News

Prof. Yang Hongxia Secures Theme-based RGC Funding for Groundbreaking Collaborative Generative AI Project

Prof. YANG Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences and our Professor, has received a total of HK62.6 million funding from the Research Grants Council’s (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme 2025/26 for her pioneering project, “Collaborative Generative AI (Co-GenAI).”   The project has been awarded a total of HK62.6 million in funding, with HK41.79 million provided by the RGC and the remaining matched by PolyU and other participating universities. This initiative is aimed at reshaping the landscape of GenAI in a decentralised way. The research holds significant potential to strengthen Hong Kong’s position as a global leader in GenAI development, with real-world applications in healthcare and technology.   Led by Prof. YANG, the Co-GenAI project seeks to establish a novel collaborative paradigm in Generative AI. By integrating several hundred domain-specific models, the team aims to develop a foundation model capable of achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) with significantly reduced reliance on centralised computational resources. This innovative approach addresses the current limitations posed by GPU monopolies, paving the way for more inclusive and accessible AI development.   Co-GenAI is designed to foster cross-domain collaboration and enhance the versatility of GenAI platforms. Key objectives include building a domain-adaptive continual pre-training infrastructure, developing a robust and generalisable model ranking methodology, and implementing an advanced model with a fusion approach to merge heterogeneous top-ranked domain-specific models.   To evaluate the Co-GenAI, the research team will collaborate with industry partners such as Cyberport, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Alibaba, and leading hospitals, including Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, Shandong Cancer Hospital, and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, by deploying the technology across a wide range of practical applications.   The RGC’s Theme-based Research Scheme aims to pool the research strengths of UGC-funded universities to address topics of strategic importance for Hong Kong’s long-term development. Projects are evaluated based on their potential to achieve world-leading standards and impact on Hong Kong.  

COMP Co-hosts Mobile App Innovation Contest (MAIC) 2025 – Hong Kong Regional Final, Showcasing Next-Generation IT Talent

In collaboration with the iOS Club, COMP successfully hosted the Mobile App Innovation Contest (MAIC) 2025 – Hong Kong Regional Final Competition on 4 July 2025. The contest aimed to empower future innovators and strengthen collaboration in IT education between universities in Hong Kong and China, bringing together the brightest student minds from across Hong Kong and Macau to address real-world challenges through mobile technology.   Spanning three months, the competing teams, each comprising three students from higher education institutions, completed their mobile applications from ideation, development, to deployment, and pitched their innovative outcome to a distinguished panel of 23 judges and VIPs. The team winning the first prize will represent the Hong Kong Region to compete in the national contest in Hangzhou in August 2025.   The contest commenced with an inspiring keynote speech by Prof. LI Ping, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Sin Wai Kin Foundation Professor in Humanities and Technology, Director of Grand Canal Culture and Tourism Research Center at PolyU. Prof. Li emphasised the critical role of nurturing innovation and talent in the IT industry, highlighting the importance of sustainable talent pipelines for the future.   Following the keynote, the 15 finalist teams presented their projects, each allocated 15 minutes for presentation, including Q&A and feedback from the judges. The competition concluded with the announcement of the winners:   1st Prize: Team: Memory Ferrymen (PolyU) School: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Awardees: LI Chun Fung (COMP Year 3 Student), LI Kwan To (COMP Year 3 Student), and LIAN Jiongning (COMP Year 3 Student)   2nd Prize: Team: Haptic Jam School: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong Institute of Information Technology Awardees: CHUEN Pak Him, FU Ka Wang, and KWOK Pui Nam   3rd Prize: Team: mad.ai School: Hong Kong Institute of Information Technology Awardees: CHAN Ying, CHEUNG Tsz Hei, and TANG Kai Chi   Apple Value Prize: Team: Vision Pro Pro School: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Awardees: Deng Chun Yung (COMP Year 4 Student) and NIYITEGEKA Berwa Aime Noel (COMP Year 4 Student)   Best UI Prize: Team: 417From School: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Hong Kong Institute of Information Technology Awardees: NG Hoi Hong, NG Kai Shing (COMP Year 4 Student), and WONG Chik On   Congratulations to all participants for their outstanding contributions!  

Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Scholarship Certificate Presentation Ceremony 2025

COMP proudly hosted the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Scholarship Certificate Presentation Ceremony on 26 June 2025, recognising the outstanding achievements of students across various academic programmes. The event appreciated the generosity of the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust, whose donation made these scholarships possible.   The ceremony commenced with warm welcome remarks by Prof. Henry CHAN, Associate Head (Partnership & Collaboration) of COMP, who expressed heartfelt gratitude to the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust for their continued support in nurturing academic excellence and innovation among students.   This was followed by an inspiring speech by Ms Angela AU, Executive Director of the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust. She thanked PolyU for the opportunity to support such talented individuals, expressing her belief that these students will become the pillars of society in the future. She encouraged the awardees to continue striving for excellence and to contribute meaningfully to the community. Ms Au also mentioned that she looked forward to even closer collaboration with PolyU in the future.   The Scholarship includes two categories of awards: Programme-based Scholarship of HK$10,000 per student, awarded to three high-achieving students from selected undergraduate programmes. Capstone Project Scholarship, awarded $10,000 to five students who demonstrated excellence in their final-year projects, particularly in the area of education.   Below are the awardee lists: Programme-based Scholarship Recipients: Name Programme LIU Chenxi BSc (Hons) in Computer Science LO Cho Hung BSc (Hons) in Enterprise Information Systems CHEUNG Clement Ricky BSc (Hons) in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence* * This programme is currently offered by the Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence   Capstone Project Scholarship Recipients: Name Project CHEN Rubing Towards Knowledge Pyramid Construction of Large Language Models: A Case Study For Smart Education HUANG Tianji An LLM-based teaching assistant system LIU Valerie Computer Simulations for Professional Trainings and Educations WONG Wing Yi Interactive and Visual Gamified Web Learning: Teaching Abstract Concepts in Human-Computer Interaction and Operating Systems YEUNG Ting Ki Learning Indexed Data Access via Game Playing   After the formal proceedings, guests and awardees gathered at the U Garden Restaurant for a relaxed tea chat session. The informal setting allowed students to discuss their future academic and career aspirations. Ms Angela AU and Prof. Henry CHAN offered valuable advice and encouragement, further inspiring the students to pursue their goals with confidence and purpose.   The Department extends its sincere thanks to the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust for their generous donation and unwavering commitment to supporting the next generation of leaders and innovators.

