News & Stories

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was honored to welcome H.E. Dr. Jae-Ho CHUNG, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to China, and his delegation to our campus on December 1. Dr. Chung has a significant affiliation with HKUST, as he has been a respected scholar and notable former faculty member of the Division of Social Science. Accompanied by Prof. Kellee TSAI, Dean of Humanities and Social Science, Dr. Chung toured our state-of-the-art library and the School of Humanities and Social Science. Additionally, he engaged in a dynamic dialogue session with our Korean students and faculty members, sharing his unique insights from his remarkable career and gathering feedback from the Korean community on campus.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) warmly welcomed nine members of the China Manned Space delegation, who visited the University today and engaged in lively exchanges and discussions with about 400 faculty and students on topics related to space exploration. 

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) warmly welcome the delegation from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the premier agency for fundamental science in Europe and a distinguished French state-funded research institution. The visit, spearheaded by CNRS Chairman and CEO, Prof. Antoine PETIT, took the delegation on a tour of HKUST, starting with The French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC), a public research institution within our campus.  The journey continued with visits to the Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control and Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution as well as the Joint Laboratory of Innovative Environmental Health Technologies, where the delegation engaged in fruitful exchanges with our exceptional research teams. 

A research team at the School of Business and Management of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST Business School) has developed InvestLM — Hong Kong's first open-source large language model (LLM) for financial generative AI (GenAI) applications, capable of generating investment-related, human-like responses comparable to those of well-known commercial chatbots, including OpenAI's ChatGPT. InvestLM’s model parameters[i] and the insights from its development process have been made publicly available to support industry practitioners and researchers in deploying LLM-related technology.

With the help of HKUST’s exciting satellite remote sensing technology and data advances, School of Engineering faculty are seeking more accurate weather forecasts and greater understanding of climate change to enable more effective planning and decision-making by policymakers, companies and individuals.

A research team led by Prof. Nancy IP, the President and The Morningside Professor of Life Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the Director of the Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (HKCeND), has identified VCAM1, a cell surface protein found on immune cells of the brain, as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), paving the way for developing novel therapeutics to combat this debilitating condition. AD is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 50 million people worldwide. A key pathological hallmark of the disease is the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques in the brain, which leads to progressive decline in cognitive function. Microglia, resident immune cells of the brain, are thought to play a vital role in the clearance of Aβ plaques, a function that is impaired in AD.

In recent years, Hong Kong has experienced a series of extreme weather events. In July 2022, the scorching heat broke 11 records, while in 2023, the city experienced hourly rainfall of 158.1mm, the highest since records began in 1884. An inter-university research team by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) conducted a study on extreme weather events and their impacts on the built environment in Hong Kong, aiming to assess the trends and effects of extreme weather events under the influence of global climate change. Projected increase of 50% in hot nights and over 40% in extreme rainfall in 2040-2049

Prof. YANG Yansong, Assistant Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been selected as a recipient of the 2023 IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) Early Career Award.