Two recent graduates have been named the recipients of the School of Engineering PhD Research Excellence Awards 2015-16.

The awardees are Dr Langston Wai Leung Suen, 2016 graduate from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Dr Edwin Chi Yan Tso, 2015 graduate from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The School of Engineering has established the PhD Research Excellence Award scheme since 2011 in recognition of the outstanding achievements by its PhD students and recent graduates. The awards are granted to those who have made influential contributions to their discipline during PhD studies at HKUST.

Dr Langston Wai Leung Suen

Dr Suen’s research work at HKUST mainly focuses on ultrasound technology for ocular drug delivery applications. Current treatment for retinal diseases requires eye injection, which is highly invasive and known to have side effects. With the ultrasound technology, drugs can be delivered into the eye painlessly. This new technology is a revolutionary alternative to the eye injection treatment.

During the past four years, he investigated the mechanism of ultrasound on the transport enhancement and biological barrier modulation. He has published four high-impact journal publications including one in the Journal of Controlled Release and one in Controlled Release Society Newsletter. His research works were presented in five international conferences. In addition, one US patent is granted based on his research findings. Besides academic achievements, Langston founded Sonikure Technology Ltd in 2014 to transform his research excellence into a market-available medical device. The company became a Kairos Society Top 50 Global Startup in 2015. He received five awards in business competitions at local, regional and global levels, including the 2015 TiE International Business Plan Competition HK Chapter championship, Asia Region championship and Asia Rising Star Award; being a semi-finalist (top 9 out of 42 teams) in the 2015 Rice Business Plan Competition; and second prize in 2014 HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition. Notably, his research work was featured as a Moonshot in Google Solve for X. These achievements are all excellent proof of the high quality of his research work at HKUST.

Upon his completion of his PhD studies, Langston is currently managing the medical device company, dedicated to translating his research excellence into an approved product to benefit patients in need.

Dr Edwin Chi Yan Tso

Dr Tso’s research work at HKUST mainly focuses on nanofluids, heat transfer and adsorption cooling systems. Adsorption cooling systems can be an energy efficient strategy for smart green building operation since they need neither CFCs nor HCFCs and can be integrated with waste heat from industrial processes, boilers in hospitals and hotels, commercial kitchens, or solar panels, etc., thus greatly reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, adsorption cooling systems have not been widely commercialized due to their large size and low cooling efficiency. During the past five years, Edwin has built a prototype of an adsorption cooling system, together with a novel composite adsorbent as well as a high-performance adsorbate (nanofluids). Besides, he also developed a mathematical model for estimating the cooling performance of the adsorption cooling systems. These works have led to eight high-impact journal publications and he has presented his research works at six international conferences. Notably, his works have been cited over 83 times during the past five years. Moreover, one US patent, three Chinese patents and one Hong Kong patent are accepted based on his works, which shows that his works are not only academically interesting, but also have potential commercial value. In addition, two General Research Fund (GRF) grants totaling HK$2 million and one Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) grant of HK$3 million were also funded based on his PhD thesis work. He also won some competitive awards in the past few years, including the Fulbright-Research Grants Council Hong Kong Research Scholar Award 2014/15, Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship (for Postgraduate Research Students) 2013/14, Hong Kong PhD Fellowship in 2012 and second prize in 2012 HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition. These achievements are all excellent demonstration of the high quality of his research work at HKUST.

Currently, he is working in Prof Christopher Chao’s team at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering for postdoctoral research.