Hubs and thrusts

Vision

• To unlock the potential of basic elements in hard and natural sciences, and seek advanced and sustainable solutions to address real-world problems, thus benefitting mankind and the advancement of humanity.

Mission

• To rigorously discover and comprehend the fundamental properties and characteristics of hard and natural sciences, and bring profound knowledge into an innovative process of merging and reassembling through continuous breakthrough and cross-disciplinary collaboration, and finally to champion the leading-edge ideas for practical advancements which make significant impact on society.
• To proactively collaborate with the other three Hubs by providing the foundation together with Information to build Systems that could bring impactful benefits to Society.

Mission

To rigorously explore the fundamental materials structure and property relationships and to unlock the potential of basic elements of natural sciences for conducting cutting-edge research for materials discovery and innovation. To become a global leader in functional materials research and development. 

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Functional polymer materials 
• Wave-based metamaterials 
• Bio-engineering and bio-medical materials 
• High performance thermoelectric materials
• Smart functional materials
• Electronic materials 
• New materials development 
• Sensor Technology

Mission

Its aim is to become a leading educational and research entity in interdisciplinary studies of ocean-atmosphere-land interaction in the earth system for the regional sustainable environment and climate change.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Ocean physical-biogeochemical study 
• Earth surface processes in river basin and watershed
• Atmosphere-ocean dynamics and climate
• Ocean-atmosphere-land interaction 
• Earth system modeling 

Mission

Microelectronics is a cornerstone of the Information Age. The Microelectronics Thrust expands our abilities to integrate novel electronic and photonic devices into circuits, architect information systems, and automate their designs and optimizations.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Integrated Circuit and System Design
• Electronic and Photonic Design Automation
• System Architecture and Design
• mm-Wave and Terahertz Technologies

Mission

Its aim is to become a regional and national research and educational hub as well as a global innovation leader in novel energy generation, storage, distribution, and application technologies for a more sustainable future. It covers both fundamental and applied research on sustainable energy and environment.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Energy harvesting and high-performance energy storage 
• Green buildings
• Biofuel and hydrogen energy
• Smart and bio-inspired energy systems
• Energy & Power management and resources recovery
• Sustainable environment and pollution control
• National energy security, global energy and environmental policy

Vision

• To address global challenges arising from human interactions with information and technology in today's era of digital transformation.

Mission

• To provide world-class education and conduct cutting-edge research with practical applications in information science and technology that not only advance regional development, but also make a global impact.

Mission

It pursues both fundamental research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and applied research on a wide range of AI-enabling technologies that can help transform various applications of regional relevance.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• AI in design
• AI in finance
• AI in manufacturing
• AI in medicine
• AI in security and privacy
• AI in smart living

Mission

This thrust area focuses on art creation and visual communication with new technologies, with emphasis on art with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), AI-generated art, information art and design, and data visualization.  It also promotes the interplay of art and technology and exploits the most advanced technology for art creation and visual communication with a social impact.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• AR Art: How to use AR for art creation and education
• AI Art: How to use AI to generate arts
• Data Art: How to tell the stories in data
• Robotics Art: How to generate arts using robotics

Mission

It advances data science and analytics by unifying statistics, machine learning, optimization, and their related techniques.  It also expands the applications of data science and analytics to solve real world problems and to benefit society.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Data-driven AI & Machine Learning
• Statistical Learning and Modeling
• Industrial and Business Analytics (Operations-Related Data Analytics, Business Intelligence and Strategy, etc.)
• Sector-Specific Data Analytics (Healthcare, Finance, Insurance, Marketing, Manufacturing, Transportation, etc.)
• Data visualization and Infographics

Mission

This thrust area adopts an interdisciplinary pedagogy to equip students with integrated knowledge to pursue new innovation and to explore the new research frontiers in forming Internet of Things (IOT)-enabled smart cities and digital society.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• IOT infrastructure and devices
• IOT systems and communications
• IOT intelligence and automation
• IOT applications
• IOT modeling and optimization
• IOT security and privacy-enhancing technologies

Vision

• To be a global leading facilitator for enlightening creative minds and fostering visionary talents.
• To develop scientific knowledge, offer engineering methodologies, and solve cross-disciplinary problems.

Mission

• To serve as a platform for merging individual technologies together and implement their integrated functionality at the systems level. 
• To disseminate impactful technologies to the Greater Bay Area and explore relevant industrial or societal applications.

