News

COMP Co-Organises Inaugural One-Day High School Hackathon "HACK852" to Promote AI-empowered Learning

Hong Kong’s inaugural HACK852, a one-day hackathon for high school students, successfully concluded last Saturday (14 March 2026) at PolyU, sparking creativity and technical passion among local youths. Co-organised by COMP and Genesis, HACK852 aimed to broke down barriers to technology by welcoming high school students of all coding backgrounds. The vibrant event drew an impressive turnout, bringing together over 170 student participants, alongside a gathering of parents and experts from academia and industry.   The hackathon featured two competition tracks: AI Track and Coding Track. COMP, as a local pioneer in computing education, led the design of the Coding Track, ensuring a robust, challenging, and rewarding experience for individual participants. Participants showcased their advanced technical skills while tackling real-world solutions with code.   In the AI Track, competing teams were challenged to transform their own ideas into real, working projects with AI tools. Leveraging the power of AI, and supported by friendly mentors and on-site workshops, students experienced the excitement of expressing creativity with the aid of technology. Joining hands with a group of experts from academia and industry, Prof. YIU Man Lung Ken, Professor and Associate Head (Teaching & Learning), and Prof. SHI Jieming, Assistant Professor, served on the judging panel of the AI Track to evaluate the students' innovative projects and provided invaluable, real-world feedback.   Another highlight of the event was the talk presented by Dr LUI Wing Cheung Richard, Senior Lecturer. He shared insights from his pioneering AI education project titled “AI Literacy to Workplace Excellence: Transforming Education for Next-Generation Professionals.” The project was honoured with the Silver Award in the “AI in Education” category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2025 (Read More).   As part of its commitment to nurturing young talent, COMP provided internship opportunities to the awardees. This initiative will allow outstanding secondary school students to gain hands-on research experience, providing them with a significant head start in their future STEM careers.

04COMP Year 4 Students Win Best Innovation Award at Open Data Hackathon 2025 with AI Public Service Platform "HKAssist"

A team of COMP Year 4 students has proudly received the Best Innovation Award in the Tertiary Stream at the Open Data Hackathon 2025 (Smart Economy), organised by the Hong Kong Technology Advancement Group (HKtag), following the grand finals held in January 2026.   Team Members: LI Kwan To (Leader), LI Chun Fung and HO Cheuk Ting Supervisor: Prof. NG Hiu Fung Peter, COMP Assistant Professor Project: HKAssist | A City-Level AI Coordination Layer for Public Services   Designed to address the fragmentation of public services in Hong Kong, HKAssist acts as a unified integration layer built on top of existing government infrastructure. By combining Large Language Models (LLM) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with workflow orchestration, the platform provides a conversational interface that helps citizens, SMEs, and visitors navigate cross-departmental procedures. Instead of just offering information, HKAssist guides users seamlessly from initial enquiry to task completion—handling requirement identification, document preparation, and progress tracking. This transforms fragmented data into actionable processes, bridging the gap between "knowing" and "doing" while maintaining transparency and human-in-the-loop control.   Perfectly aligning with the hackathon's "Smart Economy" theme, HKAssist also features a 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) experiential module dedicated to tourism. This web-based feature enables immersive, 360-degree virtual exploration of Hong Kong locations without specialised hardware. It encourages visitors to generate and share interactive XR content, transforming individual experiences into long-term cultural and data assets for the city. By balancing operational efficiency in administrative services with engaging experiential features in tourism, HKAssist showcases the future of smart city innovation.

COMP Alumnus Ir WONG Chi-kwong, Tony, JP Honoured with Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award 2025

