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Three professors from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Faculty of Engineering have been elected Fellows of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in the class of 2023. They are Professor Anthony So Man-cho from the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, Professor Evangeline Young Fung-yu from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Professor Zhang Li from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering. Professor So was elected for his contributions to optimisation in signal processing and communications, while Professor Young was accredited for her research on electronic design automation in VLSI (very-large-scale-integration) physical design, and Professor Zhang was admitted for his contributions to micro-/nanorobot swarms and platforms for translational biomedicine. There are currently 41 IEEE Fellows in the Faculty of Engineering at CUHK.

Professor Anthony So Man-cho

Professor Anthony So joined CUHK in 2007. He is currently Dean of the Graduate School, Deputy Master of Morningside College, and a Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. His research interests include optimisation theory and its applications in various areas of science and engineering; with a recent focus on the interplay between optimisation theory and aspects of algorithm design, such as computational geometry, machine learning, signal processing and algorithmic game theory. Professor So has made fundamental contributions to the theory and application of a core optimisation technique called semidefinite relaxation (SDR) in signal processing and communications. His work combines the best of both worlds – application of SDR to yield efficiently computable and effective solutions to important problems, accompanied by theoretical analyses that explain the good performance of the SDR-based approaches and provide crucial engineering insights. Professor So was appointed as an Outstanding Fellow of the Faculty of Engineering at CUHK in 2019. He has received many research awards, including the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award, the 2016-17 CUHK Research Excellence Award, the 2015 IEEE Signal Processing Society Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award, and the 2010 INFORMS Optimisation Society Prize for Young Researchers.

Professor Evangeline Young Fung-yu

Professor Evangeline Young, a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, is an expert in electronic design automation (EDA), a field that applies various optimisation techniques in computer science to enhance the design of computer chips and systems. Her research interests include physical design, combinatorial optimisation, computer-aided design (CAD) of VLSI circuits, algorithms and AI. She and her research team have developed open source academic physical design tools for component placement, wire routing and AI chip design, which have won them many championships and prizes in industry contests and challenges, including nine CAD Contests at the International Conference on Computer-aided Design (ICCAD, 2012-13, 2015-16 and 2018-22), eight at the International Symposium on Physical Design (ISPD, 2010-11, and 2015-20), and the Design Automation Conference (DAC) in 2012. Their work has also received best paper awards from top-tier conferences.

Professor Zhang Li

Professor Zhang Li is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering and a Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Surgery at CUHK. He is also Director of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Science-CUHK Joint Laboratory of Robotics and Intelligent Systems. His main research interests include small-scale robotics and their applications in translational biomedicine. In collaboration with CUHK’s Faculty of Medicine, Professor Zhang has developed biohybrid soft microrobots with an endoscopy-assisted magnetic navigation strategy for rapid endoluminal delivery. Recently, his team also developed a magnetic helical microrobot with endoscope-assisted delivery for biofilm eradication in ear tubes. His research work at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich was acclaimed by the Guinness Book of World Records 2012 as the Most Advanced Mini Robot for Medical Use. Professor Zhang has received awards from IEEE international conferences, the Hong Kong Research Grants Committee (RGC) Research Fellow (RFS) Award 2021/22 and Early Career Award in 2013, a CUHK Research Excellence Award 2019, and a CUHK Young Researcher Award 2017. Professor Zhang was appointed as a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Nanotechnology Council in 2020 and 2021. He is also an Outstanding Fellow of the Faculty of Engineering at CUHK and has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (FAAIA).

About IEEE

The IEEE is the world’s largest professional organisation dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity, with more than 430,000 members in over 160 countries. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognised by the technical community as a prestigious honour and an important career achievement.