A column article by Prof. Erwin HUANG, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), on AI billing and the illusion of AI productivity.

During an interview conducted by Phoenix TV host Wu Xiaoli, Prof. SU Hui, Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Ocean Science, and Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), shared her experience of using MUSICO to gather earth data. She described the experience of participating in the space station mission as feeling "like participating in a movie" – a process that left her feeling both thrilled and deeply grateful. As a weather monitoring specialist, Prof. Su expressed a relatively optimistic perspective regarding efforts to mitigate and improve current extreme weather conditions.

A column article by Prof. Christine LOH Kung-Wai, Chief Development Strategist in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), on the lesson of Wang Fuk Court fire, which revealed how accountability disappears within HK’s convoluted building industry. She noted that responsibility cannot be subcontracted, and called on the ICAC, Competition Commission, and the government to resolve these issues with determination.

In an article on zero-carbon power testing HK's grid, Prof. Christine LOH Kung-Wai, Chief Development Strategist in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), was quoted as saying that the government and power companies could introduce a certification system letting businesses buy verified zero-carbon electricity, similar to programs already available in China. She added that improving energy efficiency should be a priority even as cleaner electricity becomes more widely available. Retrofitting older buildings would cut energy use, boost competitiveness, attract investment in technologies, and create opportunities in areas such as green finance and performance-based contracting, she said.

In an article on rainfall in HK, Prof. SHI Xiaoming, Associate Professor in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), was quoted as saying that mesoscale convective systems – clusters of organized thunderstorms that dump rainfall over large areas and extended periods – were also responsible for the abnormally wet month.

In an interview on HOY TV's "InnoAction" program, Prof. QU Huamin, Dean of AIS, stated that the school is breaking down disciplinary barriers through innovative initiatives such as "expanded majors", an AI English learning system, and an AI film festival. These efforts aim to cultivate cross-disciplinary talents equipped with both technological and humanistic literacy to meet societal needs.

Prof. HAN Sirui, Assistant Professor in the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA), Department of Economics and Division of Arts and Machine Creativity (AMC); Individualized Interdisciplinary Program (IIP) PhD Student YUAN Rubin, along with research team members from HKUST and other collaborating institutions, has proposed the HDR, a denoising method built on a hierarchical tree structure. This approach combines global inference planning with streaming generation speed, yielding a 76% boost in video inference success rates over existing streaming methods while outperforming bidirectional diffusion models by 54 times in speed.

A column article by Prof. Erwin HUANG, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), on whether job cuts are essential and effective for cost reductions in AI-driven corporate transition.

At a policy briefing, Prof. Shun Chi-Ming, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), warned that the compounding effects of climate change and the strengthening El Nino are set to drive global temperatures to unprecedented highs this year and next. He cautioned that HK will face more frequent heatwaves, heavy downpours and typhoons.

SIGGRAPH 2026, a top international conference in computer graphics accepting the research paper "Controllable Texture Tiling via Diffusion Transformers with Transformed Rotary Embeddings" – co-authored by HKUST, CityU and Manycore Tech. The paper introduces a new approach based on Transformed RoPE diffusion models, which precisely controls texture scale and direction, enhancing AI's understanding of materials and space. This has a significant impact on computer graphics and robotics training. Prof. FU Hongbo, Acting Head and Professor in the Division of Arts and Machine Creativity (AMC), is one of the authors of the research.