We are proud to announce that Ir WONG Chi‑kwong, Tony, JP, has been awarded the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award 2025. This prestigious honour was presented to four distinguished awardees at the Award Ceremony held at Hotel ICON on 13 January.   Ir WONG graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic, the University’s predecessor, in 1987 with a Higher Diploma in Systems Analysis, and has since dedicated over 35 years of distinguished service in various IT-related departments of the Hong Kong SAR Government.   As the current Commissioner for Digital Policy, Ir WONG leads the Digital Policy Office in formulating data-driven, user-centric, and outcome-based policies that accelerate the development of a digital government. His leadership enhances the efficiency and quality of public services, benefiting both citizens and businesses.   Ir WONG oversees key areas including digital government strategies, data governance, IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and the promotion of digital transformation across public services and industries. He also plays a pivotal role in closing the digital divide, fostering IT collaboration with the Mainland, especially within the Greater Bay Area, and supporting Hong Kong’s integration into national development.   PolyU takes great pride in its alumni’s remarkable achievements and contributions to their professions and the community. The Outstanding Alumni Award celebrates the university’s commitment to nurturing future leaders and innovators. This year’s awardees were selected through a rigorous process, and Ir WONG’s recognition is a testament to his enduring impact and professional excellence.

COMP PhD Graduate Dr LI Zihao wins 2025 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations Award from the Chinese Institute of Communications

We are delighted to announce that our PhD Graduate, Dr LI Zihao, supervised by Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel has been awarded the prestigious 2025 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations Award by the Chinese Institute of Communications (CIC). Established to promote technological advancement and nurture young academic talent in China’s information and communications field, the annual award recognises top doctoral graduates nationwide for innovative contributions. Among 58 nominations across the country, 10 dissertations were selected after rigorous review. Dr Li is the only awardee in the domain of blockchain, underscoring the originality and impact of his research.   Dissertation Summary: Dr Li’s thesis delivers a comprehensive, layer-by-layer security assessment of blockchain systems—spanning applications, smart contracts, state storage and scalability—introducing practical tools and findings that expose real-world risks and strengthen defences. His work includes automated discovery of DeFi MEV behaviours (ActLifter/ActCluster), source-free recovery of smart contract function signatures (SigRec), the first demonstrated DoS attack on blockchain state storage (NURGLE), and behaviour-guided fuzzing to detect finalisation failures in zkRollups (fAmulet), offering actionable methodologies for more secure blockchain infrastructure and applications.   About CIC: The Chinese Institute of Communications (CIC) is a major national academic organisation and a tier-1 society in China’s information and communications field. Established in 1964 under the supervision of the China Association for Science and Technology, CIC has 54 subordinate branches and over 68,000 members, fostering deep collaboration between academia and industry through high-level conferences, scientific exchanges, standards development and technical consulting.

COMP team wins Excellent Paper Award at the 8th International Conference on Technology in Education (ICTE 2025)

We are pleased to announce that the paper “Human–AI Collaboration in the STEM Classroom: A Systematic Literature Review of GenAI as a Complement in Higher Education,” authored by a COMP PhD student and academic staff, has received the Excellent Paper Award at the 8th International Conference on Technology in Education (ICTE 2025).   Authors: Mr JIA Ye, COMP PhD Student Prof. LI Chen Richard, COMP Assistant Professor Prof. Alexander CHAN, School of Business, Molloy University, New York, USA Prof LI Qing, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP   Paper Overview: This work synthesises findings from 94 empirical studies to map how Generative AI is reshaping STEM disciplines. The review reveals a pivotal shift in adoption models: while Large Language Models (LLMs) are currently used predominantly as "Tutors & Assistants" to boost academic performance, there is a growing trend toward treating AI as a "Collaborative Partner" for co-creation and higher-order thinking. This evolution transforms the student from a passive recipient into an "Active Agent & Critical Evaluator" and the educator into a "Learning Architect," though significant challenges regarding content accuracy and pedagogical integration remain. By categorising current collaboration models, impacts on learning outcomes, and technical limitations, this paper offers a comprehensive framework for educators and researchers navigating the future of AI-augmented higher education.

