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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 Arts

 Arts Student Publishes Articles on Hong Kong Cinema and Culture in Top-tier Journals 

Danqi Lu, a PhD candidate specialising in popular culture and media studies at the School of Chinese, has shared her research on Hong Kong cinema and culture through her recent academic publications. 

Her article "Reimagining Scholars and Eunuchs: Nationalism, Masculinities, and Historicism in King Hu’s Martial Arts Films" was published in Issue 1, Volume 49 of Asian Studies Review in 2025. This work examines how director King Hu (1932–1997) utilised Ming dynasty settings to allegorise Cold War sociopolitical dynamics both within and beyond the territory of Hong Kong.  

In addition to this research, Danqi has published articles in top-tier Chinese-language journals, including "A Study of Travel Writing in Wong Bik-wan's Novels" (黃碧雲小說中的行旅書寫研究), in the THCI-indexed journal Chung Wai Literary Quarterly 《中外文學》 (March 2025), and "Cross-border Innovation and Labor Visions in Era of Transition: An Investigation Centered on Wong Cheuk-hon and Hong Kong Lan Kwong Film Company (1959-1968)" (時代轉型中的跨界創新與勞工憧憬——以黃卓漢與香港嶺光影業公司（1959—1968）為中心的考察) in the CSSCI-indexed journal Contemporary Cinema 《當代電影》 (July 2025). These publications reflect her sustained interest in exploring Hong Kong's rich and diverse cultural landscape. Danqi is grateful for the academic guidance she has received from the Faculty and looks forward to continuing her efforts to explore transcultural and transhistorical themes within the diverse mediaspheres in contemporary China. 

 

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​HKU Student Recognised by the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs' Commendation Scheme 

HKU PhD candidate Xi Chen from the School of Chinese has been commended by the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs' Commendation Scheme 2024 for her outstanding performance in community services, volunteer work, and youth development activities. The presentation ceremony for 2024 was held on August 30, 2025. 

Xi has demonstrated a long-standing and profound commitment to community services, volunteer work, and youth development activities, with a record of engagement that began in secondary school and extends across local, regional, and international contexts. Her dedication in the community can be seen through her active participation in initiatives ranging from visiting the elderly and volunteering with children with special educational needs to supporting newly-arrived youths in Hong Kong. This local engagement has been complemented by her contributions to volunteer projects in diverse locations such as New York, Nha Trang, and Guiyang.  

During her professional internships in New York and Beijing, Xi enthusiastically participated in a wide array of activities, including briefings, talks, and visits. Through her involvement in volunteer services during these experiences, she fostered meaningful cultural exchanges and continued to contribute to collective development. Looking forward, Xi aspires to continue her involvement in community services, volunteer work, and youth development activities, with the aim of serving the community and contributing to youth development. 

The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs' Commendation Scheme aims to commend citizens for their long-term dedication towards the training and development of youths in uniformed groups or distinguished community services. For more details of the results announcement, please visit this website. 

Xi Chen’s commendation award through the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs' Commendation Scheme 2024. 

The Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme 2024 Award Ceremony was held on August 30, 2025. 

 

 Faculty of Engineering 

HKU Engineering Team Reveals How Subtle Crystal ‘Twists’ Control Light in Perovskites 

Research led by Professor Philip C. Y. Chow and his PhD student Yumeng Song from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has revealed how minute structural modifications in advanced perovskite materials critically influence their light-emission properties.  

This study, conducted in collaboration with research teams from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Southern University of Science and Technology, provides valuable insights and practical guidance for designing brighter, more efficient, and versatile materials. The findings could accelerate the development of next-generation optoelectronic and quantum devices. 
 
“By connecting crystal structure directly to both efficiency and advanced optical functionality, the study provides a practical roadmap for engineering perovskites with specific performance targets”, Professor Chow commented. “In LEDs and display technologies, these insights can help minimise energy losses and boost brightness. In solar cells, reducing defect formation can improve stability and power conversion efficiency—two key hurdles to commercialisation.” 
 
The research is featured as a cover article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and titled “Structure–Emission Property Relationship of Bilayer 2D Hybrid Perovskites”. Click here for details.  

(This article is adapted from https://www.hku.hk/press/press-releases/detail/28752.html.) 

 

LKS Faculty of Medicine

Two PhD Students Co-Author Research Articles Published in The Lancet Psychiatry and World Psychiatry 

 

Wenxin Tian and Yuqi Hu, PhD students in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, were part of a multidisciplinary effort to identify rare side effects of antipsychotic medications.  

Led by Professor Francisco Lai Tsz-tsun—Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy and the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine—the research team leveraged territory-wide data from the Hospital Authority to conduct two internationally impactful studies. They analysed data from 8,000 women who were new users of antipsychotic medications, and more than 10,000 patients with schizophrenia in Hong Kong, and had important findings on the safety profile of clozapine and other antipsychotic medications in real-world use.  

