News

Prof. Allen Au Honored with Prestigious HKEST Award 2024-25

Prof. AU Man Ho Allen, our Professor and Associate Head (Research and Development), has been named one of six recipients of the Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology (HKEST) Award 2024-25 from the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (HKAE). This accolade recognises his outstanding contributions to the fields of cybersecurity, cryptography, and blockchain innovation.   Upon receiving the award, Prof. Au expressed his gratitude, stating, "I am deeply honoured to receive the HKEST Award. This recognition is not only a personal milestone but also a reflection of the incredible support I have received from my colleagues, students, and collaborators. I am especially thankful to PolyU for its continued support and the collaborative environment that has enabled my work to thrive."   Prof. Au's research focuses on applied cryptography and blockchain technology, aiming to develop practical, secure, and privacy-preserving solutions for the Web3 ecosystem and the digital economy. He highlighted the significance of applied cryptography in today’s digital economy, particularly in fields such as FinTech and privacy-enhancing technologies.   He further remarked, "I hope this recognition will inspire greater collaboration across academia and industry and encourage our students and early-career researchers to pursue meaningful, high-impact innovation in engineering and technology."   Established in 2022 by HKAE and the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), the annual HKEST Award honours young scientists and engineers demonstrating exceptional talent and impact in Hong Kong’s engineering and technology sectors. It supports the government’s mission to strengthen innovation ecosystems and cultivate local talent.   For more information about the HKEST Award and its impact on the engineering community, please visit the HKAE’s website.

Innovative Solutions by COMP Student and Alumnus Earn Awards at the 10th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

We are proud to announce that two of our talented students have excelled in the 10th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, organised by the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association. Second Prize (Information Technology) Project: Cloud Nursing Wise Home BioRadar-based Smart Elderly Eco Service Platform for the Elderly Team Members: XIANG Muze (COMP Year 3 students), HE Boyan, QIAN Junbo, GUO Boyu, and WU Yutin This innovative project addresses the challenges posed by China's ageing population. The team developed a non-contact millimeter-wave radar system aimed at enhancing elderly care. Key features include sleep monitoring, fall detection, and activity tracking, all designed to improve safety, privacy, and the quality of care in home-based settings.   Third Prize (Information Technology) Project: Present AR Team Members: MA Po Hin (COMP Alumnus) and WONG Chik On PresentAR is an innovative solution that leverages Augmented Reality (AR) to elevate presentations. By integrating AR elements, the tool makes presentations more engaging, promoting active listening among audiences. Our research indicates that presentations delivered with PresentAR significantly enhance presentation skills and increase the effective use of body language.

COMP Students Win Two Awards at Hong Kong Global Game Jam 2025

The Hong Kong Global Game Jam 2025 was successfully held at PolyU from 24 January to 26 January 2025. Over 35,000 jammers participated this year across 759 jam sites in 97 countries. The event attracted over 300 participants in Hong Kong, including students and professional game designers, who collaborated to create a remarkable 79 games. Hong Kong ranked as the fourth largest location for the Global Game Jam this year. This year’s jam theme, “Bubble,” inspired imaginative concepts and diverse gameplay experiences.   A total of seven awards were presented during the event, celebrating outstanding achievements in various categories. We are thrilled to announce that COMP students secured two prestigious awards:   Award: Most Unique Concept Game Name: Bubble You Guess COMP Awardee: WAN Ho Yin (MSc in Information Technology) https://globalgamejam.org/games/2025/i-bubble-you-guess-1   Award: Best Theme Interpretation Game Name: Sip the Bubbles Awarded Team Members: Bao Tianyi (MSc in Metaverse Technology) Jiang Shaobo (MSc in Metaverse Technology) Shi Zhikang (MSc in Metaverse Technology) Zhan Zhuoyuan (MSc in Metaverse Technology) https://globalgamejam.org/games/2025/sip-bubbles-8 

Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel has been selected as 2024 Distinguished Member of ACM

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has recognised 56 Distinguished Members for their outstanding contributions to the field of computing in 2024. Among the esteemed honorees is Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel, Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences and Professor of COMP, who has been acknowledged for his pivotal work in safeguarding blockchain and smart contracts along with Android and its applications.   Prof. Luo’s current research interests include Blockchain and Smart Contracts Security, Mobile/IoT/Vehicle Security, Network Security and Privacy, and Software Engineering, with papers published in top-tier security, software engineering, and networking conferences and journals. His research has led to more than ten best/distinguished paper awards at top conferences and several awards from the industry. He also received the BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize (FinTech) 2023 for his contribution to blockchain security.   Additionally, Prof. Luo is recognised by Stanford University as one of the World’s Top 2% Scientists. His research uncovered many severe vulnerabilities in critical infrastructures and applications. Moreover, the industry has utilised his work to detect and analyse malware and cyberattacks.   ACM, the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, selects Distinguished Members based on their career achievements and participation in ACM. Nominees must possess at least 15 years of professional experience in the field, maintain a professional ACM Membership for at least five years within the last decade, and have demonstrated significant accomplishment or impact in their respective domains.

