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COMP 50th Anniversary Research Student Conference: Fostering Academic Excellence

COMP 50th Anniversary Research Student Conference was successfully held on 24 June 2024 at the New World Millennium Hong Kong Hotel. The event, themed "Fostering Academic Excellence," brought together an impressive array of speakers, academics, and research students for a day of knowledge-sharing and recognition of outstanding scholarly work.   The conference was inaugurated with a warm welcome speech and opening speech from Prof. LI Qing, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP and Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation), respectively.   The first highlight of the conference was the keynote speech delivered by Prof. LI Baochun from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. His speech, titled "Writing Great Papers in the Era of Generative AI," provided attendees with invaluable insights into the evolving trend of academic publishing and how to conduct impactful research with the aid of generative AI.   The event also featured a thought-provoking panel discussion on "How to do good research and have a successful career in Research?" Esteemed panel members included Prof. DONG Guozhu (Wright State University), Prof. Sean WANG (Fudan University) and Prof. SU Jianwen (University of California, Santa Barbara). Their collective wisdom offered a deep exploration of the challenges and strategies for building a successful academic career and how researchers can deal with psychological changes and manage their emotions during challenges at different career stages.   In line with the conference's objectives to honour research students' hard work and facilitate the exchange of knowledge, there were eight oral presentation sessions featuring 48 students and 54 poster presentations, allowing COMP research students to showcase their research, engage in scholarly dialogue, and gain feedback from their peers and guests. Eight students have been selected for the Best Presentation Award by the panels, while 11 students have been voted by all the participants for the Best Poster Award. Below are the awardee lists.   Best Presentation Award (Cash prize of $5,000 for each awardee) Awardees Paper Title MA Chenxiang Scaling Supervised Local Learning with Augmented Auxiliary Networks HONG Zicong Optimus: Warming Serverless ML Inference via Inter-Function Model Transformation MEI Zhimin Repurposing Optical Mice for Acoustic Eavesdropping LI Yiran Efficient and Effective Attributed Networks Clustering via K-Nearest Neighbor Augmentation YU Shiming Revolutionizing LoRa Gateway with XGate: Scalable Concurrent Transmission across Massive Logical Channels ZHANG Qinggang KnowGPT: Black-Box Knowledge Injection for Large Language Models ZHENG Tianyu Leaking Arbitrarily Many Secrets: Any-out-of-Many Proofs and Applications to RingCT Protocols HU Xu Segment Anything in 3D Gaussians   Best Poster Award (Cash prize $2,000 for each awardee) Awardees Poster Title LI Ruibin Source Prompt Disentangled Inversion for Boosting Image Editability withDiffusion Models CAI Xuyuan Privacy-preserving even-oriented sybil-resistance decentralized identity scheme LIU Xun SnarkFold: Efficient Proof Aggregation from Incremental Verification and Applications WANG Fangxiao Fair Surveillance Assignment Problem DING Yunan Medical-SAM: SAM Adaptation for 3D Medical Image Segmentation QIAN Chen Enhancing Sigma Protocols Efficiency and Privacy with Sumcheck Protocol Optimization ZHOU Yu CausalBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Causal Learning Capability of Large Language Models CHEN Jingfan Diversify-and-Aggregate: Augmenting Replay with Generative Modeling Make Stronger Incremental Segmentation Models MA Yuxiao Noise-based Privacy Protection Assisted Homomorphic Encryption for Federated Learning ZHANG Jiahao Linear-Time Graph Neural Networks for Scalable Recommendations ZHENG Peirong Federated Learning with Neuron-wise Learning Rates   The conference concluded with a banquet in the evening, with a welcome speech by Prof. LI Qing followed by an open remark by Prof. CAO Jiannong, Dean of Graduate School and Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing. Participants enjoyed a sumptuous dinner and celebrated the achievements of their peers.

