News & Stories

Benedict YUEN, our BBA Marketing 2012 graduate, is instantly recognizable in Hong Kong from his work as a TV anchor and a KOL (key opinion leader) on social media. This is all on top of having a talent and production company and hosting his own travel TV show, where he went everywhere from Russia to South Africa, in addition to starting his catering businesses.

Researchers of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed a novel geo-fencing technology, offering a smart core solution that helps save the government’s manpower in monitoring those under compulsory home quarantine amid the novel pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreak. With the pandemic spreading quickly across the globe, the Hong Kong government has issued quarantine order on people entering the city from all overseas countries and territories.  As a compliance measure, people under quarantine have been required to regularly report their current real-time locations via instant messaging applications or answer surprise video calls from communication centers.  This approach incurs high monitoring cost to the government, and brings much inconvenience to the home confinees.

Fion LEUNG, a 2010 business administration graduate at HKUST, knew she would not want a long-term career in the financial sector while she was working as an analyst at a global investment bank. Rather, getting more people into volunteering and nurturing children and young people gave her much more satisfaction than advancing her coveted career. She soon branched out and pursued entrepreneurship based around what she thought was meaningful, and sought greater exposure and ideas together with her friend WONG Suet-Yi. While attending networking events to make useful contacts and more friends on the same wavelength, both young ladies felt awkward about approaching industry leaders. And they realized that their feelings were common, like her peers, being fresh out of college and also desperate to build a career but having no mentors they could ask for advice.

Graduated with a BSc in Mathematics in 2011, Lancelot SHIR has taken a sweet and varied journey in life. A few years after graduation, Lancelot already had success with his first business — a tutorial center teaching mathematics — which he funded with two years of hard work of working. As a local rock star tutor, it could have been all maths for Lancelot with his tutorial business achieving great results. However, he encountered a health problem in 2017 due to massive work pressure, and his life took an unexpected turn.  “I was suffering from a stomach problem and a friend of mine suggested I used raw honey to treat the problem. It worked a treat and I was suddenly catapulted into the world of honey and bees – I couldn’t stop learning and it changed my life,” he says.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has set up HKUST Entrepreneurship Fund (“E-Fund”) to support the development of startups at HKUST – especially those in their early stage.  The fund seeks to facilitate knowledge transfer, promote entrepreneurial spirit among HKUST stakeholders, and bring about social and economic impact.   With an initial funding of HK$50 million committed by the University, E-fund is expected to invest into HKUST startup companies for the next five years. Donation in support of entrepreneurship in innovation and technology can also be allocated to the fund.  Selected companies may receive up to HK$2 million of investment from HKUST in support of activities including research and development, as well as business and market development. Startups featuring innovative technologies and/or business models would have advantages of being selected.

Three teams comprising students, alumni and staff of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) stood out among over 100 competing teams and garnered the top three prizes in the HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2019 (competition).  They will compete with the finalists from six different cities in the Grand Final to be held in Nansha in September. 

Have you ever struggled to catch a minibus to or from campus? It’s why a new “Finding Mini” app has been developed by HKUST alumni Jason Yuen, Simon Tsang, and current student Gash Tsui. “We deploy GPS module on each minibus, and sophisticated data algorithms developed by ourselves, with factors including weather, fluctuations of traffic, and real-time traffic conditions,” says Simon. While KMB buses already had an app for arrival times, the green minibuses did not. “We were very frustrated by this situation, because we could not compare arrival times between the double decker and minibus arrival times in Choi Hung, and the stops are on different ends of the street,” says Jason.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) expanded its eighth annual One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition to two more cities in China, making the total number of cities holding this competition to seven. Meanwhile, HKUST will introduce new initiatives for its one million dollar entrepreneurship competition in Hong Kong this year, in a bid to enhance diversity and experience of the participants, as well as facilitating public engagement in this contest.