People

Chi-ying Tsui received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1994.  He then joined the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and is currently a full Professor in the department. He was the Associate Dean of Engineering at HKUST from 2014 to 2018 and is now the founding Head and Professor of the Division of Integrative Systems and Design. 

Dr. Tsui’s research interests include designing integrated circuits and VLSI architectures for energy-efficient embedded machine learning, low power multimedia and wireless applications, developing power management circuits and techniques for embedded portable devices and ultra-low power systems for implantable devices. He has published more than 250 referred publications and holds 12 US patents on power management, VLSI and multimedia systems. He co-founded Perception Digital, which was a technology company focusing on designing embedded multimedia devices and was listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009. He also involved in a few start-up companies founded by UST alumni in the area of high-speed IC design, embedded health-care devices and implantable medical devices.  He received the best paper awards from the IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems in 1995, IEEE ISCAS in 1999, IEEE/ACM ISLPED in 2007, and IEEE DELTA in 2008, CODES in 2012. He also received the Design Awards in the IEEE ASP-DAC University Design Contest in 2004 and 2006. He is a senior member of IEEE.
 

Professor Joneja obtained his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur (India). He studied Industrial Engineering at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), where he received his MSIE (1989) and PhD (1993). He subsequently joined the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST as a Professor.

Profesor Joneja's focus of research is the automation of process planning, with an emphasis on design representations and planning methods. He is interested in CAD/CAM issues related to manufacturing planning in areas such as machining, rapid prototyping, or mechanical assembly. His interests in problem-solving methods include a host of tools ranging from search strategies and heuristics to computational geometry and geometric reasoning. He is also involved in the automation of assembly, and design of devices for rapid turnaround assembly systems.

Naubahar Sharif is Professor of Public Policy at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His research interests include science, technology and innovation (STI) policy in Hong Kong and within the ‘Greater Bay Area’ of Southern China; automation in China; and the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. In 2011 he completed the Executive Education program in Innovation for Economic Development at Harvard University. At HKUST, Naubahar has been nominated for the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching, also having won the Interdisciplinary Programs Office’s Teaching Excellence Award (in 2020), the School of Humanities and Social Science (SHSS) Best Teacher Award (twice, in 2009 and 2016), and one of his courses was nominated for the Common Core Excellence award. Naubahar has been awarded both ‘Public Policy Research’ (PPR) and ‘General Research Fund’ (GRF) grants by Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council (RGC). Currently, Naubahar is a co-investigator for two ‘Strategic Public Policy Research’ (SPPR) grants awarded by Hong Kong’s Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office (PICO) as well as a cross-institutional ‘Collaborative Research Fund’ (CRF) grant also awarded by the RGC. Naubahar’s research has had a demonstrable impact on business and his research was one of HKUST’s few ‘impact case study’ submissions (sole-authored) for its 2020 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

Primary Appointment: Division of Public Policy

Dr. Sai-Kit Yeung is currently an Associate Professor at the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Before joining HKUST, he was an Assistant Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and founded the Vision, Graphics and Computational Design (VGD) Group. During his time at SUTD, he was also a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department at Stanford University and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Prior to that, he had been a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was a visiting student at the Image Processing Research Group at UCLA in 2008 and the Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands in 2007. He received his Ph.D. degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering, M.Phil. degree in Bioengineering, and B.Eng. degree (First Class Honors) from HKUST, respectively in 2009, 2005 and 2003.

Dr. Yeung's research expertise is in computer vision and computer graphics. His current research interests include 3D contents (scene and shape) reconstruction, understanding, modeling, and redesign, as well as computational design (using AI techniques for design and content generation), computational fabrication, visual understanding, and human-AI interaction.

Dr. Braud is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Integrated Systems Design at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to that, he got his PhD from Universite Grenoble-Alpes (Grenoble, France), and received a Master of Engineering Degree from both Grenoble INP (Grenoble, France) and Politecnico di Torino (Turnin, Italy).

Dr. Braud's research focus is in augmented user experiences, at the intersection between interaction design, pervasive computing, and mixed reality. His current research interests include enabling city-scale augmented reality, both from a user- and a system-centric perspective, designing novel interaction methods for mixed reality environments, and improving the transmission of information in AR and VR.

Guijun Li, Mitch, received his B.Sc. degree in Physics from Nanjing University, and Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design in The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Mitch is focusing on developing advanced manufacturing technologies and applications. He received Young Scientist Award of 2019 Optoelectronic Global Conference from IEEE Photonic Society, and Emerging investigator 2020 from Journal of Materials Chemistry C in Royal Society of Chemistry. He is the chair of IEEE Hong Kong Magnetics Chapter and vice-chair of IEEE Hong Kong EDDSC joint chapter.  