COMP Students Make History by Winning PolyU's First Gold Medal at ICPC Regional Contest

We are proud to announce that our talented students have excelled at the regional contests of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), one of the most prestigious global programming competitions conducted by and for the world's universities. The ICPC features a multi-tiered competition structure that includes local, regional, and world levels, challenging teams to develop innovative software programs while demonstrating creativity, teamwork, and the ability to perform under pressure.   Under the guidance of Prof. LI Bo, Assistant Professor, our students have achieved a remarkable milestone by winning a gold medal in this year's ICPC contest series, marking the first such achievement for PolyU. Their hard work has led to outstanding results, securing a total of four medals at the regional competitions. Additionally, they played a crucial role in organising the ICPC at PolyU in Hong Kong, gaining invaluable experience in the process.   We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the award-winning students and look forward to their future performances!   2024 ICPC Asia Nanjing Regional Contest Team SUN Hansong Year 2, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science Gold Medal XIANG Yufan Year 2, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science YAN Zhangyang Year 2, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science   2024 ICPC Asia Chengdu Regional Contest Team CHEN Junru Year 4, BSc (Hons) in Computing Silver Medal WANG Junyao COMP PhD ZHANG Haolin Year 4, BSc (Hons) in Computing   2024 ICPC Asia Kunming Regional Contest Team 1 SUN Hansong Year 2, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science Bronze Medal WANG Junyao COMP PhD XIANG Yufan Year 2, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science Team 2 HEO Sunghak Student from PolyU Department of Applied Physics Bronze Medal MENG Xiangyu Year 1, BSc (Hons) in Computing & AI ZHANG Changyu Student from PolyU Department of Applied Physics  

Prof. LI Wenjie, Prof. LUO Xiapu, and Dr GAO Shang Awarded the Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award 2023

We are proud to announce that Prof. LI Wenjie Maggie, Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel and Dr Gao Shang Jason have been awarded the Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award 2023.   Prof. LI Wenjie Maggie, our Professor, specialises in natural language processing, text mining, social media analysis, information retrieval, extraction and summarisation. She has led and contributed to numerous research projects, securing a number of fully funded grants from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, along with a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.   Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel, our Professor, is recognised for his groundbreaking research in Mobile/IoT/System Security and Privacy, Blockchain/Smart Contracts, Software Engineering, Network Security, and Internet Measurement. His exceptional contributions were further acknowledged when he received the prestigious BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize 2023 in FinTech last year, as well as the Outstanding Award in the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2024.   Dr Gao Shang Jason, our Research Assistant Professor, has a wide-ranging interest in security-related areas, including information security, network security, data privacy, blockchain security, and applied cryptography.   The Faculty Research Committee established the FENG Research Grant Achievement Award in 2003 to acknowledge the outstanding performance of FENG academic staff members in securing external competitive research grants. To qualify for this recognition, a staff member must successfully secure three external competitive research grants within 36 months or four external competitive research grants within 60 months, serving as Principal Investigator or Co-principal Investigator.

COMP Successfully Hosted 2024 ICPC Asia East Continent Hong Kong Regional Contest

The Department of Computing (COMP) successfully hosted the 2024 ICPC Asia East Continent Hong Kong Regional Contest on 21-22 December 2024. The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), formerly known as ACM-ICPC, is a prestigious global competition designed to enhance computer science students' problem-solving and teamwork skills.   This year’s contest marked a significant milestone for ICPC in Hong Kong, attracting a record-breaking 174 teams and over 600 participants from 118 universities across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Malaysia, and Switzerland. Additionally, seven high schools from Hong Kong and Macau participated. This turnout, doubling that of the previous years, made it the largest regional contest ever held in Hong Kong and Macau. This event underscores COMP's remarkable growth since it first hosted the regional ICPC in 2017 with only 45 teams.   Co-organised by the City University of Hong Kong and supported by the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education (HKOI) and Lenovo, the event was made possible through generous sponsorships from Jane Street, Huawei, and JetBrains.   The opening ceremony included remarks from key figures such as Prof. Ken YIU, the contest director, our professor and associate head (Teaching and Learning), who expressed gratitude to the co-organisers and sponsors. Prof. Allen AU, our professor and associate head (Research and Development), welcomed the participants and introduced PolyU's graduate scholarships to encourage further studies. COMP alumna Prof. Wenxin LI, director of ICPC Asia East Continent and professor at Peking University, expressed pride in PolyU's capabilities and the contest's role in nurturing computer science talent.   The contest presented 13 problems of varying difficulty that tested participants' programming skills and algorithmic knowledge. Teams were ranked by the number of problems solved, with tiebreakers based on total time taken and penalties for incorrect submissions. In the end, teams from Peking University, Beihang University, and Harbin Institute of Technology secured the top three positions.   Participants provided positive feedback on the event, highlighting the high quality of the preparations and organisation. Many praised the exceptional competition experience and expressed appreciation for the enjoyable atmosphere.