PolyU COMP - HKUST (GZ) INFH Research Student Conference Sparks Academic Synergy

The PolyU COMP - HKUST (GZ) INFH Research Student Conference was successfully held on 19 June 2025 at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST (GZ)). Co-hosted by the Department of Computing (COMP) and the Information Hub (INFH), HKUST (GZ), the event brought together nearly 400 research students and faculty members, fostering a dynamic platform for academic exchange, research showcase, and cross-institutional collaboration. The conference commenced with a Welcome Speech by Prof. Lionel M. NI, President of HKUST (GZ), followed by Opening Speeches from Prof. Lei CHEN, Dean of the INFH, and Prof. Qing LI, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP. Both speakers underscored the importance of nurturing young researchers and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. Technical Program Committee (TPC) Remarks were delivered by Prof. Lei YANG, Associate Professor of COMP, who presented an overview of paper submissions, the review process, and final decisions, while also highlighting the transformative impact of AI on research across diverse fields. A key highlight of the conference was the Keynote Speech by Prof. James KWOK, Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at HKUST, who shared insights on “Achieving Multiple Goals with Ease”, inspiring attendees with his expertise and vision. The conference featured eight oral presentation sessions and a poster session, covering a wide range of research areas including: Embodied Intelligence and Robotics Cyber Security and Privacy Networking and Mobile Computing Data Science and Information Retrieval Theory, Optimization, and Software Engineering Vision, Graphics, and Human-Computer Interaction Natural Language Processing AI for Science A total of 79 papers and 89 posters were selected by the TPC for presentation, offering students a valuable opportunity to present their work, receive feedback, and engage in scholarly dialogue. The day concluded with a Dinner Banquet and Award Presentation at the Sheraton Guangzhou Nansha Hotel. Awards were presented to eight students for Best Oral Presentation, selected by expert panels composed of faculty members from COMP and INFH, and ten students for Best Poster, voted by all participants. (Awardee list in alphabetical order of surnames.):   Best Oral Presentation Award University Awardees Paper Title PolyU SHEN Leming AutoIOT: LLM-Driven Automated Natural Language Programming for AIoT Applications XIA Heming TokenSkip: Controllable Chain-of-Thought Compression in LLMs XING Shiji Allocating Resources with Imperfect Information ZHANG Xin GME: Improving Universal Multimodal Retrieval by Multimodal LLMs HKUST(GZ) MA Mulei FlocOff: Data Heterogeneity Resilient Federated Learning with Communication-Efficient Edge Offloading WANG Yingna Blossoms Across Time: AI-Assisted Cultural Dialogue Through Diverse Artistic Expressions in VR Intangible Cultural Heritage Experience YANG Xun Omni-Perception: Omnidirectional Collision Avoidance for Legged Locomotion in Dynamic Environment ZHENG Jingyi TH-Bench: Benchmarking Humanization-based Evading Attacks Against Machine- Generated Text Detectors   Best Poster Presentation Award University Awardees Poster Title PolyU DONG Yiying Triplet-Based Referring Paradigm for Unified Visual Decoding HUANG Xinyu Towards Privacy-Preserving and Personalized Smart Home Serving through Tailored Small Language Models JIANG Jinan ConsCS: Effective and Efficient Verification of Circom Circuits LIU Xun SnarkFold: Efficient Proof Aggregation from Incremental Verification and Applications LYU Xinqi PLA: Prompt Learning Attack against Text-to-Image Generative Models WANG Zhicheng From FSD to FSC: Enabling Full Smart-Communication in Autonomous Vehicles Through Full Self-Driving Models WU Yuhui InsViE-1M: Effective Instruction-based Video Editing with Elaborate Dataset Construction XIAO Chaodong Spatial-Mamba: Effective Visual State Space Models via Structure-Aware State Fusion YANG Chang Nondeterministic Polynomial-time Problem Challenge: An Ever-Scaling Reasoning Benchmark for LLMs ZHOU Yi Computational Protein Science in the Era of Large Language Models (LLMs)   Closing Speeches were delivered by Prof. Lei CHEN and Prof. Qing LI, who expressed appreciation for the enthusiastic participation and reaffirmed the commitment to continued collaboration between PolyU and HKUST (GZ). The PolyU COMP - HKUST (GZ) INFH Research Student Conference was a resounding success, further strengthening the partnership ties between the two institutions and empowering the next generation of researchers through meaningful academic exchange.

Commissioner for Digital Policy Ir Tony WONG Delivered Inspiring Talk at COMP Alumni Homecoming Dinner 2025

The COMP Alumni Homecoming Dinner 2025 was held on 13 June 2025 at U.Green Restaurant, bringing together over 110 alumni, staff, and graduates for an evening of celebration, networking, and inspiration.   The event began with a warm opening from Prof. Henry CHAN, Associate Professor and Associate Head (Partnership & Collaboration) of COMP, and a welcome speech by Ms Wanze LI, Assistant Director of the PolyU Alumni Affairs Office. Both expressed their gratitude for alumni engagement and the enduring bonds within the COMP community.   A highlight of the evening was the Distinguished Alumni Talk delivered by Ir Tony WONG, JP, Commissioner for Digital Policy, The Government of the HKSAR. In his talk, "Digital Policy in Action," Ir WONG introduced the mission of the Digital Policy Office, shared insights into key IT projects led by the government, and discussed how digital policies drive industry development and collaboration with the Mainland.   Guests were also inspired by a Dinner Talk from our Outstanding Young Alumni Awardee 2024, Ms Bianca HO, Director of Information Technology (Global) at Swire Hotels Group. In her presentation, "From PolyU to Global IT Leadership: A Journey of Impact and Service," Ms HO shared her career experience and commitment to social service, encouraging attendees to pursue both professional excellence and community contribution.   The evening was further enlivened by vibrant singing performances from staff and alumni, with special appearances by the Hong Kong Vocal Society, delivering a highly professional performance, and the iCare Foundation, which shared an innovative AI-composed song. These performances added a festive and memorable touch to the gathering.   The COMP Alumni Homecoming Dinner was a resounding success, strengthening connections among alumni and celebrating the achievements and contributions of the COMP community. We look forward to seeing everyone again at future alumni events!

