HKUST Engineering Won Two National Science and Technology Awards
Faculty members from the School of Engineering have received two honors in the 2014 Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology), presented by the Ministry of Education.
The Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards have been set up to recognize outstanding research projects at all tertiary institutions in China. The awards are presented to individuals or units that have made remarkable contributions in the areas of scientific discovery, technological innovation, science and technology advancement, and the implementation of patented technologies. They honor researchers who have made discoveries in natural science and applied science, or given explanations to natural phenomena and characteristics.
A Second Class Award in Scientific and Technological Progress was awarded to Prof Huamin Qu, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and his collaborators from Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang University and software company BSOFT Ltd. Entitled “Modeling, Analysis and Clinical Applications of Medical Image Data”, the project aims at developing analytical and visualization techniques for medical image data like computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to assist physicians to make quick and accurate diagnosis and treatment. It focuses on geometrical modeling of human organs and lesions, visualization and pathological analysis of 3D medical image data. The team has developed some novel visualization methods and user-friendly interface for physicians to browse, locate, measure and analyze a patient’s lesion region and organs. One breakthrough is in the design of transfer function for direct volume rendering of 3D medical data. They proposed a unified framework based on psychological principles for automatic specification of rendering parameters and interactive enhancements of direct volume rendered images to reveal layered structures in a semi-transparent manner. Their work has been presented at IEEE Visualization 2009, a top conference in the visualization field, and won the Honorable Mention for Best Paper Award. The core techniques of this project have been adopted in the software systems developed by BSOFT Ltd, which have been used in more than 100 hospitals, effectively improving the efficiency of clinical diagnosis and treatment. The team had worked on the project from 2008 to 2012.
A Second Class Award in Natural Science was presented to Prof Bing Zeng, Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, and his collaborators from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. In addition, a faculty member from the School of Science also received a Second Class Award in Natural Science.
