HKUST ENGINEERING SPRING 2021 ISSUE 33 Accelerating Smart Hong Kong Thinking Ahead
CONTENTS SPRING 2021 I NO.33 HKUST Engineering In Focus Magazine sengpr@ust.hk (852) 2358 5917 https://seng.ust.hk/node/2914 Published by: Communications and External Affairs School of Engineering The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Editors: Diana Liu, Dorothy Yip Contributing Editor: Sally Course Designer: Kingsley Lau hkustengineering HKUST-SENG seng.ust.hk HKUST (Guangzhou) President appointed Founding head named 5 6 COVID- roundup The School’s recent contributions to help tackle the virus 10 Engineering major + X Innovative undergraduate degree option 12 Like what you do Meet the rst woman engineer to win the J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics 24 Productive moves Students showcase their entrepreneurial spirit 16 AI ‘brain’ behind smart Hong Kong Building the city’s next-generation cloud computing platform 27 Greater Bay success story Award-winning alumna who embraces change
Moving onward and upward uring a year of change to established practices due to the COVID- pandemic, I am very happy to note that, despite all the challenges, the overall outcomes for the School of Engineering’s education and research have been inspiring. Indeed, thanks to the tremendous e orts of the School’s faculty, students, and alumni, leaps in learning have taken place through adapting to the extraordinary times. Our e ective expansion of mixed-mode teaching – a blend of online and in-person delivery – has opened up many more possibilities for delivery and reach of our classes. We have further extended our exploration of virtual labs through the creation as well as adaptation of leading-edge visualization tools and equipment. Meanwhile, the adoption of e-learning technologies and pedagogies means physical presence on campus is no longer always required, widening the potential for recruitment of local and non-local intake of top minds unable to continuously attend in-person. Nor have we been standing still with our degree programs. The pioneering initiative of an extended major option for undergraduates, termed “Engineering + X” is one key move. Our rst “X” will be arti cial intelligence (AI), enabling engineering students to gain an early step-up on this signi cant and rapidly expanding eld as it relates to their chosen engineering major. That students realize the great opportunity this provides can be seen in the overwhelming numbers applying for the option. Moreover, looking ahead, “X” can refer to other areas of emerging importance, such as digital media. Research advances by faculty at all stages of their careers, not only senior members, have also continued to draw widespread attention as well as contribute to addressing COVID- . I am delighted that two new large-scale research centers are now set to add such reach. Focused on integrated circuits to accelerate AI computations and construction robots respectively, and involving international partners, these centers stand out through their integration of basic and downstream development and the training of talents with understanding and skills beyond their individual research roles. They will thus provide a living example of the linkage between discovery, innovation, and social impact – and bring together these key but o en not fully connected elements of a university’s role: a focus on basic research in a way that other drivers, such as government and industry, do not; and the translation of that research to society to create impact. All these developments are a clear indication of the School’s resilience, flexibility, innovative spirit, and passion. In the most testing of times, these qualities, combined with an expansion of facilities and opportunities, including our education innovations, research centers, and the University’s new Guangzhou campus, have created truly exciting choices for the future that otherwise would not have been possible. This is certainly a win-win-win situation for young aspiring engineers, HKUST, and society as a whole. Prof. Tim CHENG Kwang-Ting Dean of Engineering 03 IN FOCUS Dean’s View D
Far-sighted R&D centers spur IC and robotics innovation Going for gold 04 IN FOCUS Top star Sarah Lee is among those participating in a cutting-edge sports research initiative with HKUST to boost the Hong Kong cycling team’s performance. She won a gold medal in the women’s sprint at the rst UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup at the Hong Kong Velodrome in May 2021. The two centers are creating an integrated research pipeline from discovery to downstream development. In the News HKUST is now actively recruiting for two major research centers that are seeking to produce breakthroughs and applications focused on integrated circuits to accelerate arti cial intelligence chips and systems, and construction robots, respectively. The large-scale centers, led by the School of Engineering, combine state-of-the-art research conducted together with international partners to drive cutting-edge innovation. In addition to generating publications in top journals, the centers will move beyond this to produce artifacts and demonstrations of technology-transfer readiness for industry, that is, mid-stream to downstream in the research and development process. Led by eminent School faculty, many other engineering faculty are being engaged in the endeavors, with more researchers, innovators, and engineers being sought globally at various levels. “The idea is to take a focused area and build a pipeline from research all the way to downstream,” Dean of Engineering Prof. Tim CHENG said. “So the talents we recruit will have the skill sets covering the entire vertical ecosystem. Although di erent people will focus on di erent stages of the research development, they will be vertically integrated to work together.” The centers thus o er the School a unique opportunity to combine its globally leading research e orts, build a pool of talent in these two highly signi cant areas for future technologies, and deliver social impact, Dean Cheng added. A co-operative endeavor by School of Engineering researchers and the Hong Kong Sports Institute to enhance the performance of Hong Kong’s high-riding international cycling team is gearing up for its most signi cant global showcase to date at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, if the sporting event still goes ahead amid the latest COVID- uncertainties. The two-year A. Kwok Sports Aerodynamics Science Initiative Project, launched in , involves cutting-edge research and technology led by Prof. ZHANG Xin, Swire Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Institute’s elite cyclists, including star team member Sarah LEE Wai-Sze. It is supported by the Hong Kong government’s Innovation and Technology Fund and a HK$6 million donation from Sun Hung Kai Properties Executive Director Mr. Adam KWOK Kai-Fai. Prof. Zhang and his team have combined an advanced aerodynamic rig with computational fluid dynamics based on Formula One racing car technology to hone the cyclists’ performance through their posture and clothing, among others. Ms. Lee said it had been exciting to be part of the initiative, which included wind tunnel tests and had helped boost the team’s potential to succeed. Prof. Zhang also said that the researchers would continue to work closely with the Institute and its sports science team in the future to apply further research to competitions and the technology to other sports.
