News

COMP Students and Alumni Secure Top Honours at Tech Singularity 2026

We are excited to announce that our students and alumni have achieved outstanding success in the Smart Economy in AI Contest at Tech Singularity 2026, organised by the Hong Kong Information Technology Joint Council (HKITJC).   Focusing on innovative solutions for the smart economy supported by AI, cybersecurity, and robotics, the competition aims to drive Hong Kong’s smart environment and digital economy. Following registration opening in June, shortlisted teams earned the prestigious opportunity to showcase their projects to over 500,000 visitors at the Hong Kong Computer & Communications Festival before receiving one-on-one mentorship from industry experts to compete for final honours.   Out of over 50 submissions across Hong Kong and competing among 11 elite finalist teams, our COMP teams brought home both the Gold Prize and the Bronze Prize in the Tertiary Student Category.   Gold Prize (Tertiary Student Category): Project CUBIK Project CUBIK leverages artificial intelligence and computer vision to address critical real-world challenges at the intersection of aviation logistics and food waste reduction. It aims to provide insights that help airlines make informed decisions about meal quantities, portion sizes and menu design, supporting cost savings, waste reduction and a better passenger experience with minimal disruption to cabin crew workflows. Born from a winning idea at the Cathay Hackathon, the concept is now being further explored at Cathay Pacific. Project Collaborating Students: (Project Lead) CHENG Wui Sum Wilson – Year 5 Student, PolyU Department of Computing ANG Hao Chi Brian – 2026 Graduate, PolyU Department of Computing LAU Wing Wai – 2026 Graduate, PolyU School of Design NG Tsz Long – The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology XU Siu Yuk - The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Bronze Prize (Tertiary Student Category): Project SAFERIN Project SAFERIN is a one-stop intelligent elderly care monitoring platform designed to address population aging and healthcare manpower shortages. Serving as an advanced AI-powered call bell and companion system, SAFERIN integrates non-invasive IoT sensors for real-time fall prevention, interactive companionship, and automated triage routing. Project Collaborating Students: (Project Lead) LAI Sin Yi – Alumna, PolyU Department of Computing CHEOK Chi Chon – Year 3 Student, PolyU Department of Computing LI Jiahui – Year 3 Student, PolyU Department of Computing LI Zhengyang – Year 3 Student, PolyU Department of Computing SHENG Ziru – Year 3 Student, PolyU Department of Computing CHAN Yee Tung – Year 4 Student, PolyU Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence FOK Man Ho – University of Hong Kong  MA Ying Hin – The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

COMP Undergraduate Student Team Wins Gold Medal at the 51st ICPC Asia Chengdu Regional Contest

We are proud to announce that our talented students have achieved outstanding results at the 51st International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Asia Chengdu Regional Contest. Demonstrating exceptional technical skill, problem-solving ability, and teamwork, the team secured a Gold Medal, marking PolyU’s second regional Gold Medal in the contest's history following our breakthrough win in 2024. The Winning Team:   PENG Maoxuan - Year 1, BSc (Hons) Scheme in Computing & AI ZHANG Haoyue - Year 3, BSc (Hons) Computer Science SUN Hansong - Year 4, BSc (Hons) Computer Science The team was under the coaching and support of our postgraduate student coaches WANG Junyao (Year 3, PhD Student) and ZHANG Haolin (Year 1, MPhil Student), supervised by Prof. Li Bo, our associate professor.   The team leader, PENG Maoxuan, expressed his immense pride and profound thanks towards the coaches. He stated, “We are delighted to win the gold medal at ICPC Chengdu. Over months of preparation, we pushed our limits, strengthened our problem-solving capability and built a robust team rhythm for contests. On the contest stage, we collaborated closely. United by ingenuity and driven by perseverance, we claimed this gold for our university. PolyU’s coaching gave us invaluable direction and resources throughout this journey, enabling us to fully realise our potential and deliver this winning performance. We will keep striving to win honour under our coaches’ guidance in future.”   The International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is widely recognised as the oldest, largest, and most prestigious algorithmic programming competition in the world. Operating across a rigorous multi-tiered competition structure from local qualifiers to regional contests and the World Finals, the competition challenges university teams to solve complex real-world algorithmic problems within a strict five-hour limit. Success demands not only deep mathematical and software expertise, but also outstanding collaboration and composure under intense pressure.

21 COMP Academic Staff Recognised Among World’s Top 2% Scientists 2026 by Stanford University and Elsevier

We are proud to announce that 21 of our academic staff have been named among the World’s Top 2% Scientists 2026, 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 20 scientific fields and 174 subfields, drawn from Scopus data provided by Elsevier through the ICSR Lab.   The database features two distinct categories: 1. Career-Long Impact: Assesses cumulative citation metrics across a researcher’s entire academic career up to the end of 2025. 2. Single-Year Impact (2025 Data): Focuses on citations and scholarly influence received during calendar year 2025   Career-Long Citation Impact List (Listed in alphabetical order by surname) Researcher Top ranked Science-Metrix category Prof. AU Man Ho Allen Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. CAO Jiannong Networking & Telecommunications Prof. CHEN Changwen Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. CHUNG Fu Lai Korris Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Qing Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Wenjie Maggie Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Zhenhui Jessie Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LIU Yan Fiona Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. XIAO Bin Networking & Telecommunications Prof. YANG Chenguang Charlie Industrial Engineering & Automation Prof. ZHANG Lei John Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing   Single-Year Citation Impact List (Listed in alphabetical order by surname) Researcher Top ranked Science-Metrix category Prof. AU Man Ho Allen Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. CAO Jiannong Networking & Telecommunications Prof. CHEN Changwen Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. FAN Wenqi Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. HUANG Xiao Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Qing Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Wenjie Maggie Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LI Zhenhui Jessie Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LIU Ninghao Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LIU Yan Fiona Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. LUO Xiapu Daniel Software Engineering Prof. QIN Haotong Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. WU Yujie Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Dr XIA Xianjin Networking & Telecommunications Prof. XIAO Bin Networking & Telecommunications Prof. YANG Bo Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. YANG Chenguang Charlie Industrial Engineering & Automation Prof. YANG Hongxia Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. ZHANG Lei John Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing Prof. ZHENG Yuanqing Networking & Telecommunications

Dr Liu Ye Honoured with PolyU PhD Thesis Award 2026 - Outstanding Award

We are proud to announce that our Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr LIU Ye, has been conferred the PolyU PhD Thesis Award 2026 – Outstanding Award (STEM Category) in recognition of his contribution to multi-modal understanding and agentic AI through his novel graduating thesis.   Established by the PolyU Graduate School, the PhD Thesis Award recognises, rewards, and promotes the distinguished research achievements of graduating PhD students, with the "Outstanding Award" representing the highest level of recognition.   Thesis Title: Towards Interactive Multi-modal Content Understanding Chief Supervisor: Professor CHEN Changwen, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Chair Professor of Visual Computing   The thesis advances the transition from conversational AI to agentic AI: intelligent systems that can understand their surroundings, make informed decisions and take action. It develops a framework connecting perception, reasoning and interaction, enabling AI to actively seek information and use what it learns to guide its next step. This brings society closer to AI assistants that can handle unfamiliar situations and help people accomplish complex tasks. The research provides foundations for more capable and efficient AI, with technologies already adopted in products from Tencent, vivo and Huawei. Its openly shared models, software and datasets also support innovation across the research community and industry. Looking ahead, these advances could enable assistants that operate digital tools and robots that interact with the physical world. By connecting understanding with purposeful action, this work contributes to a future in which AI plays a more useful role in how people work, learn and live.

Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Scholarships and COMPUTHON 2026 Awards Presentation Ceremony

Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Scholarships & COMPUTHON 2026 Awards Presentation Ceremony was successfully hosted yesterday to celebrate the achievements of outstanding students and recognise their excellence in academic performance and capstone projects, as well as innovative applications of computing technologies showcased through COMPUTHON 2026, a competition tailored for COMP undergraduate and taught postgraduate students.   The ceremony commenced with opening remarks by Prof. CAO Jiannong, Vice President (Education) of PolyU. Prof. Cao expressed the University’s heartfelt gratitude to the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust for its generous and unwavering support of PolyU students. Through its donations over the past two academic years, the Trust has provided valuable opportunities to students and made a meaningful difference to their educational journeys and future aspirations.   Following the opening address, Ms Angela AU, Executive Director of the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust, delivered an uplifting speech. Ms Au congratulated the awardees on their achievements and commended their hard work, creativity and commitment in developing their projects and innovative ideas. She encouraged all students to continue seizing these opportunities to push boundaries and create impact.   Following the speeches, the awards were presented to honour the scholarship recipients and competition winners. A special highlight of the ceremony featured sharing sessions by the three champion teams of COMPUTHON 2026—Lumina Starlight, Anti-DDL Team, and EduSign Speak. The representatives showcased their winning projects and shared their rewarding experiences, insights, and feelings on participating in the competition.   The Department extends its warmest congratulations to all scholarship recipients and COMPUTHON 2026 awardees, whose achievements demonstrate their academic excellence, innovative spirit and commitment to creating positive impact through computing. We also express our deepest appreciation to the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust for its continued support in empowering our students to pursue their aspirations, develop innovative solutions and contribute to society.   Scholarship Awardee Au Bak Ling Charity Trust BSc in Computer Science Scholarship WANG Youkang Au Bak Ling Charity Trust BSc in Enterprise Information Systems Scholarship ZAIDI Syed Muhammad Askar Hussain Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Capstone Project Scholarship BAI Haoran WONG Tsz Fung Victor CUI Zhaoyu   Prize Team Name Team Members COMPUTHON 2026 (Undergraduate Stream) - Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Undergraduate Competition Prize Champion (HK$60,000) Lumina Starlight WANG Youkang 1st Runner Up (HK$20,000) Co-Student CHEUNG Tsz Lok YEUNG Tsz Lok YEUNG Cheuk Hin CHENG Wui Sum EduNova WONG Kin Chung WANG ShanBo CHEUK Chak Kai 2nd Runner Up (HK$10,000) Ho L Team CHUNG Shing Kit CHUA Wai Shun Podex LIAN Jiongning CHAI Wenchang DING Honghe DAI Yuhang SHEN Zitong Kraken MOK Ka Kit CHAN Ying Wai NG Ka Yi LO Yik Sze YUEN Yiu Yeung COMPUTHON 2026 (Postgraduate Stream) -  Au Bak Ling Charity Trust Postgraduate Competition Prize Champion (HK$60,000) Anti-DDL Team SHI Yunze EduSign Speak CHEN Yujing LI Zimeng ZHOU Siyu

Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2026

We are proud to announce that two staff members of our department have been recognised with the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2026, presented by the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FCMS), for their exceptional contributions to teaching and research.   Award Recipients: Prof. YANG Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence (PAAI), Vobile Group Professor in Generative Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and Chair Professor of Generative Artificial Intelligence Individual Award in Research and Scholarly Activities Prof. Yang is a world-renowned AI scientist who brings extensive expertise to the university. Prior to joining PolyU, she held senior leadership positions at leading global technology companies, including Alibaba Group and ByteDance. Her research at PolyU is currently at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, where she advocates a decentralised approach to technology. She has published over 150 papers in leading conferences and journals, and holds more than 50 patents. She has received numerous prestigious awards, including the highest honor of the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) — the Super AI Leader (SAIL) Award, the Second Prize of the 2020 National Science and Technology Progress Award, the First Prize of the Chinese Institute of Electronics Science and Technology Progress Award in 2021, and both the Forbes China Top 50 Women in Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 2022. Since 2023, she has been recognised as an AI 2000 Most Influential Scholar and was named one of the Top 50 Women in AI worldwide by CoinDesk, as well as a WAIC SAIL Top 30 Projects honoree in 2025.   Dr LUI Wing Cheung Richard, Senior Lecturer Individual Award in Teaching Dr Lui has received the Faculty Award in Teaching on multiple occasions throughout his career at PolyU. He is widely recognised for his commitment to educational innovation and excellence in teaching. With extensive experience in developing educational platforms and adopting innovative pedagogies, Dr Lui has led numerous UGC-funded projects at the departmental, cross-departmental, and institutional levels. These initiatives have focused on innovative learning pedagogies, game-based learning, cloud-based virtual laboratory platforms for software engineering and data analytics education, and GenAI-powered intelligent tutoring systems. His projects were shortlisted as finalists at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2024 and received the Silver Award in the "AI in Education" category at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2025.   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. ZHANG Lei Honoured with 2026 Frontiers of Science Award by the International Congress of Basic Science

We are proud to announce that Prof. ZHANG Lei John, Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis, has been honoured with the prestigious 2026 Frontiers of Science Award presented by the International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS). This accolade recognises his outstanding research and major contributions to the field of image processing and computer vision.   Prof. Zhang was recognised in the “Information Sciences and Engineering” category for his paper “Beyond a Gaussian denoiser: residual learning of deep CNN for image denoising” published in IEEE Transactions on Image Processing (2017). He shares this distinction with co-authors from Harbin Institute of Technology, ULSee Inc., and Xi’an Jiaotong University.   Prof. Zhang’s research interests focus on computer vision, image and video analysis, and deep learning. As of 2026, his publications have attracted more than 130,000 citations. He was named a “Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher” consecutively from 2015 to 2025. He has also served as a (Senior) Associate Editor and (Senior) Area Chair for several top-tier international journals and conferences.   Beyond academia, Prof. Zhang’s research has been successfully translated into commercial products, including OPPO’s flagship smartphone series, the Find X7, X8, and X9.   The Frontiers of Science Award recognises exceptional, original research published over the past decade across Mathematics, Physics, and Information Science & Engineering. To receive this honour, a scientific achievement must be of the highest scholarly value and have made a major global impact in its field.

Prof. Yang Hongxia Elected to the Young Member Section of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering 2026

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Yang Hongxia, Executive Director of the PolyU Academy for Artificial Intelligence (PAAI), Vobile Group Professor in Generative Artificial Intelligence, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and Chair Professor of Generative Artificial Intelligence at COMP, has been elected to the Young Member Section (YMS) of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (HKAE) for 2026.   The YMS is a prestigious platform that recognises and empowers young engineering professionals under 45 who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of engineering and science in Hong Kong. Members are entrusted with promoting innovation, fostering academic-industry collaboration, and driving public engagement in engineering. This year, 20 distinguished professionals were elected by the YMS Executive Team to join the 2026 cohort of Young Members.   Prof. Yang is a world-renowned AI scientist who brings extensive expertise to the university. Prior to joining PolyU, she held senior leadership positions at leading global technology companies, including Alibaba Group and ByteDance. Her research at PolyU is currently at the forefront of the generative AI revolution, where she advocates a decentralised approach to technology. Her outstanding contributions to pioneering engineering advances and innovative development in large-scale AI infrastructure, foundation models, low-bit AI training, and collaborative generative AI systems have earned her this honour.

Successful Conclusion of HumOmni 2026 Challenge: Breakthroughs in Human-Centric Omni-Model Evaluation

We are pleased to announce the successful conclusion of the HumOmni 2026 Challenge, co-organised by PolyU COMP, Huawei, and Peking University from April to July 2026. The competition was the first benchmark dedicated to Human-Centric Omni-Model Evaluation, focusing on contextualised affective speech generation and proactive multimodal interaction in realistic environments, attracting nearly 25 teams from Hong Kong, mainland China, and the United States.   The challenge featured two tracks designed to develop next-generation models in two key areas: Track 1: Empathy-Aware Speech Evaluation (EmpathyEval) – Evaluates how multimodal systems understand human context and paralinguistic cues to produce appropriate affective spoken responses. Track 2: Proactive Multimodal Interaction (ProactivEval) – Assesses proactive multimodal systems on their ability to decide when to respond and what to say during streaming video understanding.   The award ceremony was held on the PolyU campus on 28 August 2026, bringing together researchers, industry leaders, and students for an engaging program featuring keynote speeches, winning team presentations, recruitment opportunities, and the award presentation. Distinguished speakers delivered insightful talks on:   “From world reconstruction, generation, to interaction” by Dr QI Xiaojuan, Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong and a member of the Deep Vision Lab. “Multimodal Large Language Models with Ascend NPUs” by Dr HONG Lanqing, Senior Researcher at Huawei Noah's Ark Lab, Hong Kong.   During the sharing sessions, winning teams presented their novel methodologies, including our MPhil student, LAM Ping Him, who proudly secured two awards: 1st Place in Track 2 (ProactivEval) and 2nd Place in Track 1 (EmpathyEval). Ping Him successfully developed lightweight AI solutions across two distinct challenges:   Track 1 - Voice Empathy Evaluation Built an audio-focused system that evaluates emotional nuance in spoken conversations rather than relying on text. Using WavLM-large to extract voice patterns and track delivery metrics over time, the model accurately judges empathy from tone, pace, and warmth.   Track 2 - Proactive Video Commentary Created a training-free filtering framework that enables an AI assistant to speak only when relevant visual changes occur. It uses a Perception Gate to skip static frames and cut compute costs, paired with a Prompt Ensemble to analyse new scenes from multiple perspectives.   His outstanding performance highlights the Department's commitment to fostering research excellence and innovation in AI and showcases the strength of our students on the international stage.   Click here to read more about HumOmni 2026.

BlockSec Blockchain Security Award Presentation Ceremony 2025/2026

The BlockSec Blockchain Security Award Presentation Ceremony 2025/2026, organised by the Department of Computing (COMP), took place on 5 August 2026 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Generously funded by BlockSec, the award recognises students in the MSc in Blockchain Technology programme who have excelled in the COMP5566 Blockchain and Smart Contract Security course, demonstrating strong academic ability and commitment to blockchain security.   Prof. Yajin ZHOU, Co-founder and CEO of BlockSec, believes security is the foundation of every successful digital economy, and that trust matters more than ever as blockchain becomes integrated into finance and payments. He pointed to Hong Kong's leading role in digital finance, citing the HKMA's work on tokenisation and digital money as proof of the city's forward looking environment for Web3. "Your achievements reflect the qualities we value most, curiosity, excellence, integrity, and responsibility," he told the recipients, adding that the award marks the beginning of an exciting journey toward becoming future leaders and innovators in Hong Kong's digital economy.   Prof. Man Lung Ken YIU, Associate Head (Teaching and Learning) and Professor of COMP, congratulated the awardees and thanked BlockSec for its continued partnership with PolyU. He noted that the MSc in Blockchain Technology programme brings together cutting edge technologies, real world applications, and interdisciplinary collaboration to equip students with practical skills and theoretical foundations. "Industry support like this bridges the gap between academic learning and real world impact, and gives our students a meaningful goal to strive toward," he said, praising how COMP's faculty inspire students to explore independently and turn what they learn into something more meaningful.   Prof. Daniel Xiapu LUO, Programme Leader of the MSc in Blockchain Technology and Professor of COMP, thanked BlockSec for making the award possible year after year. He explained that when Hong Kong's first Master's programme in Blockchain Technology was launched, the goal was to prepare students to ask what could go wrong and how to prevent it. "Security is not an afterthought in this field, it is the foundation on which trust in decentralised systems is built," he said, adding that BlockSec's support sends a message to students that the industry values excellence in this space.   Among this year's recipients, Mr CHIU Yee Lok, who shared his experience in the programme. He thanked BlockSec for sponsoring the award and guidance from our teachers, reflecting that blockchain is "not simply a new technology, but a responsibility," and that digital systems must be secure, reliable, and supported by thoughtful regulation to earn public trust. Drawing on his internship experience, he noted that organisations such as the HKMA are increasingly prioritising Fintech, echoing many concepts from the programme. He called the award "a wonderful surprise" that motivates him as he prepares for a career in Web3 or software development.   COMP congratulates all awardees of the BlockSec Blockchain Security Award and looks forward to their future contributions to the blockchain field. Founded in 2021, BlockSec has been instrumental in advancing blockchain security infrastructure through research and practical solutions, and its continued sponsorship reflects its commitment to nurturing new talent in the field.