News

HKXRA x PolyU MScMT Best Project Awards cum XR Dialogue Successfully Held at PolyU

We collaborated with the Hong Kong Extended Reality Association (HKXRA), proudly co-hosted the “HKXRA x PolyU MScMT Best Project Awards cum XR Dialogue” on 17 November 2025. The event celebrated outstanding student innovation in extended reality (XR) and fostered dialogue on the future of immersive technologies.   A highlight of the event was the panel discussion, “Powering the Future of Cultural Tourism Through XR,” featuring distinguished speakers: Mr Lawrence CHEUNG, Director, BD & Services, HTC (GBA/HK), Mr Terry DAO, Chairman, HKXRA, Prof. Peter NG, Assistant Professor and MScMT Programme Leader, PolyU COMP, and Mr Jonathan WONG, Curator and Exhibition Manager, HKDI Gallery. The panel explored how XR technologies are transforming cultural tourism and creating new opportunities for engagement and storytelling.   The MScMT Best Project Awards recognised exceptional student projects in XR, with a total prize pool of HK$100,000 generously supported by HKXRA. The winners are as follows:   Champion (HK$50,000) Project Title: Immersive Hangzhou River Experience: A VR Journey Through 3D Scanning and Digital Interaction Awardees: CUI Yilin, LI Junde, LIAO Caijun, ZENG Xiangyue Supervisor: Prof. Peter NG (Assistant Professor and MScMT Programme Leader, PolyU COMP) Project Summary: This project uses large-scale 3D scanning to create a high-fidelity digital twin of an urban environment, allowing for immersive historical exploration and new applications in virtual tourism.   1st Runner Up (HK$30,000) Project Title: Clinical Conversation Training System Awardees: CHEN Jiahan, LIANG Haopeng, LIAO Binyu, SHI Yufei Supervisor: Prof LIU Yan Fiona (Associate Professor, PolyU COMP) Project Summary: A virtual reality training platform for medical interns that uses conversational AI to simulate high-stakes patient interactions. This scalable solution creates a safe environment for developing the critical communication and empathy skills required for clinical practice.   2nd Runner Up (HK$20,000) Project Title: A Creative System of Chinese Shadow Puppetry in the Metaverse of Intangible Cultural Heritage Awardees: BAO Tianyi, JIANG Shaobo, SHI Zhikang, ZHAN Zhuoyuan Supervisors: Dr Jeff TANG (Lecturer, PolyU COMP) , Prof Anthony KONG (Assistant Professor, PolyU School of Design) Project Summary: This virtual reality system digitizes the intangible heritage of shadow puppetry by utilizing motion controls within a metaverse platform to enable new forms of cultural transmission and creative expression.  

Prof. Zhang Lei and Prof. Cheng Ran Recognised in “Highly Cited Researchers 2025” List by Clarivate Analytics

We are proud to announce that two of our esteemed academic staff have been recognised in the prestigious “Highly Cited Researchers 2025” list by Clarivate Analytics. This international accolade highlights their significant contributions and broad influence in the fields of engineering and computer science.   Prof. ZHANG Lei, Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis Prof. Zhang has been named a Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) in Engineering multiple times since 2015, underscoring his lasting impact and influence in the discipline. His research has been cited over 73,000 times in the Web of Science, with an impressive H-index of 121. Prof. Zhang’s research interests encompass image and video processing, computer vision, pattern recognition, and biometrics. In addition to his research achievements, Prof. Zhang is an IEEE Fellow and serves as the Director of the Joint Innovation Research Centre, further solidifying his role as a leader in the field.   Prof. CHENG Ran, Associate Professor and Presidential Young Scholar Prof. Cheng has been recognised in the Computer Science category, receiving this honour since 2023. His research focuses on advancing Computational Intelligence to tackle modeling and optimization challenges in complex systems. Prof. Cheng is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine Outstanding Paper Award (2021), and the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Outstanding Early Career Award (2025).   Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers list recognises academics who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their respective fields of research. This year, 6,868 scholars from 60 countries and regions have been named. The selected scholars have authored multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their fields and publication year over the past 11 years. Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers are 1 in 1,000.   For the full list of Highly Cited Researchers 2025, please click here. 