05 IN FOCUS n a key step forward, Prof. Lionel NI Ming-Shuan has been appointed Founding President of the new Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)) campus now under construction and scheduled to open in September . The appointment will take e ect following o cial approval from the Ministry of Education for the formal establishment of HKUST(GZ). Prof. Ni, who became Provost of HKUST at the Clear Water Bay campus in , is a highly accomplished computer science and engineering scholar of international recognition and a recipient of several of Mainland China’s leading research accolades. He is also a respected senior academic administrator, with many years of experience at HKUST and elsewhere. Former roles include heading the School of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering when he initially joined HKUST in . The state-of-the-art, purpose-built campus in Qingsheng, Nansha, is being developed as a complementary hub to HKUST in Hong Kong. Degree programs will be cross-disciplinary and there will be no traditional division of elds into departments or schools. Instead, HKUST(GZ) will operate under four interconnected multidisciplinary hubs (function, information, systems, society) in a pioneering st-century academic structure, which Prof. Ni has helped to develop. Students need to be nurtured so that they develop the ability to identify and solve problems, Prof. Ni noted in an interview with Times Higher Education, a leading international university news and data provider, following his appointment in April . “To do this, they would need to bridge diverse knowledge from multiple disciplines,” he said. The new campus is seeking to extend its reach to , postgraduates and faculty within the rst ve years a er opening; and undergraduates in the subsequent phase. Worldwide recruitment for accomplished faculty at all levels is on-going, with some recruited by May , including around from the University’s Clear Water Bay campus. A HKUST(GZ) pilot scheme, whereby high-achieving research students can enroll and study at Clear Water Bay until the new campus is ready, will also begin its third cohort in . More than students have joined the rst two cohorts. I Prof. Lionel Ni, a renowned computer science and engineering scholar and highly experienced senior university administrator, will take the helm at HKUST’s new Guangzhou campus (artist’s impression), set to open in 2022. HKUST(GZ) Founding President appointed Hi-tech talent on track for intelligent transportation HKUST and Guangzhou Metro Group Co. Ltd. have signed their rst cooperative agreement to nurture postgraduate talents in intelligent transportation, one of the key research thrust areas of the HKUST(GZ) campus. This innovative eld, combining transportation, arti cial intelligence, and data science, seeks to enhance the e ciency, safety, and sustainability of mobility systems for both people and goods. The MPhil and PhD degree programs will be available in under the HKUST(GZ) pilot scheme, with students jointly supervised by HKUST professors and professor-grade senior engineers, or equivalent, appointed by Guangzhou Metro.
Tackling COVID- on multiple fronts In the News In Focus 32 showcased a series of leading technologies developed by School of Engineering faculty to assist the ght against the coronavirus. Here, recent research and education initiatives are highlighted 06 IN FOCUS Transparent masks Prof. GAO Ping, Chemical and Biological Engineering, has produced a novel transparent polymer nano lm prototype face mask that has achieved % ltration e ciency for virus, bacteria, and particulate matters in tests in line with N respirator standards. The nano lm developed by Prof. Gao is made from ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), a light-weight material used in bullet-proof vests. The nano lm measures just nanometers, or less than one-thousandth of the thickness of a hair, yet is times stronger in speci c strength (i.e. takes density into account) than stainless steel with the same mass. It is also gas-permeable and waterproof. Tracing environmental transmission Prof. Gary CHAN, Computer Science and Engineering, and his research team have proposed and developed a patent-pending location-private approach using an internet-of-things wearable device to combat COVID- ’s ability to spread by surviving on surfaces. The device continuously scans its user’s environmental signal data, which are transmitted to the user’s phone to be stored locally. If the user becomes a con rmed case, and upon his/her permission, the signal data are shared anonymously with other users for local matching so that those found to be a close contact would be alerted in private. The research team previously pioneered the geofencing technology for StayHomeSafe mobile app, a key part of Hong Kong’s quarantine order enforcement (see P for Prof. Chan’s commendation). Easing quarantine blues Nora is an emotionally intelligent virtual agent, designed by Prof. Pascale FUNG, Electronic and Computer Engineering, and her team to assist those nding it di cult to adjust to quarantine. Through regular private and con dential conversations and meditation/exercise, a user can keep up a bene cial routine for their mental health. In addition, Nora carries out temperature checks and breathing exercises via self-screening, and keeps track of these and other mood data, giving reassurance to the user over the isolation period. Using Nora only requires an internet connection and Chrome browser. Nora can currently converse in English, with more languages to be added later.
