in the 1990s when Prof. Lau started researching the subject, it was a novel area. Engineers at the time were excited about LEDs’ tremendous power-saving potential – they consume less electricity and do not emit heat. In addition, they contain no toxic elements such as mercury in fluorescent lights. “I bought into the idea as I thought it made sense,” Prof. Lau recalls. “You can say my timing was good.”

Once LEDs for lighting caught on in the market, Prof. Lau moved on to focusing on miniaturizing them. She has developed high-resolution fingernail-sized LED micro-display chips, that could be used to build three-in-one traffic lights or virtual windows, among other applications such as in AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) displays.

The near-to-eye micro-display she developed can be stuck on a pair of glasses and connected to a camera to offer a rear view. She reveals that the idea came from her experience of navigating the narrow pavements of Hong Kong.

“Usually, two people have to walk one after another on our busy and narrow streets. Often, I’d lose the people I was with. It inspired me to try and create ‘an eye’ to keep track of the people behind me,” she says with a laugh.

Early years and coming home Prof. Lau says she takes a hands-on approach to her work. “I love to see things work, instead of solving equations or building models using stimulations,” she says. “Models give some guidelines but don’t tell the whole story and make things. Unlike the scientists’ role in discovering the nature, engineers create things to benefit humanity, balancing performance and the cost of our design.”

After graduating from Pui Ching Middle School, she went overseas and earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in physics from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, before going on to pursue a PhD in electrical engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

She says the PhD in electrical engineering was a natural progression from studying physics. “Electronic engineering research is mostly based on physics. Pure science is the human understanding of nature, while engineering adapts the laws of physics defined by nature to create something new and useful, like the mobile phone.

Prof. Lau’s HKUST journey began in 1998 when she came to the University as a visiting professor and was very impressed ­– not least by the beautiful scenery. Two years later, she left the full professorship she held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and joined HKUST’s regular faculty.

After many years of living in the United States, it felt like a homecoming. “I am a Hongkonger. I was born and raised here, and always wanted to return to my roots. Also, I hoped my daughter could grow up in a rich multi-faceted bilingual and bicultural environment,” she says.

Scrambled egg approach to life Prof. Lau is often asked about work-life balance and how she manages her time. “Many people’s lives are like fried eggs – the yolk is their private life while the white is work. My life is a scrambled egg; there is no distinction between the two.” Over the years, she has developed a ‘firefighting’ approach allowing her to juggle and meet deadlines, personal and professional commitments anytime anywhere.

As a prominent woman engineer, Prof. Lau says she has never let her gender limit her aspirations. “Perhaps my personality of not caring too much about others’ opinion on what I should or should not do helps,” she says. “For young women who dream of being successful professionals, deciding on their own destiny matters the most.”

She believes that the main reason for the lower proportion of women in engineering programs is that most outstanding girls have a plethora of options. “They can choose either arts, business, science, medicine or any disciplines according to their interests, and they can excel in any of these areas; or they get ‘pushed’ into areas deemed more financially rewarding by family,” she muses.

She says she only offers advice but does not tell youngsters what they can/should and cannot/should not do. “Like myself, when eighteen-year-olds were undecided about what subject to choose at university, I suggested they get into engineering because it provides vigorous training in problem solving with analytical skills. They could just shift direction once they find their preference later, basically do anything they want. I also cited some examples from our circle.”

‘Don’t rush, but be quick’ Prof. Lau firmly believes that innovation and experience are an intrinsic element of technology breakthroughs. “I always tell students that connectivity is the most important attribute. When students complain that what they learn in some courses is not useful, I would say that it is not that the course is useless, but that they have yet to figure out how to link up the newly acquired information with their experience and knowledge.”

Her teaching philosophy is to adapt her approach to the student’s aptitude and personality. Some are more proactive, and some require more guidance and encouragement. She applies this philosophy to postgraduate students who she works with one on one, pointing out that Confucius says: “Teach students according to their aptitude” (因材施教).

