News

Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2026

We are proud to announce that two staff members of our department have been recognised with the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2026, presented by the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FCMS), for their exceptional contributions to teaching and research.   Award Recipients: Prof. YANG Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence (PAAI), Vobile Group Professor in Generative Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and Chair Professor of Generative Artificial Intelligence Individual Award in Research and Scholarly Activities Prof. Yang is a world-renowned AI scientist who brings extensive expertise to the university. Prior to joining PolyU, she held senior leadership positions at leading global technology companies, including Alibaba Group and ByteDance. Her research at PolyU is currently at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, where she advocates a decentralised approach to technology. She has published over 150 papers in leading conferences and journals, and holds more than 50 patents. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the highest honor of the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) — the Super AI Leader (SAIL) Award, the Second Prize of the 2020 National Science and Technology Progress Award, the First Prize of the Chinese Institute of Electronics Science and Technology Progress Award in 2021, and both the Forbes China Top 50 Women in Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 2022. Since 2023, she has been recognised as an AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar and was named one of the Top 50 Women in AI worldwide by CoinDesk, as well as a WAIC SAIL Top 30 Projects honoree in 2025.   Dr LUI Wing Cheung Richard, Senior Lecturer Individual Award in Teaching Dr Lui has received the Faculty Award in Teaching on multiple occasions throughout his career at PolyU. He is widely recognised for his commitment to educational innovation and excellence in teaching. With extensive experience in developing educational platforms and adopting innovative pedagogies, Dr Lui has led numerous UGC-funded projects at the departmental, cross-departmental, and institutional levels. These initiatives have focused on innovative learning pedagogies, game-based learning, cloud-based virtual laboratory platforms for software engineering and data analytics education, and GenAI-powered intelligent tutoring systems. His projects were shortlisted as finalists at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2024 and received the Silver Award in the "AI in Education" category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2025.   The winners of the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement were selected by a Faculty Assessment Panel, which includes Heads of Unit and is chaired by the Interim Dean of FCMS, from amongst a pool of well-qualified nominees put forward by individual departments under FCMS.

Prof. ZHANG Lei Honoured with 2026 Frontiers of Science Award by the International Congress of Basic Science

We are proud to announce that Prof. ZHANG Lei John, Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis, has been honoured with the prestigious 2026 Frontiers of Science Award presented by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS). This accolade recognises his outstanding research and major contributions to the field of image processing and computer vision.   Prof. Zhang was recognised in the “Information Sciences and Engineering” category for his paper “Beyond a Gaussian denoiser: residual learning of deep CNN for image denoising” published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (2017). He shares this distinction with co-authors from Harbin Institute of Technology, ULSee Inc., and Xi’an Jiaotong University.   Prof. Zhang’s research interests focus on computer vision, image and video analysis, and deep learning. As of 2026, his publications have attracted more than 130,000 citations. He was named a “Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher” consecutively from 2015 to 2025. He has also served as a (Senior) Associate Editor and (Senior) Area Chair for several top-tier international journals and conferences.   Beyond academia, Prof. Zhang’s research has been successfully translated into commercial products, including OPPO’s flagship smartphone series, the Find X7, X8, and X9.   The Frontiers of Science Award recognises exceptional, original research published over the past decade across Mathematics, Physics, and Information Science & Engineering. To receive this honour, a scientific achievement must be of the highest scholarly value and have made a major global impact in its field.

Prof. Yang Hongxia Elected to the Young Member Section of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering 2026

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Yang Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence (PAAI), Vobile Group Professor in Generative Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and Chair Professor of Generative Artificial Intelligence at COMP, has been elected to the Young Member Section (YMS) of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (HKAE) for 2026.   The YMS is a prestigious platform that recognises and empowers young engineering professionals under 45 who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of engineering and science in Hong Kong. Members are entrusted with promoting innovation, fostering academic-industry collaboration, and driving public engagement in engineering. This year, 20 distinguished professionals were elected by the YMS Executive Team to join the 2026 cohort of Young Members.   Prof. Yang is a world-renowned AI scientist who brings extensive expertise to the university. Prior to joining PolyU, she held senior leadership positions at leading global technology companies, including Alibaba Group and ByteDance. Her research at PolyU is currently at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, where she advocates a decentralised approach to technology. Her outstanding contributions to pioneering engineering advances and innovative development in large-scale AI infrastructure, foundation models, low-bit AI training, and collaborative generative AI systems have earned her this honour.