07 IN FOCUS Novel light on disinfection A research team led by Prof. Ricky LEE, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has developed a closet that can kill . % of bacteria and viruses on an item or garments inside within one minute, by enhancing the e ciency of the ultraviolet (UVC) light-emitting diode (LED) disinfection technique. UVC is frequently used for disinfection in public and private facilities but the light source in current products is usually mercury lamps, which have a lower germicidal e ect, shorter lifespan and are bulkier than LED lights. The stacked silicon reflector, devised by Prof. Lee’s team, o ers a unique structure and optical design that has increased UVC output e ciency from % to %; and extended the sterilization distance by ve times to 6cm while also achieving uniform radiation. The prototypes of this UVC LED disinfection closet have been installed at three sites of Po Leung Kuk schools for public trial. Antimicrobial powerhouse Large-scale and long-term disinfection with the non-toxic smart antimicrobial sanitizer invented by Prof. YEUNG King-Lun, Chemical & Biological Engineering and Environment & Sustainability, continued to be widely applied in the community (see P for Prof. Yeung’s commendation). Assisted by an industrial partnership with Chiaphua Industries Ltd., Germagic coating has been sprayed in schools, transportation vehicles, subdivided households, community centers for the elderly, cinemas, and used by government departments, among others, since March . The coating, developed by Prof. Yeung over years of research, can inactivate up to . % of highly infectious viruses. Working with over NGOs since spring , the technology has bene ted over , low-income residents in Hong Kong by providing -day protection. Virtual reality learning Prof. Ben CHAN, Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E I), has steered the use of a number of cutting-edge teaching tools to assist educators and learners when in-person classes are di cult to hold or attend. One example is the development of a virtual reality recording system (see pictures below), using a motion capture system. This enables the instructor to record an experiment for students to carry out virtually, using goggles and controllers to follow the instructor’s lead. Another innovation is a “mixed reality classroom” that provides the instructor with a D stereoscopic display. A positioning system then tracks the instructor’s head movement to create the illusion that the teacher is immersed in the virtual environment. Since early , civil engineering students have also been able to don goggles (or use Google’s Cardboard virtual reality headset) to watch ° eld trips featuring an instructor on site, allowing viewers to feel that they are actually moving through the location along with the instructor. Instructor in the real world Instructor in VR Student in VR Instructor in VR Student’s point of view Instructor’s point of view c b a
An international research team co-led by a School of Engineering faculty member has developed a novel method to study how HIV mutates to escape the immune system. The HIV virus, which can lead to AIDS, has proved particularly di cult for the human immune system to eradicate due to its ability to rapidly evolve. Genetic mutations enable the virus to escape the body’s defence system of T-cells and antibodies, and make it especially challenging for lasting solutions to be designed. While there is currently no e ective cure, HIV can be controlled with medication. The new approach, published in an article in high-impact journal Nature Biotechnology, stems from a study led by Prof. Matthew MCKAY, Electronic & Computer Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering, and Prof. John BARTON, Physics & Astronomy, at the University of California, Riverside. The team devised its “marginal path likelihood” method using conventional statistical physics to reveal patterns of selection in HIV evolution in HIV-infected individuals, with ndings indicating that the method could e ciently distinguish between mutations that help the virus evade the body’s immune system and random variations. “The accuracy and high e ciency of our approach enable the analysis of selection in complex evolutionary systems that were beyond the reach of existing methods,” Prof. McKay said. Given the general nature of the method, it could also be used to study diverse evolutionary processes, such as the evolution of drug resistance of pathogens and the evolution of cancers, he noted. However, the team had focused on HIV as a test system due to its extraordinary capability to mutate and escape the human immune system. “The details of these immune escape dynamics are not well understood,” he said. “If we can gain a clearer picture of how HIV evolves within a person, this may help to develop better treatments or vaccines against the virus.” In the News Fresh insights into HIVmutations 08 IN FOCUS Imaging technology that sheds light on brain functions in regions that have never been well explored has been developed in a collaborative endeavor between Prof. QU Jianan, Electronic and Computer Engineering, and HKUST neuroscientist Prof. Nancy IP, Vice-President for Research and Development and The Morningside Professor of Life Science. In developing their adaptive optics two-photon endomicroscopy system, the research team used a localized fluorescence signal as a “guide star” inside biological tissues, which allowed them to measure aberrations of the miniature endoscope being employed as well as the brain tissue. The development now makes in vivo (live) imaging of deep brain structures possible at a high resolution. Prof. Qu, who specializes in biophotonics, optical devices and systems, and optical image processing research, said: “The ability to conduct live imaging of the deep brain at high resolution has long been a challenge. With adaptive optics two-photon endomicroscopy, we can now study the structures and functions of the deep brain at an unprecedented Hi-res view of living brain Prof. Matthew McKay (left) and research team members Dr. Muhammad Saqib Sohail (right), HKUST postdoctoral fellow, and Dr. Raymond Louie (center), University of New South Wales and formerly a research assistant professor at HKUST.
