Outstanding PhD student and graduates of the Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) were recognised for their achievements recently. Two of them won tickets to becoming future leaders in the innovation and technology (I&T) sector thanks to their talent and outstanding leadership skills. In addition, EE PhD students and graduates garnered four awards in the IEEE (HK) AP/MTT Postgraduate Conference, including first prize in the Antenna and Propagation Student Paper Award. 

Dr Leung Ho-chun, PhD graduate in 2020, and Mr Tommy Law Chun-kit, graduate in 2020, are two of eight students selected for the first cohort of the “Technology Leaders of Tomorrow Programme” organised by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) InnoAcademy. 

This highly competitive programme, which attracted over 600 applicants from the world’s top 50 universities, offers young talent a package of tools and support during the 26-month period of training. The aim is to prepare them to be future leaders in the local I&T sector.

During the first phase of the programme, which is a two-month internship, Dr Leung was assigned to the artificial intelligence (AI) cluster in which his team provided expert opinion on start-up companies in project management and product development. 

“I learned soft skills such as networking, leadership and overall project planning and the programme gave me a clearer understanding of the entrepreneurial mindset in Hong Kong’s I&T ecosystem,” said Dr Leung, who believes his newly gained experience together with his skillsets and solid knowledge acquired from EE are prerequisites for a successful leader in the sector.

After the internship period, he embarked on a 24-month full-time placement at one of HKSTP’s partner companies specialising in the research, development and manufacturing of consumer electronic products, an area related to Dr Leung’s research during his PhD.

“I am so glad that I can continue to contribute my knowledge to this field,” he said. “I hope to be a project manager in the near future.”

After studying on CityU’s 4-year of curriculum, which offers in-depth learning and opportunities offered by passionate faculty keen to enrich students’ experience by building collaboration with the industry, Mr Law’s enthusiasm in the local I&T sector has grown even further.

“I believe the prospects for Hong Kong’s I&T industry are promising,” said Mr Law. “Many local start-ups are thriving and we have the capabilities to benefit the world with our innovative technology.” 

The HKSTP’s programme has offered Mr Law the opportunity to advance towards his goal. Having interned in the electronic cluster and now working full-time at a semiconductor manufacturer, he learned how to conduct market research on consumer trends and develop prototypes for AI products, particularly those related to healthcare.

“I hope this experience will prepare me for a managerial role in the sector and ultimately that I will be well-equipped to launch my own start-up in the future. This will give me great satisfaction to develop innovative products and improve people’s lives,” he said.

 

Separately, Kong Shangcheng, Year 2 PhD student in EE, won the first prize in the Antenna and Propagation Student Paper Award at the IEEE (HK) AP/MTT Postgraduate Conference. 

In his paper, he presents a terahertz on-chip antenna with wide impedance and gain bandwidths that exploits the inherent semi-conducting substrate in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technologies to construct a rectangular dielectric resonator. This technology can greatly expand bandwidth and improve gain, and can be applied to imaging, defect detection, and communication after 5G.
 
Other CityU EE awardees at the conference included the second prize winner Li Yuanlong, student and Dr Zhu Shuyan, Research Associate; third prize winner To Yat-sing, student and Dr Lin Quanwei, Postdoctoral Fellow; as well as Yang Ye and Pan Yufei, students, and Dr Zheng Shaoyong, graduate, who won the second prize in the Microwave Theory and Techniques Student Paper Award.