Prof. Lau has adopted a seemingly paradoxical Cantonese idiom as the motto for her laboratory: don’t rush, but be quick (唔使急, 最緊要快). “Doing research is just like taking part in a marathon. You can’t rush as you have to think ahead carefully, conduct experiments meticulously and obtain reproducible results, but you also need to be quick so that you are the first to report the results in the competitive arena.”

Keeping the lights on In her own career, Prof. Lau’s research instincts have paid off. The J. J. Thomson Medal is the latest in a long list of honors she has received over the years. She is an IEEE Fellow and an OSA Fellow as well as a recipient of the OSA Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award, and US National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers.

“I am proud of every single award,” she says. “They are all recognitions of significant contributions from researchers in my group over the years. That our fruitful results have been appreciated by our peers is very satisfying.”

She is not content to rest on her laurels though, emphasizing that there are still many problems to be solved. She is currently focusing on the integration of electronics and photonics.

“A vast amount of data needs to be transmitted and processed swiftly and efficiently at any instance; the smaller the electronic circuits are, the quicker the signal passes. Transistors can now be fabricated as small as a few nanometers. Light (photons) in integrated circuits could help speed up data transmission much further. How to enhance the performance of semiconductor photonic integrated circuits? This is what we are now researching, and it is a never-ending task.”

Motivated by a powerful desire to explore and illuminate new paths in integrating photonics and microelectronics, Prof. Lau will remain a beacon for generations of the engineering community. “The most rewarding part is seeing the success of former students and sharing our lifelong friendship,” she says.

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SENG news (Nov 6, 2020): Prof. Kei May LAU Became the First-Ever Woman Recipient of IET J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics IET press release (Nov 6, 2020): World leading engineers win IET Achievement Awards HKUST Photonics Technology Center NEWS TAGS News Tags Electronic and Computer Engineering Women in Engineering Research and Technology LED Lighting Solid-State Electronics and Photonics

23/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Finding Chemistry in the Alumni Network Chemical and Biological Engineering Alumna, Students and Faculty Join Hands in Product Commercialization Content Banner Chemical and Biological Engineering alumna Vanessa Ho Po-Ki (right, first row), Prof. Marshal Liu (left, first row), and three BEng fresh graduates (from left, second row) Andy Choy Man-Hin, Isaac Kwan Chi-Shing and Michael Lui Wing-Piu, join hands to achieve product commercialization of an idea that originated in a course project. Chemical and Biological Engineering alumna Vanessa Ho Po-Ki (right, first row), Prof. Marshal Liu (left, first row), and three BEng fresh graduates (from left, second row) Andy Choy Man-Hin, Isaac Kwan Chi-Shing and Michael Lui Wing-Piu, join hands to achieve product commercialization of an idea that originated in a course project. [Download Photo] Body Alumna Vanessa HO Po-Ki (1998 BEng in Chemical Engineering) had never met Prof. Marshal LIU of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE) while she was at university 20 years ago. The cordial relationship the two have forged is a testament to the strength of the alumni network that not only establishes friendship among students, alumni and faculty members across generations, but also helps them accomplish new milestones in their careers and contribute to society.

Marshal has long admired Vanessa for her success as an entrepreneur. “Even before I met her in person, I used her inspiring story in my classes several times,” he says with a laugh, going on to appreciate her support to the department and the university, over and above her vision and sharp business sense.

“When I brought up the idea of a sanitizing hand cream that three CBE final year students of the Product and Process Design course had developed, Vanessa readily agreed to explore the commercialization of the product.” Throughout her eventful entrepreneurial journey, Vanessa has been very adept at grasping the opportunities that have come her way.

Early steps to success Invited by Marshal to share her story, Vanessa grins and begins with why she chose engineering. “I loved chemistry but didn’t want to stay in a laboratory running experiments every day, so I chose chemical engineering, focusing more on applications. HKUST is the only university that offers this program in Hong Kong.” Looking back, this proved to be a wise choice.