Dr. Song S.H. is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed to the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) at HKUST. His research is primarily in the areas of wireless communications and networking (WCN) and data science & AI (DSAI). He is currently focusing on Edge AI, Beyond 5G, and IoT. He is also interested in research on engineering education and is presently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Education. In 2011, Dr. Song was named an Exemplary Reviewer for the IEEE Communications Letter. He has also won several teaching awards at HKUST, including the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching (2018), one of the Best Ten Lecturers (2017), the School of Engineering Distinguished Teaching Award (2012), and the Teachers I Like Award.

Dr. Mingming Fan is an Assistant Professor in the Computational Media and Arts (CMA) thrust at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (GZ). He was an Assistant Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology between 2019 and 2021. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2019 and an MS in Computer Science from Tsinghua University. His research interests lie in the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Aging and Accessibility, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Specifically, his research focuses on AI-Assisted User Experience (UX) Design, Accessibility and Assistive Technology, AR/VR, and Mobile and Wearable Interaction. His research has been published at top-tier conferences and journals, such as CHI, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), UbiComp/IMWUT, ASSETS, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), and IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG). His research has won a Best Paper Award at CHI 2019, a Best Paper Honorable Mention Award at UbiComp 2015, and a Best Artifact Award (2nd Place) at ASSETS 2020.

Primary Appointment: Computational Media and Arts Thrust Area

Axel Thallemer is a Professor of Engineering Practice in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design. He studied philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (Munich, Germany), particularly the theory of science and theoretical linguistics. He subsequently received a degree in Civil Engineering (Interior Design and Architecture, Academy of Fine Arts), also at Munich. After his studies, he was granted a DAAD, German Exchange Service postgraduate scholarship in Management and Business Administration for the entrepreneurial designer (Dean’s list) at NYSID, Manhattan (New York, USA).

While working in the design studio of its research and development centre at Weissach, he introduced Computer Aided Styling to Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. Afterwards 1994, he founded and headed the Corporate Design department at Festo until 2004. Following Sony in 2000, earning the “Design Team of the Year” award in 2001, he passed the trophy to Apple in 2002. He has similarly won many international design awards on the global stage; his innovative industrial design solutions for capital goods are part of the permanent collections of 16 museums worldwide.

After professorships in Munich and Hamburg (Germany), he was offered the open-ended post of Professor at Linz University (Austria), serving as Dean of the Institute for Space and Design, the Chair of Industrial Design, as well as the founder and Head of Scionic research in the Industrial Design department until 2014, after which he was appointed as a Full Professor with tenure for the Division of Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore until 2019. In 2005, he initiated a student exchange between GAFA (the School of Innovation Design at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, PRC) and Austria, which is still successfully running more than 15 years later. He was multiple times invited by 16 universities as visiting professor, including Tsinghua University (Beijing), Hunan University (Changsha) and GAFA (Guangzhou).

Learning from nature and natural archetypes, his research-based approach to innovation design and pedagogy has attracted funding from around 100 third-party industry projects, including EADS (now Airbus Space Group). To date, he has authored seven books on design and contributed to dozens more. He is also widely cited in hundreds of refereed publications and has patented approximately 35 inventions. Professor Thallemer was a member of a project group formulating additive fabrication/manufacturing action recommendations for German industry on behalf of acatech, and the German National Academy of Science and Engineering. The project partnership also includes the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. Results were published in December 2016. In 2018, he was invited by Kuang-Chi to speak at the International Space Station Utilization Workshop on using the International Space Station as a test case for food production on the moon.

Professor Thallemer has served as a final adjudicator for many competitions, including as a member of the International Programme Committee and a reviewer for the International Conference on Research into Design (The Design Society – ICoRD), the International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED, IEEE, and the Journal of Engineering Design (JED). In both 2016 and 2018, he was the international final adjudicator for the China Red Star Design Award, organised by the Beijing Industrial Design Centre. He is also an international member of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and a Life Fellow of The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (founded 1754 in London, UK), among others. 

He has also successfully supervised over 120 Masters students, many of whom have gone on to prestigious careers such as the Head of Corporate Design at Bayer, Bosch, Smart and Mercedes AMG, for example. He has also acted as a freelance consultant to global corporations, including Siemens (Automation & Drives), Masai Barefoot Technologies, DLR, ESO, Keba, Fronius, WMF and Festo for robotics and additive-generatively fabricated industrial grippers. Through his work with Festo on a sustainable, eco-friendly and energy-saving technology centre plus high-rise, the client received in 2017 the ICONIC Award for Innovative Architecture, an award for Best Office Building and a DGNB Certificate in Platinum for sustainable office building.

Professor Thallemer has been at HKUST since September 2019.
 

Professor Yee holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh, USA). At HKUST, prior to joining the ISD, he had taught in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering Department and the Division of Environment and Sustainability.