Prof. ZHANG Chen Secures Over HK1.1 Million Funding Under The NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme

We are pleased to announce that our Assistant Professor Prof. ZHANG Chen Jason’s research project, “Developing a database and computational platform to predict material properties of non-fullerene acceptors in organic solar cells,” has secured over HK$1.1 million under the Joint Research Scheme (JRS) jointly administered by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong.   Project Overview: This project is dedicated to accelerating the development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs)—core materials for advancing organic solar cells (OSCs)—by building a reliable computational prediction framework, which addresses the inefficiency of current trial-and-error experimental approaches. Alkyl chains attached to NFA molecules are key to modulating solubility and electron mobility, two fundamental properties that directly determine OSC performance. However, optimising these alkyl chains is highly time-intensive, as demonstrated by the nearly six years of research needed to upgrade the Y6-family NFAs to the high-efficiency L8-BO-C4 variant. Drawing on prior work that developed high-precision machine learning models (with significantly lower prediction errors than conventional methods) for analysing molecular structures, this project integrates two core tasks: experimental measurements to clarify the relationship between alkyl chain structures and NFA key properties, and computational model expansion to develop a specialised module for alkyl chain analysis. The resulting integrated framework will predict optimal alkyl chain designs for NFAs, thereby streamlining material development and propelling OSC technology forward.   PolyU has secured funding for 13 research projects, totalling approximately HK$20.3 million, under the 2025/26 funding exercise of CRS and JRS. The NSFC/RGC CRS supports larger-scale, cross-disciplinary collaboration between Mainland and Hong Kong institutions to enhance research output and impact, while the JRS promotes collaboration between researchers and teams on both sides by leveraging complementary strengths.

Prof. CAO Jiannong and Prof. Peter NG won Gold and Silver Medals at AEII

COMP faculty members achieved a standout performance at the 5th Asia Exhibition of Innovations and Inventions Hong Kong (AEII), capturing both a Gold Medal and a Silver Medal across highly competitive fields, including robotics, AI, and cultural technologies.  Award: Gold Medal PI: Prof. CAO Jiannong, Vice President (Education), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science; Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing; Founder & Chief Scientist, UbiquiTech Innovations Limited (a PolyU Start-up) Dr LIANG Zhixuan, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Computing; Founder & CEO, UbiquiTech Innovations Limited (a PolyU Start-up) Project: PolyPi: Edge-AI Empowered Autonomous Robot for Pipeline Inspection and Maintenance PolyPi-bot is an edge-AI robot for autonomous inspection and cleaning in confined spaces such as pipelines, ducts, and underground infrastructure. It combines real-time AI defect detection, a deformable structure, and full autonomy. Compressed AI models run directly on the robot, enabling real-time identification of cracks, corrosion, and debris without cloud connectivity. Its adaptive design allows it to traverse complex, curved, or collapsed pipelines with ease. The robot also supports modular cleaning tools for removing sediment and obstructions. With no human intervention required, PolyPi enhances safety in hazardous environments.   Award: Silver Award PI: Prof. NG Hiu Fung Peter, Assistant Professor, Department of Computing and Department of Rehabilitation Sciences Project: MetaBridge: A 3D Gaussian Splatting and Blockchain Platform for Cultural Heritage Digital Assetization and Immersive Experience MetaBridge is an innovative platform that integrates 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) and blockchain authentication to digitise, secure, and share cultural heritage. Using multi-sensor 3D reconstruction, MetaBridge generates highly realistic digital twins of relics and environments. Each asset is secured with blockchain-based certificates, ensuring authenticity, ownership, and traceability. The platform features Web-based editing and one-click deployment to VR, WebXR, or LED immersive systems, enabling creators and institutions to publish cultural experiences without technical barriers easily. MetaBridge supports flagship projects such as Ferryman Academy, where students and communities co-create VR heritage stories, and the Grand Canal Time-Travel Experience, an immersive cultural tourism showcase. By combining advanced rendering, secure asset management, and accessible dissemination, MetaBridge provides a sustainable model for heritage preservation, immersive education, cultural tourism, and creative industries, positioning Hong Kong as a global leader in cultural innovation and digital economy.   AEII is a prestigious annual exhibition cum competition devoted to innovations and inventions in Asia, organised by The Hong Kong Exporters’ Association in partnership with Palexpo, the organiser of the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva. This year, the event attracted about 140 projects from around Asia.