Call for Nominations: Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU Department of Computing 2025

The Department of Computing (COMP) is pleased to announce that the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award (OPAA) of PolyU Department of Computing 2025 is now calling for nominations until 25 July 2025 (Friday).   The departmental OPAA aims to publicly recognise outstanding graduates of COMP for their professional achievements and significant contributions to the community and their alma mater. The departmental awardees will be officially honoured by the department and will be nominated for the Faculty Awards.   Award Categories and Selection Criteria There are three achievement categories, namely “Professional Achievement”, “Entrepreneurial Achievement” and  “Scholarly Achievement”. Selection is based on the nominee’s accomplishments in his/her personal achievements in the field, contributions to the community, and support and contributions to PolyU. A candidate who is aged at/under 40 in the award selection year would be eligible for the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Eligibility The nominated candidate must be a bona fide graduate who has successfully completed the full-time or part-time programme offered by PolyU (or its forerunners: Hong Kong Government Trade School, Hong Kong Technical College, Hong Kong Polytechnic) which led to academic award accredited by the respective Institution.   The proposer can be a PolyU graduate, Honorary Graduate, University Fellow, PolyU staff, current PolyU Council and Court member and current Advisory Committee member. There is no limit to the number of nominations to be submitted by each proposer. However, the proposer cannot be the candidate himself/ herself.   Panel of Judges and Result Announcement Selection for the Department Award will be conducted by August 2025. A panel of judges, comprising both internal and external members, will be formed to examine the nominations and assess candidates’ qualifications and performance for the awards. The result will be announced on our website and social media platforms.   Nomination Please return the completed nomination form to comp.marketing@polyu.edu.hk with all required supplementary documents on or before 25 July 2025. Download Nomination Form Enquiries Department of Computing The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Email: comp.marketing@polyu.edu.hk

COMP Best Project Award Competition 2025

The Best Project Award Competition 2025 reached its finale last Saturday, featuring a remarkable selection of Capstone Projects presented by ten exemplary students. This year’s finalists were assessed by an esteemed judging panel that included both academic experts and industry professionals:   Ms Chris CHAN, Assistant Director, Incubation, Startup Ecosystem, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation Mr Terence LEUNG, Digital Entertainment Cluster Lead, Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited Prof. Amelia LI, Assistant Professor, COMP PolyU Mr Edwin TAM, Managing Director, InfoTech Services (Hong Kong) Limited Prof. Yuanqing ZHENG, Associate Professor, COMP PolyU   (In alphabetical order of surnames)   Each contestant was allotted 15 minutes to introduce their project, demonstrate its features, and respond to questions from the judges. The panel commended the participants for their thorough research, innovative approaches, and the high standard of execution and assessment evident in their work. The students also impressed judges with their strong communication and presentation abilities.   Following a comprehensive review, the judges announced the winners of this year’s awards. Alongside the coveted Best Project Awards, two students were also honoured with the InfoTech Job Market Driven Scholarship, in recognition of their projects’ alignment with current industry demands and the valuable skills demonstrated.   We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the award recipients for their outstanding accomplishments and creative Capstone Projects. Their dedication and ingenuity are truly remarkable!   Award Awardee Project Title Champion ZHANG Wengyu Multi-Level Drug Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification via Deep Learning 1st runner-up CHEN Ru Bing Towards Knowledge Pyramid Construction of Large Language Models: A Case Study For Smart Education 2nd runner-up NIYITEGEKA Berwa Aime Noel Improving Cross-Device Usability of Password Managers Merit HUANG Yidan Real-Time Speech-to-Text Translation Demo Development ZHANG Haolin System-on-Chip Client-Server Single-Core-Equivalence (SoCCS SCE) InfoTech Job Market Driven Scholarship HUNG Wai Hin Learning Anti-Money Laundering Through Interactive Simulation LAM Pui Wa Web-Based Anti-Cheat Quiz System for Mobile and Desktop

Prof. YANG Hongxia Named Top 50 Women in Web3 & AI by CoinDesk

We are proud to announce that our professor, Prof. YANG Hongxia, Executive Director of PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, has been named in CoinDesk's inaugural Top Women in Web3 & AI list. This prestigious list highlights 50 influential women driving innovation and ethical frameworks in the rapidly evolving fields of crypto and artificial intelligence.   Prof. Yang, a former leading AI scientist at Alibaba and ByteDance, is at the forefront of groundbreaking research at PolyU. She champions a decentralised approach to AI, developing the "Model-over-Models" paradigm (InfiFusion), which aims to enhance the accessibility and efficiency of large language models. Her innovative contributions are set to democratize AI development, bridging the gap between advanced technology and practical applications across various industries, including healthcare and finance.   CoinDesk's selection process involved a diverse panel of judges and over 300 nominations, emphasising a balance of innovation, relevancy, and influence. This initiative showcases leaders in blockchain finance and AI ethics while underscoring the importance of diverse expertise in technology development. For more details about CoinDesk's selection process and to view the full list, please visit here.  