Professor Yee currently manages the MPhil program in Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship (TLE). In this experience-based program, he helps students to gain experience and insights into the numerous aspects of entrepreneurship. As part of his teaching and seminars, he connects students with the larger business ecosystem in and around Hong Kong. As Associate Director of the TLE program, Professor Yee places a high emphasis on students creating products and offerings with unique differentiation.

Having spent over 20 years at multi-national corporations in the US and Asia in a variety of roles, including R&D, technology transfer, technical sales, and strategic and tactical marketing, Professor Yee prioritizes getting students ready for the working world. To facilitate their successful transition, he stresses soft, or transferable skills such as effective teamwork, management, and communication, which are relevant to any career. He also strongly recommends that students expand outside their comfort zones through new experiences.

Professor Yee’s research interests include technology and product development and management, as well as entrepreneurship to develop sustainable businesses. He is also interested to work on the topics of mentorship and diversity awareness and appreciation, leveraging his experience as a trainer and creator of these types of programs in his previous corporate and university experience.

Dr. Winnie Leung Suk-Wai is a systems designer, educator and entrepreneur. Faculty of the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), currently, she serves as the Industry-Partnered Capstone Program Manager for the intensive experiential-learning focused degree program.  Dr. Leung received her PhD in Electronic and Computer Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 2010. In Canada, she earned her BASc in Systems Design Engineering from University of Waterloo in 2002 and MASc in Aerospace Engineering from University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies in 2004. She has worked as teaching faculty in the top universities in Hong Kong in both engineering and entrepreneurship disciplines. Prior to her PhD studies, Dr. Leung worked in the Canadian/ European aerospace industry as a control engineer between 2004 and 2006 designing the first version of the ExoMars Rover locomotive. She has published over 20 technical papers in international journals and conferences. Beyond her academic endeavours, Dr. Leung worked extensively in technology consulting (MDRobotics, IBM, Deloitte Consulting),  and founded multiple companies (miniDSP, Aromeo and a STEAM school management company) equipping her with cross disciplinary business and entrepreneurial vantage points.

Dr. Leung’s research focuses on robotics dynamics and control, and systems dynamics identification, modelling and simulation. Some of her current projects include assistive robotics (exoskeleton and rehab robotics), construction robots, and modular mechatronics platform optimised for higher education.

Schooled in Singapore, Canada and Hong Kong, Brian has worked in the design profession for more than 20 years starting with freelance and agency work in Canada to starting his own award winning studio in Hong Kong. To date he has worked on projects for local and international organisations and his studio has won more than 100 international design awards with work published in numerous design magazines and journals.

At an early age, he trained under renowned Singaporean artists such as Liu Kang and Kam Kee Yong, as well as at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore. Brian later earned a Bachelors of Arts from the University of Toronto with a double major in Fine Arts and Economics, a Masters of Arts in Design from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and another Masters from the University of Toronto in Knowledge Media Design and Culture and Technology.

And while working in design, Brian has continued pursuing his first passion in the Fine Arts, showing in group and solo art exhibitions and finding gallery representation.

Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, a Certified Graphic Designer with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, a professional member of the International Association of Designers, a member of the  Composers and Authors Society of Hong Kong. He was also a professional member of the Hong Kong Designers Association.

Aside from the Visual Arts, Brian also has a deep interest in Music. He is a self-taught musician and has written music for and played with several bands. He has recorded several CDs and had been offered a contract by a major music label. He has recently been involved in multi-media exhibitions and performances and his interest in music has also led to involvement in interactive and experiential projects.

Because of his diverse background, Brian has developed a cross-cultural-inter-disciplinary approach and sensibility in his art and design and it is this philosophy that Brian brings to both his professional practice and to his students.

Dr. Jac Leung is a Lecturer in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He attained his B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Doctor of Education from The University of Hong Kong. In his early career, he worked in the environmental industry with focus on odor and wastewater contamination.

Since 2012, Jac has led and taught in experiential learning programmes and courses for students with diverse backgrounds. He is dedicated to promote a ‘learning-by-doing’ approach situated in makerspaces. His teaching and research interests include design-based learning, EdTech, design thinking, AI literacy, and development of transferrable skills.

Dr. Ravi Goonetilleke is a Professor in both the Division of Integrative Systems and Design and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST. Dr. Goonetilleke joined the university in September 1994. He graduated in 1980 with a BSc(First Class Honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka). He earned his MSc in Aerospace Engineering (1985) from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (USA), an MS in Industrial Engineering (1984) and a PhD in Human Factors Engineering (1990) from the State University of New York at Buffalo (USA). He was a Fulbright Scholar while pursuing his postgraduate studies and has been the recipient of many scholarships, research and industrial grants, as well as many US and Chinese patents. After graduation, he worked as a Senior Ergonomist at the Biomechanics Corporation of America (Long Island, New York, USA). His last appointment in the US was as a Human Factors Manager and Researcher at the Nike Sports Research Laboratory (1991-1994).

