News

COMP research student received a Silver Prize at the Huawei Logistics Competition

To promote research and application on real-world problems related to Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization (MOCO) such as Vehicle Routing and Bin Packing, Huawei Technologies organized a “Logistics Competition” at the 11th International Conference on Evolutionary Multi-Criterion Optimization (EMO 2021). The competition attracted over 485 participants to compete in two tracks with real business scenarios generated by Huawei. Mr Han Zhang, our research student, received a Silver Prize of Track 1 in the competition with his project titled “Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems in Smart Logistics Based on Meta-heuristic Algorithms” under the supervision of Prof. Qing Li, our Chair Professor and Head. In the real-world logistics and supply chain management systems, many combinatorial optimization problems occur and the number of solutions increases exponentially with the scale of the problems. In this project, some common problems in smart logistics including facility location problem (FLP), capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP), pickup and delivery problem (PDP), and three-dimensional container loading problem (3D-CL) were expected to be formulated as the combinatorial optimization problems which could be solved effectively and efficiently by the meta-heuristic algorithms. “Prof. Qing Li is very nice and patient and he gives me very useful guidance about how to do research, as well as how to analyze and solve problems step by step. Under his supervision, I enjoy the research journey very much,” Han shared. Being one of the top three winners, Han was also invited to give a spot-light talk at EMO 2021.

COMP undergraduate won a Champion Award at the HKGCC Business Case Competition 2020

Congratulations to our undergraduate, Mr Romeo Ng, and his team members on winning the Champion Award at the Business Case Competition 2020 organised by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC). A total of 900 tertiary students in Hong Kong submitted proposals to crack the real-life business cases developed by five Chamber member companies including Citibank, Great Eagle Group, NEC, NWS Holdings Limited and Sino Group. Romeo teamed up with four other university students of diverse disciplines to join the “Sino Group” track. Under the theme of “Wellness Living for the Community”, the team had to figure out how the real estate industry could shape a positive environment that keeps the community happy, healthy and safe with the use of technology. With increasing attention on human well-being under COVID-19, the team proposed a residential project named “The Halcyon” which aimed to cultivate a sustainable lifestyle and culture that promoting both the physical and mental wellness of the residents, as well as helping them to build genuine connections within the neighbourhood through Property Technology (PropTech). Leveraging the IoT devices and beacons, the team designed a mobile app that provided different essential analysis and AI-driven automation for the residents. They also introduced various countermeasures to minimize the risks and concerns towards PropTech, preventing discomfort from the end-users and increasing their acceptance. Romeo’s team ultimately won the Champion of the track with their outstanding performance in the areas of innovativeness, feasibility, impact and presentation skills. “Winning the HKGCC Business Case Competition has been an exciting and remarkable experience for me,” said Romeo. “As a COMP student, I did feel the challenge of competing with other business-major students. A case competition like this was a rare opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and had a glimpse of the business world”.

COMP Alumni Award Presentation

The COMP Alumni Award aims to recognize and publicly honour outstanding alumni who have demonstrated significant contributions to their professions or careers, the Department, the University and the community. It is believed that this award will motivate COMP students to learn from the experience and success of the awardees as well as reflect the Department’s model of education: Career, Application, Research and Entrepreneurship (CARE). On 29 May 2021, we hosted the COMP Alumni Award Presentation and invited Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President of PolyU, to present the awards to the following recipients: Mr CHUNG Wai Kit Tony Vice President (Data Services), Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. Dr GU Shuhang Lecturer, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of Sydney, Australia Ms IHENSEKHIEN Lam Siu Han Silvia Chief Information Security Officer, ShipServ Dr LAM Hang Yat Abraham Chief Executive Officer, MEGA Automation Ltd. Director, Shenzhen FUSQUARE Technology Ltd Mr LAU Shiu Fung Programmer, Fame Key Technology Limited Mr SUN Kin Kwok Darron Head of Information Technology, Hong Kong Housing Society (To view the biography of awardees, please click here) We also took this opportunity to invite Prof. H.C. Man, Dean of Faculty of Engineering of PolyU, to present Certificate of Appreciation to our alumni mentors on this meaningful occasion, in recognition of their contributions over the last year on providing mentoring activities for our undergraduates. To encourage our students to acquire the skills for career planning and personal development, we have introduced the COMP Mentorship Programme in collaboration with the Computing Alumni Association (CAA) since 2019. Mentees could know about workplace culture, business trends and prospects in established professions from the industrial mentors, widening their exposure to different career paths and options.

