News

Joint Workshop on “How to HACK Ethereum”

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. The Ethereum network allows people to exchange tokens of value, called Ether, which is currently the second most popular cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin. On 23 March, COMP and the Hong Kong Blockchain Society jointly organised a workshop on “How to HACK Ethereum”. Mr Viktor Tabori, Representative of Hungary of the International Decentralized Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain and Co-founder & CTO of Etheal - a blockchain-based healthcare startup, was invited as the workshop tutor to share his knowledge and experience about Ethereum. He also introduced the basics of Solidity and the development of smart contract security. Students were given the hands-on training to reproduce seven previous hacks on Ether as well.

Smart Computing Competition 2018

With the aim of fostering students’ creativity and talent, the annual Smart Computing Competition was held on 20 March with the support from Microsoft. This year, seven teams joined the competition and we invited notable industry professionals including Mr Fred Sheu, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Hong Kong, Mr Terence Leung, Manager of Youth Team of Cyberport and Mr Monsess Leung, Assistant Manager, Incubatee Development of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks to be the judges. Each team was given 20 minutes to present their technology projects, from idea generation to prototypes introduction at the PolyU-Microsoft Smart Computing Lab. The projects were evaluated based on four main criteria: technology, innovation, concept and feasibility. The winning team will enter National Final of Microsoft Imagine Cup 2018, which is going to take place in Hong Kong on 20 April. Thanks to everyone who participated and helped making this contest a success. Team Name Members i3 Market (1stPrize) KONG Yin Lam AVENIR (2ndPrize) CHAN Sing Kam LEUNG Shak Hin LI Tsz Fung Mixed Reality Smart Contracts (3rdPrize) HO Yik Him LAM Ping Him YAU Yim Ching Atom Tennis (3rdPrize) CHEUNG Sin Hang I2 AU Young, Jason YEUNG Chon HO Henry Awaken Underground YEUNG Tsz Fung, Dixon Hero vs Devil FAN Yun Fung SHUEN Hing Wai CHEUNG Man Yung  

PolyU - Monash University - Collinstar Capital Joint Lab on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Technologies

In this rapidly changing society, blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are an irreversible advancement that is disrupting established industries and the ways in which people interact financially. Under the signed Memorandum of Understanding in October 2017, PolyU, Monash University and Collinstar Capital joined effort to develop blockchain and cryptocurrency research and enhance both privacy and security in the post-quantum computing by establishing the first university-industry joint research laboratory on blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies in Hong Kong. On 26 March, an opening ceremony of the joint lab was organised at PolyU. Dr David Chung, JP, Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology and Mr Tim Dillon, Commissioner - Greater China, State Government of Victoria Australia officiated the ceremony as Guests of Honour. Dr Chung said, “The advancement of Hong Kong as a leading blockchain development centre requires concerted efforts from the industry, academia and the Government. Positioning itself as the leading research and technology advancement centre in Asia-Pacific in the focused areas of blockchain and cryptocurrency, I am confident that the joint laboratory will help foster the development of these technologies in Hong Kong.” Ir Prof. Alexi Wai, Vice President (Research Development) represented PolyU to speak at the opening. “By joining hands with Monash University and Collinstar Capital, we will continue to drive the advancement in blockchain ecosystem. We believe this collaboration will make influential change to the way of business and our living in the future.” Other distinguished guests included Prof. Mark Wallace, Deputy Dean (Research), Faculty of Information Technology of Monash University and Mr Jacob Cheng, Managing Director of Collinstar Capital. Dr Allen Au, Director of Blockchain Lab and Assistant Professor of COMP and Dr Joseph Liu, Director of Blockchain Lab at Monash University also shared the latest updates of Blockchain technology. The PolyU - Monash University - Collinstar Capital Joint Lab aims to improve security and privacy for blockchain and cryptocurrencies and ultimately make the cyberspace a safer, more convenient and effective for business and financial services in a decentralised and transparent manner.

