School of Engineering: In Depth

HKUST's School of Engineering (SENG) was established at the University's founding in 1991^※. It is now the University's largest school, home to over 3,900 undergraduates and over 3,300 postgraduates^※—more than a third of the total student body—and its full-time faculty accounts for over 30% of the University's total^※. Organised around a "360-degree engineering experience" educational philosophy, the School comprises six academic departments and six student-support centres, integrating teaching, research, and industry practice.

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# 1. The Six Departments

# 1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is SENG's largest and most internationally prominent flagship department. According to its official Fast Facts^※, it fields 56 regular faculty^※ spanning senior to junior ranks, plus visiting academics (other sources cite 54, depending on the snapshot date), making it one of the largest computer science faculties in Hong Kong's higher education sector.

Student headcount (2025–26):

It is worth noting that the PhD cohort (c. 466) far outstrips the MPhil cohort, a sign of the department's research-intensive, doctorate-centred orientation, while the large intakes for the Big Data Technology and Information Technology taught master's programmes reflect the voracious industry demand for AI and data talent.

Eight research areas: The department's official Fast Facts lists its research strengths as covering artificial intelligence (including machine learning and knowledge representation), cybersecurity, data/knowledge and information management, human-computer interaction, networking and computer systems, software engineering and programming languages, theoretical computer science, and vision and graphics—spanning virtually every major branch of modern computer science. Among them, AI and vision and graphics attract particular outside attention for their industrial links to robotics, autonomous driving, and the computer-vision start-up wave.

Subject rankings:

• Times Higher Education 2025: Computer Science, 28th globally; 1st in Hong Kong for the ninth consecutive year^※
• QS 2025: Computer Science and Information Systems, 24th globally^※
• QS 2025: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, 17th globally; 1st in Hong Kong^※

New programme: From the autumn of 2025, the department launched a BEng in Artificial Intelligence^※, alongside its existing BEng in Computer Engineering, BEng/BSc in Computer Science, and the joint MSc in Big Data Technology with the Department of Mathematics.

Top-tier conferences and research output: CSE's research output is particularly strong in systems and networking—the iSING Lab, led by Professor Kai Chen, has published 23 papers at the top venues ACM SIGCOMM and USENIX NSDI, making it one of the most prolific research labs in Asia in this field^※. Department faculty also publish consistently at premier venues such as ISSTA, CCS, ACL, and ICML, straddling security and natural language processing—evidence that the department maintains output across systems, security, and AI simultaneously, rather than betting on a single subfield.

Von Neumann Institute: a new growth pole for the AI era. HKUST formally established the Von Neumann Institute (VNI) on 9 May 2025^※, with CSE Chair Professor Jiaya Jia^※ appointed as its founding director. Jia is also the founder of the computer-vision unicorn SmartMore—an appointment that itself illustrates CSE's well-trodden "academia-to-entrepreneurship" pipeline. VNI is positioned as an interdisciplinary platform that integrates embodied intelligence, generative AI, and high-performance computing infrastructure. It responds to the Hong Kong SAR government's designation of AI as a core industry, aiming to build a complete AI ecosystem, deepen industry-academia collaboration, and cultivate the next generation of AI talent through secondary-school outreach programmes. Within months of its establishment, VNI released an AI image-editing model that outperforms existing models on multiple benchmarks^※, one of the Institute's first public technology outputs. VNI aligns directly with CSE's two research pillars of artificial intelligence and vision and graphics, while complementing the Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute (CKSRI) and the Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research (CAiRE) within the School of Engineering's broader robotics and AI portfolio. For the precise division of labour and institutional lineage among these three entities, see Robotics and Artificial Intelligence^※.

