Computer Science Artificial intelligence

Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science at Lingnan University, welcomes the release of Hong Kong’s First Five-Year Plan and the 2026 Policy Address delivered by Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR Government, Mr John Lee, and responds as follows:

Lingnan University has achieved outstanding results in the newly released 2026 ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), with eight subjects on the list, nearly three times as many as last year. Five subjects, including Computer Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering, made the list for the first time, and Artificial Intelligence, which made its debut on the list last year, saw a significant leap in its ranking, breaking into the global top 100 for the first time in the 76th to 100th band. This achievement underscores Lingnan’s dedication to advancing interdisciplinary research in artificial intelligence and data science, and demonstrates widespread recognition from the international academic community.

AI-powered cyborg cockroaches, Undiagnosed kidney disease, Plants as genetic engineers, AI and mental workload, Carnivorous plants confirm Darwin prediction, Moisture conveyor belt and Forever chemicals in furry friends. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Lingnan University recently hosted the Research and Knowledge Transfer Excellence Awards Presentation Ceremony 2026. At the “Excellence Beyond Achievement Where Technology Meets Humanity” ceremony, 53 Lingnan scholars were presented with the Outstanding Researcher Award, the Early Career Researcher Award, and the Research & Knowledge Transfer Fund Award for their exceptional contributions to academic research and knowledge transfer that advance societal development. The University’s overall innovation and technology performance reached new heights in the 2025/26 academic year, with the number of granted patents for research projects increasing sixfold year-on-year to set a new record.

Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, and J.K. Lee Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence at Lingnan University, was recently elected to the Class of 2026 Fellows of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) in recognition of his outstanding academic achievements and remarkable contributions in the field of science. Fellowship of the RSC is one of the highest honours Canada bestows upon scholars and scientists. This year, 105 people worldwide were elected as new Fellows, and Prof Kwong is one of the three scholars in Hong Kong SAR to receive this prestigious recognition. He will attend the induction ceremony in Ottawa in November.

Finding better materials to store hydrogen safely and efficiently is key to clean energy, but AI models trained on incomplete data can recommend candidates that don't actually work in practice. An international team led by Tohoku University, drawing on insight from 69 researchers, has proposed a "physics-aware" framework that combines thermodynamic constraints, reproducible data, and real experimental feedback to make AI-guided materials discovery more reliable. The roadmap could help accelerate the search for practical hydrogen storage solutions to support future clean-energy systems.

Researchers at Tohoku University have combined multiple tools to create an automated, self-improving AI workflow that may improve our search for polymer material candidates so that it is less expensive, less costly, and more environmentally friendly.

Prof Jean-Michel Morel, Chair Professor of the Division of Industrial Data Science at Lingnan University, has been elected a Foreign Member of the Luxembourg Academy of Sciences and Arts (LASA). The honour recognises his pioneering research extending from mathematical foundations to image analysis and industrial data science, and demonstrating the profound contribution of fundamental mathematics to artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, and image analysis, aligning with LASA's mission to foster interdisciplinary exchange.

Validating artificial intelligence performance in radiology studies with demographic subgroups

Lingnan University hosted the “Empower Your Future: Lingnan Postgraduate Orientation 2026” on campus today, 27 August, welcoming about 3,200 new taught postgraduate/doctoral degree and MPhil/PhD programme students for the 2026/27 academic year. To meet the growing demand for professionals in artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and smart manufacturing in the digital era, Lingnan has introduced three new taught postgraduate programmes, bringing the number of offerings to a record high of 50. In addition, the University held its first-ever “Welcome Gathering for Research Postgraduate Students” to help new students adapt more quickly to Lingnan’s academic research environment.

As solid-state electrolyte research grows, so does the amount of data. The problem is that much of it remains scattered across the literature. That is where researchers at WPI-AIMR, Tohoku University, come in — with DigBat, a new platform designed to bring this information together and help map the growing landscape of solid-state electrolyte research. By connecting data from across the field, DigBat can help researchers see relationships more clearly and point toward promising directions for future battery materials research.

Hematopoietic stem cells can transform into any type of blood cell. However, this ability declines as we age. Recent research at Tohoku University uses AI to guide their deep dive into understanding which genes cause aging in stem cells.

Lingnan University held its 2026/27 academic year New Student Orientation (NSO) and Official Welcome for undergraduate students at its Tuen Mun campus today (24 August).

Lingnan University announced the establishment of the innovation and entrepreneurship platform “LU Xcelerator (LUX)” and held its Opening Ceremony today, 21 August. LUX focuses on “AI + X” and the application of agentic AI in different industries, leveraging the unique strength of Lingnan University in data science and interdisciplinary studies. Benefitting from Lingnan’s location near the Northern Metropolis, LUX will spearhead an innovative mode of collaboration between “Government, Industry, Academia, Research, and Investment” in the Greater Bay Area. This new platform will assist our students and researchers in translating innovative research into market-ready applications with tangible commercial and social value.

Researchers from the University of Osaka and Diponegoro University developed an AI-powered navigation system for cyborg cockroaches. Using onboard sensors and a multilayer perceptron, the system recognizes flat ground, climbs, descents, and holes in real time, then adapts electrical stimulation accordingly. By supporting natural climbing while reducing unnecessary steering, the approach shortened obstacle-crossing and total navigation times, reduced travel distance and stimulation, and significantly improved efficient movement across complex terrain.