Yuqi Hu was the first author in the research article “Clozapine use and risk of infections in patients with schizophrenia in Hong Kong: a population-based cohort study”, published in The Lancet Psychiatry. Wenxin Tian was the second author in “Incidence of gynecological cancers following prolactin-increasing antipsychotic use: a population cohort study”, published in World Psychiatry.  

(This article is adapted from https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20251104-hkumed-leverages-hong-kong-big-data-to-identify-rare-side-effects-of-antipsychotic.)

 

HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science

HKU IDS PhD Candidate Awarded the ‘Ant InTech Scholarship – Future (Year 2025)’ 

Xubin Ren, a Year 3 PhD candidate at the HKU Musketeers Foundation Institute of Data Science, has been awarded the ‘Ant InTech Scholarship – Future (Year 2025) (螞蟻InTech科技獎學金（未來）)’ for young researchers. 

The Ant InTech Award aims to recognise outstanding young Chinese researchers to continuously strive for excellence in exploring and resolving pressing issues in AI and machine learning. This year, the Ant Group focused on four core areas: general artificial intelligence technology; embodied intelligence technology; digital medicine technology; and data processing, security, and privacy technology. 

Xubin received the honour together with nine other junior researchers pursuing doctoral studies in various esteemed universities such as Tsinghua University, National University of Singapore, and Fudan University. Xubin is currently supervised by Professor Chao Huang, an HKU-100 IDS Scholar, whose research interests lie with large language models, autonomous agents, and graph machine learning. 

(This article is adapted from https://datascience.hku.hk/2025/09/award-xubin-ren-ant-intech-scholarship/.) 

 

 

School of Computing and Data Science 

 HKU Team Wins Dual Honours at Global AI Challenge for Building Electrical and Mechanical Facilities 

A team from the HKU School of Computing and Data Science (CDS) has achieved remarkable success at the Global AI Challenge for Building E&M Facilities 2025, winning both the Gold Award and the ALIBABA Cloud Most Scalable AI Solution Award in the Academic Group category. 
 
Organised jointly by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department and the Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, the Global AI Challenge took place from June to August 2025, attracting over 200 teams from 26 countries and regions. This year’s event featured two sub-themed competitions—'Build Your AI Model’ and ‘Innovative Proposal for Construction and Engineering’—encouraging participants to apply AI to enhance efficiency, sustainability, and safety in building and engineering projects. The award ceremony was held on 8 August 2025 in Hong Kong, where teams gathered to celebrate innovation in AI and engineering. 

The award-winning team included postdoctoral researcher Dr Qingqing Feng and two PhD candidates, Xie Zhang and Sheng Lyu, under the supervision of Professor Chenshu Wu. The CDS team’s innovative AI solution showcased exceptional scalability and technical excellence, earning recognition from a judging panel of experts from academic institutions in building and computer science, as well as industry leaders, including Huawei. The solution’s potential impact on utilising AI for building cooling load prediction and energy savings during the operational phase was particularly noteworthy. 

(This article is adapted from https://www.cds.hku.hk/cds-team-wins-dual-honours-at-global-ai-challenge-for-building-em-facilities/.) 

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​HKU CDS Research Team Claims Championship at 2nd Zhuhai International Dexterous Manipulation Challenge 

Omni-Mani—a team led by Professor Jia Pan from the HKU School of Computing and Data Science (CDS) and including PhD candidate Zhongxuan Li—has claimed the top prize in the ‘Daily Life’ track at the second Zhuhai International Dexterous Manipulation Challenge and Embodied Intelligence Industry Conference.  

This year’s competition track was modelled around a kitchen environment, requiring robots to perform human-robot handovers to test core capabilities in human-robot interaction and dexterous manipulation. Competing against 20 elite international teams, Omni-Mani secured the championship title along with RMB 500,000 in prize money and attracted RMB 6 million in follow-up investment interest, which is set to fuel further technological iteration and prototype development. 

Looking ahead, Professor Pan’s team aims to leverage the Greater Bay Area’s dynamic ecosystem to scale up general-purpose robotic manipulation technology.  

Omni-Mani Team: 

Professor Jia Pan, HKU CDS; Professor Peng Zhou of the Greater Bay University College of Advanced Engineering; Professor Jiaming Qi of Northeast Forestry University; Dr Zeqing Zhang of Nanyang Technological University; HKU PhD candidate Zhongxuan Li, CDS. 

(This article is adapted from https://www.cds.hku.hk/news/cdss-omni-mani-team-claims-championship-at-2nd-zhuhai-international-dexterous-manipulation-challenge/.)