Awards and Achievements

The University works extensively in promoting and expanding opportunities for students to engage in research activities to strengthen their research capability and gain hands-on experience. In this issue, we are proud to introduce some of the high-quality work and awards received by our research postgraduate students, whose achievements shine across multiple disciplines in the international arena and local community.

Faculty of Architecture

DUPAD Student Wins First Prize at Arup Research Competition

Mr Mutu Tantrige Osada Vishvajith Peiris, PhD student of Professor Anthony Yeh of the Department of Urban Planning and Design (DUPAD), won First Prize at the Arup Research Competition 2024. Themed ‘Resilience: Alleviating Climate Emergencies in Cities’, the competition aims to encourage research postgraduates to develop novel pathways and solutions that help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The competition was held in three rounds, with 37 submissions from postgraduate students from Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China. Four teams with members from Beijing Jiaotong University, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen University, University of Macau, and the University of Hong Kong were shortlisted for the final presentation on 22 January 2025. Mr Peiris won First Prize with his submission ‘Urban Flood Resilience Assessment: An Interplay of Natural, Physical, and Social System Interactions in Cities’.

Faculty of Arts

Arts Student Gains Global Insights from Conference Participation

Ailin Li—a second-year PhD candidate from China Studies, School of Modern Languages and Cultures—had her manuscript titled ‘Spatial Transition and Power Dynamics: Child Labor in Republican Shanghai, 1920s-1940s’ accepted for a panel presentation at the 28th Harvard East Asian Society (HEAS) Conference in February 2025.

At the Conference, Ailin talked about her research on child labourers’ spatial transition across multilayered power spaces in Republican Shanghai. Agendas discussed in her manuscript contribute to the spatial turn in historical studies and piece together childhood in Republican China using new primary materials of oral history.

“I learned to express my stance more explicitly, clarify the case and the location’s distinctiveness in comparison to other global examples, and build a connection between modernity and the reinvention of the concept of childhood in my future research and thesis,” Ailin said. “Attending this Conference contributed to the fulfilment of my degree at HKU and advanced the objectives of my research by offering a critical global view.”

HKU Research Published on Multilingual Students’ Writing

Siqi Song, a PhD student in Applied Linguistics from the Centre for Applied English Studies, and her supervisor Dr Ken Lau recently published a paper titled “Writing Economics: Languaging and Translingual Resources of a Multilingual Postgraduate Writer in EMI Higher Education” in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.

This research is a qualitative case study exploring the writing journey of a multilingual master’s student at a university in Hong Kong where English is the medium of instruction. The study implies that multilingual students' meaning-making resources go beyond linguistic resources to include their ways of thinking, expressing, and interpreting the world. The findings suggest that multilingual students are resourceful writers who can contribute to disciplinary discourse, and their writing is an emergent process of balancing and synthesizing different resources.

Siqi presented this research at the Comparative and International Education Society conference in Miami, US, the American Association of Applied Linguistics conference in Houston, US, and the HKU Research Postgraduate Student Symposium.

The full article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2470392.

HKU Scholar Publishes a Landmark Publication on Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism

Professor Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the HKU Centre of Buddhist Studies has recently published a landmark publication Saraha’s Spontaneous Songs with the Commentaries by Sahajavajra and Mokṣākaragupta (co-authored with Péter-Dániel Szántó). In this landmark publication of nearly 600 pages, the authors present the most important work of spiritual poetry from late Buddhist India together with all available Indian commentaries.

Professor Mathes was inaugurated as the Venerable Yuen Hang Memorial Trust Professor in Buddhist Studies last November. “The endowment allows me to start my new project on exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralistic tolerance in Mahāyāna Buddhism,” he shared.

Apart from doing his research and publications, Professor Mathes has also been actively participating in various international conferences. Following his presentations in Vienna and Spain last summer, he gave a talk titled ‘The Samye Debate Revisited: The Chinese Ch’an View of Hwa shang Mo he yan and Direct Approaches to Ultimate Reality’ at the conference on Chinese Chan Buddhism at HKU in January 2025 to share his recent discoveries and research findings. Also presenting at the Conference included PhD student Lai Mun Wong and MPhil student Long In Shui at the Centre of Buddhist Studies.

The abstract of their presentations can be viewed here.

Professor Klaus-Dieter Mathes presenting at the Chinese Chan Buddhism International Conference.

Professor Mathes’s landmark publication was published in 2024.

Faculty of Dentistry

Dr Abuzaid from the Faculty of Dentistry Shared Insights on the Art of Restorative and Aesthetic Dentistry

Dr Maxstein Mostafa Abuzaid from the Faculty of Dentistry gave a lecture titled ‘Balancing Beauty and Conservation: The Art of Today's Restorative and Aesthetic Dentistry" at the UP College of Dentistry International Oral Health Symposium in Manila, the Philippines, in January 2025.