Vanessa graduated in 1998, just as the CD-R industry emerged. At that time, many of her classmates joined CD-R production factories, and she became aware of the substantial demand for solvent. “I made a long-distance call to Taiwan and invested HK$20,000 to order the first shipment,” Vanessa recalls.

Her first golden opportunity came when, just after she established her company and the shipment of solvent arrived, Taiwan was hit by an earthquake, and other suppliers’ orders could not reach Hong Kong. “Since CDs cannot be produced without this raw material, all these customers suddenly had only my company to turn to.”

How Vanessa took her business forward is a textbook lesson in entrepreneurship. She quickly realized that her supplier in Taipei had a successful model: the supplier was the sole agent who procured a solvent from the United States and supplied it to drug manufacturers and laboratories. Inspired, she was determined to attempt to become the producer’s sole agent in Hong Kong and went to the United States three times to make her case in person.

“When they saw me, they questioned the capability of a 23-year-old woman,” she says. But perhaps the American solvent manufacturer was moved by her ambition because she was granted sole agent status, beating her competitors in Hong Kong and building up a robust customer base.

Seizing the opportunity Vanessa did not rest on her laurels. To source the solvent at a lower price, she ventured into Mainland China and invested in a chemical plant in Shandong province in 2001, where she installed her own distillation column. She describes this as a true turning point in her career.

“In 2003, when the trend globally was moving from CD-R to DVD-R, a key worldwide solvent supplier from Japan had a fire in one of its factories, and was unexpectedly unable to resume production for over a year. There was a global shortage of solvent, increasing the selling price tenfold.”

Suddenly, her company was flooded with orders. “I looked for diluted solvent in the Mainland, purified it using the distillation column and supplied the market. As it turned out, I made a huge profit! I am grateful to my HKUST education for giving me the knowledge that enabled me to adapt.”

Vanessa established Pure Living in 2013, where she serves as Chief Executive Officer. “I wanted to build my own brand,” she explains. She is grateful for the wealth of support that HKUST professors, especially CBE Prof. David HUI, have provided, including guidance on how to apply for government funding and to speed up business development.

Contributing to the fight against COVID-19 Sharing her achievements in the last two decades, Vanessa says frankly that COVID-19 brought her the greatest challenges she ever experienced. “At the beginning of the epidemic, many long-standing pharmaceutical clients said their employees could not work due to the lack of masks. They thought maybe I could help, but in fact I had no way to source masks because of the global shortage.”

She decided to produce surgical masks herself, but found herself facing the biggest hurdle of her life. From acquiring a mask production machine to developing meltblown fabric, every step has been like riding a roller-coaster.

“Because of my grounding in the chemical industry, I followed all the specs rigorously. But I was unable to buy quality-guaranteed meltblown fabric. I could not bear to destroy our established brand reputation,” Vanessa says with wry smile. “Therefore, we were forced to produce even the meltblown cloth ourselves.” She thanks HKUST professors, including Marshal, for sharing his expertise and helping the company finally build its own machine.

Despite these challenges, Vanessa has remained a perfectionist. “By the time I could manufacture a product I was satisfied with, the market was almost saturated and the price had dropped sharply. Although we were only able to break even, more importantly, it establishes the company’s brand image and lets people know what our industry has done for society and Hong Kong during this difficult time.”

It is also a demonstration of her motto: “Don't be afraid of falling down, be conscious when you are at your peak, always be attuned to the possibility of a crisis, and be prepared to cope with adversity.”

Now that fighting the pandemic has become the public’s first priority, her company will continue to focus on anti-pandemic products. Therefore, when Marshal enthusiastically recommended his students and their sanitizing hand cream to her, she was determined to explore the idea.