CSE's place in the HKUST innovation-and-technology narrative: HKUST is often perceived externally as "Hong Kong's most STEM-focused university," and CSE is one of the academic pillars that supports this image. Within the founding narrative of the university, several threads concerning the department deserve to be placed side by side. First, its coupling with the entrepreneurial ecosystem—the collective computer-science-related disciplines at HKUST (CSE + ECE) form the academic seedbed for the entrepreneurial lineage that produced DJI and others; founders or core technical backbones of multiple alumni-founded AI and computer-vision enterprises (such as SmartMore and Fourth Paradigm) came through the computer science doctoral programmes. For the statistical criteria HKUST uses for its unicorns and active start-ups, see HKUST Unicorn Ecosystem^※. Second, the resource tilt in the AI era—the founding of the Von Neumann Institute (see Historical Timeline^※) resonates with CSE's strengths in artificial intelligence and theoretical computer science. Third, the industry alignment of taught master's programmes—the substantial enrolments in the Big Data Technology and Information Technology MSc programmes directly reflect CSE's role in serving the digital-economy talent needs of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. One might say that to understand CSE is to understand the hardest-core piece of the foundation on which HKUST's "built on technology" narrative rests.

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# 2. Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE)

The Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering's research spans chip design, integrated circuits, photonics, wireless communications, embedded systems, signal processing, and sensing and instrumentation. Undergraduate programmes include the BEng in Electronic Engineering and the BEng in Microelectronics and Integrated Circuits^※ (a new programme responding to semiconductor talent demand in Hong Kong and mainland China). Taught master's degrees and research MPhil/PhD programmes are also offered across the board.

Microelectronics and Integrated Circuits (MEIC): a new degree for Hong Kong's semiconductor talent gap. The programme welcomed its first cohort in 2025^※. The university positions it as the common engine behind "5/6G wireless networks, robotics, IoT, AR/VR micro-displays, electric vehicles and data centre power systems, and AI running on chips"—in other words, MEIC's bet is less on any single application scenario and more on the foundational fabrication capability that virtually all next-generation hardware will require. The curriculum uses Hong Kong's world-class laboratories and central research facilities^※ to provide students with hands-on training in semiconductor manufacturing, integrated circuit layout design, and device and circuit measurement, supplemented by industry internships. At the research level, the department covers digital, analogue, mixed-signal and radio-frequency circuit design, alongside new semiconductor materials, nano-fabrication, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), with dedicated platforms such as the Nano-system Fabrication Facility, the Materials Characterisation and Preparation Facility, and the Integrated Circuits and Systems Institute^※. Faculty members also consistently win government funding support for chip R&D projects; for example, a project on a "New Generation High-Performance Intelligent Digital Sensor Chip Solution" received funding from the RAISe+ scheme^※.

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# 3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offers two undergraduate degrees, the BEng in Mechanical Engineering and the BEng in Aerospace Engineering^※, alongside multiple taught and research postgraduate programmes. Research areas cover energy systems, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, advanced manufacturing, bio-inspired robotics, and intelligent systems.

Frank Wang and DJI: the industrial extension of a final-year thesis. DJI founder Frank Wang received his BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from HKUST in 2006 and his MPhil in Electronic and Computer Engineering in 2011^※ (his academic trajectory effectively straddles the MAE and ECE departments). While working on his undergraduate final-year project, he developed a flight control system for an unmanned platform^※, and subsequently founded DJI in 2006 based on that system. The first flight-controller prototype was built in his student dormitory at HKUST. This "built-the-flight-controller-in-my-dorm" anecdote is one of the origin stories SENG cites most frequently when recounting its entrepreneurial narrative externally.

HKUST-DJI Joint Innovation Laboratory: The relationship between HKUST and DJI did not end with alumni status. The two parties formally established the HKUST-DJI Joint Innovation Laboratory (HDJI Lab) in 2017^※, officially positioned as integrating HKUST's academic strengths in robotics research with DJI's industrial technology as a world-leading civilian drone manufacturer, focused on three directions: drones, robotics and automation, and aerial photography and imaging applications. The lab brings together teams led by researchers including Shaojie Shen (drone research), Michael Wang (Robotics Institute), Zexiang Li, and Fu Zhang (vertical take-off and landing vehicles). It serves as a concentrated showcase of SENG's research capabilities in robotics and automatic control, and represents an upgrade of the University's industry-academia collaboration from "alumni-founded start-up" to "institutionalised joint R&D."

