Prof. Sun Xin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Language Science and Technology, has won the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2026.
The YIRA is a prestigious university-level award that honours young faculty members who have demonstrated originality, contributed to technological advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions addressing global challenges through their research.
Prof. Sun is one of the six awardees among the 60 submissions across all schools and faculties. Her winning research project is titled “Brain Basis of Dyslexia in Chinese-English Bilinguals: Phonological and Morphological Assessments Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.” It introduces a novel, evidence-based neuroimaging approach using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to probe two underlying oral difficulties that are precursors to and associated with dyslexia, phonological and morphological processing. The objective is to characterise the neurocognitive profiles of Chinese-English bilingual children with dyslexia. In the long term, these neurobiological insights have the potential to assist early identification strategies and support the development of targeted interventions for bilingual paediatric populations in Hong Kong and globally.
The YIRA is a prestigious university-level award that honours young faculty members who have demonstrated originality, contributed to technological advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions addressing global challenges through their research.
Prof. Sun is one of the six awardees among the 60 submissions across all schools and faculties. Her winning research project is titled “Brain Basis of Dyslexia in Chinese-English Bilinguals: Phonological and Morphological Assessments Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.” It introduces a novel, evidence-based neuroimaging approach using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to probe two underlying oral difficulties that are precursors to and associated with dyslexia, phonological and morphological processing. The objective is to characterise the neurocognitive profiles of Chinese-English bilingual children with dyslexia. In the long term, these neurobiological insights have the potential to assist early identification strategies and support the development of targeted interventions for bilingual paediatric populations in Hong Kong and globally.