COMP Undergraduate Students Win the Second Prize in the National Finals of the 4th China Mobile “Wutong Cup” Big Data Innovation Competition

We are excited to announce that two talented COMP undergraduate students, CHEN Rubing (Year 4, BSc in Computing) and FU Guanhe (Year 2, BSc in Computer Science), have achieved exceptional success by securing second prize in the national finals of the 4th China Mobile “Wutong Cup” Big Data Innovation Competition on 12 December. Their team has already earned the second prize in the “Data Application Track” of the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Division on 25 November.   The team members included: CHEN Rubing (Department of Computing) FU Guanhe (Department of Computing) HE Linxi (Department of Applied Mathematics) ZHAO Qingsen (Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology) The supervisor of the awarded PolyU team was Dr LI Bo, our Assistant Professor.   Their innovative project leverages big data technology to analyse the behaviours, characteristics, and preferences of Hong Kong travellers visiting the mainland. This analysis empowers businesses to accurately target their customers and deliver personalised services.   This year, the "Data Application Track" of the competition attracted 949 teams from 371 universities. After participating in the preliminary and final rounds at provincial competitions, 18 of the most outstanding teams were selected to advance to the national finals. The competition aims to discover university students’ research and innovative practices in various fields, including data application, artificial intelligence, and data security, while promoting the integration of big data applications across different industries.

Prof. Zhang Lei Recognised in “Highly Cited Researchers 2024” List by Clarivate Analytics

We are proud to announce that Prof. ZHANG Lei, our Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis, has been recognised in the prestigious “Highly Cited Researchers 2024” list by Clarivate Analytics. This accolade highlights his significant contributions to the field of engineering.   Since 2015, Prof. ZHANG has been named a Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) in Engineering nine times, underscoring his lasting impact and influence in the discipline. His research has been cited over 57,000 times in the Web of Science, with an impressive H-index of 110. Prof. Zhang’s research interests encompass image and video processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, and biometrics.   In addition to his research achievements, Prof. ZHANG is an IEEE Fellow and serves as the Director of the Joint Innovation Research Centre, further solidifying his role as a leader in the field.   This annual list recognises researchers for significant impact in their respective research fields. Each researcher selected has authored multiple highly-cited papers that have ranked in the top 1% by citations for their fields and publication year in the Web of Science over the past 11 years. This year, a total of 6,636 researchers from 59 countries and regions from a diverse range of fields have been named as Highly Cited Researchers.

HKXRA x PolyU MSc in Metaverse Technology Best Project Award Ceremony 2024

We are proud to announce the successful conclusion of the Master of Science in Metaverse Technology (MScMT) Best Project Award Competition, sponsored by the Hong Kong Extended Reality Association (HKXRA). An award presentation ceremony was held on 16 Nov to recognise the outstanding metaverse projects created by the students of this Master’s programme.   During the award presentation ceremony, Dr Peter NG, our assistant professor and programme leader of the MScMT programme, welcomed attendees and expressed appreciation for their hard work over the past year. This was followed by inspiring speeches from Mr Terry DAO, President of HKXRA, and Mr Terence LEUNG, Board Member of HKXRA.   Each metaverse project was developed by teams of 2-4 members over an intensive eight-month period, leveraged advanced technologies such as virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain. The top three projects, which demonstrated the most creativity and feasibility, were selected as the winners of this competition.   Champion (HK$ 50,000): Project: Metaverse Tourism (Hong Kong in a Click) Team Members: MA Jingran, MAO Haoran, ZHOU Yukai, ZHU Jun Supervisor: Dr Zackary SIN For the project video, please watch it here.   1st Runner-up (HK$ 30,000): Project: Virtual Horizons: Bridging Cultures through Realistic 3D Exploration Team Members: LI Zhuang, SANG Mingjian, WANG Hantao, WEN Yuxuan Supervisor: Dr Peter NG For the project video, please watch it here.   2nd Runner-up: Project: China’s Past and Present AR Team Members: CHEN Chen, JIANG Jinqiao, KOK Ray Yeung, LIN Jingxiang Supervisor: Dr Richard LI For the project video, please watch it here.   We congratulate all participants and eagerly anticipate their future contributions to the field of metaverse technology! For more projects from MScMT students, please watch here.