RoboMaster rowed the FIRST in New Energy Powerboat Challenge 2023

Achievement 22 Dec 2023

Our RoboMaster team defeated 6 other university teams from the Greater Bay Area and earned a championship honour in the 2023 Pioneer of Zero Carbon GBA New Energy Powerboat Challenge.

The competition consisted of an Endurance challenge and an Obstacle race. Each team controlled a 300kg solar energy-powered boat and raced at highest 15km/h in Songshan Lake of Dongguan Science and Technology Industrial Park. With an all-out effort, HKUST RoboMaster Team demonstrated excellent hands-on ability and knowledge of Powerboat, and finally won the overall championship.

Let’s share the news and show our support our RoboMaster members!

Seekr – HKICT Startup Silver Award & HKSTPC Technopreneur Award

Achievement 16 Nov 2023

A big around of applause to ISD MPhil student, Turzo Bose, in receiving Silver Award of HKICT Start-up Award in Social Impact and HKSTPC Technopreneur Award in 2023. His project, Seekr, aims to assist visually impaired groups in space navigation.

Under the supervision of Professor Tristan BRAUD, Turzo has been fighting to invent a tool to help the visually impaired and the elderly navigate in a safe and respectful manner. Therefore, he invented Seekr – a compact AI smart wearable that is designed to assist the groups in evaluating and travelling independently. This invention hopefully revolutionizes the way that visually impaired groups experience the world.

AI Robot for SENs - HKICT Student Innovation Bronze Award

Achievement 06 Nov 2023

Congratulations to our ISD Alumni FUNG Ka Yan (Gabby) in receiving the HKICT Student Innovation Award in 2023, recognizing her project on AI Robot for SENs, which provides a training solution for students with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) in the early stage.

People with SpLDs are intellectually competent but are greatly hindered by the ability of processing and conceptualizing language-based information. Recent research has unveiled that early-stage intervention, i.e., training before 6 years old, could effectively boost their learning curve in language processing. Gabby saw the lack of solutions in the market and took the lead in developing an AI system to train their memory capacity and sentence expansion skills through Chinese vocabulary and short sentence games.

The product is a combination of various technologies, including AI, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) method, data visualization, empathic design methodology, and scaffolding skills. Gabby’s product has helped 100 students from local primary schools to receive basic training of the robotic games. Gabby and team will continue to bring a pleasant learning environment and empower students with SpLDs to unleash their full potentials.

Research Paper by ISD Undergraduate Accepted to Top-Tier Conference in Computer Vision

News 04 Aug 2023

Mr. XU Yinzhe (Shaun) our undergraduate student, has made significant research findings in the field of computer vision. Under the supervision of Prof. Sai-Kit Yeung, Shaun and his team developed a new benchmark dataset and framework for omnidirectional visual object tracking, which has been accepted by the top-tier conference International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) 2023. 

Visual object tracking is an important problem in computer vision with applications in video analysis, human-machine interaction, and intelligent robots. Shaun and his team found that there has been little attention paid to omnidirectional visual object tracking, although its advantages, such as stable long-term tracking and perception, are crucial in many applications. To address this gap, they proposed a new large-scale omnidirectional tracking benchmark dataset, 360VOT, with a new general tracking framework dedicated to this subfield to facilitate future research. To enable accurate performance evaluation in the subfield, they also provided four types of unbiased ground truth, including (rotated) bounding boxes and (rotated) bounding field-of-views, as well as new metrics tailored for omnidirectional images. 

Shaun will continue his studies at HKUST as a new ISD PhD student in Prof. Sai-Kit Yeung's team this year. For more information about their research, please visit the website for 360VOT: https://360vot.hkustvgd.com.

Teams of Students Won Top Honors at HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2023

Achievement 09 Jun 2023

Two outstanding teams from our division showcased their entrepreneurial innovations and won championship in respective categories in the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2023.