Dr Richard Lui’s Project Wins Silver at QS Reimagine Education Awards 2025

Our Senior Lecturer, Dr Richard LUI, has received the Silver Award in the “AI in Education” category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2025 for his project, “AI Literacy to Workplace Excellence: Transforming Education for Next-Generation Professionals.” The project’s Co-Principal Investigator is Dr Jessica Neuville, Associate Professor of Practice at the School of Optometry.   The project incorporates experiential learning activities designed to engage students from diverse disciplines in exploring real-world AI applications. GPTutor, a generative AI-powered learning platform developed by the project team, supports self-directed learning by enabling students to explore course content, ask questions, and receive instant, personalised feedback through tailored review questions. By developing immersive 3D simulations that bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application, the project equips students with essential workplace skills, preparing them to become career-ready professionals.   Selected as one of the top applications from a pool of 1,600 submissions, the project demonstrated exceptional innovation, impact, and scalability. It advanced through four rigorous evaluation rounds conducted by a panel of 1,300 international higher education and edtech experts, earning recognition for its transformative approach to AI literacy and skills development.

Dr Mohammed Aquil Mirza‘s Project Awarded Second Prize at National Competition

COMP’s Senior lecturer, Dr MOHAMMED Aquil Mirza, and his team have been awarded the Second Prize at the OLVI-säätiö NeuroChallenge 2025, a national competition organised by the Finnish Neurocenter and Business Centre. The event, held from November 14 to 16, 2025, focused on developing innovative solutions to enhance brain health among 55-year-old working adults. Dr Mohammed’s team included international faculty and students, working collaboratively to address important health challenges. Their project utilised Sirius Ception technology to accurately detect early-stage symptoms of movement disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease and Essential Tremor. The Second Prize recognises the innovative approach and significance of their work in medical diagnostics, with potential impact in both healthcare and wellness markets. This achievement reflects the team’s commitment to advancing early detection and improving outcomes for individuals at risk of movement disorders.

COMP Year 4 Students Win Second Prize at MAIC 2025 National Finals with Innovative Digital Memory Platform "MemoSpace"

A team of COMP Year 4 students has proudly won the Second Prize in the Qidi Track (啓迪賽道) at the 10th China Collegiate Computing Contest – Mobile Application Innovation Contest (MAIC), held in Hangzhou in November 2025. Jointly organised by Apple and Zhejiang University, the prestigious event is highly competitive, attracting nearly 40,000 contestants from over 1,000 universities across China. The team represented Hong Kong on the national stage after securing the 1st Prize at the MAIC Hong Kong Regional Final on 4 July 2025.   Team Members:  LI Kwan To (Leader), LI Chun Fung and LIAN Jiongning Supervisor: Prof. NG Hiu Fung Peter, COMP Assistant Professor Project: MemoSpace: A Digital Memory Platform   MemoSpace is an innovative system that explores how immersive technologies can support the preservation and re-experience of personal memories through spatial computing. The project connects guided data capture with immersive visualisation through two core components: "MemoLens" and "MemoSpace." MemoLens is an AR-based interface that uses real-time visual guidance to help first-time users capture high-quality video data for 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) scene reconstruction. The captured data is then experienced through the MemoSpace application on the Apple Vision Pro, which presents the reconstructed 3D scenes in an immersive environment. Featuring spatial video integration, portal-based navigation between scenes, and intuitive controls, the project successfully lowers the barrier to advanced 3D reconstruction, making content creation and memory preservation accessible to everyone.   Beyond their success in the competition, the team gained invaluable experience through a series of high-profile events leading up to the finals. Over the summer, they attended the MAIC 2025 Summer Training Camp in Hangzhou, an intensive program focused on product refinement. During the camp, they visited the Alibaba (Taobao) headquarters for industry sharing sessions and were selected as one of only five teams to participate in the final mock defence, providing them with high-level exposure and expert evaluation.   Furthermore, on 29 October, the team showcased their project at the Diocesan Girls’ School AI Technology Exhibition. During the event, they had the distinct honour of presenting MemoSpace to Prof. SUN Dong, JP, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the HKSAR Government. The positive feedback from Prof. Sun, along with valuable interactions with teachers, parents, and students, provided the team with crucial insights into user experience and product design, ultimately contributing to the final refinement of their award-winning system.