HKUST's Sustainable Design Thinking Certificate Program 2025 brought together 28 students from HKUST Clear Water Bay (CWB) and Guangzhou (GZ) campuses for an intensive six-day summer camp from June 2-7, 2025, hosted at the Guangzhou campus. The program offered a rich, immersive experience combining fieldwork, stakeholder engagement, and team-based innovation focused on real-world sustainability challenges.

Supported by the Tung Foundation, this event was co-designed by Dr. ZHANG Rong, Senior Lecturer of the Division of Emerging Interdisciplinary Areas (EMIA), and Mr. Davis BOOKHART, the former Director of the Sustainability/Net-zero Office in 2022, and co-organized by the Sustainability/Net-zero Office and the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) from the CWB campus and the Vice President (Teaching & Learning) Office (VPTLO) from the GZ campus. It has become a signature cross-campus annual event that fosters the connection among students from both campuses. This year’s program featured field visits to the Nansha Fourth Resource Thermal Power Plant and the GAC AION Smart Ecological Factory, providing insights into waste-to-energy processes and sustainable manufacturing.

Students also engaged in comprehensive learning through campus tours that revealed sustainability pain points, expert talks from industry practitioners, and personalized mentorship sessions. Through design thinking workshops led by Dr. Zhang, along with a life cycle analysis lecture from Dr. Meike SAUERWEIN, Lecturer of the Division of Environment and Sustainability (ENVR), students synthesized these diverse learning experiences and transformed their observations into actionable prototypes while mastering the design thinking methodology.

The program culminated with seven innovative team presentations. The winning "Mosquito Avengers" developed a sensor-driven mosquito repellent station, while other notable solutions included a cross-border emotion support system and an AI-powered smart recycling bin with integrated cleaning capabilities.

Winners of the final presentations:

• ·      1st Place: Mosquito Avengers (Sensor-Driven Mosquito Repellent Station)
• ·      2nd Place: Yi Shot Down the Suns (Cross-border Emotion Tree Hole)
• ·      3rd Place: reSORC Warriors (Smart AI-Sorting Recycling Bin with Rinsing & Drying Station)
• ·      Best Prototype Award: UGYear1s (Beach-Cleaning Robot)

This week-long experience provided an excellent platform for students to collaborate across campuses, combining hands-on learning with industry exposure while fostering sustainable innovation and meaningful connections at HKUST.