An international interdisciplinary research team led by Prof. Richard GU Hongri, Assistant Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), has made a groundbreaking discovery - friction can manifest even without physical contact. This opens avenues for developing wear-free technologies and reshapes our understanding of the fundamental rule governing everyday activities from walking to braking a car. The study titled "Nonmonotonic Magnetic Friction from Collective Rotor Dynamics" was recently published in the leading international journal Nature Materials. (Various media)

An article by Prof. Christine LOH Kung-Wai, Chief Development Strategist in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), on Hong Kong offering stability in an uncertain world. She argued that as global "unthinkables" – such as the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the weaponization of currencies, and deep internal divisions in Western powers – become normalized, Hong Kong’s relative stability is becoming a premium asset.

An article by Prof. Christine LOH Kung-Wai, Chief Development Strategist in the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), examines a significant divergence in global climate leadership, highlighting a dramatic “U-turn” in United States policy in contrast to China’s accelerated commitment to a green economy.

A column article by Prof. Erwin HUANG, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), on the reshuffling of human roles amid the emergence of AI coding agents. As AI takes over coding, testing, and self-correction, Prof. Huang identified three human skills that become more critical – problem framing, architectural thinking and editorial oversight.

HKUST showcased its award-winning inventions, which were recognized at the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva. During the showcase, three teams from the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) that received Gold Medals with Congratulations of the Jury introduced their award-winning projects, including "AI-powered Home Healthcare Management System for COPD Patients", "AeroRelief: Autonomous UAV First-responder System", and "Articulator.ai: One-stop Platform for Gen-AI Creation and Art ID Registration".

Prof. RAO Anyi, Assistant Professor in the Division of Arts and Machine Creativity (AMC) and the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA), has collaborated with JD.com and HKU to develop the Astrolabe framework. By leveraging proactive reinforcement learning, streaming training and multi-dimensional rewards, the framework improves the speed and quality of AI video generation, overcoming the problems of frame jitter and sequence coherence.

At YAO Jianwei's Annual Ink Exhibition kicked off last Saturday, Prof. NING Zhi, Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS), remarked that Mr. Yao's works deliver a strong visual impact through the fusion of ink and color. He further noted that technological development and art creation are simply different manifestations of creativity and imagination.

At the Xiong'an "AI+" Industry Ecosystem Integration Development Forum held last Saturday, Prof. GUO Song, Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), discussed the intelligent integration development and highlighted Xiong'an's unique advantages in AI development.

An article by Prof. Erwin HUANG, Adjunct Professor in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), on the upgrade of mind maps in the GenAI era from static, hand drawn outlines into dynamic, multi layered visual knowledge interfaces.

Prof. XU Yan, Professor in the Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management (ISOM) and Division of Public Policy (PPOL), and Prof. Timothy SZE Tin-Ngai, Adjunct Associate Professor in PPOL, attended a policy briefing last Sunday about the "15th Five-Year Plan" to discuss the new development opportunities anticipated for HK over the next five years.