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# 4. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE)

The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering offers three undergraduate degrees: BEng in Chemical Engineering, BEng in Energy and Environmental Engineering^※, and BEng in Bioengineering^※, along with research MPhil/PhD and taught master's programmes. Research areas include catalysis and reaction engineering, nanomaterials, biosensing, fuel cells, drug delivery systems, and environmental engineering.

In the last two years, the department's output in energy materials and bio-diagnostics has been particularly dense. A team proposed a "slow-release solvent" crystallisation strategy, featured on the cover of Nature Synthesis in April 2026, to facilitate the scalable fabrication of large-area perovskite photovoltaic modules^※. Professor Yoonseob Kim's group, in collaboration with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, used single-crystal borate covalent organic frameworks (B-COF) as solid-state electrolytes to enhance the safety and energy density of lithium metal batteries^※, work published in Advanced Science. In the bioengineering direction, the teams of Professors I-Ming Hsing and Yuanliang Zhai "flipped" the CRISPR script, developing the world's first DNA-guided (as opposed to the conventional RNA-guided) gene-editing system^※, and used it to build a rapid infectious-disease diagnostic platform named SLEUTH. The findings were published in Nature Biotechnology, and HKUST has filed two US provisional patent applications. These research directions map directly onto the curricula of the two undergraduate majors—energy materials onto the BEng in Energy and Environmental Engineering, and gene diagnostics onto the BEng in Bioengineering.

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# 5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CIVL)

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers undergraduate programmes including the BEng in Civil Engineering and the BEng in Civil and Environmental Engineering^※ (a combined degree integrating a sustainability perspective), alongside research MPhil/PhD and taught master's programmes. Research directions cover structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering, environmental engineering, transportation, and smart city infrastructure.

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# 6. Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics (IEDA)

The Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics offers two undergraduate degrees: BEng in Decision Analytics and BEng in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, and provides cross-disciplinary programmes in partnership with the School of Business and Management. Its research focuses on operations research, supply chain management, data-driven decision-making, and financial engineering, commanding considerable influence in the field of industrial engineering in the Asia-Pacific region. The department also delivers the engineering-side teaching for the Dual Degree Program in Technology and Management (T&M-DDP)^※—a five-year programme, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, that combines a BEng/BSc with a BBA and admits only around 35 students per year, representing the integration of the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) cross-faculty curriculum with IEDA's engineering training (for details see the AIS cross-disciplinary programme digest in the All Departments Master Table^※). IEDA students have also distinguished themselves in applied competitions: in 2024, a four-member undergraduate team won the CILTHK Student Day championship with a sustainable aviation fuel proposal^※, with the judging panel singling out the depth of their analysis and the implementability of their solution.

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# 2. Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD)

The Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD) was established under the Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) in 2017^※, with a mission to cultivate a new generation of innovators in technology. Characterised by interdisciplinarity, design thinking, systems thinking, an entrepreneurial mindset, and practice-based learning, ISD offers an undergraduate BSc in Innovation, Design and Technology (IDT)^※, which is Hong Kong's first undergraduate degree programme to use experiential learning as its principal pedagogical mode^※, employing team-based and project-based teaching throughout from Year 1.

Research directions span robotics (including medical and biological applications), sustainable energy, smart materials, and urban systems, actively engaging with industry and the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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# 3. Six Student Support Centres

SENG has established six dedicated centres^※ to underpin the "360-degree engineering experience":

1. Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E2I) — promotes pedagogical innovation
2. Center for Global and Community Engagement (GCE) — fosters social awareness and community contribution
3. Center for Industry Engagement and Internship (IEI) — liaises with industry partners and facilitates internships
4. Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers (ABFYE) — introduces secondary-school students to foundational engineering knowledge
5. Student Innovation for Global Health Technology (SIGHT) — develops technology solutions for health and wellness
6. Academy for Continuing Education (ACE) — provides professional continuing education courses for in-service learners

