World-leading scholars, industry leaders and policy makers shared insight and knowledge at the online forum “Clean Energy and nuclear safety – 10 years after Fukushima” in March.  Co-hosted by CityU, National Tsing Hua University, Seoul National University, and Tokyo Institute of Technology, the event attracted 2,500 participants from over 20 countries and territories.

Top row (from left): Professor Alex Jen of CityU, President Way Kuo of CityU, Dean Min Lee of National Tsing Hua University.
Middle row (from left): President Chung Ming Kuan of National Taiwan University, Dr Bruce Cheng of Delta Electronics, Chancellor Lih-Jun Chen of University System of Taiwan.
Bottom row (from left): President Ferruccio Resta of Politecnico di Milano, Dr Lin-wen Hu of MIT, Professor George E. Apostolakis, Head of Nuclear Risk Research Centre, Japan; and Professor Emeritus of MIT

Over 140 CityU faculty members are listed among the top 2% of the world’s most highly cited scientists, according to metrics compiled by Stanford University. Compared to faculty size, our percentage of the world’s top 2% most highly cited scientists is among the highest in Asia.

Marking the 1st anniversary since the launch of our innovative online learning platform, which was rolled out in record time in response to the spread of Covid-19, it was revealed that over 220,000 classes have been conducted so far with around 5.8 million visits from 110 countries and regions.

Funding worth RMB21 million has been secured by the Greater Bay Area Joint Laboratory of Big Data Imaging and Communications established by the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) and the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves (SKLTMW). A collaboration with Shenzhen Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Shenzhen University and leading corporations on the mainland, the lab focuses on big data imaging and wireless communications applications, and aims to promote a new generation of information for the advancement of Guangdong and Hong Kong.

(From left) Members of the SKLTMW team: Professor Chan Chi-hou, Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering; Dr Wong Hang, Associate Professor, EE; and Professor Luk Kwai-man, Chair Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Dr Wang Cheng, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, won the Croucher Innovation Award 2020 for his contributions to developing compact, high-performance integrated photonic chips for optical communications, especially for quantum photonics and millimetre-wave and terahertz photonics.

Professor Joe Qin Sizhao, Chair Professor of Data Science, has been elected to the rank of Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, making him the first CityU scholar to receive this distinguished honour while serving at the University.

A bioaerosol research project aimed at developing innovative methods for detecting and disinfecting bacteria and viruses including SARS-CoV-2 in indoor environments has secured HK$6.15 million from the Research Impact Fund under the Research Grants Council. Bioaerosols are very small airborne particles containing living organisms and have been considered one of the possible routes of the spreading of Covid-19.

The new CityU EE Joint Lab was established in January by the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) and six world-renowned technology companies: ASM Pacific Technology Limited, Gold Peak Industries (Holdings) Limited, Microsoft Hong Kong Limited, Sino Group, SmarTone Telecommunications (Holdings) Limited, and SUGA International (Holdings) Limited. The new lab signals cooperation in promoting research and knowledge/technology transfer for steering the development of innovative technology in Hong Kong.

A team co-led by Dr Lu Yang, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and scholars from MIT and Harbin Institute of Technology, has achieved elastic straining of diamond at an unprecedented level, a breakthrough that heralds a new diamond age in the utilisation of the gemstone in microelectronics, photonics, and quantum information technologies. The research results show that a microfabricated single-crystalline diamond tensile sample can attain a maximum uniform elastic strain of up to 9.7%, close to the theoretical limit.

Australia’s famed marsupial can intentionally communicate with humans, challenging the notion that such behaviour is usually restricted to domesticated animals like dogs and horses, according to studies led by Dr Alan McElligott, Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour and Welfare at the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, in collaboration with the University of Roehampton and the University of Sydney.

A team co-led by Professor Yan Hong, Chair Professor of Computer Engineering and the Wong Chun Hong Professor of Data Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering, and other scholars has developed a novel computer tool that can extract, track and visualise cells, and analyse the formation, structure and functions of Caenorhabditis elegans (a type of worm) during cell division. The research can help scientists better understand cancer and find a possible cure by enabling them to learn how an animal’s body and organs are formed through cell division.

Distinguished scholars, leading figures from industry and professional bodies, as well as government officials shared their insights at a symposium titled “Global Connectivity, Opportunities and Challenges: Hong Kong and ETCZs along B&R (Belt & Road)” organised by the Research Centre for Sustainable Hong Kong at CityU in January. The event, attended by over 220 guests from around world, was funded by the HKSAR Government under the “Professional Services Advancement Support Scheme” and is a collaboration with various professional bodies.

The energy consumption of a new artificial visual system developed through joint research led by Professor Johnny Ho Chung-yin, Associate Head in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, can be reduced by over 90% per synaptic event when compared to synapses in the human brain.

A research team led by Dr Sam Hsu Hsien-yi, Assistant Professor in the School of Energy and Environment at CityU, has developed novel lead-free bismuth-based hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites with a semiconductor heterojunction structure. The new technology can improve the efficiency of solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion by three-fold.

Divided into three parts, the book first examines theories and research on cross-national differences in stalking among college students, ex-partner stalking in Finland, cyberstalking victimisation in Singapore, the heterogeneity of stalking and stalkers in Australia, public familiarity and understanding of stalking/harassing legislation in Australia, the UK, and the US, and more. The second part focuses on national portraits of stalking in a number of understudied populations. The third part emphasises policy and best practice, including the Dutch model of policing stalking, risk assessment and management of stalking in Sweden, psycho-legal responses to online interpersonal harm, the German approach to stopping stalking, the UK’s response to assessing and managing stalking, and the work of the Danish Stalking Centre.  This book received the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2020 Award by the American Library Association.

By examining a range of texts that were written in the flux of travel – including poems, novels, autobiographies – this study argues that the tumultuous social and political context of China’s Republican Period (1912–1949) was a key setting for conceptualising cultural modernity in global and transnational terms. In contrast with accounts that examine China’s influence on Western modernism through language, translation, and discourse, the book recovers a materialist engagement with landscapes, objects, and things as transcribed through travel, ethnographic encounter, and embodied experience. The book is organised by three themes that suggest formal strategies through which notions of cultural modernity were explored or contested: borderlands, cosmopolitan performances, and mobile poetics. As it draws from archival sources in order to develop these themes, this study offers a place-based historical perspective on China’s changing status in Western literary cultures.