Successful Conclusion of HumOmni 2026 Challenge: Breakthroughs in Human-Centric Omni-Model Evaluation

We are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the HumOmni 2026 Challenge, co-organised by PolyU COMP, Huawei, and Peking University from April to July 2026. The competition was the first benchmark dedicated to Human-Centric Omni-Model Evaluation, focusing on contextualised affective speech generation and proactive multimodal interaction in realistic environments, attracting nearly 25 teams from Hong Kong, mainland China, and the United States.   The challenge featured two tracks designed to develop next-generation models in two key areas: Track 1: Empathy-Aware Speech Evaluation (EmpathyEval) – Evaluates how multimodal systems understand human context and paralinguistic cues to produce appropriate affective spoken responses. Track 2: Proactive Multimodal Interaction (ProactivEval) – Assesses proactive multimodal systems on their ability to decide when to respond and what to say during streaming video understanding.   The award ceremony was held on the PolyU campus on 28 August 2026, bringing together researchers, industry leaders, and students for an engaging program featuring keynote speeches, winning team presentations, recruitment opportunities, and the award presentation. Distinguished speakers delivered insightful talks on:   “From world reconstruction, generation, to interaction” by Dr QI Xiaojuan, Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong and a member of the Deep Vision Lab. “Multimodal Large Language Models with Ascend NPUs” by Dr HONG Lanqing, Senior Researcher at Huawei Noah's Ark Lab, Hong Kong.   During the sharing sessions, winning teams presented their novel methodologies, including our MPhil student, LAM Ping Him, who proudly secured two awards: 1st Place in Track 2 (ProactivEval) and 2nd Place in Track 1 (EmpathyEval). Ping Him successfully developed lightweight AI solutions across two distinct challenges:   Track 1 - Voice Empathy Evaluation Built an audio-focused system that evaluates emotional nuance in spoken conversations rather than relying on text. Using WavLM-large to extract voice patterns and track delivery metrics over time, the model accurately judges empathy from tone, pace, and warmth.   Track 2 - Proactive Video Commentary Created a training-free filtering framework that enables an AI assistant to speak only when relevant visual changes occur. It uses a Perception Gate to skip static frames and cut compute costs, paired with a Prompt Ensemble to analyse new scenes from multiple perspectives.   His outstanding performance highlights the Department's commitment to fostering research excellence and innovation in AI and showcases the strength of our students on the international stage.   Click here to read more about HumOmni 2026.