Prof. WU Yujie Honoured with China Brain-Machine Intelligence Rising Star Award at 2025 World Young Scientist Summit

We are proud to announce that Prof. WU Yujie, our Assistant Professor and Presidential Young Scholar, has been honoured with the prestigious Brain-inspired Intelligence Award, a category of the inaugural “China Brain-Machine Intelligence Rising Star Awards.” The award ceremony was held during the 2025 World Young Scientist Summit on 24 October 2025 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.   Six outstanding young scientists under the age of 40 were recognised at the first "China Brain-Machine Intelligence Rising Star Awards," jointly organised by the World Association of Young Scientists (WAYS) and the State Key Laboratory of Brain-Machine Intelligence at Zhejiang University. The awards celebrate significant contributions to the fields of brain-inspired intelligence and brain-computer interfaces.   Prof. Wu’s research focuses on brain-inspired artificial intelligence, computational neuroscience, and machine learning, with the primary aim of bridging neuroscience and AI to advance general intelligence. At the summit, Prof. Wu was awarded for his series of studies on brain cognition modeling and brain-inspired intelligence algorithms.   Click here to know more about the award.

COMP UG Students Win Best Student Paper Award at IEEE ICNSC 2025 Conference

We are proud to announce that a team of undergraduate students from the COMP 4436 course (Artificial Intelligence of Things) has been awarded the Best Student Paper Award at the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Networking, Sensing, and Control (ICNSC), held from October 1–3, 2025 in Oulu, Finland.   The winning paper, titled “Energy-Efficient and High-Accuracy AIoT Visual Sensing Using K-Vote, Transfer-Spiking Net, and Reconstructive Classifier,” was developed as part of the students’ semester project. The student team comprises: CHANDRA Kent Max, COMP Year 4 Student WANG Youkang Albert, COMP Year 4 Student PAZO RECIO Lucas, AP Year 4 Student CHAR Cheuk Tung George, COMP Year 4 Student Dr MOHAMMED Aquil Mirza, COMP Senior Lecturer   Abstract of the Paper: The increasing deployment of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) applications necessitates efficient and accurate visual sensing models, yet a comprehensive comparison of machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and spiking neural networks (SNN) within this domain remains limited, creating a gap in understanding their relative effectiveness for resource constrained environments. This study aims to evaluate and compare representative models across five paradigms: supervised ML, unsupervised ML, supervised DL, unsupervised DL, and SNN; by implementing novel approaches such as K-Vote, Reconstructive Classifier, and Transfer Spiking Net, on simple binary image classification datasets. Employing performance metrics including accuracy, precision, recall, F1 score, and runtime efficiency, our results demonstrate that the Transfer Spiking Net achieves an accuracy of 99.2%, approaching the state-of-the-art, with comprehensive visualizations and analysis revealing the strengths and limitations of each method. The contributions of this work include a systematic performance comparison, the proposal of innovative neural network models, and the release of open-source code to support future research in AIoT visual sensing applications.  

PhD Student SHEN Leming received the Distinguished Artifact Reviewer Award Multiple Times in Top-Tier International Conferences (ACM CCS 2025, ACM SenSys 2024, and ACM MobiSys 2024)

We are delighted to share that our PhD student, Mr SHEN Leming, has been honoured with the Distinguished Artifact Reviewer Award at the 2025 ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2025). This prestigious recognition highlights his contributions to ensuring the reproducibility, reliability, and scientific rigor of research artifacts in the computer security community.   Mr SHEN conducts research at the intersection of Large Language Models (LLMs), AIoT applications, and mobile and edge computing. He has published multiple first-authored and co-authored papers at top conferences such as ACM MobiCom, MobiSys, SenSys, and IEEE INFOCOM. His recent work explores LLM-driven automation for AIoT systems, with projects such as AutoIOT (MobiCom 2025), GPIoT (SenSys 2025), and FedConv (MobiSys 2024).   This is not Mr Shen’s first recognition for his outstanding service to the academic community. Previously, he received the Distinguished Artifact Evaluation Reviewer Awards from ACM MobiSys 2024 and ACM SenSys 2024, reflecting his continued dedication to advancing transparency and reproducibility across leading systems and networking conferences.   Mr Shen has served on Artifact Evaluation Committees for top conferences such as ACM MobiCom, MobiSys, SenSys, CCS, IEEE S&P and NDSS. His sustained commitment to both high-quality research and community service exemplifies the excellence and integrity valued in the scientific community.

Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2025

We are proud to announce that three distinguished members of our department have been recognised with the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2025, presented by the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FCMS), celebrating their exceptional contributions in teaching and research.   Award Recipients: Prof. AU Man Ho Allen, Professor and Associate Head (Research and Development) Individual Award in Research and Scholarly Activities Prof. AU is internationally renowned for his research in information security, applied cryptography, and blockchain technologies, with impactful applications in FinTech, Web3, and digital identity. His accolades include the BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize, multiple Best Paper Awards, and two consecutive ZPrize wins. He also serves as a founding member of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Expert Group, contributing to the development of privacy-preserving digital currencies.   Prof. FAN Wenqi, Assistant Professor Individual Award in Research and Scholarly Activities under “Early Career Researcher” subcategory Prof. FAN’s research focuses on machine learning and data mining, particularly in recommender systems (RecSys), graph neural networks (GNNs), and adversarial attacks. He received the AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar Honorable Mention (2022 - 2025), and was named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists (2023 - 2025) by Stanford University and Elsevier.   Dr Aquil MOHAMMED, Senior Lecturer Individual Award in Teaching under “Early Career Teacher” subcategory Dr MOHAMMED brings a rich interdisciplinary background to his teaching and research, with expertise in robotics—from surgical applications to construction automation. His work also spans underwater communications, embedded systems, neural network modelling, machine learning, deep learning, optimisation, big data analytics, etc. He has secured over HK$1M+ in industrial awards and start-up funding, demonstrating his strength in both hardware and software development for real-world societal applications. 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. Andy Chun Appointed as a Member of Advisory Committee on Development of International Aviation Superhub

We are proud to announce that Prof. Andy Chun, our Professor of Practice, has been appointed by the HKSAR Government as a member of the newly established Advisory Committee on Development of International Aviation Superhub (ACDIAS).   The ACDIAS, chaired by Ms Mable Chan, Secretary for Transport and Logistics, brings together distinguished leaders from aviation, finance, technology, logistics, academia, and tourism. The Committee will play a pivotal role in shaping Hong Kong’s aviation future, providing strategic guidance on aviation policy, the development of Airport City, and the integration of the Three-Runway System (3RS) with surrounding infrastructure and civil aviation initiatives.   Prof. Chun’s expertise in artificial intelligence will contribute to the Committee’s mission of positioning Hong Kong as a technology-driven, globally connected aviation superhub. This appointment comes at a defining moment, as China’s National 14th Five-Year Plan reaffirms Hong Kong’s status as an international aviation hub.   We congratulate Prof. Chun on this prestigious appointment and look forward to his contributions in advancing Hong Kong’s leadership in global aviation.   Please click here for more details about the ACDIAS.

17 COMP Academic Staff Recognised Among World’s Top 2% Scientists 2025 by Stanford University and Elsevier

We are proud to announce that 17 of our academic staff have been named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists 2025, as compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier. This prestigious recognition highlights the outstanding research achievements and global impact of COMP scholars across a wide range of computing disciplines.   The Stanford University list identifies the world’s leading researchers, representing approximately 2% of all scientists worldwide. The selection is based on a composite indicator (c-score) that incorporates standardised data on citations, h-index, and other bibliometric indicators, with and without self-citations. Researchers are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 subfields, drawn from Scopus data provided by Elsevier through the ICSR Lab.   The following COMP academic staff have been recognised (in alphabetical order of surnames): Name Position Prof. AU Man Ho Allen Professor and Associate Head (Research and Development) Prof. CAO Jiannong Vice President (Education), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing Prof. CHEN Changwen Interim Dean of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Chair Professor of Visual Computing Prof. CHENG Ran Associate Professor, Presidential Young Scholar Prof. FAN Wenqi Assistant Professor Prof. HUANG Xiao Assistant Professor Prof. LI Ping Assistant Professor Prof. LI Qing Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP Prof. LIU Yan Associate Professor Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel Associate Dean (Research) of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Prof. WU Yujie Assistant Professor, Presidential Young Scholar Prof. XIAO Bin Professor Prof. YANG Bo Assistant Professor Prof. YANG Hongxia Executive Director of PAAI, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Professor Prof. ZHANG Lei Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis Prof. ZHENG Yuanqing Associate Professor Prof. ZHOU Kai Assistant Professor   Congratulations to all the recognised staff for their remarkable accomplishments and their continued dedication to advancing knowledge and technology for the benefit of society.

COMP Showcases Digitalising Cultural Heritage Project with Metaverse and AI Innovation to the Financial Secretary at DELF 2025

COMP proudly participated as a Pioneering Innovation Partner at the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF) 2025, organised by Cyberport from 12 to 14 September 2025. The event attracted over 3,800 participants from business, academia, and the wider community, providing a vibrant platform for exchanging ideas and showcasing cutting-edge technologies.   During the morning session on 12 Sep, the COMP booth was honoured by the visit of Mr Paul CHAN, GBM, GBS, MH, JP, Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR. During his visit, COMP presented three outstanding student-led projects, demonstrating the department’s commitment to harnessing AI, virtual reality, and the metaverse for impactful real-world applications: A Creative System of Chinese Shadow Puppetry in the Metaverse of Intangible Cultural Heritage The Creative System of Chinese Shadow Puppetry in the Metaverse offers a unique VR experience where users control virtual puppets mirrored by robotic arms. Utilising advanced gesture recognition, it preserves traditional Chinese culture while providing real-time synchronised feedback, enhancing immersion and engagement for users of all ages in an interactive virtual environment. Clinical Conversation Training System The Clinical Conversation Training System is an immersive platform designed to enhance medical communication skills through realistic patient dialogue scenarios. Using Scenario-based QA and Instruction Prompting, it helps users build effective responses in high-pressure settings. A Cantonese language calibration ensures cultural and linguistic accuracy. Leveraging the Metaverse, it offers authentic, accessible training without hardware constraints and supports many concurrent users with a stable, extensible backend. Developing a Human-Centered Framework for Engaging Experiences in Meta-Football  This work develops a human-centred AI system that analyses amateur football videos to match players’ styles with professional stars using multi-model deep learning. It generates personalised digital star cards via generative AI, offering an engaging, interactive experience. The web-based platform emphasises accuracy, usability, and scalability, supporting sports training, entertainment, and social interaction with future AR/VR integration plans.   In the afternoon of 12 Sep, Prof. Peter NG, Assistant Professor and Dr Jeff TANG, Lecturer, delivered an insightful talk session titled “Metaverse Technology Applications in Culture and Tourism.” The talk explored the evolution of culture and tourism technologies within the metaverse, highlighting the transformative roles of AI and virtual reality. The discussion addressed current practices, emerging possibilities, and the ways these technologies are reshaping experiences for users, creators, and organisations. The session also featured the showcased student projects, illustrating how COMP’s innovations are inspiring new career pathways and accelerating industry growth for future professionals.  

Dual Championship Wins at AIREA International Competition on AI in Education 2025

We are proud to announce that two of our outstanding project teams have won the Champion Award in their respective categories at the AIREA International Competition on Artificial Intelligence in Education 2025, co-organised by The Education University of Hong Kong and the Artificial Intelligence Research and Education Alliance.   Champion – Higher Education Category (Stream 2) Project: K-CUBE PET: Knowledge Graph Personalized Engagement Tutor for Immersive Teaching and Learning PI: Prof. LI Qing, Chair Professor of Data Science and Head of COMP Key Team Members (in alphabetical order): Prof. George BACIU, Senior Project Fellow, COMP; Prof. CAO Jiannong, Vice President (Education), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing, Director of RIAIoT; Prof. HUANG Xiao, Assistant Professor, COMP; Prof. LI Chen Richard, Assistant Professor, COMP & APSS; Prof. NG Hiu Fung Peter, Assistant Professor, COMP & RS; Dr SIN Ping Tat Zackary, Research Assistant Professor, COMP; The team developed K-CUBE PET, an immersive Edu-Metaverse platform. Utilising VR/AR and a 3D LLM avatar, the system enhances curriculum management, study planning, and career advising for university students. The platform is intended for use at the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, to support both students and instructors in visualising and navigating the Computer Science curriculum.   Champion – Open Category (Stream 3) Project: Enhance social and emotional learning of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder through a gamified interactive virtual community of generative agents (ESAIAS) PI: Prof. LI Chen Richard, Assistant Professor, COMP & APSS Team Members (in alphabetical order): Mr ARCHER Daniel Andrew, Research Associate, COMP; Ms GAO Wujie, Research Assistant, APSS; Mr LUO Dongpu, Alumnus, COMP; Mr MA Hongming, Alumnus, AMA; Mr ZHANG Fu, PhD student, COMP A collaborative effort between COMP and APSS, ESAIAS leverages generative AI to support social and emotional learning (SEL) for adolescents on the autism spectrum. The platform simulates a virtual school community where students interact with AI agents in realistic scenarios, promoting skills such as emotional regulation, collaboration, and decision-making. Designed with input from educators and mental health professionals, ESAIAS offers a scalable, inclusive, and anxiety-reducing learning environment.