Corda Training/Certification Programme and Microsoft Chatbot Workshop

Blockchain technology provides a secure mechanism for business transactions in terms of integrity, availability and accountability. The “distributed ledger” concept can be adopted in diverse industries, including trade finance, supply chain management, healthcare and government, where transparency and validity of information are crucial. There is a huge demand for professionals in the market for designing, developing and maintaining blockchain systems. In order to provide COMP students with more practical experience in blockchain application development, a Corda Training/Certification Programme has been launched recently in collaboration with the Hong Kong Blockchain Society. A series of workshops will be organised in March to April. At the end of the Programme, students who pass a test will be awarded a certificate issued by the Hong Kong Blockchain Society. To start with, we invited Dr Lawrence Ma, the President of the Hong Kong Blockchain Society, to give an introduction of the open distributed ledger platform, Corda, and its use cases in the industry on 17 March. In the coming workshops, core concepts of Corda, including state, contract, transaction, flow and node will be introduced. To apply the concepts practically, students will solve programming problems, design blockchain applications and develop CorDapps (applications on Corda) from scratch. On the same day, Ms Claudia Leung, Technical Account Manager, Enterprise Services Segment of Microsoft Hong Kong, who is also a COMP alumnus, delivered a training session on Microsoft Chatbot applications with laboratory exercises to help our students to learn about AI-related technology.

Career Fair 2018 - Innovation & Technology Day

Hosted by Office of Careers and Placement Services (CAPS) of PolyU, the Opening Ceremony of Career Fair 2018 cum Innovation & Technology Day was held today. Prof. Philip Chan, Deputy President and Provost of PolyU and Dr David Chung, JP, Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology delivered the welcome remarks as the Guests of Honour. The 3-day Career Fair covered 11 industries and Innovation & Information Technology was one of the main focuses of today’s Fair. Many IT-related vacancies and graduate trainee programmes were exhibited. During the ceremony, a panel discussion on “Smart City in Hong Kong” was arranged. Prof. Keith Chan, Professor of COMP, Mr Eric Yeung, President of Smart City Consortium, and Dr Tao Charm, Chief Public Mission Officer of Hong Kong Cyberport were invited to be the forum speakers, and Dr Henry Chan, Associate Professor and Associate Head of COMP was the moderator. Both advantages and challenges in transforming Hong Kong into a smart city were discussed. The annual Career Fair provides a good platform for students to gain useful information on job and internship opportunities from hundreds of employers through exhibition, alumni sharing and recruitment talks.

Faculty of Engineering Awards 2016/17

Congratulations to COMP staff members on receiving three Faculty of Engineering (FENG) Awards 2016/17, including Merit Award in Teaching (Individual), Merit Award in Research and Scholarly Activities (Individual) and Research Grant Achievement Award in recognition of their excellent performance and achievements. On 9 March, FENG organised the Engineering Spring Reception cum Faculty Awards Presentation Ceremony, inviting faculty members and industry guests to share the joy together. Prof. H.C. Man, Dean of FENG officiated the ceremony and Ir Prof. Alex Wai, Vice President (Research Development) of PolyU presented awards to the awardees. COMP has won the Faculty Awards for eleven consecutive years since 2006/07. It reflects the great effort and contributions made by our staff members. We look forward to more great accomplishments in the future.   Awardees Awards Dr Yixin CAO, Assistant Professor Research Grant Achievement Award Dr Ajay KUMAR, Associate Professor Faculty Merit Award in Research and Scholarly Activities (Individual) Dr Peter NG, Teaching Fellow Faculty Merit Award in Teaching (Individual)

Hong Kong Techathon 2018

Co-organised by Institute for Entrepreneurship of PolyU, City University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP), Hong Kong Techathon 2018 was held at InnoCentre on 5 – 7 January. PolyU student team consisted of 2 COMP students and 1 EIE student won the Hong Kong Techathon with their project, Sense+. Being one of the 13 winning teams, they were awarded with a direct entry to PolyU Micro Fund Scheme 2018 Final Assessment for a Seed Fund up to HK$120,000 and a conditional offer to HKSTP Incubation Programme. Two pre-Techathon workshops were held on 25 November and 2 December last year, enabling participants to meet entrepreneurs, team up with like-minded people and understand the latest technologies. During the 2-day competition, each team built prototypes and demonstrated their projects on one of the four themes including Education/ Social Technology, Fintech, Healthcare Technology and Internet of Things. “Sense+” stands for “See, Explore, Notice and Search with Ears”. It is a Computer Vision application with comprehensive online information for the visually impaired. Equipped with machine-learning based computer vision technology, it could describe scenes, recognise faces, identify banknotes and read out text or books. Hong Kong Techathon provides a great platform for programmers, engineers, designers, marketers and entrepreneurs to work collaboratively over a weekend and come up with ideas, prototypes.