BlockSec Blockchain Security Award Presentation Ceremony 2025/2026

The BlockSec Blockchain Security Award Presentation Ceremony 2025/2026, organised by the Department of Computing (COMP), took place on 5 August 2026 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Generously funded by BlockSec, the award recognises students in the MSc in Blockchain Technology programme who have excelled in the COMP5566 Blockchain and Smart Contract Security course, demonstrating strong academic ability and commitment to blockchain security.   Prof. Yajin ZHOU, Co-founder and CEO of BlockSec, believes security is the foundation of every successful digital economy, and that trust matters more than ever as blockchain becomes integrated into finance and payments. He pointed to Hong Kong's leading role in digital finance, citing the HKMA's work on tokenisation and digital money as proof of the city's forward looking environment for Web3. "Your achievements reflect the qualities we value most, curiosity, excellence, integrity, and responsibility," he told the recipients, adding that the award marks the beginning of an exciting journey toward becoming future leaders and innovators in Hong Kong's digital economy.   Prof. Man Lung Ken YIU, Associate Head (Teaching and Learning) and Professor of COMP, congratulated the awardees and thanked BlockSec for its continued partnership with PolyU. He noted that the MSc in Blockchain Technology programme brings together cutting edge technologies, real world applications, and interdisciplinary collaboration to equip students with practical skills and theoretical foundations. "Industry support like this bridges the gap between academic learning and real world impact, and gives our students a meaningful goal to strive toward," he said, praising how COMP's faculty inspire students to explore independently and turn what they learn into something more meaningful.   Prof. Daniel Xiapu LUO, Programme Leader of the MSc in Blockchain Technology and Professor of COMP, thanked BlockSec for making the award possible year after year. He explained that when Hong Kong's first Master's programme in Blockchain Technology was launched, the goal was to prepare students to ask what could go wrong and how to prevent it. "Security is not an afterthought in this field, it is the foundation on which trust in decentralised systems is built," he said, adding that BlockSec's support sends a message to students that the industry values excellence in this space.   Among this year's recipients, Mr CHIU Yee Lok, who shared his experience in the programme. He thanked BlockSec for sponsoring the award and guidance from our teachers, reflecting that blockchain is "not simply a new technology, but a responsibility," and that digital systems must be secure, reliable, and supported by thoughtful regulation to earn public trust. Drawing on his internship experience, he noted that organisations such as the HKMA are increasingly prioritising Fintech, echoing many concepts from the programme. He called the award "a wonderful surprise" that motivates him as he prepares for a career in Web3 or software development.   COMP congratulates all awardees of the BlockSec Blockchain Security Award and looks forward to their future contributions to the blockchain field. Founded in 2021, BlockSec has been instrumental in advancing blockchain security infrastructure through research and practical solutions, and its continued sponsorship reflects its commitment to nurturing new talent in the field.

AI-Powered Mock Interview Platform Developed by COMP Team Wins Champion at AIREA 2nd International Competition on AI in Education 2026

We are proud to announce that a COMP team has won the Champion award in Stream 2 - “Challenge”, at the 2nd International Competition on AI in Education 2026, organised by the Artificial Intelligence Education and Research Alliance (AIREA) of The Education University of Hong Kong.   Winning Project: PolyInterview: A Multi-Agent Interview Practice Platform for Communication Education   Team Members Chen CHEN (MPhil Student) Zijian WANG (Research Assistant) Jianing YIN (MPhil Student) Xiaoyun LIU (PhD Student) Dr Zhiyuan WEN (Research Assistant Professor)   Abstract: Preparing for job interviews is important for securing desired positions, yet realistic practice remains difficult to access: real interviews are infrequent, expert mock coaching is costly, and self-practice offers neither adaptive dialogue nor structured assessment. Existing systems typically address only parts of this need through fixed question sequences, limited communication channels, or feedback with little supporting evidence. We present PolyInterview, an LLM-based platform for immersive mock interview practice with comprehensive multimodal assessment. PolyInterview uses the target job description and CV to generate questions tailored to the role and candidate, conducts multi-turn spoken interviews with a lip-synced digital human interviewer that asks answer-aware follow-up questions, and evaluates response content, vocal delivery, and non-verbal behavior. Four parallel evaluators produce 13 behavior-level features that are aggregated into 10 assessment aspects and two competency tracks. Guided by the KSA and STAR frameworks, the report links each score to behavioral evidence and actionable recommendations. Its current all-account snapshot contains 101 accounts, 1,564 interview sessions, 7,665 generated questions, and 1,422 five-stage question sets. Generated questions are more closely aligned with their matched job description than with cross-role job descriptions in 93.7% of sessions. An evaluation by ten experts found strong question plans and actionable feedback.   Online Platform  