In celebration of the 110th Anniversary of the University of the Philippines, the UP College of Dentistry brought together speakers from top-ranking dental universities in the US and in Asia. Dr Abuzaid’s lecture delved into the evolving landscape where dental professionals are challenged to deliver subtle yet effective cosmetic treatments that prioritise minimal intervention. It explored the philosophy of conservative dentistry, which emphasises preserving the natural health and integrity of teeth while achieving the desired aesthetic outcomes.

Faculty of Education

PhD Student Gains Valuable Experience Presenting at Expo

Chi Wui Ng, a PhD candidate from HKU’s Academic Unit of Social Contexts and Policies of Education, attended the Learning and Teaching Expo 2024 and conducted a trilingual presentation titled ‘AI Competency and AI-Facilitated Literacy Development: Voices from Teachers and Students’ with Professor Yue Zhang and Professor Xiaojing Weng from the Education University of Hong Kong. The Expo was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in December 2024.

In his presentation, Chi Wui outlined the current implementation of school-based assessment in Hong Kong’s senior secondary education, discussed some of the common malpractices that ought to be eradicated, and provided suggestions on the effective use of generative artificial intelligence in the English language school-based assessment. A summary of his presentation can be found here.

Faculty of Engineering

New Era of High-performance Image Processing in the TV Industry

Professor Ngai Wong and his team—including PhD students Binxiao Huang, Jiajun Zhou, and Huang Binxiao, and graduates Dr Jason Chun Lok Li and Dr Ran Jie—have teamed up with TCL Corporate Research Hong Kong to develop the ‘Hundred-Kilobyte LookUp Tables’ technology. Unlike traditional image processing, this new tech offers super-sharp resolution with simplistic hardware and minimal storage space. It not only boosts image quality but also cuts down on customers’ computational costs and carbon footprint.

This groundbreaking research bridges the gap between industry and academia. This impactful research has been accepted for publication at the 2024 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, and attracted further industrial opportunities. Click this link to access the full paper: https://shorturl.at/btxgi.

(This article is adapted from https://www.instagram.com/p/DE2Us4IBA2N/?img_index=2.)

Two ME PhD Graduates Awarded at the HKIS 2024 Young Scientist Awards

Two recent PhD graduates, Dr Sarah Leong and Dr Lin Lin from the HKU Department of Mechanical Engineering, were awarded at the 2024 Young Scientist Awards by the Hong Kong Institution of Science (HKIS). Dr Leong received the prestigious Young Scientist Award, while Dr Lin was honoured with an Honourable Mention in Engineering Science. The awards were presented at the HKIS Annual Conference held on 7 December 2024.

In the 2024 awards, a total of 42 candidates from various tertiary institutions across Hong Kong were evaluated for these esteemed honours. The recognition of Dr Leong and Dr Lin highlights their research excellence and exemplifies the potential of young scientists to drive innovation and advancement in their disciplines.

(This article is adapted from https://engg.hku.hk/News-Events/News/issue/2025-01#8345.)

Dr Sarah Leong receiving the Young Scientist Award from the President of HKIS.

Dr Lin Lin receiving the Honourable Mention Award from the President of HKIS.

HKU Engineering Research Team Wins Best Paper Award at IEEE MLSP 2024

A research team from the HKU Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering—led by Professor Edmund Lam, with PhD students Jingqian Wu and Chutian Wang, and postdoctoral fellow Shuo Zhu—has won the Best Paper Award (Third Place) for their paper titled ‘Ev-GS: Event-based Gaussian Splatting for Efficient and Accurate Radiance Field Rendering’ (https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.11343) at the IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing (MLSP) 2024, held in London, UK.

In this paper, the team proposed the first computational neuromorphic imaging (CNI)-informed scheme to infer 3D Gaussian splatting from a monocular event camera, enabling efficient novel view synthesis. Leveraging 3D Gaussians with pure event-based supervision, Ev-GS overcomes challenges such as the detection of fast-moving objects and insufficient lighting. Experimental results show that Ev-GS outperforms the method that takes frame-based signals as input by rendering realistic views with reduced blurring and improved visual quality. Moreover, it demonstrates competitive reconstruction quality and reduced computing occupancy compared with existing methods, which paves the way to a highly efficient CNI approach for signal processing. 

(This article is adapted from https://www.eee.hku.hk/news/20241003-1/.)

HKU EEE PhD Student Awarded in the 2024 NSFC Young Student Basic Research Program

Mingyao Cui, a PhD student supervised by Professor Kaibin Huang of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has been awarded under the 2024 National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Student Basic Research Program (PhD candidate).

