Issue 06
Jun 2026
e-Newsletter
Interdisciplinary Platforms & Academic Exchange
Hong Kong Global AI Governance Conference 2026
A Major Platform for Global AI Governance Exchange
The Hong Kong Global AI Governance Conference 2026 (HKGAGC 2026), hosted by Interdisciplinary Dynamics: Ethics, AI & Society (IDEAS) under the HKU Institute of Data Science (IDS) on 10–11 April 2026 at HKU, served as a dedicated large-scale platform bringing AI governance into meaningful cross-sector and interdisciplinary dialogue.
Convening scholars, policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society representatives, the conference addressed the urgent need to shape responsible AI development through collaborative and globally informed approaches. At a time when AI technologies are rapidly transforming economies and societies, HKGAGC 2026 underscored the importance of aligning innovation with ethical, legal, and institutional frameworks.
In a post-conference interview, Professor Boris BABIC, a member of the Organising Committee, reflects on what made HKGAGC 2026 particularly significant. He highlights its role in fostering substantive exchange across disciplines and sectors, and considers how IDEAS can build on this momentum to sustain deeper engagement on the evolving relationship between AI, institutions, and society.
▲ Revisit the conference highlights
ATFP 2nd Cohort Forum
AI Unlocking New Horizons
Building on the success of the inaugural cohort of the Advanced Technology Fellowship Programme (ATFP) in 2024, the second cohort forum was successfully launched on 10 October 2025 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The Forum brought together distinguished speakers from academia, industry, and government, alongside ATFP Fellows, to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping technology ecosystems, investment landscapes, and real-world applications.
IDS Research Seed Funds 2025
Supporting Interdisciplinary Research Projects
HKU IDS is pleased to announce the results of the IDS Research Seed Funds 2025, with four interdisciplinary research projects awarded to teams led by IDS scholars and collaborators.
Supporting work across AI for science, robotics and archaeology, embodied AI, and AI security, the scheme aims to encourage collaboration between IDS and other Faculties, and to help promising early-stage projects develop towards larger research initiatives.
Awarded Projects & Investigators
Towards Autonomous Scientific Research with LLM Agents
Principal Investigator
Prof Chao HUANG
HKU IDS & SCDS
Co-Principal Investigator
Prof Jionghao LIN
Faculty of Education, HKU
Investigating and Mitigating Security Risks in LLM Agents & Multi-Agent Systems
Principal Investigator
Prof Ho CHEN
HKU IDS & SCDS
Co-Principal Investigator
Prof Chenxiong QIAN
HKU SCDS
Embodied AI, Robotics, World Models, Machine Learning
Principal Investigator
Prof Hongyang LI
HKU IDS
Co-Principal Investigator
Prof Ping LUO
HKU IDS & SCDS
Co-Principal Investigator
Prof Ning XI
HKU DASE & ATI
AI-enabled Robotics for Archaeological Discovery & Cultural Heritage Research
Principal Investigator
Prof Yanchao YANG
HKU IDS & SCDS
Co-Principal Investigator
Prof Peter COBB
School of Humanities, HKU
AI Governance Workshop
AI and the Future of Global Governance
Co-hosted by HKU IDS / IDEAS and AI & Humanity-Lab@HKU, the workshop extended the broader AI governance conversation into a more focused scholarly setting. It brought together researchers working across philosophy, law, international relations, and related fields to examine how AI is reshaping governance, institutions, and global decision-making.
Through closer academic exchange, the workshop continued IDS / IDEAS’ engagement with responsible AI development beyond large-scale public forums, creating space for more in-depth discussion on the ethical, legal, and societal questions that will shape the next stage of AI governance.
Interdisciplinary Workshop
Understanding Systems Through Complex Networks
Held on 28–29 August 2025 at HKU, the 2nd Interdisciplinary Workshop on Complex Networks was organized by HKU IDS and chaired by Prof Alec KIRKLEY.
The two-day hybrid workshop brought together local and overseas researchers working across network science, data science, and interdisciplinary systems research. Invited speakers, including Prof Guanrong CHEN (CityUHK) and Prof Tiago P. PEIXOTO (IT:U Australia), shared perspectives on topics such as optimal synchronisation, statistical physics on hypergraphs, and the role of network theory in understanding complex systems.