09 IN FOCUS A novel cathode design concept that substantially improves the performance of potential next-generation batteries has been developed by a research team led by Cheong Ying Chan Professor of Engineering and Environment Prof. ZHAO Tianshou, Chair Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Director of HKUST Energy Institute. Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries are seen as signi cant potential alternatives to the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries commonly used in smartphones, electric vehicles, and drones. They are known for their high energy density, holding out the possibility that the km range for driving a Li-ion battery-powered electric vehicle on a single charge could be extended to km- km. In addition, their major component, sulfur, is eco-friendly, naturally abundant, light, and cost-e ective. However, Li–S batteries have faced several challenges in moving the technology to an industrial scale. These include progressive leakage of active material from cathode and lithium corrosion, resulting in a short battery life, and the need to reduce the amount of electrolyte in the battery while maintaining stable battery performance. Prof. Zhao, who has made seminal contributions in the areas of fuel cells and advanced batteries, and his School of Engineering team collaborated with international researchers from Argonne National Laboratory and Stanford University in the US, Xiamen University in Mainland China, and Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia to address these problems. The research ndings have been published in Nature Nanotechnology. The researchers’ innovative cathode design comprised nanoparticles and a single-atom catalyst to form double-end binding sites inside a highly oriented macroporous host. The host could then uniformly accommodate the sulfur while abundant active sites, embedded inside, tightly absorbed the polysul de. This eliminated the polysul de shuttle e ect causing the leakage problem and lithium metal corrosion, and also increased the batteries’ energy density. Charging forward with Li–S batteries The adaptive optics two-photon endomicroscopy system developed by Prof. Nancy Ip and Prof. Qu Jianan (both pictured center). Prof. Zhao Tianshou and his research team: their novel cathode design enhances next-generation Li–S battery performance. resolution, which will greatly accelerate our progress in understanding the mechanisms of many neurodegenerative diseases and in developing related treatments.” Using the new technology, the researchers investigated neuronal plasticity in the hippocampus, a critical deep brain structure with a major role in memory and learning. As a result, they were able to reveal the relationship between somatic and dendritic activity of pyramidal neurons within the hippocampus. The ndings have been published in Science Advances.
10 IN FOCUS In the News A novel engineering undergraduate degree with an “extended” academic framework but no extension of the time required to graduate has been launched at the School of Engineering (SENG). Engineering + Arti cial Intelligence (AI) is due to be rolled out in the academic year as one of two pioneering extended bachelor degree programs under HKUST’s new “Major + X” degree structure. The initiative seeks to blend traditional programs with popular emerging areas, such as AI, o ering better integration of existing and new knowledge to respond to the changing needs of society. Engineering + AI will o er students from all SENG disciplines the opportunity to gain complementary cross-disciplinary understanding of AI in their major eld. The AI extension will utilize problem-solving skills, insights through a design thinking course and professional seminars in AI, and a capstone project enabling students to explore AI applications relevant to their discipline. Overall, it will involve approximately one additional course per term. The other extended degree program will be available to undergraduates in the School of Science. Students will still nish their degree program in four years, with a degree in their traditional major and the extended subject. Future extended majors may cover areas such as digital media and arts, ntech, and data science. First ‘Extended Major’ in Hong Kong The extended major format will enable HKUST engineering undergraduates to gain complementary cross-disciplinary understanding of AI in their major eld within a regular four-year degree time frame. Boost for innovation ‘dreamers’ A HK$ million donation to HKUST is set to enhance development in innovation and technology (I&T), research, and education at the University, with HK$ million used to set up a student scholarship recognizing academic excellence. The donation by Mr. Andy FEI Chi-En will see the establishment of the Fei Chi En Education and Research Fund. The scholarship will be named a er the Y-Lot Foundation, a charitable non-pro t organization founded by Mr. Fei to help young people build positive attitudes and values through collaborations with di erent sectors of the community. The Dream Team Open Lab, overseen by the School of Engineering, will also be renamed the Fei Chi En Dream Team Open Lab in appreciation of Mr. Fei’s support. The Lab o ers a place to bring together students from di erent schools and disciplines to turn their creative ideas into projects and prototypes for competitions. Mr. Fei said he hoped that the collaboration with HKUST would create a platform that provides more space for young people “to chase their dreams, develop more innovative products, and drive the development of the I&T industry in Hong Kong”. HKUST President Prof. Wei SHYY said he was grateful to Mr. Fei for his generosity and trust in the University. “We share the same mission with Mr. Fei on nurturing talents with global vision and commitment to serve the society.” A student explains the workings of a vehicle designed by the HKUST Electric Vehicle Racing Group to donor Mr. Andy Fei Chi-En in the newly named Fei Chi En Dream Team Open Lab.
