Dean of Engineering and Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering Prof Khaled Ben Letaief has been elected Vice-President for Technical Activities of the IEEE Communications Society, through a worldwide vote by members. IEEE is the world's largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities.
A paper presented by a team led by Prof Kevin Chen, Electronic and Computer Engineering, won the Outstanding Poster Award at the 10th International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS-10), held in August 2013 in Washington, DC. Entitled"Degradation of OFF-State Leakage Current in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs Induced by an ON-State Gate Overdri", the paper was co-authored by research associate Dr Baikui Li, PhD students Qimeng Jiang, Cheng Liu and Shenghou Liu, and Prof Chen. ICNS is the premier forum for reporting research in group III-nitride semiconductors.
Prof Mohamed S Ghidaoui, Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been elected Chair of Fluid Mechanics Committee for the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). This committee focuses on fundamental and applied environmental fluid mechanics in support of hydraulic research. Founded in 1935, IAHR is a worldwide independent organization of engineers and water specialists working in fields related to the hydro-environmental sciences and their practical application.
The paper by Prof Ming Liu, Electronic and Computer Engineering, won the RoboCup Best Paper Award at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2013, held in November in Tokyo. According to the Google ranking of publications in robotics, IROS is ranked fourth over all media, including top journals and conferences. The paper, entitled "3D Path Planning and Execution for Search and Rescue Ground Robots", was co-authored by collaborators from the Autonomous Systems Lab of ETH Zürich.
Prof Matthew McKay, Electronic and Computer Engineering, has won the 8th Asia-Pacific Young Researcher Award from the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc). The award honors researchers who have been very active in ComSoc publications and conference activities over the last three years.
The novel 2D barcode app PiCode developed by the HKUST Barcode Group led by Prof Wai Ho Mow, Computer Engineering Program, won the Best Mobile App Award at ACM MobiCom 2013, the flagship ACM conference focusing on the theory, system, practice and challenge of providing users with a successful mobile or wireless experience. Working with Prof Mow on the app were MPhil students Wenjian Huang and Chenchen Liu, and PhD student Baojian Zhou. In addition, the paper entitled "Bounds on the Expected Rank of Sparse Linear Operator Channel Matrices", by Prof Mow and Chenchen, was selected as one of the three best papers at the 2013 Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications (APCC'13), a major regional event.
Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof Charles W W Ng and his former PhD student Dr S Y Peng, together with collaborators from Tianjin University, were named the 2013 recipients of the Prix R M Quigley Award by the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Their paper, entitled “Excavation Effects on Pile Behavior and Capaci", was ranked No. 1 out of 102 papers published in Canadian Geotechnical Journal (CGJ) in 2012 – and represents a first for a research team from Hong Kong and the Mainland since the establishment of the journal 50 years ago. CGJ is one of the most reputable mainstream journals in geotechnical engineering worldwide.
Dean of Engineering and Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering 
A paper presented by a team led by 
The paper by 
The novel 2D barcode app PiCode developed by the HKUST Barcode Group led by 
Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering 