Research Engagement & Broadened Horizons
3rd Shanghai–Hong Kong AI Forum 2026
Student Participation at HKU’s New Shanghai Site
The 3rd Shanghai–Hong Kong AI Academic Exchange Forum, jointly organized by HKU IDS and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, was successfully held on 1–2 March 2026 at the HKU Zhangjiang Base in Shanghai. This marked the first academic event hosted at the venue upon its opening.
The Forum brought together over twenty distinguished speakers from prestigious universities and institutes in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China, sharing insights on emerging areas in artificial intelligence, including Science for AI, AI Agents, and AI for Education. The programme featured keynote presentations, thematic sessions, student poster presentations, and panel discussions, fostering exchange across regions and disciplines.
IDS students and faculty members actively contributed to the Forum as speakers, presenters, and participants. IDS supported student attendance in recognition of their research contributions and service, offering them a valuable opportunity to present their work and engage with a wider AI research community.
The event provided an important platform to showcase IDS’ research strengths and to strengthen academic collaboration between The University of Hong Kong and Shanghai AI Laboratory.
CPAL 2026
Scholar & Student Takeaways from Parsimonious Learning
Following HKU IDS’ earlier role as local host in Hong Kong and its continued sponsorship of CPAL for three consecutive years, IDS scholars and students joined CPAL 2026 in Tübingen, Germany, from 23–26 March 2026.
The conference brought together a focused international research community exploring parsimonious learning, optimization, generalization, signal processing, and the mathematical foundations of AI. Prof Yingyu LIANG, Associate Professor of IDS, was among the keynote speakers, alongside leading scholars including Prof Bernhard SCHÖLKOPF (MPI-IS / ELLIS Tübingen), Prof Francis BACH (INRIA / ENS), Prof Andreas KRAUSE (ETH Zurich), Prof Taiji SUZUKI (UTokyo / RIKEN AIP), and Prof Matthias BETHGE (University of Tübingen).
IDS Director Prof Yi MA led an IDS delegation comprising three scholars and three RPg students to attend the conference. Their reflections highlight the value of a smaller, theory-driven setting where researchers could examine not only what AI models can do, but why they work.
Scholar’s Insight
“IDS’ continued support and participation were important in sustaining a high-quality forum for scholarly exchange.”
Prof Yingyu LIANG
Associate Professor, HKU IDS
Student’s Sharing
“The discussions felt less like formal presentations and more like a continuous, high-level conversation.”
Jiahang CAO
1st-year PhD student, HKU IDS
HKU AI Forum 2025
Learning from Frontier AI Exchange
Held on 26–27 October 2025 at the HKU Sassoon Road Campus, HKU AI Forum 2025 brought together world-leading AI researchers, rising stars, faculty members, and students for exchange on fast-moving areas of artificial intelligence.
The Forum covered topics including generative models, multimodal AI, embodied AI, computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning theory. It offered a lively meeting of minds for scholars to exchange ideas, share research directions, and draw inspiration from different parts of the AI research community.
Research postgraduate students were also given the opportunity to present their work through Student Lightning Talks, providing a valuable platform to train the next generation of researchers in communicating their ideas to a wider academic audience.
IDSS 2501
Bringing Embodied AI into Summer Learning
“The lectures were inspiring and technically rich. Professor Yi MA presented AI concepts not just from a theoretical standpoint, but with real-world context and depth. Their mentorship helped me make connections between the AI algorithms I study and their applications in robotics and automation.”
Giovanni FEDERIGHI
IDSS 2501 Student
Through Giovanni FEDERIGHI’s sharing, IDSS 2501 shows how international students experienced IDS’ teaching and research environment through lectures, robotics, lab visits, group projects, and cross-cultural learning in Hong Kong.
Research News
New PNAS Study on Predictability of Complex Networks
Understanding How Complex Systems Can Be Predicted
A research team led by Prof Qingpeng ZHANG, with the study led by Dr Fei JING, developed a theoretical framework for understanding network predictability through local connections, with implications for AI, biomedicine, and large-scale network analysis.