Fintech & Blockchain Seminar

Institute of Financial Technologists of Asia (IFTA) organised a seminar on FinTech & Blockchain at PolyU on 2 March by inviting industry leaders to share their insights and experience. With the support from COMP and Institute for Entrepreneurship (IfE) of PolyU, the seminar attracted over a hundred of participants. At the opening ceremony, Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President of PolyU, Mr Paul Pong, Founder of IFTA and Dr David Chung, JP, Under Secretary of Innovation and Technology Bureau, delivered the welcoming speech respectively. Prof. Qin Lu, Professor and Interim Head of COMP introduced COMP’s Development on FinTech and Blockchain, along with other distinguished speakers from the industry including Mr Sanjay Bhandari, Co-Founder of Certificate of Finance and Technology of UK, Mr Lawrence Ma, President of Hong Kong Blockchain Society and Mr Fred Sheu, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Hong Kong. IFTA aims to improve the quality and effectiveness of financial technology (FinTech) education and qualifications in Asia. The seminar successfully brought different parties together to exchange knowledge and views, thus enhancing the promotion of Fintech and Blockchain technology and fostering collaboration.

PTeC's Outstanding Professional Services Awards 2017

Organised by PolyU Technology and Consultancy Company Limited (PTeC), the presentation ceremony of Outstanding Professional Services Awards was held on 2 March at Hotel ICON. We are delighted to share with you the good news that COMP received a Merit Award of Highest Growth in recognition of COMP as the second highest ranking department in terms of i) absolute growth in total invoiced value and ii) percentage of growth compare to the previous financial year. A number of COMP staff members also received various Outstanding Professional Services Awards in honour of their efforts devoted to consultancy activities. PTeC is the strategic professional service arm of PolyU that provides one-stop consultancy and technology transfer services to business sectors, government institutions and non-profit making organisations. The Outstanding Professional Services Awards are administered by PTeC to honour departments and staff members in consultancy and licensing activities.   Category Award Awardees Departmental Award Highest Growth (Merit) COMP Individual Award Highest Growth Consultant (Winner) Prof. Qin LU Team Award Most Valued Project (Winner) -“Provision of Electronic Data Submission Consultancy Services" Dr Vincent NG (Project Leader) Prof. Jiannong CAO Dr Dorothy CHAU Team Award Highest International/ Non-local Consultancy (Winner) -“AI3 – A Layered-Federation Information Sharing Architecture" Prof. Jiannong CAO & his research team                

Outstanding Student Award 2017

The Outstanding Students Award Scheme is one of the most prestigious award schemes in PolyU which is set up to recognise high achievers. We are glad to announce that our final year student of BSc (Hons) in Computing, Mr Xiating Ouyang, was awarded with the “Outstanding Student Award of Department” for his excellent academic performance, good personal qualities and active involvement in extra-curricular activities. With exceptional outstanding academic achievement, Mr Ouyang has been on the Dean’s Honours List in 2014/15 and ranked first in his cohort for the past 3 years. He also received numerous competitive scholarships throughout his study at PolyU. As the Internal Vice President (2016) of Exploring Hong Kong Community, Mr Ouyang demonstrated strong leadership skills and capability in organizing activities for exchange students. His proactive participation in competitions, international exchange programmes to MIT in USA and University of Waterloo in Canada, and research work further equipped him to be an all-rounder. On 26 February, Prof. Timothy Tong, President of PolyU officiated the Outstanding Student Awards Presentation Ceremony and presented the Certificate of Award to the top undergraduate students who excel in both academic and non-academic pursuits. Congratulations to Mr Ouyang on receiving this honour.