HKUST Boundless Article

We all know the frustration of a degrading smartphone battery, but the physical reason behind it is a microscopic battle. 

As global demand for high-energy lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and electronics surges, engineers are turning to nickel-rich cathodes. Yet these high-capacity materials suffer a fatal flaw: the constant swelling and shrinking during charging-discharging create immense internal stress. Over time, this dynamic pressure causes the battery particles to crack and fail, severely limiting their lifespan. 

Imagine a smart city where millions of autonomous vehicles, medical monitors, and industrial sensors are constantly exchanging data. Today’s wireless networks are built to deliver this data as accurately as possible. But in the near future, this sheer volume of information could create a serious bottleneck.

A research team at HKUST has proposed a groundbreaking framework for tackling this problem, one that seeks to teach machines to think before they speak.

Every time an air conditioner springs into action, it quietly fights a two-pronged battle: one against soaring energy demand and another against the planet’s climate. 

That’s because traditional vapor-compression systems in such air-cons rely on energy-intensive processes and climate-altering refrigerants, making them a paradox of modern comfort. 

For years, medical AI has faced a dilemma: “generalist” models are flexible but lack pinpoint diagnostic precision, while “specialist” models are highly accurate but too narrow and costly to scale. 

Now, a breakthrough from HKUST has elegantly solved this puzzle, paving the way for AI to enter everyday clinical workflows seamlessly and safely. The vision of a hospital where AI collaborates like a seasoned medical board is now one step closer to reality.

When a city pledges to go green, it is tempting to imagine building an invisible environmental wall around its borders. But the atmosphere does not read metropolitan maps. As a team of HKUST researchers has shown through recent research, the most pressing climate challenge of our time lies in the complex web of emissions that inextricably links local sustainability to the actions of urban centers around the world.

Every day, the world's industries and municipalities discharge vast quantities of wastewater laced with organic pollutants that threaten ecosystems and public health. The conventional response—advanced oxidation processes—demands large volumes of chemical oxidants, removes only a fraction of total organic carbon, and often generates toxic by-products. It is, in essence, a destructive approach to a problem that demands precision.

Covering more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, the oceans regulate our climate, sustain marine ecosystems, and support life on a global scale. However, the complexity of the underwater world is often overlooked and taken for granted because so much of it is hidden from view.

This is precisely the challenge that Prof. GAN Jianping and his research team at HKUST set out to confront. 

Floating in microgravity inside China’s Tiangong Space Station, Hong Kong’s first payload specialist, Dr. LAI Ka-Ying, alongside her Shenzhou-23 crewmates, carefully assembled and mounted a compact high-tech payload developed by HKUST on the exterior of the station.

The launch and operational success of “MUSICO”, the Multi-Spectral Imaging Carbon Observatory, brings together two Hong Kong firsts: our first astronaut and the first Hong Kong-developed scientific payload to be deployed on a national space station, representing a unique confluence of Hong Kong talent.