The 6th China International College Students’ 'Internet Plus' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

Under the supervision of Prof. Song Guo, Professor and Associate Head (Research & Development), our research student, Mr Jackal Xu, and his teammates won a Silver Award at the 6th China International College Students’ “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition held in Hong Kong with their project named “Dr. Body”. Different degrees of deformation may occur on a human’s spine and legs, especially among adolescents, resulting from poor posture. Facing this chronic illness, initial screening is particularly important. “Dr. Body” aims to provide teens with flexible and convenient screening, diagnosis and tracking on their postures. The body images collected from offline scanning will be first analysed through image processing and algorithmic calculus. Then a three-dimensional body model is reconstructed and matched against the medical clinical parameters for health analysis. “Dr. Body” is a radiation-free and one-stop Internet of Things (IoT) platform that could achieve preliminary body posture assessment, suggest the need for rehabilitation and customise follow-up services with a health management app. “Through the competition, we have organised our entrepreneurial ideas more clearly and we have seen many other good projects which broadened our horizons,” Jackal shared. “I hope that in the future, Dr. Body can further develop to help more young people to get rid of physical sub-health problems and grow up healthily!”. To invite the young talents to share their entrepreneurial ideas, the Ministry of Education has hosted the competition since 2015, and it has become one of the world’s largest innovation and entrepreneurship competitions for college students.

PolyU Outstanding Students Award 2020

We are glad to announce that Mr Xiaochuan Xu, our final year student of BSc (Hons) in Computing, has received the honour of the “Outstanding Student Award of Department” for his exceptional accomplishments in both academic and non-academic pursuits during his study. Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, President of PolyU, officiated the Outstanding Student Award Presentation Ceremony on 12 March and presented the award certificates to the top undergraduate students. PolyU organises the Outstanding Students Award Scheme annually and it is one of the most prestigious award schemes which is set up to recognise high achievers. Xiaochuan is a self-motivated and hardworking student. His decent academic profile, active involvement in extra-curricular activities and good personal qualities have equipped him to be an all-rounder. He was included several times in the Dean’s Honors List and won numerous competitive scholarships. Besides, he enthusiastically participated in co-curricular activities including outbound exchange to the USA, overseas internship in France, external competitions and community services. Xiaochuan also provided extensive services to the University such as assisting in PolyU Education Information Day, Buddy Programme, Orientation Programme for non-local students and PolyU SOAR Global Youth Leadership Programme as well as serving as the General Secretary for PolyU Chinese Mainland Students’ Association in which his strong leadership skills were well-demonstrated. “In the past four years at COMP, I have gained not only solid academic knowledge in computer science and hands-on experience in using emerging computing technologies but also have acquired a clear vision of my career goal through the communications with the professors and many reaching out opportunities,” Xiaochuan shared. “In the future, I would like to become a prominent system architect working in the world-renowned Internet juggernauts.” Congratulations to Xiaochuan on receiving the honour!

COMP career talk on “Preparing to build a professional journey”

Under the COMP Mentorship Programme 2020/21, an online career talk on “Preparing to build a professional journey” was organised on 5 March. We invited one of our mentors and alumni, Mr Andy Wan, Director and Head of Transformation of AXA Hong Kong and Macau, to share his career journey and the major changes that evolve to his role today. Andy graduated from PolyU in 2000 with a higher diploma in Information Systems and a degree in Computing in 2004. Having worked in two Fortune Global 500 multi-national insurance companies, he has been focusing on the Financial Services Industry for 20 years with experience across various domains like technology, operations, distribution, project management, digital and business transformation in the local office as well as in the regional office. Built his career from the ground up as an IT programmer, Andy began the career talk with the differences between a job and a career. He shared how he stepped on the career ladder from a starter to a leader and how he made his decision when facing choices in his career path. Andy also advised students to enhance both technical and soft skills before graduation as well as the ways of preparing for a job search. Moderated by Dr Henry Chan, Associate Professor and Associate Head of COMP, a panel discussion on “How to prepare for a professional career?” was held after the talk. The attendees obtained practical guidance in the rich and thought-provoking discussion with the mentors. The mentoring activities aim at fostering a strong bond among the mentors and the students, allowing them to learn from the industrial alumni and seek professional advice on personal development.

Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award 2019

We are proud to announce that Dr Ray Yang received the Faculty of Engineering (FENG) Research Grant Achievement Award for 2019 in recognition of his great efforts and contributions in securing external competitive research grants. Dr Yang joined COMP in 2016 and he is currently an Assistant Professor. Dr Yang focuses on the research areas of IoT, Wireless and Backscatter Communication, Mobile Computing, and AI-enabled Wireless Sensing. He has published over 50 research papers and received the Best Paper Award in several international conferences, including IEEE SECON, ACM MobiCom and ACM MobiHoc. Recently, Dr Yang has won the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2020. The Faculty Research Committee has set up FENG Research Grant Achievement Award since 2003 to recognise the outstanding performance of FENG academic staff members in securing external competitive research grants. To be qualified, a staff member must successfully secure three external competitive research grants in 36 months or four external competitive research grants in 60 months, as Principal Investigator/ co-Principal Investigator.

COMP Mentorship Programme 2020/21 Virtual Kick-off

To enhance our students’ holistic learning experience, we have introduced COMP Mentorship Programme 2020/21 in collaboration with the Computing Alumni Association (CAA). On 26 January, a virtual kick-off was held for students to meet and connect with the alumni mentors. Prof. Qing Li, Chair Professor and Head of COMP, kick-started the event with a warm welcome to all participants and he thanked the mentors for their support and contribution. Mr Darron Sun, the Mentorship Coordinator of CAA, gave an introduction to the Mentorship Programme followed by the sharing of each mentor from various sectors including IT, fintech, insurance, government, e-commerce, etc. We also prepared online breakout rooms for students to have different group discussions with their assigned mentors and other mentors to promote cross-industry inspiration. The Mentorship Programme aims at providing COMP students with the opportunity to seek professional advice from the industrial mentors on personal and career development, as well as to gain an understanding of business practices, workplace culture, market trends and prospects in established professions. We hope to encourage our students to plan for their careers, acquire interpersonal skills and broaden their social networks through the mentor-mentee interactions.

PolyU Info Day for Taught Postgraduate Programmes

COMP hosted an online info seminar to introduce the Master of Science in Information Technology (MScIT) programme during PolyU Info Day for Taught Postgraduate Programmes on 9 January 2021. Dr Korris Chung, Associate Professor and MSc Scheme Coordinator, together with Dr Daniel Luo, Associate Professor, shared the trend of emerging IT topics including Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Financial Technology with the attendees. Dr Ken Yiu, Associate Professor and MScIT Programme Leader, further illustrated the programme structure, subjects offered, study patterns, admission requirements, etc.  In response to the rapid development of the global IT industry and the huge demand for AI and fintech talents, two streams are introduced in the MScIT programme: “Stream in AI and Big Data” and “Stream in AI and FinTech”. Students enjoy the flexibility to choose their specialisms based on own career goal and study plan. Besides, with the extensive network of COMP MSc alumni, students can acquire both advanced expertise and professional networks that help them scale new heights in their careers. The seminar provided participants with an excellent opportunity to obtain first-hand information about our MSc programme as well as academic advice from COMP faculty members.

COMP undergraduate won a Best Paper Award at IEEE BIBE 2020

Our graduating student, Mr Ho Yin Andy Yuen, won a Best Paper Award under the category of Bioinformatics at the 20th IEEE International Conference on BioInformatics and BioEngineering (IEEE BIBE 2020) with his final year Capstone Project titled “Better Link Prediction for Protein-Protein Interaction Networks”. The objective of this research project is to design better computational techniques for predicting molecular interactions inside biological organisms. Under the supervision of Dr Jesper Jansson, Associate Professor of COMP, Andy specifically chose to work on the Protein-Protein Interaction Networks and used the link prediction technique to predict missing connections of a graph based on its structure. They improved the ability of the current state-of-the-art models in describing the protein interaction networks and further applied it algorithmically to perform link prediction and successfully predicted protein interactions more accurately. Andy thanked Dr Jansson for working with him as the co-author of the paper. He also expressed his deep gratitude for Dr Jansson’s invaluable support and guidance throughout his study and research journey at COMP. Andy is currently a project assistant at the Biomaterial Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering of PolyU. He employs computational techniques to generate and analyse laboratory images and raw data for characterising and elucidating cellular mechanisms. IEEE BIBE 2020 aims at building synergies among the disciplines of Bioinformatics, Bioengineering and Biomedical. The IEEE BIBE series provides a common platform for the cross-fertilization of ideas, and for shaping knowledge and scientific achievements by bridging these disciplines into an interactive and engaging forum.