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# 4. Undergraduate Programmes at a Glance

According to the 2025–26 programme catalogue^※, the School of Engineering (including joint offerings with AIS/ISD) offers the following undergraduate degrees:

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# 5. Postgraduate Programmes

The School of Engineering offers research MPhil and PhD degrees. All departments accept applications for an integrated MPhil-PhD track^※ (no standalone MPhil application; students admitted to the PhD track may progress through MPhil). Taught master's programmes include:

• MSc in Artificial Intelligence (jointly with CSE)
• MSc in Big Data Technology (jointly with the Department of Mathematics)
• MSc in Information Technology (offered by CSE)
• Specialist taught MSc degrees in each department (e.g., Financial Engineering, Environmental Engineering)

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# 6. Global Rankings

Which department in the School of Engineering ranks highest? According to the latest QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, the answer is not CSE, but rather Statistics and Operational Research (31st globally, 1st in Hong Kong) and Electrical and Electronic Engineering (33rd globally, 1st in Hong Kong). CSE, when measured in the "Computer Science and Information Systems" category, ranks 33rd globally. Considered together with the earlier QS ranking in the separate "Data Science and Artificial Intelligence" category (25th globally, 2nd in Hong Kong), the picture aligns more closely with the external perception of CSE's reputation—a single discipline can show substantial ranking variation depending on the classification lens used, and readers comparing numbers are advised to note the specific category rather than simply reading off a lone figure.

Both composite engineering rankings place HKUST as Hong Kong's top engineering university, and within the top ten among all Chinese universities^※. With the sole exception of the Computer Science figure (which follows THE data disclosed on the department's official Fast Facts), all data in the table are drawn from the latest round of 2026 QS/THE subject rankings. Cross-referencing the previous academic year's figure (QS 2025 Computer Science and Information Systems, 24th) shows a slight retreat for the discipline against intensifying global and regional competition, though it remains firmly in 2nd place in Hong Kong. Civil and Structural Engineering (27th globally) and Statistics and Operational Research (31st globally) are two "hidden strengths" in this year's rankings that previously received less external mention, both entering the global top 35.

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# 7. Student Body Diversity

SENG students come from over 50 countries and regions^※, spanning six continents: Africa, Asia, Oceania, North and South America, and Europe. The School has been actively promoting women's participation in engineering in recent years; its proportion of female assistant professors is now approaching one-third^※.

Since its founding, the School of Engineering has awarded over 45,000 degrees^※. Alumni are active across all sectors globally, serving as company founders, inventors, NGO leaders, and industry innovators.

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# 8. Student Competitions and Practical Achievement

The School of Engineering's "360-degree engineering experience" educational philosophy must ultimately prove itself through concrete hands-on projects and competition results. Beyond classroom teaching, multiple student teams participate year-round in domestic and international robotics and engineering competitions, with specific, verifiable results:

Two points in this record are worth noting. First, the ROV team's 13 consecutive championship titles and the University-hosted Underwater Robot Competition reaching its 10th edition indicate that SENG has built a stable, multi-generational mentorship pipeline for practical robotics education, rather than relying on burst preparation in a single bumper year. Second, the competition teams span multiple departments—MAE (intelligent vehicles, ROV mechanical structures), ECE (sensing and control circuits), and IEDA (supply chain and sustainability-strategy analysis)—confirming that the cross-departmental collaboration SENG emphasises is not merely a curricular design slogan but genuinely manifests in how teams are assembled.

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# Further Reading

• All Departments Master Table^※ — a full list of organisational units across faculties and schools, and a quick-reference guide to course code prefixes
• Robotics and Artificial Intelligence^※ — the division of labour and institutional lineage of the Cheng Kar-Shun Robotics Institute, the Von Neumann Institute, and other entities
• HKUST Unicorn Ecosystem^※ — the statistical criteria governing active start-ups, unicorns, and the exit ledger
• Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programme Catalogue^※ — university-wide course codes and degree mapping

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