COMP Best Project Award Competition 2024

The Best Project Award Competition 2024 concluded last Saturday, showcasing an impressive array of Capstone Projects from nine outstanding students. This year's finalists were evaluated by a distinguished panel of judges comprising faculty members and industry leaders: Mr Raymond CHU, Associate Director, University Collaborations and Entrepreneurship, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation Mr Terence LEUNG, Senior Manager (Digital Entertainment & Esports industry and cluster development), Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited Dr Amelia LI, Assistant Professor, COMP PolyU Mr Edwin TAM, Managing Director, InfoTech Services (Hong Kong) Limited Dr Albert YIP, Chairman, Syndicate Capital Group Dr Yuanqing ZHENG, Associate Professor, COMP PolyU (In alphabetical order of surnames) Each student participant was given 15 minutes to present their project, demonstrate its capabilities, and answer questions from the panel. The judges were impressed by the depth of the students' background research, the breadth of their design and methodology, as well as the excellent implementation and evaluation of the projects. The students also displayed remarkable presentation skills throughout the competition.   After careful deliberation, the judges selected the award recipients. In addition to the prestigious Best Project Awards, two contestants were also chosen to receive the InfoTech Job Market Driven Scholarship, which recognised the relevance and quality of their projects in adopting in-demand skills sought by the IT industry.   We are delighted to honour these exceptional students and their innovative Capstone Projects. Congratulations to all the awardees on this remarkable achievement!   Awardee Project Title Award JIANG Yiyang Video Moment Retrieval using Deep Learning Models Champion YU Haohang Touch-free User Interaction 1st runner-up NG Emily An AI-assisted group discussion simulator for DSE English Speaking Exam(Part A) Preparation 2nd runner-up InfoTech Job Market Driven Scholarship LEE Joohwan Mobile Payment Merit GENG Longling Towards multimodal knowledge graph construction and utilization for smart education Merit HO Tsun Ngai Thomas Decentralized FPS VR Game in the Metaverse: Towards a More Player-Driven and Decentralized Approach InfoTech Job Market Driven Scholarship

Alumni Homecoming Dinner Celebrates Half-Century Bond with Original 50th Anniversary Song

The 50th Anniversary Alumni Homecoming Dinner on the evening of 31st May brought together over a hundred alumni and staff members to celebrate the department's fifty years of achievements.   During the welcome speeches, Dr Miranda LOU, Executive Vice President of PolyU, and Prof. LI Qing, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP, both emphasised the significant role of alumni support over the years and expressed their gratitude.   The event was honoured to have Mr Vincent MA, CEO of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park Limited (HSITP) and recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU COMP 2024, as the guest speaker. Mr Ma delivered an engaging talk titled "A Game Changing Era," outlining HSITP's efforts and future plans for developing Innovation and Technology in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, captivating the audience with his vision.   The evening's highlight was the release of the COMP 50th-anniversary original song - "Hand in Hand." This song, composed by our alumni and staff, pays tribute to the enduring connections and collaborative spirit that have formed the foundation of the COMP community.   The dinner also included a heartfelt talk by Ms Tiffany Chan, Founder of the iCare Foundation. She shared her journey of overcoming severe physical illness and her dedication to supporting career training for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the IT industry.   The evening was concluded with a touching music performance by a band comprising alumni and staff. Their musical renditions were a token of gratitude to the teachers and a special acknowledgement of Ms Tiffany Chan's contributions, leaving the audience with a sense of warmth and union.

PolyU Department of Computing and Huawei Hong Kong establish ICT Academy to foster the advancement and integration of computing and novel technology

Department of Computing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (COMP) and Huawei Hong Kong (Huawei) announced the establishment of an ICT Academy. The Academy aims to cultivate high-quality ICT talents in Hong Kong. Through a collaborative framework, both parties will align with the university's professional standards and the need for talent cultivation. Through incorporating Huawei's certified technology and training courses, talent programmes in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other related fields will be developed. This collaboration will drive the advancement and integration of computing and novel technology, promote the application of ICT in teaching and management, establish a collaboration platform for research, academic and industry sectors, and foster the innovative technology ecosystem in Hong Kong. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by Prof. Qing Li, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of the Department of Computing of PolyU and Mr Alex Wong, Deputy CEO, Strategy & Marketing, Huawei Internation Co. Limited to jointly establish the ICT Academy. Under the MoU, COMP will partner with Huawei to establish an advanced data platform, providing students with learning programmes and practical opportunities in mainland China, with a focus on core areas such as RoCE and HPC storage. Prof. Qing Li said, “By fully utilising domestic super AI computing power, the Department of Computing of PolyU aims to propel the development of next-generation AI and Data Science. With the establishment of the ICT academy and the introduction of this powerful AI computing platform, our researchers and students are provided with the tools needed to tackle complex problems and process large datasets. This will accelerate the development of cutting-edge AI algorithms and techniques, enhancing accuracy, efficiency, and scalability in AI applications.” Mr Alex Wong said, “Huawei is dedicated to support collaboration among industries, academia and research sectors to enhance I&T ecosystem in Hong Kong. We are delighted to work together with PolyU through ICT academy collaboration to cultivate more I&T talents equipped with innovation and application skills facilitating the I&T development in Hong Kong."

Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU COMP 2024

PolyU is proud to recognise and honour its alumni's outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the community through the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award (OPAA). The results of this year's departmental awards are out after a rigorous selection process.   We are delighted to announce that Mr Vincent Ma, CEO of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park Limited, is the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award in the category of professional achievement. Miss Bianca Ho, Director of Information Technology (Global) at Swire Hotels Group, has been granted the Outstanding Young Alumni Award in professional achievement and community service categories.   Mr Vincent Ma is a veteran with over 30 years of experience in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry after graduating with a Bachelor's degree of Arts (Honours) in Computing Studies from PolyU. He has held leadership roles at Wharf T&T Limited and Sun Hung Kai Properties, driving growth and digital transformation. Since January 2023, he has been appointed the CEO of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park Limited as one of the key persons to lead the initiative for the benefit and development of Hong Kong.   Miss Bianca Ho graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and BBA (Hons) in Management (Double Degree) from PolyU in 2017. Within five years of graduating with a bachelor’s degree, she has been appointed Director of Information Technology (Global) at Swire Hotels Group, leading IT teams across multiple locations worldwide. She also demonstrates a strong commitment to serving professional, industry, and societal needs, such as serving as the Director of the Hong Kong United Youth Association (NGO) and leveraging her expertise as a public speaker to share valuable insights and foster collaboration among industry professionals.   PolyU takes great pride in its alumni's remarkable achievements and contributions to their professions and the community. The Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award celebrates the university's role in nurturing future leaders and innovators.

Prof. Allen Au and Dr Lu Xingye’s team wins ZPRIZE 2023 for blockchain innovation again demonstrating groundbreaking research in zero-knowledge proofs

The research team led by Prof. Allen AU Man Ho, our Professor, along with Dr LU Xingye, Research Assistant Professor, and two PhD students, LIU Mengling and HENG Yang, have won an award in the international ZPRIZE competition for the second consecutive year for their pioneering work in zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). Their groundbreaking work in this field has profound implications for enhancing privacy and scalability in blockchain and Web3 applications.   The annual ZPRIZE competition, spearheaded by the blockchain industry in 2022, promotes the advancement of ZKPs by open-sourcing winning submissions for the reference of the general public. ZKPs allow a “prover” to convince a person of the validity of a computation without leaking any information; it is hence referred to as zero-knowledge cryptography.   This year, the PolyU team triumphed in the “High Throughput Signature Verification” open division category, winning a cash prize of US$250,000. They were tasked with verifying the greatest number of Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures in a given time using ZKPs. ECDSA signatures are used to prove the authenticity and integrity of digital messages over the internet and blockchain transactions on networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Making it more efficient to verify those signatures inside a ZKP cryptographically is important for creating a better user experience and enables numerous real-world applications.   The PolyU team’s innovative approach can generate ZKPs for the digital signatures of 50 1KB messages on a regular laptop computer within ten minutes, laying a solid foundation for future applications of ZKPs in ECDSA verification. It also reduces the complexity of generating proofs for a 5MB message’s digital signature to a maximum of 6.2 million constraints compared to over 50 million constraints previously - a minimum eight-fold reduction.   As a pioneer in blockchain education and research in Hong Kong, PolyU has introduced Hong Kong’s first Master of Science in Blockchain Technology programme. It has also initiated doctoral programmes relating to financial technology, as well as bachelor’s degree programmes relating to FinTech and Artificial Intelligence (AI). On the research front, the University has established the Research Centre for Blockchain Technology, the first research centre in Hong Kong whose research studies full-stack blockchain technology. According to the “Best Universities for Blockchain 2022” rankings by CoinDesk, PolyU has been ranked the No. 1 university for blockchain in the world.

Undergraduates Won Group Competition Award and First Prize in ASC24 Student Supercomputer Challenge

A team of talented undergraduates has secured the Group Competition Award and First Prize in the ASC24 Student Supercomputer Challenge. This achievement highlights the exceptional skills and dedication of the team members. The team consisted of the following members: Team Advisor Dr SHI Jieming Assistant Professor, COMP Team Leader ZHANG Haolin Year 3 student, COMP Team Member BAO Yucheng Year 3 student, COMP Team Member CHEN Junru Year 3 student, COMP Team Member SUN Hansong Year 1 student, COMP Team Member ZHAO Qingsen Year 3 student, ABCT Observer FU Guanhe Year 1 student, COMP   The ASC24 preliminaries included two computational tasks: Large Language Model (LLM) Inference Optimization and Seepage Numerical Simulation. In the LLM Inference Optimization Challenge, the teams were tasked with building and refining inference engines using the popular open-source LLM, LLaMA2. Their objective was to achieve high-throughput inference on provided sample datasets. Out of over 300 participating teams, the PolyU team, along with 24 other teams, advanced to the finals and were awarded the First Prize.   In the finals, the students were randomly divided into five groups, with each group containing representatives from five universities. The PolyU team collaborated with Shanghai University, the Southern University of Science and Technology, Qilu University of Technology, and Southwest Petroleum University to achieve impressive optimisation of ParaSeis, demonstrating their teamwork and dedication.   Reflecting on their journey, team leader ZHANG Haolin shared the team's remarkable progress despite their limited prior experience in the field and resources. They diligently designed their clusters, optimised the 70B LLAMA model, and tackled an oil extraction challenge that demanded interdisciplinary expertise. Their efforts included deciphering an undocumented C++ project, understanding its components and underlying mathematical operations, and ultimately enhancing its performance. Through perseverance and a deep passion for engineering, the team learned and achieved success. This competition was more than a test of their technical skills—it was a testament to their dedication to computer science. They embraced the challenge and felt honoured to have their efforts recognised with the award and group competition prize.  