Prof. ZHENG Yuanqing Honoured as RGC Research Fellow

We are honoured to announce that Prof. ZHENG Yuanqing, Professor of COMP, has been awarded the Research Fellow Scheme (RFS) 2026/27 under the Research Grants Council (RGC).   The RFS provide sustained support for outstanding full professors and associate professors. This competitive scheme enables them to focus fully on research and development while nurturing the next generation of research talent for Hong Kong. The scheme awards 10 fellowships annually, with awardees receiving the title “RGC Research Fellow” and grants of around HK$5.6 million.   Prof. Zheng’s research interests include human-centred computing, mobile and network computing, wireless networks, and RFID systems. He has published several papers in premier journals, including IEEE/ACM TON, IEEE TMC, ACM TOSN, and top conferences, including ACM MobiCom, MobiSys, MobiHoc, SenSys, IEEE INFOCOM, ICNP, ICDCS, etc. He won the Best Demo Award at IEEE SECON 2014.   Project Title: Software-defined edge radio access networks: System architecture and applications   Abstract: This project aims to design and implement a new software-defined wireless network architecture to address backhaul network pressure in traditional Cloud Radio Access Networks (CRAN). By processing signals locally through an efficient packet processing pipeline, this research will accelerate radio access network innovation to support massive IoT connectivity for smart metering, precision agriculture and the emerging low-altitude economy, facilitating large-scale concurrent communication, wireless sensing and carrier frequency shifting.  