far-sighted experiential learning project has seen undergraduates from the School of Engineering’s Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) collaborate with Hong Kong Tramways to devise innovative eco-friendly design concepts for a future fleet of the city’s iconic trams. The project was focused on extending the trams’ low-carbon footprint, helping to develop students’ critical and creative thinking in approaching complex social problems, particularly those related to the global challenges of climate change, and o ering some intriguing ideas for Hong Kong Tramways. Twenty-seven students participated in the Systems Thinking and Design course, led by Dr. Luisa MOK Sze-Man, Lecturer, ISD, in the Fall semester, resulting in a total of diverse models that sought to enhance passenger flow and improve air ventilation in future vehicles. Hong Kong’s trams have been in operation since , with those now rolling along the tracks mostly belonging to the sixth and seventh generations of design. Looking ahead to the eighth generation, students took creative approaches to solving the di erent operational challenges. One team tackled the air ventilation issue through the use of a specially designed passive air tunnel system to improve upper deck ventilation, an open staircase connecting to the air tunnel to boost lower deck ventilation, and a wavy structured ceiling design for look’n’feel and passenger experience. Other student concepts ranged from the use of evaporative cooling, among other e ects, to solve the high-temperature issue to ergonomic tilted seats to help passengers’ posture, and an improved staircase design to enhance safety and passenger flow. Mr. Cyril AUBIN, Managing Director of Hong Kong Tramways, said he had been impressed by the students’ concern for both the environment and the comfort of tram users. “Designing trams is not just about the transport, but also about connecting with people, our city and history,” he pointed out. “The students were able to capture all that.” Prof. TSUI Chi-Ying, Head of ISD, further noted that the project had helped students to develop ideas in a useful, creative, and aesthetic way, which was “what we want to see”. ISD o ers a distinctive student-centric curriculum and project-based learning approach, providing students with multidisciplinary training in integrative systems and design by studying and working in teams. Designs on trams of the future A The Seabreeze team used evaporative cooling and the Coanda effect in its design. The Flow team sought to improve upper deck ventilation and provided a wavy ceiling design to enhance the look’n’feel for passengers. Prof. Tsui Chi-Ying (third right), Dr. Luisa Mok (second left), Mr. Cyril Aubin and Mr. Nixon Cheung, Hong Kong Tramways (third and rst left), with students Jasmine Li, Seabreeze team, and Katie Chong, Flow team ( rst and second right). 11 IN FOCUS
Faculty Insight Electronics and photonics specialist Prof. Kei May Lau sees choosing a research subject as similar to predicting the future. 12 IN FOCUS has developed can be incorporated into a pair of smart glasses with a connected camera to o er a rear view or to your mobile phone. She has also used her expertise to investigate transistors and lasers. “Choosing a research topic to focus on is a bit like predicting the future. Some predictions come through, many others don’t,” Prof. Lau said. “When conducting engineering research, we want to do something people care about and that will pan out. The most challenging part is coming up with visionary ideas. The timing of getting into a new topic is critical as well.” Where LEDs were concerned, she “bought into the idea as I thought it made sense”, she said. “You can say my timing was good.” In addition, innovation and experience are intrinsic elements of technology breakthroughs, she noted. “I always tell s one of the few women working at the highest echelons of electronics and photonics technology, Prof. Kei May LAU, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been a pioneer in a host of ways during her high-flying years at the School of Engineering. In recognition of her groundbreaking basic research into compound semiconductor materials and device physics, Prof. Lau recently became the rst female engineer to receive the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s J. J. Thomson Medal for Electronics in the award’s -year history. A major area of such research has been related to light-emitting diode (LED) technology, to which she has been an on-going contributor since the s. At that time, white LEDs appeared to o er a novel power-saving potential alternative to heat-emitting incandescent light bulbs and mercury-enabled fluorescent lights. Now, thanks to the continuous advances of Prof. Lau and other engineers taking development forward, LEDs are ubiquitously used for illumination in essentially all sectors, from household to commercial lamps, aviation lighting to horticultural grow lights. Describing the attraction of a career in engineering, Prof. Lau said that unlike scientists whose role was to explore and attempt to explain natural phenomena, engineers seek to create practical applications that can bene t humanity, taking into consideration performance as well as cost in their designs. To sum up this view, she coined the term “ecotronics” to describe research on electronics for ecology and economy. “I love to see things work instead of solving equations or building models using simulations only,” she said. Among the early researchers on-board with LED technology, Prof. Lau started focusing on its miniaturization years ago. She has developed high-resolution ngernail-sized LED micro-display chips that could be used to build three-in-one tra c lights or virtual windows, and micro-displays for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), among other applications. Meanwhile, a near-to-eye micro-display she Prof. Kei May Lau, the rst woman engineer to win the J. J.Thomson Medal for Electronics, discusses how a passion for seeing novel devices work and a determination to choose her own destiny have helped her succeed A Choices, timing, and options
