News

The 44th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia Nanchang Regional Contest

A COMP student team, “HKPU01”, formed by Mr Baohang Sun, Ms Ying Xu and Mr Haozhe Yan, won the Silver Medal and First Solve Award in the 44th International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia Nanchang Regional Contest held at Jiangxi Normal University, China on 9 – 10 November. All contestants formed a team of three to solve thirteen real world problems within five hours. This year, over 330 teams participated and they had to solve as many problems as possible to fight for the champion. “HKPU01” finally solved four problems and was awarded with the Silver Medal. The team was also the first one who successfully solved the Special Number 12 Problem, thus winning the First Solve Award. The ICPC is an algorithmic programming contest for college students. It is the oldest, largest, and the most prestigious programming contest in the world which fosters creativity, teamwork, innovation, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure.

Prof. Song Guo has been named an IEEE Fellow

We are proud to announce that Prof. Song Guo, Professor and Associate Head of COMP, has recently been elevated to Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with effect from 1 January 2020, for his contributions to high performance and resilient distributed computing. Prof. Guo has joined COMP since 2016 and his research interests are mainly in the areas of cloud and green computing, big data, wireless networks, and distributed systems. He has published over 450 conference and journal papers in these areas and received multiple best paper awards from IEEE/ ACM conferences. His research has been sponsored by JSPS, JST, MIC, NSF, NSFC, and industrial companies. Prof. Guo is also an associate editor of four IEEE publications and he has been actively participating in international conferences as general chair and TPC chair. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one- percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Congratulations to Prof. Guo on receiving this honour!

IFTA Fintech Achievement Awardee Seminar

Co-organised by COMP and the Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia (IFTA), the “IFTA Fintech Achievement Awardee Seminar” was held at PolyU on 29 October. Dr Henry Chan, Associate Professor and Associate Head of COMP, gave a warm welcome by introducing our new BSc in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence programme to the audience. Mr Wilson Kwok, Co-founder and Vice Chairman of IFTA, announced that the seminar at PolyU was the kick-off session of IFTA Fintech Achievement Awardee Campus Tour in Hong Kong. Three awardees including Mr Raymond Leung, Managing Director of 9F Jinke Holding Group; Mr Issac Li, VP of CASH Algo Finance Group and Mr Curtis Chan, CEO of PolyDigi, were invited to share their awarded business models and technologies. At the end of the seminar, Dr Walter Fung, Teaching Fellow of COMP hosted an interactive open discussion on AI adoption in fintech business in Asia, growth of cryptocurrency, and cybersecurity and blockchain based applications in the fintech industry.

The 25th Congregation of PolyU

Congratulations to all COMP graduates! The conferment of bachelor and master degrees on the graduates of COMP was held on 31 October at the Jockey Club Auditorium of PolyU. Families and friends of graduates gathered together to witness such memorable moment.

COMP 45th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture Series

COMP launched the Distinguished Lecture Series in celebration of its 45th anniversary and the final lecture “High Performance Computing and Big Data: Challenges for the Future” by Prof. Jack Dongarra, Distinguished Professor from The University of Tennessee, USA, was concluded smoothly on 30 September at PolyU with a full house participation. Prof. Dongarra is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and SIAM and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the British Royal Society, and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. Historically, high performance computing advances have been largely dependent on concurrent advances in algorithms, software, architecture, and hardware that enable higher levels of floating-point performance for computational models. In this lecture, Prof. Dongarra examined some of the challenges involved with high performance computing and big data for scientific computing. Attendees had a fruitful sharing with Prof. Dongarra and were inspired by his vision on the future of high performance computing. Throughout 2019, we invited renowned scholars and researchers to deliver Distinguished Lectures on a wide range of hot IT topics, including AI, Big Data, Social Media, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing.

COMP Undergraduate Orientation Session 2019

On 28 August, COMP organised an Orientation Session for all new undergraduate students. Around 150 freshmen participated and had a joyful morning with us. The session began with a warm welcome and a brief introduction to the Department by Prof. Qing Li, Chair Professor and Head of COMP. Prof. Li also shared his insights on university study and encouraged the students to challenge themselves by involving in a variety of extra-curricular activities. Dr Hong-va Leong, our Associate Professor and Associate Head, introduced the Academic Advising System and learning opportunities available at COMP. Representatives from various administrative units highlighted the resources, supports and services offered at PolyU. COMP Orientation was concluded with some ice-breaking and team building games between the students and their Academic Advisors in a fun-filled environment. It provided an effective platform for them to get connected before the commencement of the new academic year. We wish all newbies a fruitful and rewarding learning journey at COMP.

