An ISD art exhibit, “Reciprocal Touch: The Art of Connection,” won 1st Place for Outstanding Arts Exhibit at the 2025 Art Expo of the International Conference on Soft Robotics.

Led by Sweder van Dipten (MPhil Year 1) and supported by Ming Chun Chan (PhD Year 1), Yuchen LIANG (PhD Year 1), and Mulan YU from Hefei University of Technology under Prof. Rob Scharff’s supervision, the art exhibition featured a setup of two soft robot hands with integrated sensors and pneumatically actuated fingers, allowing visitors to shake hands with each other through these robot hands. Many participants stopped by and had fun experiencing the technology! 

Congratulations to the team!

Under the auspices of the Hong Kong Designers Association, two Global Design Awards — a Judge's Award and a Top-10 Award in the Spatial/Interior Design category—were awarded to X-ARt, founded by ISD faculty Prof. Tristan BRAUD and Mr. Brian LAU, for their art-tech piece "Through The Years, To Touch You". The Judge’s Award was presented by Mr. Thomas GARVEY, President of the World Design Organization, while the Top-10 Award was given to the ten highest-scoring entries by a panel of Hong Kong and international judges.

Other X-ARt members include artist Ms. Dominie CHAN and physicist/photographer Dr. Christopher CHAN. Together, X-ARt explores the intersections of Man, Nature, Art, and Technology. "Through The Years, To Touch You", an art-tech piece that investigates the trials of departure and diaspora faced by the villagers of the tiny island of Yim Tin Tsai, showcases proprietary software and hardware technologies being developed at the XRIM lab and demonstrates how art, design, and technology can be integrated. The piece debuted at last year’s Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival and has already garnered much publicity and public attention.

Another piece, resulting from a collaboration between Dr. Marcel Zaes SAGESSER and Ms. Gyuwon Sylvia LEE of Sound Studies Group, School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), and Prof. Tristan BRAUD and Ms. Zhen WU (XRIM Lab, ISD PhD Year 3, HKUST), won a Top-10 Award in the Digital Design Category. The project, titled "High Sections, Low Leaps", consists of a series of speculative multimedia installations focused on the futures of urban districts in the Greater Bay Area. Site-specific artworks integrate AI-generated images of potential futures onto 3D reconstructions of real districts, complemented by sound design based on creative reinterpretations of on-site recordings and construction noises. The project was initially presented at the SeeD Pilot Project Exhibition in Longgang District, Shenzhen, and has been invited to several venues in 2025.

In today’s fiercely competitive career market, innovative thinking and design skills will open doors an otherwise impressive CV might not. As a 2024 HKEX Graduate Programme Technology Associate, Renault LUK benefited after augmenting his BSc studies with a thorough grounding in Integrative Systems and Design (ISD). 

Renault’s key reason for choosing HKUST was our University’s world-class reputation for tailoring flexible, innovation-focused study paths such as the ISD degree.

One of the biggest benefits ISD offered Renault was the opportunity to pioneer a game-changing Facade Installation Robotic System (F.I.R.S.) addressing industrial safety issues such as working at heights. Headed up by Prof. XIANG Changying, supervised by Prof. TSUI Chi-Ying and Dr. Jac LEUNG, and supported by SOCAM’s solar power installation experts, the final year project saw Renault oversee software development for a Steam Deck-based remote control interface. He was also entrusted with key project management duties such as overseeing team progress. F.I.R.S. went on to win Bronze at 2024’s ASMPT Technology Awards.

Able to take his pick of a wide range of career fields after graduation, Renault opted to build his future and the HKSAR’s economy as a Technology Associate with the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX). He is now working on even more exciting large-scale development projects by taking advantage of the experience-enrichment opportunities offered by the company’s graduate rotation program.

Just over a year into his career, Renault has already contributed to the evolution of successful self-testing tools for trading system users plus a user-friendly, high performance user Interface for data table libraries. He is currently engaged in streamlining and upscaling the operational efficiency and reliability of a major cloud infrastructure migration initiative.

Faced with the challenging jump between studying a subject and applying his newfound knowledge in the fast-moving fintech industry, Renault tempered his academic curiosity with greater consideration for end-users. In addition to conducting more system tests, he focused on being clearer in his communications and more rigorous in his decision making.

Looking back, Renault hails his ISD degree as a hands-on learning experience spanning everything from initial analysis of problems to conceptualizing and implementing solutions. In addition to undertaking smaller, more theoretical Computer Science projects, ISD has enabled him to significantly sharpen his project management, design thinking, and UI/UX design capabilities across several different disciplines.

Renault believes the biggest benefit an ISD degree offers is the “adaptable, user-centric mindset” he needs to systematically translate business user requirements into innovative solutions for different fields.

Moving forwards in his career, Renault hopes to bolster these strengths with expertise across other strategically important specializations. In addition to software engineering, his involvement “wish list” includes infrastructure management and information security. His ultimate aim is to help perfect large-scale systems that will have a positive and lasting impact on the general society, extending beyond economic contributions to enhance broader social well-being.