Dr. Goonetilleke has consulted with many companies in the US and in Hong Kong. He has been in the field of Human-Centered Design for nearly 40 years, with over 150 refereed publications in journals and conference proceedings. He has eight US patents and is the editor of the anthology The Science of Footwear (CRC Press, 2017). He is also the editor of the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, and an associate editor of Ergonomics in Design and Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries. He is a Fellow of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), Human Factors and Ergonomics Society USA (HFES) and the Hong Kong Ergonomics Society (HKES). He is also an award-winning teacher. 

Professor Chi Ming Chan is currently an adjunct Professor of Integrative Systems and Design and the Interdisciplinary Programs Office at HKUST. He received his BSc degree with high distinction in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA), and his MSc and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, USA). After graduation, he worked at the Raychem Corporation (Menlo Park, USA) for 13 years. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at HKUST in 1993. Professor Chan co-founded the Dual Degree Program in 2003 when he was the Associate Dean of Engineering and was the Founding Director of the Interdisciplinary Programs Office from 2008 to 2014. He was a Chair Professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2005 to 2016 and a Chair Professor of the Division of Environment and Sustainability from 2009 to 2016. 

His research interests include surface and interface science, polymer blends and alloys, and nanocomposites and polymer crystallization. He has written two books: Low Energy Electron Diffraction: Theory and Experiment, with M.A. Van Hove and W.H. Weinberg (Springer Verland, 1986), and Polymer Surface Modification and Characterization (Hanzer, 1994). He has published more than 175 refereed journal papers and holds 22 US and European patents. He is a Fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Professor Erwin Huang is a serial entrepreneur, an angel investor, a leader in a social innovation and the eLearning fields.  He teaches entrepreneurship attitude, skills and knowledge thru experiential learning courses at HKUST.

He co-founded DreamStarter, an innovative Edutech venture that makes dream projects initiated by school students come true, through raising awareness, mentoring, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing support; and Chairman of VR Educate Limited which fosters the interest in schools using VR/AR technologies. He is also a co-founder of Agent of Change, a social enterprise aiming to provide low-price high-quality daily necessities to grassroots; and Chairman of Social Career, the largest bigdata platform in HK for volunteers and involvement in social causes and services.  Before these social education ventures, he ran one of the largest Luxury jewellery public company TSL Jewellry 0417.hk, started various technology startups in Silicon Valley and Europe

Ir Andrew Young has over 35 years of executive experience in senior positions, including Director of Partnership Development for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and Chief Commercial Officer of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation.

In his current capacity as Associate Director (Innovation) for Sino Group, he has overall responsibility to explore and identify innovations and technologies for application in the Group and explore investment opportunities in technology ventures.

He has developed closely knitted and professional working relationships with leading and renowned institutions and innovation nodes in Hong Kong and around the world, including Imperial College, University of Oxford, University of Waterloo, Stanford University, etc.

He is a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers; a Chartered Profession Engineer and a member of the Institutions of Engineers Australia; an Adjunct Professor with the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology; a member of Knowledge Transfer Committee and Electronics Engineering Departmental Advisory Committee of the City University of Hong Kong; he serves on Advisory Committee of School of Optometry of PolyU. He also sits on various committee in leading commerce and industry associations and is active within the start-up and VC community.

Research Areas: Molecular and genetic analysis of body pattern formation; cell fate determination; differentiation, assembly and morphogenesis of sensory organ; evolution of sexual characteristics and mating system.

Primary Appointment: Dept of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Dr Varvara Guljajeva has a PhD in Philosophy from the Estonian Academy of Arts, a master’s degree in digital media from ISNM, the University of Lübeck in Germany, and a bachelor’s degree in IT from Estonian IT College. Varvara Guljajeva is an artist and researcher. Currently, she holds the positions of researcher and guest Associate Professor in Textile at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Varvara has been invited as a visiting researcher to XRL, Hong Kong City University, IAMAS (Ogaki, Japan), LJMU (Liverpool, UK), Interface Cultures in the Linz University of Art and Design, Blekinge Institute of Technology (Karlshamn, Sweden).
As an artist, she works together with Mar Canet forming an artist duo Varvara & Mar. Often duo’s work is inspired by the information age. In their practice, they confront social changes and the impact of the technological era. The duo has been exhibiting in international shows since 2009. Their works have been shown at MAD in New York, FACT in Liverpool, Santa Monica in Barcelona, Barbican in London, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Ars Electronica museum in Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, and more.