A research team involving HKUST's Chair Professor in Electronic and Computer Engineering Xiren Cao has won the 2009 State Natural Science Award (SNSA), China's most prestigious award in the field of natural science.

The award winning team that was led by Prof Xiren Cao, HKUST's Chair Professor in Electronic and Computer Engineering received Second Class Prize of the SNSA award. Prof Cao’s team won the prize for their research project "Optimisation Theory and Methodology for Discrete Event Dynamic Systems". This project belongs to the category of optimisation of discrete event dynamic systems (DEDS) in information technology (IT). Examples of such systems include communication networks (e.g., Internet), computer systems, logistics systems, manufacturing plants, transportation systems, robotics, and many other man-made operational systems. Because of difficulties involving randomness, discrete states and nonlinearity, there is no unified theory in this area. In this project, Prof Cao's team solved a number of long-standing issues in the area, and developed a unified framework for a few different subjects and approaches in the area; and based on the insights obtained with this framework, the team proposed a number of new research topics and directions. These contributions are pioneering and innovative and have significantly advanced the development of the fundamental theory and methodologies in the area.

The State Natural Science Award (SNSA) is China's most prestigious award in the field of natural science. It aims to recognise academic excellence in basic and applied research in natural science. In 2009, more than 120 entries competed for the State Natural Science Award (SNSA). Only one first-class SNSA award and 27 second-class awards were presented, and one of these went to Prof Cao.