Corda Training Workshop

In recent years, there is a huge demand for professionals in the market for designing, developing and maintaining blockchain-based systems. In order to provide our students with more hands-on experience in blockchain application development, we invited industry practitioners to deliver a series of workshop in August 2019. Mr Edward Lee, an alumnus of COMP and a Certified Corda Developer, introduced the core concepts of Corda — an open-source blockchain platform built for applications that reconstruct different industries, including finance, insurance and even healthcare. Students were given programming tasks to develop CorDapps (applications on Corda) from scratch and tips for attaining Corda professional certification were shared by the trainer as well. Dr Lawrence Ma, the President of the Hong Kong Blockchain Society, offered an insight into the applications of blockchain in various sectors and shared his view on the potentials of the distributed ledger technology. These workshops are under the Department’s Corda Training/ Certification Programme (TCP), which aims at integrating tertiary education with professional certification to strengthen students’ employability after graduation.

COMP 45th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture Series

COMP launched the Distinguished Lecture Series in celebration of its 45th anniversary and the third lecture “The Role of Computer Architecture in Emerging Cloud Computing and Edge Computing Paradigms” by Prof. Yuanyuan Yang, Professor from Stony Brook University, was held on 12 August at PolyU. In this lecture, Prof. Yang explored the central role of computer architecture research in cloud computing and edge computing paradigms. She discussed how to greatly reduce the hardware cost of data centers by an architectural approach of utilizing inherent server redundancy. Prof. Yang also presented a pervasive edge computing platform where heterogeneous edge devices, e.g., smartphones, tablets, IoT and vehicles, can collaborate to sense, process data and create many novel applications at the edge. Throughout 2019, we will invite renowned scholars and researchers to deliver Distinguished Lectures on a wide range of hot IT topics, including AI, Big Data, Social Media, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing.

The 6th Computer App Programming (CAP) Competition

Jointly organised by COMP and the Hong Kong Association for Computer Education (HKACE) and supported by IEEE Hong Kong Section Computer Society Chapter, the second part of the sixth Computer App Programming (CAP) Competition – “CAP Day” was concluded successfully at PolyU on 13 July. CAP Day was a problem-solving test conducted on an individual basis. Contestants must make use of the designated programming tool, App Inventor 2, to complete the tasks related to logical solution and programming. This year, over 150 secondary school students participated and strived for the champion. Dr David Chung, JP, Under Secretary of the Innovation and Technology Bureau officiated the closing ceremony. Dr Henry Chan, Associate Professor and Associate Head of COMP, and Mr Wai Ming Kam, Chairman of HKACE, also joined the award presentation. CAP Competition is an annual competition for teenagers to gain computational knowledge and programming techniques, train up their problem solving and logical thinking skills as well as foster their creativity.

Open Forum - AI and Fintech Applications for Banking, Finance and Servicing Industries

On 6 July, COMP organised an open forum on “AI and Fintech Applications for Banking, Finance and Servicing Industries” at PolyU which brought together over 250 industry practitioners, executives, academia and students for potential collaborations and research opportunities. Prof. Qing Li, Chair Professor and Head of COMP delivered the welcoming remarks at the opening and introduced our new undergraduate programme - BSc (Hons) in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence. We invited seven scholars and professionals as guest speakers including Dr Allen Au, Associate Professor of COMP; Mr Curtis Chan, Founder and CEO of PolyDigi Limited; Mr Joseph Chan, Founder and CEO of AsiaPay Group; Dr Thomas Chan, Director of One Belt One Road Institute, Chu Hai College of Higher Education; Mr Jerome Luo, Vice President of Yonyou Group; Mr Harry Ngai, Head of Audit Department of JETCO; and Mr John Yau, Business Development Manager of O2O Payment. All speakers shared their views and insights on how AI and Fintech can be deployed to benefit Hong Kong and its international businesses. Topics on blockchain, e-payment, artificial intelligence, US currency system, privacy, security and auditing technology were covered.