The innovative start up Elevatefoods developed by Lee Kong Wai Connie, Xu Yang, Chan Yee Him Timothy, and Yuan Qiaoyaxiao Aidan has achieved remarkable success in winning the Elevator Pitch Award and the esteemed HKUST Team Awards. Under the guidance of their supervisor, Prof. Mitch LI, the students have pioneered Elevatefoods as a start up with the vision to revolutionize personalized clinical nutrition and digitally optimized food through the patented smart 3D food printing and multi-level cooking technology. Elevatefoods’ mission is to develop a commercially viable integrated smart streamlined 3D food fabrication technology that changes the way clinical nutrition foods are prepared, cooked, and experienced, hence delivering ready-to-consume personalized edible products with refined textural, sensory and nutritious profiles. The smart 3D food fabrication ecosystem enables rapid and precise food and nutrition personalization based on user’s requirement, targeting the clinical nutrition industry, including those who demand special diet needs like cancer patients, diabetes, elderlies, children, athletes and more. 

Meanwhile, the team from DAOAD, consisting of Zhang Yuruo, Gu Jingshu, Zhang Yuwei, Tommy Lam, and Gigi Lai, wins the Sustainability Impact Awards. DAOAD is supervised by Prof. Changying XIANG and Mr. Brian LAU as a rice husk upcycling company. The team combines 'rice husk' and 'sustainable development' to produce high-quality and sustainable products with rice husk waste. The team developed its own brand: DAOAD Material Technology from scratch and created rice husk-based Eco-friendly solutions, e.g. paper, bioplastic, rammed earth and polymer materials. The products are biodegradable and can be applied to different industries. The mission of DAOAD is to create a circular economy by upcycling rice husks into products and reducing carbon emissions to promote sustainability and climate actions. Their innovative project not only addresses the issue of waste management but also provides people with more choices and breathes new life into wasted resources.

We extend our warmest congratulations to the members of Elevatefoods and their supervisor, Prof. Mitch LI, for their remarkable achievements. We also congratulate the students of DAOAD and their supervisors, Prof. Changying XIANG and Mr. Brian LAU, for their outstanding accomplishments.  

Larry is an industrial designer with over 20 years of experience in design management, industrial design and professional lecturing. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Larry has always had a passion for creativity and fine art. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA degree and began his career working for Radica Games in Dallas, Texas – a division of Mattel. Prior to establishing KOODESIGN, Larry worked for Gibson Innovations as part of Philips global brand licensing headquartered in Hong Kong. After a few years designing home cinema speakers and speakers products, in 2015 he became the design lead for their Home Communications and Smart Home projects, where he designed IOT home automation devices. Larry also holds a part-time teaching position at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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People Type
People Position
Email
larry@koodesign.co
Area
Product & Industrial Design
Design Consultation Managment
Product Commercialization & DfM
Design Strategy & Design Thinking
Surname
Koo

Jack first obtained his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently worked at Hewlett Packard, Schlumberger, and a startup in the Silicon Valley.

In 1994, Jack completed his doctorate study in Electronic Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and became the HKUST’s first PhD graduate. Jack then continued his post-doctoral research at Stanford University. In 1998, Jack returned to the Faculty of Electronic Engineering of HKUST and received his tenure.

Jack is a holder of multiple invention patents, including the first patent to be awarded to the School of Engineering at HKUST, and has published at leading IEEE journals and conferences.

In 1999, Jack started Perception Digital, a company providing digital signal processor-based turn-key solutions to several Fortune 500 companies and technology leaders. Perception Digital eventually went public on the main board at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Jack also served as the Chairman and CEO of the company.

He had also started and ran as the Managing Director of a banking software company, which was eventually absorbed by a local bank. Products include securities trading platform, workflow, and other essential local banking IT needs.

Jack completed his Kellogg-HKUST EMBA program in 2010.

He is passionate in teaching and education. He was an invited Professor about Digital Transformations at Skolkovo School of Management in Moscow and has taught similar subject in executive education in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Jack had also served on the Board as Independent Director on several Hong Kong listed company and SemiLEDs (Nasdaq stock code:  LEDS). On LEDS, he was on the audit committee of the Board.