“Some people are sensitive to ethanol, but protection from bacteria and germs is critical. A hand cream that can sterilize and protect would be very useful. At first, I was doubtful, but after the sample was tested and proved effective, we decided to manufacture the product.”

Support of the alumni network Both Vanessa and Marshal are firm believers in the importance of the alumni network. “While the professors here offer support and provide many new ideas on R&D, our experience running businesses means we can screen whether products can be launched in the market,” Vanessa says.

She treasures students from her alma mater. “We can find good people faster and easier as teachers recommend high-caliber graduates to us. I always give those from HKUST the first priority, which is a good loop.”

For Marshal, who actively connects with alumni, the network is vital. “Alumni can mentor students, help with career development and offer them internships, co-ops and employment opportunities. Many of our alumni are role models for our students. They are dedicated to their careers as professionals and making significant contributions.”

He is filled with tremendous satisfaction when he sees collaborations between alumni and students result in fruitful achievements. “Hopefully, Vanessa will have a good return on her investment.”

He cites an example to highlight the importance of the alumni network. “Knowledge transfer and product commercialization need expertise, capital, manpower and management. All these resources may not be easily available from just cold calls. Through the department and alumni network, alumni, faculty and students can quickly join hands because of mutual trust.”

NEWS TAGS News Tags Chemical and Biological Engineering Alumni Undergraduate Student Innovation Entrepreneurship Women in Engineering

27/10/2020 Thumbnail Title Connecting Student Innovation with Alumna-Entrepreneur The “Design Come True” Experience of Developing Antimicrobial Hand Cream Content Banner

Learning by doing: Andy Choy (left), Isaac Kwan (center), and Michael Lui (right) created a long-lasting antimicrobial hand cream in an experiential learning course on product and process design in Spring 2020. [Download Photo] Body Andy Choy Man-Hin, Isaac Kwan Chi-Shing, and Michael Lui Wing-Piu (all undergraduate Class of 2020 in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering) came up with the idea of creating a long-lasting antimicrobial hand cream in the Product and Process Design course in Spring 2020. With the tremendous support from Prof. Marshal Liu and alumna-entrepreneur Ms. Vanessa Ho Po-Ki, the idea came to fruition and the product was successfully commercialized. Andy shares how the team went through this challenging yet fruitful “design come true” experience, which became one of his favourite learning experiences at HKUST.

I was born and grew up in Hong Kong. As a teenager, I was passionate about the latest technology and always hoped to make something real in the future. Therefore, without any hesitation, I joined the School of Engineering at HKUST after my secondary school study. Since I was more interested in chemicals and bioproducts, I chose the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major, with a minor in Bioengineering. The curriculum equipped me with the knowledge of designing and operating a chemical, physical, or biological process to convert raw materials to high-value products (e.g. drugs and fuel oil), with the consideration of safety, economics, and sustainability. These products involve large-scale production in chemical plants, and I wonder whether these techniques can be applied to consumer products, which play increasingly indispensable roles in our lives.

Fortunately, in the Spring term of 2020, my last term at HKUST, an elective course CENG 4150 Product and Process Design, taught by Prof. Marshal LIU, was offered and I immediately enrolled. I was never disappointed by the content and especially amazed by the course project. The group project required the application of theories and tools learned from the course in the design of a real product, ideally with a prototype. I partnered with Isaac KWAN Chi-Shing and Michael LUI Wing-Piu, and very soon, we came up with an idea of making an antimicrobial healthcare product. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, health is the primary concern and many people worry about being infected. So they keep using alcohol rubbing gel whenever they touch anything. However, alcohol is not benign to our skin, and moisture loss on our hands may cause contact dermatitis. During the discussion with my teammates, we decided to make a hand cream with a long-lasting antimicrobial effect. This product aims not only to kill microbes, and maintain the aseptic environment on the surface of our hands for hours, but also to protect our skin from water loss and allergy.