In his winning project ‘Theory and Technology for MIMO Communications Based on Rydberg Atomic Receivers’, Mingyao explores atomic multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) communication techniques, which lie at the intersection of wireless communication and quantum sensing. His research aims to blend the high spectral efficiency of MIMO technology with the exceptional sensitivity of Rydberg atomic quantum receivers. This innovative approach seeks to significantly enhance the performance of wireless communication systems.

This year marks the inaugural acceptance of applications from the Hong Kong and Macao regions, making the programme highly competitive. Only 15 projects are funded in Hong Kong, with each receiving RMB300,000 over a maximum period of two years. Mingyao is among the selected few to have achieved this honour.

(This article is adapted from https://engg.hku.hk/News-Events/News/issue/2025-01#8345.)

Faculty of Science

Inverted Stream Channels on the Tibetan Plateau and Mars

A research group comprising Professor Yiliang Li and his PhD student Zikang Li from the Department of Earth Sciences has identified the Qaidam Basin (QB) as a critical terrestrial analogue for studying the enigmatic fluvial ridges on Mars, offering new insights into the Red Planet’s ancient hydrological history.

The western QB hosts numerous well-preserved inverted stream channels (ISCs), raised ridges that trace ancient river networks. These landforms, dated to a period with a cold, dry climate (~144,000–172,000 years ago) using luminescence dating, formed through cycles of fluvial deposition and subsequent wind erosion. The QB’s ISCs share striking similarities with martian inverted channels, which are relics of a time when liquid water flowed on Mars. Researchers propose that the basin’s inverted ridges formed during climate fluctuations, as episodic floods deposited coarse sediments later armoured against erosion.

This research underscores the value of Earth analogues in interpreting the geologic history of Mars, particularly in reconstructing water activity and climate shifts critically to assess its past habitability. As NASA’s Perseverance rover continues exploring Jezero Crater’s deltaic fans, studies of QB’s ISCs provide ground-truth data for linking martian landforms to Earth’s climatic and hydrological archives. This synergy highlights the importance of terrestrial analogues in preparing for future Mars missions aimed at uncovering signs of ancient life.

The findings have been published in ScienceDirect: https://shorturl.at/HUTdx.

The oblique view of inverted stream channels in QB (image taken by DJI Mavic 2 pro drone).

Professor Li’s group conducting a field trip in the Tibetan Plateau.

Chemistry PhD Students Shine at the 11th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference

Two PhD students from Professor Hongzhe Sun’s group in the Department of Chemistry have been awarded for their outstanding performance at the 11th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference held in Guilin in December 2024. Liang Zhong received the ‘Best Flash Talk Award’ and Xueying Wei was honoured with the ‘Best Poster Presentation Award’. The awards recognised their outstanding scientific communication and innovation in the rapidly evolving field of biological inorganic chemistry.

“This award underscores the importance of bridging fundamental science with real-world applications,” Liang Zhong said. “I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, collaborators, and funding agencies for their unwavering support. I extend particular thanks to the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, administered by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, for the financial support of my PhD study.”

“I am truly honoured to receive this award at this prestigious academic conference,” Xueying said. “This achievement reflects the collective efforts of our team. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, who provided me with invaluable guidance and encouragement throughout my research journey. I also hope our research will contribute to the global fight against antibiotic resistance in clinical practice.”

Visit this website to learn more about the research of Professor Sun’s Lab: https://www.bioinorg-chem.hku.hk/.

Faculty of Social Sciences

Sociology PhD Student’s Sharing on Dissertation Year Fellowship

Lok Lee Cho, a PhD candidate from the Department of Sociology, was recently awarded the Dissertation Year Fellowship offered by the University.

The Dissertation Year Fellowship is a prestigious programme to enable outstanding final-year PhD students to pursue an additional year of training at the University to bring their doctoral research to a higher level before graduation. Only outstanding full-time PhD students whose thesis is rated in the top 10% by the Thesis Examining Committee can compete for the Fellowship.

“I am truly grateful to receive the Dissertation Year Fellowship,” Lok Lee shared. “This recognition of my work in sociology and criminology affirms the significance of my thesis findings. It fuels my passion for addressing complex societal issues and boosts my confidence to explore new research areas. The fellowship will provide crucial time and resources to allow me to carry out further research and professional growth, advancing my academic development and enabling me to continue to contribute to both academia and society.”

Department of Sociology Hosts RPg Writing Retreat for Young Scholars

On February 25, 2025, the Department of Sociology hosted an inspiring writing retreat and academic mentoring session for over 20 research postgraduate (RPg) students and early career scholars. Esteemed visiting sociologists Professors Michèle Lamont and Frank Dobbin from Harvard University shared their invaluable insights on academic writing and navigating scholarly careers.

At the retreat, Professor Lamont encouraged students to connect with peers and supervisors while ensuring diversity in their networks to encompass various research areas and identities. Professor Dobbin advised against early perfectionism and advocated for flexibility in the writing process. He encouraged participants to reserve their prime hours for writing, and to target top journals to gain valuable feedback and insights into successful articles’ argumentative style.