Prof. Lau with her students in the lab: “I love to see things work rather than solving equations.” 13 IN FOCUS students that connectivity is the most important attribute. When students complain that what they learn is not useful, I would say that it is not that the material is useless, but that they have yet to gure out how to link up the newly acquired information with their experience and knowledge.” Born in Hong Kong and a graduate of Pui Ching Middle School, Prof. Lau went to the US for higher education, earning her BS and MS in physics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and a PhD in electrical engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Given that electrical engineering is largely based on physics, with engineers adapting the laws of physics to originate useful new applications, she saw her move into the area as a natural t for her interest. Following her doctorate, Prof. Lau worked in the US in industry, then moved back to academia at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) in the s. In , she became the rst woman to gain promotion to full professor in the university’s College of Engineering. Her initial connection with HKUST was as a visiting professor in . Two years later, she le UMass to join the School of Engineering at HKUST. According to Prof. Lau, a major reason that fewer women enroll in engineering programs is that multi-talented girls o en have many options to choose from, be it in the arts, business, or medicine. Or they might get “pushed” into areas seen as more lucrative by their family, she said. To young females undecided about a future direction, she suggests engineering can provide rigorous training in problem solving as well as analytical skills, which will be highly useful no matter what direction they eventually embark on. It is much easier changing from engineering or science to business or liberal arts than the other way around. In her own case, despite the numerical male-female imbalance in the engineering eld overall, Prof. Lau said she has never let gender limit her career choice, which has seen her combine leading-edge research with teaching and raising a family. “Perhaps my personality of not caring too much about others’ opinion on what I should or should not do helps,” she said. “For young women who aspire to be successful professionals, deciding on their own destiny matters the most.” This approach has certainly seen her succeed in her career. Along with the recent J. J. Thomson Medal, she is a recipient of the Optical Society (OSA)’s Nick Holonyak Jr. Award, IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award, and US National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers. She is also a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences. Such recognition from her peers is highly encouraging for all the researchers in her group, she said. But there are still many research problems yet to be explored. Her current focus is the integration of electronics and photonics, with her research group recently achieving a breakthrough by developing the world’s rst bu erless telecommunication wavelength ( . micro-meter) III-V semiconductor lasers grown directly on industry-standard -nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The innovation brings the prospect of major improvements to the infrastructure of high-speed network communications in data centers a step closer. This in turn could potentially lead to faster, cheaper services as well as novel applications. “A vast amount of data needs to be transmitted and processed swi ly and e ciently at any instance,” she said. “The smaller the electronic circuits are, the quicker the signal passes. Transistors can now be fabricated as small as a few nanometers. Light (photons) in integrated circuits could help speed up data transmission much further. How to enhance the performance of semiconductor photonic integrated circuits? This is what we are now researching, and it is a never-ending task.”
Bioinformatics scientist joins battle to treat brain cancer pplied mathematics may not initially appear a likely source of solutions for cancer treatments. But as boundaries of traditional academic disciplines shi in the era of big data and rapid technological advances, novel research horizons are opening up, o ering exciting new avenues to mix and match previously separate elds and uncover fresh insights and potential therapeutic pathways. Computational biologist Prof. WANG Jiguang (Chemical & Biological Engineering and Division of Life Science) is among the dynamic young minds adding an extra dimension to medical research through bioinformatics and mathematics, while also delivering hope to patients su ering from one of the deadliest types of brain cancer: glioblastoma. Prof. Wang and his interdisciplinary Wang Genomics Lab are exploring how to assist the design of treatments through cancer genomics, helped by their breakthrough in identifying the mutation mechanism leading from lower grade glioma to secondary glioblastoma (sGBM) through a specially designed computational model. Glioblastoma, the rare brain cancer that Prof. Wang is tackling, has seen few successful treatments in the past years. The disease, a ecting three to four people among , per year, is invariably fatal as even a er treatment most malign tumors mutate and return again, with patients A Young Faculty 14 IN FOCUS Prof. Wang’s discovery indicated METex14 mutations at the MET oncogene as a major factor behind aggressive progression from lower grade glioma (LGG) to secondary glioblastoma (sGBM). Leading early career computational biologist Prof.Wang Jiguang and his genomics research laboratory are helping to set the pace in understanding an especially aggressive and hard-to-beat disease on average only surviving for to months from diagnosis. Prof. Wang’s discovery indicated METex mutations at the MET oncogene as a major factor behind aggressive progression from lower grade glioma to sGBM. The nding, published in leading journal Cell in , was the result of a collaboration with Beijing Tiantan Hospital scientists. It led on to the identi cation of a drug molecule (PLB- ) as a possible treatment by the Beijing team and a clinical trial that saw tumor shrinkage in two of late-stage cancer patients, furthering knowledge of how to treat sGBM. “Developing computational models on cancer evolution helps predict cancer cells’ future behavior and prioritize treatment options, while precision cancer medicine promises to tailor treatments according to personal cancer mutations,” Prof. Wang noted at the time. In a more recent advance, with ndings published in Nature Communications in , an international team co-led by HKUST, Beijing Neurosurgical Institute, and the Spanish National Cancer Research Center used computational analyses carried out by the Wang Genomics Lab to discover a mechanism to explain why a subgroup of glioma patients develops chemo-resistance to the current treatment for glioma. Such treatment usually comprises a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and the chemotherapy agent temozolomide (TMZ). The discovery can potentially allow early identi cation of drug-resistant brain cancer patients, with Prof. Wang subsequently collaborating with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prince of Wales Hospital to expand samples to local patients. Prof. Wang’s drive to contribute to this area has been spurred on by his visits to hospitals, where he has seen the human cost – to people of all ages, including young children