PolyU COMP – HIT (SZ) CST Research Student Conference Successfully Concludes

The PolyU COMP – HIT (SZ) CST Research Student Conference was successfully held from 7 to 8 July 2026, on the campus of The Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen (HIT(SZ)). The event united approximately 450 research students and faculty members from both universities, fostering a dynamic platform for academic exchange, research presentations, and cross-institutional collaboration.   The conference commenced with an inspiring welcome speech by Prof. Bing LI, Vice President of HIT(SZ), who expressed his enthusiasm at seeing hundreds of research students from PolyU and HIT(SZ) gathered together. He encouraged attendees to seize this opportunity to forge new friendships and professional connections. This was followed by opening speeches from Prof. Xutao LI, Vice Dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology, HIT(SZ), and Prof. Qing LI, Head of COMP, PolyU. Both emphasised their shared commitment to nurturing the next generation of researchers and driving joint innovation in computer science and technology.   A major highlight of the first day was the keynote address delivered by Prof. Yi PAN, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Control Engineering at the Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology. Speaking on the topic "The Current Development and Future Breakthrough Directions of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Large Models*", Prof. Pan provided profound insights into the evolving landscape of AGI, sparking stimulating discussions on the future of AI-driven research.   Remarks from the Technical Program Committee (TPC) were presented by Prof. Lei YANG, Associate Professor of COMP, who provided an overview of the conference’s program. The conference showcased the incredible depth and breadth of research being undertaken by students from both universities. The TPC selected 80 papers for oral presentation, alongside 100 posters and 11 demos.   The oral presentations were organised into eight specialised sessions, spanning a wide array of cutting-edge research domains: Theory, Optimisation, and Software Engineering Vision, Graphics, and Human-Computer Interaction Natural Language Processing (NLP) AI for Science Embodied Intelligence and Autonomous Systems Cyber Security and Privacy Networking and Mobile Computing Data Science and Machine Learning       The conference concluded with a Conference Banquet and Award Presentation on the second day. To recognise outstanding research contributions and practical innovations, the conference presented awards in three categories: Best Oral Presentation Awards: Conferred upon nine exceptional students, selected by expert panels composed of faculty members from COMP and HIT(SZ). Best Poster Awards: Awarded to ten students based on a popular vote by all conference participants, highlighting the engaging and impactful nature of their poster presentations. Best Demo Awards: Conferred upon two students for their outstanding system/prototype demonstrations, selected by the expert panels.   (Awardee list in alphabetical order of surnames.)   Best Oral Presentation Award University Awardees Paper Title PolyU CHEN Rubing To Retrieve or To Think? An Agentic Approach for Context Evolution SHEN Jinhao From Competition to Coopetition: Coopetitive Training-Free Image Editing Based on Text Guidance YOU Runyang Parallel Test-Time Scaling for Latent Reasoning Models ZHANG Fengrui Deep-Soil Acoustic Backscatter Networking for Electrical Substation Grounding Assessment ZHANG Wengyu GraphATC: advancing multilevel and multi-label anatomical therapeutic chemical classification via atom-level graph learning ZHOU Siyuan PhysInOne: Visual Physics Learning and Reasoning in One Suite HIT(SZ) HE Wen-Jue Dual-correlation-guided anchor learning for scalable incomplete multi-view clustering XIANG Qianlong TINA: Text-Free Inversion Attack for Unlearned Text-to-Image Diffusion Models ZHANG Haoyu Spatial Understanding from Videos: Structured Prompts Meet Simulation Data     Best Poster Presentation Award University Awardees Paper Title PolyU CHEN Weijie ρHammer: Reviving RowHammer Attacks on New Architectures via Prefetching LIU Junyang Things-Augmented Generation: Grounding LLMs in the Physical World via Distributed IoT Retrieval XIE Bin Flexible and Privacy-Preserving Access Control Framework for Decentralized Identity Systems YAO Siyue Threshold CRYSTALS-Dilithium from Secure MPC ZHANG Guowen BEVDilation: LiDAR-Centric Multi-Modal Fusion for 3D Object Detection HIT(SZ) JIANG Jiarui Trained Mamba Emulates Online Gradient Descent in In-Context Linear Regression LIANG Guotao Improved Masked Image Generation with Knowledge-Augmented Token Representations LIU Jizhihui HiPrune: Hierarchical Attention for Efficient Token Pruning in Vision-Language Models LYU Linye Towards Effective and Transferable Physical Camouflage against Multi-View BEV-based 3D Perception in Autonomous Driving ZHANG Xinyu From Tokenizer Bias to Backbone Capability: A Controlled Study of LLMs for Time Series Forecasting     Best Demo Award University Awardees Paper Title PolyU LI Huahang DataClaw: An Autonomous Data Agent with Instant Messaging Integration XIA Zichao Accelerating LLM Training Recovery with Compressed Asynchronous Checkpointing     The conference concluded with closing remarks delivered by Prof. Xutao LI and Prof. Allen AU, Associate Head (Research and Development) and Professor of COMP. They expressed their appreciation for the enthusiastic participation and high-quality research showcased throughout the event, reiterating the importance of continued collaboration between PolyU and HIT(SZ) in advancing innovation and excellence in computer science. Both professors encouraged students and faculty alike to build on the momentum gained from this conference to drive future breakthroughs and strengthen cross-institutional ties.       *The keynote topic title is translated from the original Chinese topic: 通用人工智能大模型的發展現狀及未來突破方向  

PolyU develops smart assistant “AI-Care” that automatically identifies daily tasks and provides guidance to support independent living for visually impaired people

