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PhD Thesis Award 2026

The Graduate School establishes the PhD Thesis Award to recognise, reward and promote the distinguished research achievements of graduating PhD students. There are two award classes, namely Outstanding and Merit, recognising students’ performance of different levels.

  • PolyU PhD Thesis Award - Outstanding Award
  • PolyU PhD Thesis Award - Merit Award


Outstanding Award


The research aims to help AI move from conversation to meaningful action, connecting understanding with interaction so that intelligent systems can work alongside people in the digital and physical world.
Liu Ye

STEM Category 

Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (FCMS)

Department of Computing (COMP)

Dr Liu Ye

Thesis Title: Towards Interactive Multi-modal Content Understanding

- For contribution to multi-modal understanding and agentic AI

Chief Supervisor: Professor CHEN Changwen 

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.

Merit Award


The most challenging part is always the most critical. Engineering macrophages to fight cancer taught me that persistence, not perfection, turns ideas into real therapies.
LEUNG Wing Hei

STEM Category

Faculty of Science (FS)

Department of Life Sciences (LS)

Dr LEUNG Wing Hei

Thesis Title: Study on the Therapeutic Efficacy of Glypican-3 Peptide-linked Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Macrophage in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

- For contribution to solid tumor immunotherapy and pre-clinical drug development

Chief Supervisor: Professor LEE Kin-wah, Terence 

Dr Leung's doctoral research addresses a new therapeutic strategy for cancer by engineering macrophages, which are our body's "pac-man" cells that can engulf cancer cells and call for T cells to help. By developing a peptide-linking platform, this work offers a practical solution that enables faster, cheaper and more tailor-made treatment for liver cancer patients. Unlike existing CAR-T therapies, this non-viral approach shortens manufacturing time and lowers cost, creating a new treatment window for patients. While the long-term ambition is to treat all cancers, the work first targets solid tumours, which account for up to 92% of malignancies. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates how fundamental immunology and cell engineering can be translated into affordable, scalable therapies with real societal impact.

Understanding how bubbles form and move can help us build better hydrogen technologies. My thesis uses this knowledge to design devices that produce hydrogen more efficiently with affordable electrode materials.
WU Lizhen

STEM Category

Faculty of Engineering (FENG)

Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME)

Dr WU Lizhen

Thesis Title: Bubble Management at High-rate Water Electrolysis for Green Hydrogen Production

- For contribution to green hydrogen production

Chief Supervisor: Professor AN Liang 

Green hydrogen can store energy from renewable electricity and help industries reduce their dependence on fossil fuels. However, producing it efficiently and affordably remains challenging. My thesis investigates a small but important obstacle: gas bubbles that become trapped inside water electrolyzers. During rapid hydrogen production, these bubbles can block water supply and the movement of charged particles, increasing electricity use. I found that removing bubbles can become more important than increasing the surface available for chemical reactions. By combining observations of bubbles of different sizes, artificial intelligence and computer simulations, I linked bubble behavior to device performance. These findings guided the design of inexpensive stainless steel electrodes and separate pathways for bubble removal and water supply. The designs help bubbles escape and water reach reaction sites. This work offers practical ways to reduce energy losses and material costs, supporting affordable green hydrogen production for energy storage and cleaner industrial processes.

My research contributes to developing teaching practices that improve the language and cultural competence of professionals who have to conduct business with stakeholders from around the world.
PELTONEN Lucas John

Non-STEM Category

Faculty of Humanities (FH)

Department of English and Communication (ENGL)

Dr PELTONEN Lucas John

Thesis Title: Cultivating Linguacultural Competence in Business English Communication: A Mixed Methods Intervention Study

- For contribution to applied linguistics and business English pedagogy

Chief Supervisor: Professor HU Guangwei 

Employment is often the top-cited reason for learning English worldwide, yet employers globally report enormous English language skills gaps between what is required and what applicants and employees possess. For internationally operating business professionals, effective communication requires both language and cultural (linguacultural) competence. Addressing this challenge, a teaching experiment was conducted, designed to bridge the gap between workplace needs, academic research, and classroom practice. Theoretically, this study introduces a novel framework to develop professionals’ linguacultural competence. Methodologically, this is the first teaching experiment of its kind conducted with business professionals. Pedagogically, this study demonstrates how linguacultural competencies can underpin curricular adaptation and assessment design. Societally, this study contributes to optimising workplace communication, which leads to improved employability, higher salaries, cohesive work teams, organisational performance, and international expansion. A pioneering implementation of business English teaching and learning, this research provides a foundation for preparing learners for contemporary, global workplace communication.

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