– of those su ering from the condition, and patients, parents, and other relatives in desperate need of hope. “As a parent of two kids, I do not want to see this desperation in others,” he explained. Born in Hebei province in Mainland China, Prof. Wang was raised in a family of teachers. His liberal-minded parents gave him encouragement to play rather than pressure. Motivation then came from within, with the youngster developing a fascination for mathematics and physics, as well as the medical eld. “As a child, I wondered why people got sick and how they got healed,” he said. “I had the dream of becoming a scientist when I grew up.” He was soon on his way, winning a host of national mathematics contests. He joined Beijing Institute of Technology without having to take the National College Entrance Examination a er obtaining First Class standing in the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad when he was in his nal year at high school. 15 IN FOCUS The rising academic star continued to stand out at university, where he studied information and computational science. Following this, he was accepted for a postgraduate program at the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, again without having to sit the usual entrance examination because of his top academic results. There, he undertook applied mathematics focusing on operations research and cybernetics, receiving his doctorate in . Postdoctoral research at Columbia University in the US came next, where he went on to be named an Irving Institute Precision Medicine Fellow. Specializing in computational biology and bioinformatics, he integrated data of cancer patients from di erent hospitals to learn about cancer mutations and helped biologists and clinicians solve biomedical problems by analyzing enormous amount of data using statistics and machine learning. He joined HKUST in . “All sciences, at higher levels, become mathematics,” he said. “They become data with the need for data analysis, and thus we have to think quantitatively.” As an indication of the signi cance of his work on others in the eld, Prof. Wang, who is still only in his mid-thirties, has published more than papers with an impact factor higher than . He was among the rst batch of scholars in Hong Kong and Macau to be named a National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Excellent Young Scientist when the award scheme was opened to applicants from the two Special Administrative Regions in . It is among China’s most prestigious awards for young scientists under . Further recognition earlier this year saw Prof. Wang chosen to receive the Zhong Nanshan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award – the only awardee from Hong Kong. At HKUST, his sterling work was heralded with the School of Engineering Young Investigator Research Award . He is also keen to share his knowledge directly, supervising over postgraduate students and several postdocs to date. One of his key insights for these young researchers is the importance of asking questions and to nd the ones that they are particularly keen to resolve. “Everyone has a di erent question in life,” he explained. “Find the right eld and right route… and do not think too much about status and all that.” Meanwhile, persistence and the courage to take an individual career path are also indispensable. “Be yourself, and never give up,” Prof. Wang said. Prof. Wang Jiguang, Chemical & Biological Engineering (CBE) and Division of Life Science, is using his specialist knowledge in applied mathematics to advance biomedical research.
AI computing hub for next-generation urban applications High-performance Privacy-preservation Low-latency Healthcare Transportation Fintech Building the AI ‘brain’ behind smart Hong Kong Cover Story 16 IN FOCUS
mart bus schedules, taxi dispatching, typhoon warnings, medical diagnoses, and ntech are all set to be part of everyday life in Hong Kong soon, thanks to the development of a next-generation arti cial intelligence (AI) computing cloud platform that will drive and deliver Hong Kong’s smart city applications. One of the key people helping to implement this dynamic integrated “IT brain” is Prof. CHEN Kai, Computer Science and Engineering. He is working together with Hong Kong government departments to set up the technology infrastructure to realize the vision of smart mobility, living, environment, people, government, and economy encompassed in the government’s Smart City Blueprint, announced in . The high-performance hub will also enable researchers and practitioners to participate in data collaboration through inter-city knowledge sharing. Prof. Chen, who is still only and identi es with the “smart”-technology generation – was far from a city boy when he was younger, originally hailing from a village of just seven families in landlocked Anhui province in eastern China. There, he had to walk kilometers to attend school in a nearby town, only venturing to a major city – Shanghai – for the rst time as a teenager. That one visit, though, was enough to show him another world besides mountains, and make him realize that he wanted to be part of it. “I learned that the world was colorful and it inspired me to go out and explore when I grew up,” he said. Now Prof. Chen is using that curiosity about the wider world to take urban life to the next level. In July , he became the youngest academic yet to receive prestigious Research Grants Council (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme funding when a budget of HK$ million was approved for the smart city infrastructure IT platform. He is serving as project coordinator in the collaborative project with other universities to generate a high- performance distributed machine learning framework. The framework seeks to e ciently handle and make accurate predictions from graph-based streaming data to support smart city applications for key areas such as transportation optimization, urban planning, and crowd sensing. To do this, it will need to overcome the current challenges including data scarcity, algorithm limitations, and computing power ine ciency. One proposed solution to the rst two issues is to devise inter-city transfer learning algorithms, which will enable knowledge learned from other cities with rich data sources to be added to the Hong Kong model and vice versa. Meanwhile, high-performance distributed AI computing architecture to support such deep learning and transfer learning for large graph streaming data, including the adoption of remote direct memory access (RDMA), aims to achieve high-throughput, low-latency communications to improve cluster computing e ciency. S 17 IN FOCUS Prof. Chen Kai and his research team are driving forward the development of a comprehensive smar t urban environment through their advanced high-performance AI computing cloud platform