Prof. LIN Wanyu Awarded the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award 2025

We are delighted to announce that our Assistant Professor, Prof. LIN Wanyu, has been awarded the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2025. Out of 70 submissions from across all schools and faculties, six awardees were selected, highlighting the outstanding contributions of our young faculty members. This prestigious award recognises originality and significant advancements in research aimed at addressing global challenges.   Prof. Lin's research focuses on developing "An Interpretable Deep Learning-Based Computational Framework for Crystal Materials Design." This innovative work exemplifies the originality and potential that the YIRA seeks to honour.   Each awardee will receive HK$500,000 in research funding and a personal cash prize of HK$20,000 to support their innovative research efforts.   Congratulations to Prof. Lin and all the YIRA 2025 awardees! We look forward to witnessing the continued excellence of their research endeavours.  

PolyU hosts flagship IEEE ICDE 2025, gathering data engineering experts from around the globe to inject new vitality into Hong Kong I&T ecosystems

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) hosted the41st IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering(ICDE) from 19 to 23 May. A premier academic event in the field of data science and engineering, theConference brought together nearly 900 leading scholars, industry experts and researchers from around the globe to explore cutting-edge topics, advancing innovation in artificial intelligence (AI), big data and otheremerging technologies in the field. The five-day conference featured a series of events sparking discussion and fostering exchanges among participants, including keynote speeches, thematic panels, academic paper presentations, doctoral student seminars, poster sessions, special lectures and workshops. Hosted by representatives from academia and industry, these events shed light on a range of timely issues and current topics such as data management, data mining, data visualisation and AI. Prof. Jin-Guang TENG, President of PolyU, delivered a warm welcoming address at the opening ceremony, highlighting the increasing global interest in data science, data engineering and AI. He emphasised PolyU’s positioning as an innovative world-class university and its commitment to meeting the evolving demands of society. The University has integrated compulsory AI education into the undergraduate curriculum and established the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences earlier this year. He also introduced the newly established PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence, which is under the leadership of a prestigious scholar with extensive industrial experience and will further promote AI research and applications. Threeinternationally renowned scholars,Prof. Amr El ABBADI,Distinguished Professor of the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara;Prof. Guoliang LI, Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University; andProf. Evaggelia PITOURA,Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Ioannina, Greece, delivered keynote speeches at the Conference. They focused on significant facets of data engineering and discussedemergingtopics including stream summarisation for big data analytics, the integration of large language models in data analytics systems and responsible AI. Supportedby theHong Kong Tourism Boardas well as a number of world-leading enterprises, includingHuawei,Alibaba Cloud,Baidu AI Cloud,ByteDance,Tencent Cloud,OceanBaseandUniCom, theConferencepromoted innovative application of data science and AI technologies by fostering collaboration among industry, academia and research agencies in diversified forms. It also deepened international academic cooperation and injected vitality into local technological innovation ecosystem, consolidating Hong Kong’s position as an international innovation and technology hub. To ensure academic quality, the Organisation Committee comprised outstanding academics and industry experts from around the world. Among them were several scholars from PolyU, includingProf. LI Qing, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of the Department of Computing, who served as the Co-Chair to oversee the overall organisation of the event;Prof. HUA Wen,Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences,who supervised the paper review process;Prof. FAN Wenqi, Assistant Professor of the Department ofComputing,who was in charge of local arrangements;Prof. HUANG Xiao, Assistant Professor of the Department ofComputing,who managed the doctoral consortium; andDr Alexander ZHOU, Research Assistant Professor of the Department ofComputing,who was responsible for paper publication and agenda management. Since its inception in 1984, ICDE has been a flagship academic event in the global data science and engineering field, dedicated to advancing the frontier theories and practical applications of data management technologies. It has witnessed the era transition from relational databases to cloud-native technologies, and continuously led data-driven innovations globally. For more information about ICDE 2025, pleasevisit:https://ieee-icde.org/2025/