News & Stories

 Sixty years ago, the whole world was gladly amazed when the first human blasted into space; over the years, hundreds of exploration missions have been deployed to extend our knowledge and understanding of the universe. Of all the space mysteries scientists still hope to solve, black holes remain the strangest and most mysterious phenomena we know so little about. After decades of effort, scientists finally reached a major milestone when they came face to face with a black hole by capturing its first-ever image in 2019, and a more detailed one earlier this year. The ground-breaking images show the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a galaxy about 54 million light-years away from Earth. The black hole's mass is equivalent to 6.5 billion suns.

President Prof. Wei SHYY discusses the role of universities in creating a sustainable future.

Ever since computer science pioneer, Alan Turing, first asked “can machines think?” back in the 1940s, humanity’s concerns about machines capable of acquiring the knowledge it needed to evolve have never faded. With potential applications for Artificial Intelligence (AI) now growing at a near exponential rate, how are we humans coping with the technology’s uncertainties?  A renowned expert in the field of ethical use of AI, Prof. Pascale FUNG here sheds some light on the technology’s many benefits and risks. Her biggest concern is people’s ignorance about AI means we may be doing a disservice to both ourselves and AI. AI creates rather than eliminates jobs

The notable woman engineer reveals how she developed an interest in engineering as a kid, and what drove her to become an engineer in a male-denominated field.

Research shows growing need for sustainability focus in Belt and Road Initiative projects in ASEAN. Chinese companies see diverse strengths of ASEAN market and collaboration the key for success.

The rapid spread of COVID-19 is a global public health challenge. To prevent the escalation of its transmission, China locked down one-third of its cities and strictly restricted personal mobility and economic activities. Using timely and comprehensive air quality data in China, we show that these counter-COVID-19 measures led to a remarkable improvement in air quality. Within weeks, the Air Quality Index and PM2.5 concentrations were brought down by 25%. The effects are larger in colder, richer, and more industrialized cities. We estimate that such improvement would avert 24,000 to 36,000 premature deaths from air pollution on a monthly basis.

President Prof. Wei SHYY contributed an article to the World Economic Forum talking about the collaborative efforts made by HKUST and its fellow allies to fight Covid-19. Below is the full article. With the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) sweeping across continents and affecting many millions, health authorities, policy-makers and scientists, innovators around the world are racing to invent ways to contain the further spread of the virus. It is our unwavering belief that universities are – and should always be – contributing to this collective fight against this and future severe and potentially long-lasting public health crises.

HKUST IEMS Thought Leadership Briefs No. 36