At a roundtable session during the International Advanced Air Mobility Expo 2026, Prof. Masaru YARIME, Associate Professor in the Division of Public Policy (PPOL) and Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), stated that the deep integration with AI technology will offer new solutions for the refined management of low-altitude airspace.

Prof. SU Hui, Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Ocean Science, and Division of Environment and Sustainability, left NASA and join HKUST in 2022 through the "Outstanding Innovation and Science Entrepreneurs Program". She has formed an interdisciplinary team together with CIVL Head and Chair Prof. ZHANG Limin and systems engineer Prof. ZHAI Chengxing. The team proposed a research program of "lightweight high-resolution high-precision greenhouse gas point source detector". Under her leadership, the "MUSICO" was developed and successfully deployed to China Space Station – marking a new chapter for HK's aerospace industry. The Government Laboratory held a space science popularization activity from July 6 to 8, explaining the carbon emission monitoring function of the "MUSICO" for 100 teachers and students.

An HKUST research team has developed "ChartCynics", a framework that combines visual diagnostics with OCR data verification to help AI identify deceptive chart techniques, such as inverted axes. After training, it achieved an accuracy rate exceeding 74%, outperforming commercial models such as Google Gemini while maintaining high accuracy for standard charts. Prof. QU Huamin, Dean of AIS, is one of the authors.

During an interview, Dr. Daniel CHUN, Lecturer in the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA) and Division of Arts and Machine Creativity (AMC), introduced the Art ID Authentication Platform. Leveraging blockchain technology, the platform establishes a digital identity verification system for artists, safeguards their copyright interests, and empowers creators to embrace new technologies in the AI era.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.