The Department of Sociology’s RPg-led writing retreat, inspired by Murray and Newton (2009), has been running since 2023. The eminent Visiting Professors recognised the retreats’ potential to enhance research-oriented interactions, build confidence, and foster cross-disciplinary dialogue.

HKU Psychologist Leads Scoping Review

Mr Cristian G Giron, a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Psychology, led a scoping review titled ‘Antidepressant Efficacy of Administering Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) with Psychological and Other Non-Pharmacological Methods: A Scoping Review and Meta-Analysis", the findings of which have recently been published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

rTMS is a non-invasive method that uses magnetic fields to stimulate brain cells. While rTMS is a valuable tool in clinical practice and psychological research, there is ongoing exploration to enhance its effectiveness, especially in treating depression.

In this study, the authors reviewed the literature combining rTMS with other non-pharmacological treatments to treat depressive symptoms. The initial findings suggest that combining rTMS with other treatments such as cognitive training and sleep deprivation could enhance its effectiveness in treating depressive symptoms. However, when pooled, these combination therapies have not yet been proven to be more effective than rTMS alone. This area remains an open field for research, promising insights into how specific activities during rTMS sessions might amplify the brain's response to rTMS.

This paper can be accessed at https://shorturl.at/ljvpX.

HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science

IDS PhD Candidate Xubin Ren Awarded in the 2024 NSFC Young Student Basic Research Program

Xubin Ren, a second-year PhD candidate in the HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science (IDS), has been selected under the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Young Student Basic Research Program (PhD candidate). Xubin is one of just eight HKU students awarded to this programme, in recognition of his outstanding academic results and excellence in his research areas. His awarded project is titled ‘Towards Robust and Explainable Generalized Recommender Systems’.

Organised by the NSFC, the Program aims to nurture PhD candidates’ independent scientific research ability, as well as stimulate innovative ideas in facilitating high-quality, impactful works of basic and fundamental research. Each awardee will be sponsored RMB300,000. Xubin is currently supervised by Professor Chao Huang, HKU-100 IDS Scholar, whose research interests lie in probabilistic graphic models, data mining, and recommender systems.

(This article is adapted from https://shorturl.at/uwuAQ.)

IDS Research Team Publishes Groundbreaking Work on ‘Auto Deep Research’

Professor Chao Huang, an Assistant Professor in IDS and the School of Computing and Data Science (CDS), and his research students, Jiabin Tang and Tianyu Fan from IDS and CDS, have collaboratively developed ‘Auto Deep Research’, an innovative open-source personal AI assistant.

As a leading open-source solution, the system demonstrates performance comparable to OpenAI’s Deep Research, consistently maintaining top positions on the GAIA Benchmark for general AI assistants. Launched in Spring 2025 as a cost-effective alternative to OpenAI’s Deep Research, the project has garnered significant attention from mainstream tech media and tech giants. This AI tool has been widely publicised in major newspapers and tech media.

“Auto-Deep-Research represents a significant milestone as the personal AI assistant powered by AutoAgent, demonstrating the remarkable efficiency and accessibility of creating sophisticated agent applications through our framework," Professor Huang said. "This breakthrough development holds immense potential for advancing practical AI applications. As technology continues to evolve, we envision future AI research assistants will become increasingly accessible and versatile, changing how we approach complex research tasks.

Jiabin is the first author of this article. The paper can be accessed here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.05957.

(This article is adapted from https://hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/28160.html and https://shorturl.at/DqsUN.)

IDS Students Take Part in the 2024 European Conference on Computer Vision

Two HKU IDS research students, Pei Zhou and Chenming Zhu, gave their poster presentations at the 2024 European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2024), held in Milan, Italy, last October. ECCV is a biennial premier research conference in Computer Vision and Machine Learning, held on even years to gather significant works from the scientific and industrial communities.

Despite being junior PhD candidates at IDS, both Pei and Chenming are listed as the first authors of their respective accepted papers. They both led poster and oral presentations about their work in front of online and offline audiences.

“This trip provided valuable opportunities for in-depth discussions with researchers from different fields, gaining insights into the latest developments in the field, and exploring shared perspectives on current challenges,” Pei shared.

Apart from presenting their papers, Pei and Chenming also had the chance to mingle with industrial partners.

“Huawei hosted a reception dinner at ECCV, inviting conference attendees to learn about their work,” Chenming said. “This dinner provided an excellent opportunity to meet and connect with interesting individuals worldwide. I was honoured to present myself as an emerging researcher from IDS and HKU, and hopefully there could be possible future collaborations.”

(This article is adapted from https://datascience.hku.hk/2024/12/sharing-eccv2024/.)

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