Year 1 student XIANG Yufan Emerges as Overall Champion at the 2024 Programming Contest of CUHK-Shenzhen

We are proud to announce that our Year 1 undergraduate student, XIANG Yufan Frank, emerged as the champion in the DIV-2 track and the overall champion of the 2024 Programming Contest of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen).   The programming contest was organised by the School of Data Science at CUHK-Shenzhen, which drew 380 contestants from universities and secondary schools in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to compete with each other on an individual basis in two tracks, DIV – 1 and DIV – 2. The contest followed the format of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), where participants were tasked with solving ten problems.   Frank demonstrated exceptional skills and problem-solving capabilities, emerging victorious in the DIV-2 track. Not only did he secure the overall championship in both tracks, but he also distinguished himself as the only participant in solving a total of nine problems in the competition, an extraordinary accomplishment.   Expressing his feelings after winning the championship, Frank shared that he acknowledged the significant difficulty gap between the first five questions and the latter five. Despite the challenge, he persevered and successfully applied a specialised hash technique to solve a particularly challenging string problem named Problem H, which he was the only participant to crack.

Turing Award Laureate Prof. Joseph Sifakis Discussed Artificial Intelligence's Present and Future in 50th Anniversary Distinguished Talk Series

Our department proudly kicked off the highly anticipated 50th Anniversary Distinguished Talk Series on the evening of 5 April 2024. The inaugural talk was delivered by Prof. Joseph SIFAKIS, a distinguished researcher and recipient of the Turing Award in 2007.   We are honoured to have Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, present at the talk. The event successfully commenced with a diverse audience of approximately 300 participants, including PolyU staff, students, alumni and technology enthusiasts from various institutions.   Currently serving as the Emeritus Research Director at Verimag Laboratory, Prof. SIFAKIS has an impressive background in the design of reliable systems across domains such as avionics, space systems, telecommunications, and production systems. In 2007, he received the Turing Award, which is recognised as the highest distinction in computer science, for his contribution to the theory and application of model checking, the most widely used system verification technique.   In this talk titled "Artificial Intelligence: Where We Are, Where We Are Going," Prof. SIFAKIS discussed the current state and future prospects of artificial intelligence (AI). He first addressed the confusion surrounding the ultimate goal of AI, with some advocating for Artificial General Intelligence achieved through machine learning. However, he argued that the current state of AI is still limited, primarily providing building blocks for intelligent systems, such as question-answering assistants. He then discussed the pathway to achieving human-level intelligence, establishing trustworthiness in AI systems and seeking complementarity between human and machine intelligence. After the presentation, the audience responded overwhelmingly positive, with attendees eagerly asking questions and sharing thoughts. It is believed that the discussion provided valuable insights for anyone interested in artificial intelligence.   The 50th Anniversary Distinguished Talk Series, organised as part of the department's golden jubilee celebrations, aims to provide valuable insights and foster discussions on various topics pertaining to computing and technology. Renowned speakers from the field have been invited to share their expertise and experiences, offering attendees a unique opportunity to engage with some of the brightest minds in the industry.  

4 COMP Scholars Received Honorable Mention in 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar

 We are delighted to announce that three academic staff members and a PhD graduate from our department have recently been recognised as the 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholars (Honorable Mention). Their contributions to artificial intelligence between 2014 and 2023 have earned them this prestigious recognition.   Dr WU Xiaoming, Associate Professor 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention in AAAI/IJCAI Dr YANG Lei, Associate Professor 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention in Computer Networking Dr FAN Wenqi, Assistant Professor 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention in Information Retrieval and Recommendation Dr LI Qimai, PhD graduate 2024 AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention in AAAI/IJCAI   The AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Annual List aims to identify the top 2,000 highly cited research scholars in artificial intelligence over this decade (2020 - 2029). It highlights scholars who have made lasting contributions and have had a significant impact on the field. The list also seeks to encourage the recognition of young and active scholars who are driving advancements in AI.   The selection process for the AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Annual List involved analysing the citation count of publications appearing in the top venues of each domain over the past decade. The scholars were ranked based on their citation count, with the top 10 scholars from each domain named "AI 2000 Most Influential Scholars" and the subsequent scholars recognised as "AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention."