Study Experience of MSc

It is a great honor to share with you my study and research experience in EIE in the past two years. I registered 7 subjects in the first year, which enhanced my theoretical background in communication networks, Internet of Things and machine learning, etc. Unlike my previous studies in the Mainland, the subjects are usually a combination of lectures, experiments and group/individual projects, which not only improve the comprehension ability, but also exercise the ability of teamwork and independent research.

I was awarded the MSc studentship after completing the first year of the course and carried out the dissertation for the second year under the supervision of Dr Ivan Ho. My research area focuses on vehicular networks and intelligent transportation system. The dissertation research differs from a rigid schedule of classes, it is more free but requires more self-discipline. The weekly group meetings urged me to update my progress and keep my project corrected and improved in a timely manner.

In the coming year, I will continue to work on my research project as a Research Assistant and hope to make more improvements and achievements in my research. By the way, the school's extracurricular life is also very rich, with sports courts and gyms for exercise, as well as music rooms and swimming pools for entertainment.

Hi, I am Guo Jingtao, a graduate of the MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering (EIE) Programme at PolyU in 2022. I took seven taught courses about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) and one 9-credit dissertation to accomplish my curriculum. This two-year study at EIE is one of the most fulfilling periods of my life. I obtain not only the knowledge taught in the courses but also the ability to critical and independent thinking which is important in conducting a research project and writing a paper. MSc taught courses in EIE provide a variety of learning formats including class teaching, tutorials, group project, laboratory exercises, and oral presentations.

The course study in the first year laid a solid knowledge foundation for my subsequent research work. Due to the excellent academic results of the highest GPA in the first semester and the interest in Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), I got the chance to undertake the dissertation project with the MSc Studentship Project Scheme under the supervision of Dr Ivan Ho. Different from course-based study, academic research project requires strong problem-solving and self-learning abilities. In the beginning, I struggled in finding the best way to read the research papers. After discussing with my supervisor and friends, I gradually understood the tips for reading research papers. My academic ability has greatly improved after finishing the dissertation project and I'm glad that I chose the dissertation project at that time. I suggest every student who has a strong research interest should take the dissertation project.

Hello, my name is Ding Cao, an MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering (Msc in EIE) student who graduated from the EIE Department in 2020 and is working as a full-time Research Assistant at EIE. I chose 7 courses and the 9-credit dissertation to complete my master's degree. During my two years in the EIE Department, PolyU, I have accumulated advanced knowledge of vehicular networks, Internet of things, wireless communications, and information security. 

Because of my strong interest in vehicular networks and autonomous driving system, I conducted a dissertation under the supervision of Dr Ivan Ho. Differ from the teaching course, the dissertation requires a lot of independent study and problem-solving ability. While working on the dissertation, I kept thinking and resolving the related aspects, such as innovation, system structure, programming, presentation, paper organization, etc. It is worth mentioning that the weekly group meeting allows me to put forward the difficulties I encountered in time and get suggestions from my advisor. 

I am grateful towards the support of EIE and PolyU during my study. In the future, I will continue my research work and seek a PhD study opportunity. Through my learning experience, I suggest that students who have great research interests choosing the dissertation of the MSc in EIE prorgramme.

I am Duan Jiawei, a graduate of MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering programme in 2021. Recently, I was honored and humbled to be awarded MSc Studentship. This means a lot to me for recognizing my efforts in the past two years and encouraging me to pursue future academic career with full of confidence. 

In retrospect of my two-year study in EIE, I believe this is one of the most fulfilling periods in my life. In the first year, abundant curricula provided me such a solid foundation for research. More impressively, the teaching staffs in EIE are both academically excellent and extremely responsible. Prof. Lau Chung-Ming, the Subject Lecturer of EIE587 Channel Coding, selflessly provided me with academic planning, where I could glimpse the charm of research.

The second year, however, is full of challenge. I started my research career under the instruction of Dr Hu Haibo, who is warm-hearted and academically rigorous. With his patient guidance, my academic ability has made great improvement. Besides, his modesty always reminds me that learning is a life-long process, and we shall keep working hard.

Now, I am a research staff in CAiRS and will continue to overcome obstacles on the path of research under Dr Hu’s support. I am very grateful for the opportunities that EIE has provided to me.

There was an incredible and fantastic thing to have a chance to study the MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering programme at the EIE Department. The programme offers vast knowledge in 5G, Machine Learning, AI, IoT, and Robotics.  I was fortunate to study here with so many friendly classmates with the help of lots of kindly and generous teachers. 

We studied polar code and planned to devote our knowledge to 5G even 6G. We built distributed multi-agent face recognition system for kindergarten desiring to help parents to protect kids. We trained the quadruped robot based on Deep reinforcement learning for legged robotic control problems.  Those things are so cool and will be the treasure in my life.

I was delighted to receive the MSc Studentship from EIE to support my study and life at PolyU. Now, I am a Research Assistant here, focusing on reinforcement learning and robotics. Thanks to my teachers, classmates, EIE staff, and PolyU again.

In the study, I met so many problems since I never did any experiments related to the optical field. Thus, I always discussed with some lab-mates and read professional books for some knowledge. Meanwhile, in the weekly group meetings, I usually reported my research progress or shared some excellent papers. In this process, I learned more knowledge about optical fiber sensing, and my English skill is also trained.

Finally, I completed my dissertation project successfully and published part of the content at the OECC conference. In addition, I also led our team’s project to join some competitions under the support of Prof. Changyuan Yu. We got the First Prize in the 6th IoT Technology and Application 3S Competition for University Students in China (第六屆大學生物聯網技術與應用「三創」大賽) in 2020 and the Second Prize in the 7th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in 2021. In the future, I will work as a Research Assistant in Prof. Yu’s group. I hope I can further develop myself in the latter research study.

After the first semester study with a high GPA, I got an opportunity to take MSc Studentship Project Scheme with my MSc dissertation. For the latter 1.5 years, conducting research project and writing the paper were my main tasks. Different from the course-based study, academic research requires strong self-learning and problem-solving skills. I spent lots of time to go through relevant papers and understand the principles and algorithms. When facing an issue, I would split it into several aspects and resolve them step by step with the guidance from my supervisor at EIE. That becomes my valuable academic experience, and I am proud of myself who firmly chose the research project at that time.

I obtained language assistance from the English Language Centre and obtained interview guidance offered by the Office of Careers and Placement Services at PolyU, which help me a lot both in my study and career. I am very grateful for the generous dedication and consistent support of PolyU and EIE during my study.

After studying hard in the first semester, I had the opportunity to do my dissertation with a studentship under the supervision of Prof. Lam. Prof. Lam helped me a lot with my problems throughout my dissertation, and offered me much constructive advice. In addition, the group meeting held every week assisted me to keep up with the latest research. Also, I was given a chance to present an interesting paper in a research group meeting, which allowed me to practice speaking in public. During my dissertation, I encountered problems from time to time, which always puzzled me for a while. Nevertheless, through these valuable challenges, I forced myself to work through the problems, and this nurtured in me the valuable habits of reading and thinking.

The academic atmosphere in EIE is strong and I have been greatly enriched in terms of knowledge and working ability. I especially appreciate this learning experience, which taught me how to be positive and face up to challenges. It is definitely a worthwhile experience, and new students are always welcomed in EIE.

Due to the excellent academic results of full GPA, I was offered a studentship to undertake the dissertation under the supervision of Dr. Mak. Compared with the coursework-based study that learning is a passive mode, doing research requires both strong initiatives and learning capabilities. In the progress of accomplishing my dissertation, I encountered lots of issues. However, it was these tough challenges that forced me to dig into the root of the problems and taught me how to think about the same problem from different perspectives. Through this valuable research experience, I have realized that it is of great importance for me to keep learning to strengthen the adaptabilities to rapid advances in new technologies. I strongly recommend new students to choose the dissertation if they are really interested in doing research.

During my studies in EIE, I have enrolled in seven courses which are generally on telecommunications and artificial intelligence. What impressed me most was that each course basically has a mini project. Through accomplishing these projects, you will not only better understand the meaning of those complex formulas and theories, but also gradually learn how to exploit the knowledge to solve practical problems.

After the first semester of fundamental knowledge, I was able to choose the dissertation in the field of autonomous driving in the second and third semesters under the supervision of Dr. Ivan Ho. Dr. Ho helped me a lot and gave me many valuable advices during my research. Especially, the weekly meeting of our group enabled us to get inspirations from each other. In some ways, choosing the dissertation was a bit challenging. However, on reflection, when looking back after one year, I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions that I have made, and it prompted me to make significant progress in research ability. Overall, I am sure that the study experience at PolyU will become great assets to my future.

During these two years, I got the chance to learn the state of the art technology of different fields from different subjects. I also met foreign classmates whom have different cultural backgrounds and some local experienced people from the industry. My social network is therefore expanded. Beside learning from the taught subjects, I had the chance to work on a research project which allowed me to do research on my MSc dissertation. Although I faced different challenges doing this project, I enjoyed working on it since the project enhanced my research experience and skill. It is definitely helpful to my working ability as well as my future study in PhD.

I am XU Siyuan, after the graduation from the MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering programme in 2016, I became a PhD candidate at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Department of Electronic and Information Engineering (EIE), where I investigate High-level Synthesis in Approximate Computing. My supervisor is Dr Benjamin Carrion Schafer.

In September 2014, I was admitted as an MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering programme student in PolyU. In the University, the medium of instruction is English, this frustrated me a lot at the very beginning as I was not used to it. But with the help of classmates and teachers, I finally conquered the problem and I found that I fall in love with PolyU as the University and the EIE Department provides me lots of helps and impetus.

There is a 24-hour studying room in the library where we can discuss with our classmates about the study and free WIFI in the whole University, it is extremely convenient.  Also, I like the sport facilities in PolyU, especially the gym and the swimming pool. They help me to relax and release pressure after study.

When you have questions in the classroom, you can raise your hand immediately and the professor is always delighted to solve your problem. Also, after classes, you can go to the professors’ offices, they are willing to help you no matter for study or life. Therefore, I want to thanks Dr Carrion Schafer. Under his guidance, I have learned not only academically but also personally a lot.

It is my great honor to become a student in PolyU. I am grateful to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering for their generous and consistent support during my master’s study.

Apart from taking taught subjects, I also chose the dissertation track. The Department is very generous to grant me a studentship to support my dissertation work. Learning a topic via writing a dissertation is quite different from course-based learning. Rather than simply attending lectures and finishing assignments, taking dissertation involves more interactions between you and your supervisor. Besides, it requires you to articulate your ideas clearly orally and in written form. Thanks to the patient guidance and the encouragements from my supervisor, I was able to produce some good results and publish an international conference paper at the end of my MSc study. We also received an invitation from the conference organizer to submit an extended version of our conference paper to a special issue of an international journal.

During the time working on my dissertation, I found myself quite enjoying doing research work, and the academic environment in EIE is congenial and vibrant. Therefore, after graduated from the MSc programme, I decided to continue my research in EIE as a research assistant and planned to start my PhD study in August 2016.

In the first semester, I took five subjects in the field of digital signal processing and pattern recognition. The lectures were theoretical and helped me form a firm basic knowledge structure. Those lab sessions were not only closely related with theories but also kept pace with state-of-the-art techniques and products. I found them very useful when I tried to understand and implement complicated algorithms later on in my study and work. Our department has large amount of online and offline resources that make it possible to learn anytime and anywhere.

In the second and third semesters, I was devoted to doing research project and writing my dissertation. My supervisor, Dr Daniel Lun, guided me well through the way. He is a hardworking learned man and always ready to help me solve research problems. We held a meeting every week and took turns to give presentations. I could show what I was doing and ask for suggestions, frequently got inspirations from other group members. Those presentations extended my view and stimulated my passion of researching and exploring. Such an environment of mutual learning helped me progress rapidly. The dissertation offered me a chance to conclude my study and discover promising prospects. I've not only gained professional knowledge, but also achieved communication skills and researching experience.

My name is Jessie Chen, who started the study in the MSc in Electronic and Information Engineering programme in 2013. During two year's study in the EIE Department, I really harvest a lot from the classes and my research work. Through my great effort, I got 3.9 GPA in the first semester and won the chance to take my thesis with full studentship in the latter 3 semesters.

The study life here is totally different from which I have experienced in mainland China. It emphasizes more on understanding rather than just remembering equations. Usually, I spent a lot of time working on the theory of different courses instead of doing numerous exercises. The course here really trains a person's logical thinking ability, critical thinking ability and problem-solving ability. On the other hand, the research work here really tests a student's creativity and perseverance. After your study here, you will find yourself being more mature, confident and intelligent, and being proud of what you have paid out during your study life.

Wish every new comer good luck in the coming semester!

During this programme, I had the opportunity to attend lectures delivered by extremely capable and knowledgeable academics. I have acquired a strong foundation in advanced engineering technologies and practical problem-solving skills through course work, laboratory exercises and mini-projects. The 9-credit dissertation has equipped me with research experience, critical thinking and independent learning ability. I was also delighted to receive a studentship from EIE for taking the dissertation and was honoured to receive the EIE Alumni Scholarship and Type I Scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering.

I am satisfied with my study life at PolyU, which turned out to be full of knowledge and challenges. I feel honoured to be an MSc in EIE graduate and I very much treasure this intensive and diverse learning experience.