Cover Story 18 IN FOCUS Prof. Chen Kai and his plans for Hong Kong’s AI computing cloud platform. He has already seen system designs adopted by Google, Huawei, and Nvidia. Prof. Chen and his intelligent System Networking (iSING) laboratory researchers at the School of Engineering (SENG) are also seeking to address privacy concerns related to transfer and sharing of data. “Firstly, there is high performance so we can handle big data within short time frames, o en reducing work duration from weeks to days or even hours for large AI model training,” Prof. Chen said. “Secondly, there is privacy preservation as we use encryption to enable technologies that can learn from data and do so without disclosing identities in relation to the data.” In the case of medical data, for example, individual hospitals need to protect information related to their own patients. However, the medical community as a whole needs to combine data from di erent hospitals to enlarge sample sizes for research. To address hospitals’ concerns, Prof. Chen and his team will deploy advanced encryption technologies so that data can be combined to establish models for collective learning and disease diagnoses. Most importantly, the actual data will never leave individual hospitals, which he sees as a great step forward in privacy preservation. The same principle can be applied to nancial services across banks. Currently, though, he and his team are working with the Transport Department and Hong Kong Observatory with the aim of optimizing Hong Kong’s transportation system. His team has collected massive spatial-temporal graph-based city data, which can be leveraged by deep neural networks, such as graph convolutional networks to build powerful models for di erent smart applications. High-performance career In addition to his own research lab, Prof. Chen Kai is advancing the networking and high-performance AI computing eld as: Director, WeChat-HKUST Joint Lab on Arti cial Intelligence Technology (WHAT Lab) Executive Vice-President, Hong Kong Society of Arti cial Intelligence & Robotics Chair of the Steering Committee, Asia-Paci c Workshop on Networking Editor, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking Co-founder of Clustar, together with departmental colleague Prof. YANG Qiang. The company is focused on big data and AI solutions, and has received funding support from Sequoia Capital.
Prof. Chen, with his intelligent System Networking (iSING) lab team, who are helping to devise the technology infrastructure behind Hong Kong’s smart city applications. 19 IN FOCUS The research is seeking to reduce waiting time and tra c jams through smart bus scheduling, flexible rearrangement of tra c lanes during rush hour as well as predictions of passenger hot spots for taxi dispatch. Prof. Chen’s own journey to Hong Kong and HKUST was one driven by hard work and excellence. He was one of only two students in his junior middle school to gain entrance to a prestigious provincial senior high school, and from there he went on to take a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, the capital of Anhui. In , he started doctoral studies in computer science at Northwestern University in Chicago, US, and a year later read one of the rst papers focused on data centers and cloud computing. He immediately recognized the emerging eld’s huge signi cance and decided to make it his main research focus. In , he undertook a three-month internship at Beijing’s Microso Research Lab, inspiring him to write a paper on data centers when he returned to the US. A er working non-stop on the article for months, even during holidays, he was accorded the satisfaction of seeing it accepted as a Best Paper candidate at ACM SIGCOMM , the most prestigious conference in the eld – and renowned for its low acceptance rate for papers. In , he was awarded a PhD from Northwestern University, joining HKUST the same year. At SENG, Prof. Chen has continued to thrive, initiating his own lab and pursuing cutting-edge research in relation to data centers and cloud computing. This has seen him keep up his pioneering contributions to ACM SIGCOMM, with two papers accepted to the conference – the rst such papers generated from Hong Kong. Among the challenges he faces – and a major di erence with theoretical research – is the need to devote enormous amounts of time to building a real system involving numerous computers. “It could take two to three years to build one system for one paper,” he explained. However, the knowledge gained from such system building has been put to good use. Together with students in his laboratory, he has engaged in research on hardware, so ware design, theories, and implementation and been rewarded by seeing their designs adopted by companies including Google, Huawei, and Nvidia. Such work has also laid invaluable groundwork for his current RGC research and smart-city AI computing hub for Hong Kong. He now anticipates that the platform will be open to HKUST faculty later this year and to all local universities by . In the years ahead, he looks forward to even greater impact. “It will ultimately be adopted by the whole city,” he said. Sharing AI insights with top global minds In November , Prof. Chen Kai was invited to give a keynote speech at the Young Scientists session on arti cial intelligence at the eminent rd World Laureates Forum in Shanghai. The annual forum, organized by the World Laureates Association, brings together top global scienti c minds, drawing over Nobel laureates in . A series of Young Scientists Forums, held alongside, enable exchange among rising talents worldwide. Also participating in the three-day Young Scientists gathering was fellow School of Engineering faculty member Prof. Matthew MCKAY, Electronic & Computer Engineering and Chemical & Biological Engineering, who has made signi cant contributions to computational immunology and spoke at a separate session on public health and the economy on learning from the COVID- pandemic, and two academics from HKUST’s School of Science. Over Young Scientists in total took part.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=