CardiOmicScore for Cardiovascular Risk Prediction
AI and Multi-omics for Earlier Personalized Health Assessment
IDS-linked research uses AI and multi-omics data to support long-term cardiovascular risk prediction, showing how data science can connect computational methods with earlier and more personalized health insights.
AI Agents and Open-source LLM Systems
Learn how Prof Chao HUANG’s Team Explore Application-oriented AI
Prof Chao HUANG’s team has been actively developing open-source research across large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation, AI agents, and LLM-based applications. The work reflects a fast-moving IDS research direction: how language models can move beyond text generation towards tool use, workflow support, and more capable AI systems.
Award News
IDS PhD Candidate Fan YANG Awarded Second Prize at AI + Medicine Innovation Challenge
Applying AI and Data Science to Medicine
Fan’s recognition highlights how IDS student research is moving across artificial intelligence, data science, and medicine, with work that speaks to practical health-related challenges.
IDS PhD Candidate Xubin REN Awarded Ant InTech Scholarship – Future 2025
Recognition for Students’ Research Excellence
Xubin’s award reflects continued recognition of IDS student research in AI, data mining, and recommendation systems, and the growing visibility of research postgraduate research developed within the Institute.
IDS PhD Student Hai ZHANG Receives 2026 HKU Common Core Tutor Innovation Award
Recognizing Student Contribution to Innovative Teaching
As a tutor for CCAI9025: AI-driven Robotics for Humankind, Hai supported learner-centred teaching and student engagement in an interdisciplinary AI and robotics learning environment.
Talent development and donors engagement
IDS Annual Donors Visit 2026
Recognizing Progress,
Inspiring the Future
The Three Musketeers visited HKU IDS on 4 February 2026 for their annual gathering with IDS scholars, students, and management. Professor Stephanie Ma, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), and Professor Yi Ma, Director of HKU IDS, extended a warm welcome to the donors. It was an excellent occasion for IDS to showcase its research talent, achievements, and interdisciplinary collaborative efforts through its research seed fund initiatives supported by the Institute. During the visit, the donors had a fruitful exchange with members of the IDS Steering Committee and expressed appreciation for the breadth and depth of IDS’s agenda, particularly its emphasis on talent recruitment and international collaboration.
Expansion of IDS Talent Pool
From Orientation to an Interdisciplinary Research Journey
Each new research postgraduate student at IDS is presented with a welcome gift—a tailor-made IDS T-shirt—during the orientation for the new academic year, specially prepared by the Institute for the incoming cohort. The T-shirt reinforces a sense of belonging, helping students feel at home as they connect and study with peers from different departments within the IDS community.
The orientation, especially organized by IDS for its research postgraduate freshmen, provided a relaxed and welcoming setting for students to meet their supervisors, marking a positive start to their academic journey.
The 2025/26 cohort comprises 37 new research postgraduate students, bringing the total number of IDS young researchers to 70 and reflecting strong and vibrant growth.
Growing Excellence
IDS Students Secure Prestigious Scholarships
IDS continues to attract outstanding research postgraduate talent through prestigious fellowship and scholarship pathways. In the 2025/26 intake, five IDS students were awarded the HKU Presidential PhD Scholars Programme (HKU-PS Programme), including two recipients of the highly competitive Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) under the Research Grants Council (RGC).
Since its establishment in 2021, IDS has nurtured a strong track record, with thirteen HKU-PS awardees and seven HKPFS recipients. These achievements underscore the Institute’s growing reputation as a hub for high-calibre young researchers in data science, AI, and interdisciplinary innovation.
What’s More
Distinguished Speaker Series (Jul 2026)
Register Now — Limited Seats
Prof Jianjun SHI, Carolyn J. Stewart Chair and Professor at Georgia Tech and Member of NAE (USA), will share how sensing data modality, data science, AI, and machine learning are advancing multistage manufacturing and smart manufacturing systems.
Research Postgraduate Programme
2026/27 Courses Now Available
The updated course list includes offerings in foundation, computation, and application areas of data science.
Explore the latest course information on the programme page.
Own a Piece of HKU IDS
IDS Souvenirs at Visitor Centre
Selected IDS souvenirs are planned for availability through the HKU Visitor Centre, offering students, visitors, alumni, and friends of HKU a simple way to bring home part of the IDS identity!