Under Marshal’s guidance, my teammates and I collaborated on the conceptual design, investigated and selected the active ingredients which can work synergistically to kill microbes and virus, formulated the composition with ideal Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balance value to stay on the skin, and explored the manufacturing process, the business plan and economic analysis. The weekly progress meetings with Marshal pushed us to follow the project schedule and eventually, we were able to build our product from scratch. Marshal also encouraged us to join a local innovation competition to explore entrepreneurship. However, without experiment testing and prototype as a result of lab work suspension due to the coronavirus, we did not have much luck in getting any awards in the contest.

I ended up in this course with an impressive project and an outstanding grade. After that, I struggled with the step forward. How to make the prototype and test its effectiveness and safeness? It should be a promising product to serve people, but will anyone be interested in investing in a student-initiated idea? Just at that time, Marshal messaged me that one entrepreneur and alumna, Ms. Vanessa HO Po-Ki (1998 BEng in Chemical Engineering), showed great interest in this product. It was an unexpected and invaluable chance for us, and we immediately discussed with Vanessa on the feasibility and subsequent work.

To commercialize the product, we know that product safety comes first – the product must meet safety requirements or regulations for cosmetics. We double-checked different countries’ regulations and laws to make the necessary adjustment to the prototype product. To test the long-lasting antimicrobial effect, we contacted different testing labs. However, such effectiveness test was not available in most of the testing labs in Hong Kong. It meant that we had to perform the experiment by ourselves. Luckily, the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has always been very supportive of students’ experiential learning, and it generously provided lab space, equipment and consumables. Marshal and technicians also instructed the experiment design, conduction, and data analysis. Within a month’s hard work, we successfully proved that the antimicrobial effect could last more than two hours on the skin, which was consistent with the design and model. Now, the first batch of products – 10,000 bottles – are ready for sales. We are still optimizing the products for effectiveness and performance, and hopefully there will be an updated formula soon.

For now, I am confident to say that this project is one of my favourite learning experiences at HKUST. During these months, I have been managing the project as efficient as possible. Setting up deadlines for every step of progress, from the product conceptual design, formulation, to experiment testing and manufacturing, and making sure that no time was wasted. We are very thankful for the tremendous support from our department, especially the enthusiastic encouragement from Marshal and the unlimited trust and assistance from Vanessa. They helped a lot in building up the product design and manufacturing the hand cream, as well as solving various real problems about marketing, testing, and commercializing. Though it was an intense and challenging summer, it has proved to be a fruitful and extraordinary experience for me. I hope I will have another chance to go through this “design come true” experience in the future.

Related link:

SENG news (Oct 23, 2020): Chemical and Biological Engineering Alumna, Students and Faculty Join Hands in Product Commercialization NEWS TAGS News Tags Experiential Learning Entrepreneurship Chemical and Biological Engineering Alumni Undergraduate

17/11/2020 Thumbnail Title Young Changemaker in AI PhD Alumnus Dr. YAO Quanming Selected in Forbes China 30 Under 30 List Content Banner Dr. Yao Quanming Dr. Yao Quanming [Download Photo] Body Alumnus Dr. YAO Quanming (2018 PhD in Computer Science and Engineering) was named in the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 China list, which recognized young entrepreneurs and changemakers under 30 years of age. He was included in the science and healthcare category and is currently a Senior Scientist & Founding Leader of Machine Learning Research Team at 4Paradigm Inc, an AI technology and service provider. His supervisor at HKUST was Prof. James KWOK.

The annual list comprises 300 young leaders in 10 different categories. Selection criteria include influence, performance and innovation. The vetting was done by a panel of more than 50 judges, who are accomplished entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, artists, university professors, or industry opinion leaders – all of them are experts in their fields.

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Announcement by Forbes China (Nov 9, 2020)

NEWS TAGS News Tags Artificial Intelligence Recognition Computer Science and Engineering Postgraduate Alumni