Renault’s advice for the next generation of ISD students is very positive. “Be proactive and curious! Look upon ISD as a sandbox where you can work with and learn from those who are every bit as passionate and curious about technology and design as you yourself are. Never be afraid to share your ideas with faculty members, as this exchange will not only enhance the program’s culture but also equip you with invaluable skills for your professional journey.”

(Article reposted from HKUST Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies)

On April 29, 2025, the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) at HKUST welcomed Prof. Gregory D. Abowd—Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University—for a thought-provoking seminar titled “Ubiquitous Computing Considered Harmful: A Two-Act Story of Getting Things Right for the Wrong Reason.”

Prof. Abowd, a pioneer in Human-Computer Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing, has championed the concept of the Internet of Materials for nearly a decade. In his talk, he revisited Mark Weiser’s original vision of ubiquitous computing, offering a modern reinterpretation that has shaped not only his own research trajectory but also that of a growing interdisciplinary community.

The seminar drew attendees from diverse backgrounds, including faculty members, researchers, and both undergraduate and graduate students. Prof. Abowd began by reflecting on the technical promise of ever-increasing computational ubiquity—from fundamental computation to real-world deployment. He then transitioned to a sobering second act: a critical examination of the environmental costs associated with producing, operating, and discarding computational artifacts.

Emphasizing the urgent need to rethink long-standing assumptions in computing design, Prof. Abowd argued for a paradigm shift—one that balances technological advancement with sustainability. He urged the community to treat the Internet of Materials not merely as a visionary pursuit, but as an ethical imperative in light of our planet’s environmental health.

The session concluded with a dynamic Q&A, where participants engaged Prof. Abowd in discussions ranging from sustainable materials to the societal implications of pervasive technology. The event left attendees with new perspectives on how responsible innovation must inform the future of ubiquitous computing.

A research team led by Prof. Mitch LI Guijun, Assistant Professor from the Division of Integrative Systems and Design at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has developed an innovative single-step laser printing technique to accelerate the manufacturing of lithium-sulfur batteries. Integrating the commonly time-consuming active materials synthesis and cathode preparation in a nanosecond-scale laser-induced conversion process, this technique is set to revolutionize the future industrial production of printable electrochemical energy storage devices. The findings of this study were recently published in the top journal Nature Communications.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are expected to supersede existing lithium-ion batteries due to sulfur cathodes' high theoretical energy density. To ensure the rapid conversion of sulfur species, these cathodes are typically composed of active materials, host materials (or catalysts), and conductive materials. However, the fabrication of host materials and preparation of sulfur cathodes often involve complicated, multistep, and labor-intensive processes that require varying temperatures and conditions, raising concerns about efficiency and cost in industrial production.

To overcome these challenges, Prof. Li’s team developed a novel single-step laser printing technique for the rapid manufacturing of integrated sulfur cathodes. During this high-throughput laser-pulse irradiation process, the precursor donor is activated, producing jetting particles that include in-situ synthesized halloysite-based hybrid nanotubes (host material), sulfur species (active material), and glucose-derived porous carbon (conductive component). The mixture is printed onto a carbon fabric acceptor, forming an integrated sulfur cathode. Notably, the laser-printed sulfur cathodes demonstrate outstanding performance in both coin and pouch lithium-sulfur cells.

“Traditional manufacturing processes of a cathode/anode in ion battery usually contain the synthesis of active materials (sometimes combined with host material/ catalyst), the preparation of mixture slurry, and the assembly of cathode/anode. Prof. Li explained, “These steps are usually carried out separately under different temperatures and conditions because the materials behave differently.  As a result, the whole process can take tens of hours or even several days.”

Prof. Li said, “Our newly developed laser-induced conversion technology offers a way to combine these processes into a single step at nanosecond speeds. The printing speed can achieve about 2 cm²/minute using only a single beam laser. A 75 × 45 mm² sulfur cathode can be printed within 20 minutes and supply power for a small screen for several hours when assembled into a lithium-sulfur pouch cell.”

Dr. YANG Rongliang, the first author of this work and former postdoctoral fellow at HKUST, added, “These intriguing findings generated from our study on laser-material interaction. The laser-induced conversion process can be characterized as an ultra-concentrated thermal phenomenon. The irradiated materials undergo a complex transient heating and cooling process, with theoretical transient temperatures reaching up to thousands of degrees Kelvin. The precursor materials decompose, and the decomposed particles recombine to form new materials. This ultra-concentrated thermal process not only enables the formation and combination of materials with different natures, but also drives the concomitant micro-explosions that facilitate the jetting and transferring of forming particles.”

News Coverage:
From beam to battery: Single-step laser printing supercharges high-performance lithium-sulfur batteries
Science Daily – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250423112140.htm
EurekAlert – https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081430

(Article reposted from HKUST Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies)