News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)’s inaugural “HeadStart@HKUST Program” (HeadStart) aims to offer first and second year undergraduate students a “head-start” in the increasingly global and competitive society through an early workplace immersion and career development scheme. Initiated by HKUST Council Members Catherine Leung, Prof Jack Lau and Prof May-yi Shaw, Assistant Professor of Humanities Education of the Division of Humanities, the program was launched in February. Unlike common internship programs, HeadStart consists of three components – Internship, Mentorship, and Fellowship – that are designed to provide students with a holistic workplace training and career enrichment experience.

Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have fabricated microscopically-small lasers directly on silicon, enabling the future-generation microprocessors to run faster and less power-hungry - a significant step towards light-based computing. The innovation, made by Prof Kei-may Lau, Fang Professor of Engineering and Chair Professor of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara; Sandia National Laboratories and Harvard University, marks a major breakthrough for the semiconductor industry and well beyond.

The School of Engineering (SENG) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) successfully organized its first-ever Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship Youth Camp for secondary school students from 8 to 12 August. The 5-day camp provides the participants a broad overview and understanding of entrepreneurship and enables them to have a taste of entrepreneurship through a team project to formulate the business plan of a technology product.

An HKUST student is capitalizing on her award-winning equestrian skills to succeed in the university’s competitive mechanical engineering program. Second-year HKUST MECH student Oi Man Leung is not one to rest on her laurels. Less than a week after representing Hong Kong at the 11th World University Equestrian Championship in Flyinge, Sweden, where she took 4th place in the jumping semi-finals on 2 July, she was making her mark in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Competing on 8 July in the Young Riders Class at the Concourse de Saut International, an international equestrian show-jumping event, Leung garnered two top awards, a Silver and a Gold, despite having to compete on an unfamiliar horse. “Being an athlete has taught me to persevere in tough situations and to never be afraid of challenges, however difficult they may be,” she explains.

Dare to challenge yourself with new environment, new people and totally different culture? Isha CHATURVEDI paid a lot effort to overcome homesick and cultural shock and now is engaged in the University than anyone else, see how HKUST has transformed her in 3 years’ time. Isha CHATURVEDI, Year 3, BSc in Environmental Management and Technology

There is much more than academic achievement for a fruitful University life. We believe taking part in sports, music and art help students to boost active learning and living. The story of Raymond Sumitra Lukman set a good example of making a balance between chasing his swimming dream and pursuing study or even career. Raymond Sumitra Lukman from Indonesia is a true champion – the Year 1 School of Science undergraduate recently won HKUST sports team’s first gold medal at the University Sports Federation of Hong Kong (USFHK) annual aquatic meet for 21 years. Let’s find out more about his swimming achievements and his life at the University. When did you start swimming competitively, and what is your specialist event?

Education does not only take place in classrooms. At HKUST, we encourage students to understand the world better by taking a step closer to those who are underprivileged. After visiting Fresh Fish Traders’ School, Tan Jing Jing from SHSS would like to share reflections about her feelings and learnings in this visit. TAN Jing Jing, SHSS, Year 1 I was very pleased that I could take part in “Back to School Tour: Visit to Fresh Fish Traders’ School” which was held by Student Housing Residential Life Office on 13 November 2015. Different from other voluntary activities, this time we had the chances to come up with creative ideas to interact with the local primary students. After joining this activity, I got some insight and understood the lives of local primary school students. More importantly, I have enhanced the skills of organization and communication which equipped me better for the future.

Solar Energy is well known as a mature technology for renewable energy, yet its popularity of daily life usage is low given its high set up and maintenance cost. A newly invented product by Sundial Technology may help to change this perception and encourage wider usage. Formed by four HKUST students and advised by Prof Zhiyong Fan from the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Sundial Technology invented an anti-reflection and self-cleaning film for solar panel. The self-cleaning feature is applied from “Lotus Effect”, where dirt particles are picked up by water droplets due to the micro and nanoscopic architecture on the surface. The team estimated the cleaning of dirty solar panels claims about HK$15.6 billion in monetary term and 90 billion kilowatt-hour of energy in Mainland China every year, They said the nanomaterialfilm they invented would offer a solution to such huge losses in cost and efficiency.