Lingnan University’s research teams have achieved exceptional success at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2026, with all 14 of their projects winning eight gold and six silver medals. One of the projects, the “GaitGPT: Evidence-Grounded AI for Bidirectional Clinical Gait Translation”, developed by a team led by Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science at Lingnan University and Prof Yu Lisha, Assistant Professor of Teaching of the Division of Artificial Intelligence of the School of Data Science, also received IFIA Best Invention Award issued by International Federation of Inventors' Associations and "Thailand Award for the Best International Invention and Innovation" issued by the National Research Council of Thailand, winning a total of 16 awards. This is the second consecutive year Lingnan has entered this international innovation event, and it is the Hong Kong SAR higher education institution with the greatest number of awards and gold medals.

A spokesperson for Lingnan University welcomed the results of the 2026 ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). Lingnan rose significantly from the 901st to 1,000th band globally last year to the 601st to 700th band this year, representing an advancement of 300 places and the biggest rise among Hong Kong SAR’s eight UGC-funded universities. The university has also risen to joint 6th place within this group. The encouraging improvement is consistent with Lingnan’s upward trend in other international university rankings in recent months, reflecting the phased results of the University’s continued strategic transformation in recent years and recognition from the international academic community.

Black hole "blast", Bacteria-detecting robot, A crab's tale, Sensors that remember, and Silk in cycling. Plus submission deadline for 2027 magazine. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Japan-based Elix, Inc. and the University of Vienna, Austria announce the signing of a joint research agreement aimed at advancing drug discovery using AI technologies.

Researchers from the University of Osaka and collaborating institutions developed an autonomous solid-state nanopore that combines sensing, memory, and signal generation in a single device. Unlike conventional nanopores, the sensor continually reshapes itself through chemical reactions, producing unique electrical signatures as molecules pass through, providing a basis for memory. The device successfully identified a variety of nucleotides and amino acids, providing a new platform for molecular sensing and future iontronic computing.

Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilisation. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) archaeological system dedicated to identifying ancient Chinese plant seeds. The system emulates the identification process of archaeobotanical experts and achieves a classification accuracy of over 90 per cent. The researchers point out that the identification of plant seeds excavated from archaeological sites has traditionally relied on experts examining each seed individually, a process that is both time-consuming and difficult to scale. The large, standardised database they have created helps improve research efficiency while advancing archaeobotanical research and the digitalisation of cultural heritage. The findings have been published in Heritage Science, an internationally recognised journal of cultural heritage and part of the Nature Portfolio.

Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a new mathematical framework that helps identify optimization problems that can be solved efficiently using optical computing hardware. The approach allows complex, high-dimensional problems to be transformed into forms compatible with spatial photonic Ising machines and can also accelerate computation using fast Fourier transforms. These findings could broaden the applications of optical computing to areas such as logistics, data analysis, and infrastructure optimization.

A team of international scientists led by Dr. Patricia Angela R. Abu have developed an AI model that accurately predicts how effectively the heart pumps blood.

Discovering the materials needed for cleaner energy technologies has long been a slow process - but AI could change that. Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a closed-loop AI framework that continuously learns from experiments to identify promising energy materials faster and at lower cost. The approach could accelerate the development of next-generation batteries, hydrogen storage and other low-carbon technologies.

The battle against environmental degradation is complex. Green technologies can be both part of the solution and part of the problem, a recent study has revealed. Researchers from Tohoku University and the National Institute for Environmental Studies have utilized remote sensing and machine learning to reveal the impacts mining for minerals in green technologies has on biodiversity.

AI learns from captains instead of calculations in Japan’s trickiest sea

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly widely used in translation, questions have been raised over whether it could eventually replace professional interpreters. A joint study led by Lingnan University found that while AI can improve translation efficiency, it is still less capable than professional interpreters of adapting language to context and preserving rhetorical and communicative effects. The researchers conclude that human judgement and oversight remain essential, particularly in politically, diplomatically, and culturally sensitive settings. These findings have been published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, a Nature Portfolio journal.

Prof Song Yongduan, Dean of the School of Data Science and Henry Y. W. Fong Chair Professor of Industrial Data Science at Lingnan University, attended the induction ceremony for International Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in Beijing on 9 July, where he officially received his member plaque. The professor is one of five scientists with Hong Kong affiliations among the recently elected International Members of the CAE.

With Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) results slated for release on 15 July, Lingnan University has introduced elite programmes, flexible admission arrangements, and competitive scholarships to support candidates planning their higher education. Initiatives include the inauguration of the inaugural Samuel C.C. Ting Elite Class (CCT Class), named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Prof Samuel C.C. Ting, which chooses the best undergraduate University Entrance Scholarship students for this comprehensive learning opportunity. The new flexible admission scheme for the upcoming academic year will allow candidates who underperform in one core subject to still be considered for admission after a detailed assessment.

Jointly organised by Lingnan University and Yuanpei College of Peking University (PKU), the onsite seven-day intensive training camp (held from 2 to 8 July 2026) amid the third Lingnan-Yuanpei STEM Summer Academy concluded on the Lingnan University campus, showcasing how the next generation of Beijing-Hong Kong talents seamlessly blends cutting-edge scientific innovation with a profound humanistic spirit, and empowering student entrepreneurs to transform creative ideas into socially responsible and real-world business solutions.