Mission

This is a field which applies biological and physiological principles for clinical practices and evidence-based treatment.  It also intends to bridge the gap between engineering and medicine for healthcare purposes.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering 
• Precision Medicine
• Synthetic Biology
• Plant Biology and Chinese Medicine
• Healthy Aging
• Bioinformatics and Data Mining
• Implanted Devices
• Biomechanics and Bio-MEMS

Mission

Its aims are to develop technologies for providing reliable and driver/passenger-friendly transportation services related to different modes of traffic management, and enable users to be better informed so as to make safer, more coordinated, and more efficient use of transport network.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Acquisition, Analysis and Applications of Traffic Big Data
• Shared mobility, Mobility as a service (MaaS) 
• Analysis, Modelling, and Optimization of Transportation System with Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) 
• Testbed and Traffic Simulation of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) 
• Operations and Management of Urban Rail Transit Systems 
• Safety and Security of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) 
• Green Aviation Technologies 

Mission

This thrust area studies the integrative system that deals with the design, construction, operations, as well as the control element for sensing, feedback, and data processing.  It also aims at performing intended tasks with a high degree of autonomy. These technologies are used to develop machines that can substitute humans and replicate human actions.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Robotic Manipulation and Grasping
• Personal Assistive Robotics and Human Robot Interaction 
• Robotics and Autonomous Systems for Construction and Agriculture
• Swarm/Collective Robotics
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems 
• Integration of Robotics and AI
• Robotic Arts

Mission

It encompasses computer-integrated manufacturing with high levels of adaptability and agile design changes, digital information and data analytics, and flexible workforce training.  This thrust area aims at developing and integrating interoperable systems, multi-scale dynamic modeling and simulation, intelligent automation, strong cyber security, and networked sensors.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Industry 4.0
• Industrial Internet of Things
• Integration of Embedded Systems
• Advanced Human-Machine Interfaces
• Smart Sensors, Automated Optical Inspection, Location Detection Technologies
• 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping
• Industrial Data Analytics

Vision

To become a leading force in the knowledge economy of a digital society.

Mission

To nurture socially-conscious talents with cutting-edge analytical skills and an open and growing mindset, ready to resolve socio-economic issues and contribute to the knowledge economy in a networked society and rapidly changing world.

Mission

Financial Technology provides high-quality education on state-of-the-art methodologies and know-how on financial technology research, applications, and practice.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• AI/Big Data
• Blockchain/Cryptocurrency/DCEP
• Financial Market Design
• Data Analytics/Data Visualization
• Risk Management
• Financial Technology and Regulation
• Financial Inclusion

Mission

This thrust area trains the new generation of leaders in solving complex problems at the interface of technology and society through innovation in technology, institution, policy, and entrepreneurship with cross-disciplinary approaches and real-world applications.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Innovation and Intellectual Property Right Protection
• Innovation and Technology Management
• Innovation and Public Policy
• Health Studies/Health Care Policy/Environmental Policies/Sustainability
• Anti-Trust/Competition Policy
• Experimental Economics and Decision Sciences
• Entrepreneurship and Organization Theory
• Entrepreneurship and Financial Management

Mission

The MBA+ Thrust brings a variety of themes into conventional business education programs to respond to the ever-changing world and cultivates new generations of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and business leaders with a strong mindset of innovation. 

Mission

Urban Governance and Design aims to train the next generation of leaders in conducting cutting-edging innovative research on cities through cross-disciplinary approaches to solve complex urban problems.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Education, Employment and Labor Markets
• Migration, Inequality, and Social Inclusion
• Population, Health, and Ageing
• Regional and Urban Economic Development
• GIS and Spatial Analysis
• Smart City 
• Transportation and Communication Infrastructure

Mission

Its aim is to create an innovative and interdisciplinary research environment and to advance scientific research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation.

Cross-disciplinary Focus Areas

• Computational material design
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Computational economics and social science
• Computational modelling of climate change
• Computational structural and shape design
• Data driven image and signal processing

Center for Technology Leadership is envisioned to help our students and faculty develop an entrepreneurial mindset to impact the world through technology and inspire them to become the next generation of visionaries. Both campuses strongly encourage innovation and entrepreneurship activities. A technology park just outside the Guangzhou campus is being developed to provide synergy and support for innovation. The Center is actively looking for candidates who have extensive entrepreneurship experience in any sectors to lead such an effort. For example, a researcher who has established a company and experienced in working with students can be a potential candidate for the Center.

We welcome talents in all areas of synthetic biology, in particular these three areas.

The first focus area is to engineer tissues or organs using stem cells and synthetic biomaterials. This area requires the expertise in stem cell biology, advanced biomaterials, synthetic organic chemistry and systems biology. The second focus area is to design artificial biomolecules, such as peptides/proteins, DNAs or RNAs, for genetic controls and therapeutic applications. This area requires the expertise in biomolecular design and engineering, directed evolution, computational biology, synthetic organic chemistry and biological test systems. The third focus area is to use programmable biological units and control logics to engineer cell factories, including but not limited to bacterial, yeast, insect or mammalian cells, for producing therapeutically important proteins, antibiotics and natural products. This area requires the expertise in systems biology, genome engineering and metabolic engineering. 

As we are marching into a new era in which  quantum materials with exotic properties can be designed, predicted and tested; atoms, ions, and photons can be manipulated individually; and small clusters of qubits can be entangled and precisely controlled, new quantum technologies are expected to make dramatic social and economic impacts on our society. As such, the development of quantum technologies is a strategically important area of HKUST. 

We aim to gather a group of talented researchers and develop the Center as one of the nationally leading hubs for quantum research and education. The research areas of the Center include quantum materials; quantum devices and sensing; quantum computing; and cold atomic physics and quantum simulation. We are seeking top talents to join us.