Hong Kong currently has nearly 200,000 visually impaired people. Although white canes and guide dogs can assist with basic mobility, daily tasks such as shopping and taking public transport remain challenging for them. A research team at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed an innovative assistive system, “AI-Care”,which is driven by an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model. Connecting smart glasses and a mobile application, the system proactively detects surrounding objects and provides voice guidanceto help visually impaired people handle daily tasks independently. The team has partnered with industry collaborator Hillming Smartech Ltd. (HSL) to advance commercialisation, and with the Hong Kong Society for the Blind (HKSB) to launch community trials, aiming to inject new momentum into building an inclusive smart city.   The launch ceremony of the AI-Care project was held yesterday (10 June) at the PolyU campus. It was officiated by Prof. the Hon. Kam-fai WONG, Legislative Council Member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China; Prof. Changwen CHEN, Interim Dean of the PolyU Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences; Prof. Qing LI, Head of the PolyU Department of Computing; alongside Mr Sean FONG, Chief Executive of HKSB; Mr YANG Zhiming, Technical Director of Assistive Technology of the China Culture and Information Service Center of the Visually Handicapped (China Braille Library); Mr Hillming LI, CEO of HSL; and Ms Shirley TSANG, Director of Rehabilitation Services at HKSB. Project leader Prof. Jing LI, Associate Professor of the PolyU Department of Computing and Associate Director of the PolyU Research Institute for Generative AI also attended the event.   Addressing the ceremony, Prof. Changwen Chen said, “PolyU is committed to impactful research. We believe the true measure of technological innovation lies not only in how smart our AI becomes, but also in how deeply it empowers those who need it most. By transforming AI from a passive tool into a proactive companion, AI-Care not just advances the development of assistive technology, but also promotes social inclusion.”   Mr Sean Fong remarked, “AI-Care empowers people with visual impairments to transcend physical limitations, enabling them to live more independently and participate in society with confidence. Many of HKSB’s service users have already benefited from such innovations, and we are eager to integrate this novel system into our services.”   Mr Hillming Li said, “The Government has been a strong advocate for building an accessible city. AI-Care is not only a successful transfer of cutting-edge technology, but also an innovation with a human touch, empowering underserved communities to experience the world more fully and embrace greater opportunities for a richer and more fulfilling life. We hope to further expand its application and even scale this technology across the country.”   AI-Care is built upon an advanced AI model that is adapted from cutting-edge Visual Question Answering and Natural Language Processing frameworks specifically for daily shopping scenarios, covering the full workflow from product searching and payment to receipt audit. Breaking away from the passive “question-and-answer” approach of traditional digital assistive tools, it uses smart glasses to capture the user’s perspective, thereby proactively identifying everyday objects. The system then transfers image data to the mobile application for processing and analysis, and generates real-time audio instructions.   Smart glasses available on the market mostly target sighted users, relying on visual context and sight-dependent cues, and therefore do not fully meet the unique needs of visually impaired users. AI-Care, on the other hand, adopted rigorous post-training for its AI model using domain-specific data, making its image recognition and voice guidance better aligned with the spatial perception and cognitive needs of visually impaired users, and ensuring precise, actionable guidance. The system completed phased testing in the first quarter of this year, involving 17 visually impaired participants, and achieved an average satisfaction score of 93. The team plans to scale up the trials through continued collaboration with the social welfare sector.   The research team demonstrated the current functions of AI-Care at the event. Prof. Jing Li added, “For our team, what we most look forward to is seeing how AI research can truly support independent living for the visually impaired. While current AI models show impressive generic skills, enabling them to understand users’ needs as flexibly and accurately as human assistants, to know how to provide help and to intervene proactively at the right moment remains a major challenge. AI-Care embodies a human-centric approach to technology and marks a major step forward in the development of AI-powered assistive tools.”   Supported by HK$5 million in funding from the HKSAR Government’s Innovation and Technology Fund and other industry sponsors, the research team has completed the design of the core AI model and verified the stability of the cloud-based server. The team is currently working to enhance the system’s memory management, optimise the hardware and advance prototyping, with the aim of commercialising the technology and expanding its application.  

Dr Mohammed Aquil Mirza Honoured with Teaching Excellence Award at ISBDAI 2026

We are proud to announce that Dr Mohammed Aquil Mirza, our Senior Lecturer, has been awarded the Teaching Excellence Award at the 5th International Symposium on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence for Education Transformation (ISBDAI 2026) jointly organised by IHERD of PolyU and IETI.   The award recognises Dr Mohammed's outstanding contributions to cross-disciplinary computing education, his innovative application of translational pedagogy, and his dedication to bridging the gap between complex software architectures and diverse student cohorts. His award-winning methodology focuses heavily on fostering student agency and real-world "Output Conversion"—enabling learners to seamlessly deploy advanced computing pipelines into practical applications. These cutting-edge student pipelines span across edge-AI, robotics, telemetry, and advanced medical imaging frameworks.