Jack is a recipient of the 10 Most Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong (2000), Young Industrialist Award (2005), and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2009 China award. In 2010, he was bestowed an Honorary Fellowship at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Jack also serves as a member of several committees in Hong Kong, such as the HKSAR Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, Appeal Tribunal Panel of Planning and Lands Branch – HKSAR Development Bureau, HKSAR Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) Advisory Committee and Enterprise Support Scheme (ESS) Assessment Panel, Innovation Technology Venture Fund (ITVF) Panel and the Green Tech Fund of the Environmental Protection Department.

Jack is now a Member of the Council of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is a former Chairman of the International Advancement and Outreach Committee of the Council, a member of the Audit Committee, a member of the HKUST Guangzhou Campus Working Group, Chairman of the Search Committee for the Vice President of Research and Development. He was also the Vice-Chairman of the Knowledge Transfer Committee of the Council. He was a member of the Search Committees for the President of the HKUST.

Jack is currently the Chairman of Swanland.AI, investing in and nurturing a wide range of startups, including intelligence design, smart home, green technology, insurance tech, and many more. As a hobby, he is active in publishing his technology thoughts on his blog, and various technology implementations on Medium.com. 

A sample collection of videos related can be found here.

Jack is also passionate in teaching.  He teaches at both the Business School and the Engineering School. His courses include Digital Transformation, Entrepreneurship, Design Thinking, and A.I. for FinTech.

Recreationally, he is a certified Yoga instructor, and an avid golfer.

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People Type
People Position
Email
eejlau@ust.hk
Area
Consumer Electronics
Artificial Intelligence
Digital Business Transformation
Surname
LAU

BSc(ISD) student project supported by SOCAM Development Ltd. won Gold Award of ASMPT Technology Award 2023

News 13 Jul 2023

Our undergraduate students Alphor CHEUNG Ho-Hin, Alan PANG Yu-Yin, Evan MA Sze-Long, Will LIU Pak-Hin and Benny SZE Chung-Lam have won the Gold Award of ASMPT Technology Award 2023, with their Final Year Project titled “Situational Awareness Location Transponder (SALT): A Phase Difference of Arrival (PDOA)-based System for Enhancing Construction Safety”, supervised by Prof. TSUI Chi-Ying and Dr. Jac LEUNG.

The team applied the Design Thinking approach to study the hazards in construction sites and construction practices. During the development of SALT, the team worked closely with engineers and safety managers from SOCAM Development Ltd. to identify the problems and design constraints through multiple rounds of interviews, site observations, and validation. SALT is a safety solution for construction sites that uses Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) and Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) sensing technologies to provide real-time positioning and trajectory, reducing accidents that involve heavy machinery and workers.

SALT includes tags that are placed on workers and machinery, anchors that are fixed in certain locations, and displays that give alerts and warnings. The tags and anchors use UWB technology to accurately locate their positions, while Bluetooth allows for communication over long distances. The tags also have IMUs that determine the orientation of machinery, which provides more information. This comprehensive system is designed to address the practical limitations of construction sites.

Please join us to congratulate our talented students for their hard work and dedication!

Chinachem – ISD Talk Series: From Zero Carbon Building to Carbon Neutral Hong Kong

Events 17 Apr 2023
Events Date17 April 2023 Events07:00pm - 08:00pm EventsLT-F (near lift 25-26), 1/F, Academic Building, HKUST

This is about the journey of an architect who participated in the integration of sustainable design in the built environment, including the pioneering project Zero Carbon Building completed in 2012 in Hong Kong, and then served as the Secretary for the Environment, HKSAR, between 2012-22. During his 10-year tenure in the Government, Wong led a number of sustainability policy blueprints on climate actions, energy saving, clean air, popularisation of electric vehicles, waste management, and biodiversity, leading Hong Kong towards carbon neutrality before 2050.