Notable Alumni

Since its founding in October 1991自1991年10月開校^※, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has nurtured a generation of graduates who have excelled in technology, business, academia and public service. Below is a field-by-field guide to representative figures with verifiable records.

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# 1. Flagship figures in tech entrepreneurship

# 1.1 Frank Wang — founder of DJI

Frank Wang^※ (汪滔; born 1980 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang) is an alumnus of HKUST’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. He enrolled in 2003 and, using his final-year project on flight-control systems as the starting point, founded DJI in 2006^※. He is the single most influential entrepreneur among HKUST alumni today; by 2024 DJI commanded over 90% of the global consumer drone market^※. His student experience, his mentor–protégé relationship with Professor Zexiang Li, DJI’s journey from an HKUST dorm room to a Shenzhen warehouse, and the geopolitical headwinds of recent years are covered in detail in this site’s dedicated article Frank Wang and DJI — from an HKUST undergraduate thesis to 80% of the world’s consumer drones^※.

Market position and personal milestones at a glance:

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# 1.2 Jiaya Jia — founder and chairman of SmartMore

Jiaya Jia^※ (賈佳亞) is listed in the university’s alumni entrepreneur directory as an HKUST alumnus. In 1996 he entered Fudan University’s computer science department, where he completed both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees. He taught first at The Chinese University of Hong Kong before joining HKUST as a Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. In 2019^※ he founded SmartMore, which specialises in applying artificial-intelligence vision technology to intelligent manufacturing.

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# 2. School of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award (inaugural, 2026)

On 10 January 2026^※ HKUST’s School of Engineering held the first Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award ceremony — the first honour created specifically to recognise alumni of the School, celebrating outstanding achievement in engineering excellence, leadership and contribution to society.

The three inaugural awardees were:

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# 3. Other alumni in technology and entrepreneurship

According to HKUST’s alumni entrepreneur directory^※, the following alumni have made their mark as entrepreneurs:

HKUST alumni have founded 311 companies, including two unicorns^※. Among Hong Kong’s “Top 18 Unicorns” in 2022, six were founded or co-founded by HKUST Engineering faculty members or alumni^※, with a focus on AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, sensors and autonomous driving.

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# 3.5 The “Zexiang Li lineage”: a unique hard-tech entrepreneurship pedigree

Beyond listing individual alumni, there is one strand of the HKUST entrepreneurship phenomenon that deserves a dedicated thread — the hard-tech entrepreneurship pedigree that has coalesced around Professor Zexiang Li (李澤湘) of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, often referred to informally as the “Zexiang Li lineage.” This pedigree has produced not only DJI’s Frank Wang but also a full-fledged “mentor–student–industrial base” incubation mechanism, making it the most systematic element in HKUST’s narrative of “deep integration of industry, academia and research.”

From a research group to an industrial base. Professor Zexiang Li has taught for many years in HKUST’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and has served as mentor or co-founder for several ventures, including DJI and Googol Technology (see Research output and spin-off companies^※ for details). According to media reports, in 2014 he moved from HKUST to Songshan Lake in Dongguan and initiated XbotPark (the Songshan Lake robotics industrial base)^※, transplanting the training model he had refined at HKUST — one driven by hands-on engineering — to the industrial heartland of the Greater Bay Area and scaling it up systematically.

The “dream factory” scorecard. According to reports^※, over four to five years the base successfully incubated more than 50 innovative projects or teams, with a success rate of nearly 80%^※, markedly higher than provincial, national and global averages. Another report notes that over six years more than 60 hard-tech companies emerged from the base, with a survival rate of about 80%, and over 15% grew into unicorns or near-unicorns^※, spanning areas such as intelligent equipment, industrial robotics, and cleaning robots (e.g. Narwal).

Relationship with HKUST. It should be clarified that XbotPark is an independent industrial base located in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, and is not a subsidiary body of HKUST. Its core methodology, mentors and early-stage projects, however, overlap heavily with the network of faculty and students in HKUST’s Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. In this sense the “Zexiang Li lineage” can be understood as an “overflow” and institutionalisation of HKUST’s entrepreneurial DNA into the Greater Bay Area’s industrial landscape — transforming the serendipity that produced DJI in a dorm room into a replicable incubation pipeline.

Note: The incubation numbers and success rates cited in this section are sourced from media reports and are time-sensitive. Moreover, XbotPark is an independent entity, and its achievements should not be directly counted as part of HKUST’s official statistics. This section aims only to sketch the contours of an entrepreneurship pedigree, not to assert institutional ownership. Where living entrepreneurs are mentioned, this archive follows its rule of relying on publicly available positive records.

The era-defining coordinates of “a new generation of hard-tech entrepreneurs.” In recent years the international media have often bracketed Frank Wang together with ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming, Unitree Robotics’ Wang Xingxing and DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng as China’s “new generation of hard-tech entrepreneurs” (China’s “Fantastic Four”). According to media accounts^※, this cohort is distinguished more by hands-on engineering and deep-tech accumulation. It must be clarified that, within this grouping, only Frank Wang (DJI) is an HKUST alumnus. Zhang Yiming, Wang Xingxing, Liang Wenfeng and others are not HKUST alumni (Liang Wenfeng, for instance, did his undergraduate study at Zhejiang University). This archive does not list them as HKUST alumni; they are mentioned only as background to situate the era.

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# 4. Alumni in academia

# 4.1 Kin Fai Mak — condensed-matter physicist

Kin Fai Mak^※ (麥明智) earned his BSc in Physics and Mathematics from HKUST in 2005^※ before going to Columbia University, where he received his PhD in Physics in 2010. He subsequently worked at Cornell University’s Kavli Institute for Nanoscale Science (2012) and at Pennsylvania State University (2014), and was promoted to full professor at Cornell in 2022^※. In 2024^※ he became a director at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Germany. He enjoys an international reputation in the characterisation and manipulation of two-dimensional quantum materials, with over 100 publications^※ and more than 60,000 citations^※. In 2025^※ he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by HKUST.

# 4.2 Sun Binyong — academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

According to the Wikipedia list of HKUST people^※, Sun Binyong (孫斌勇) studied at HKUST and was later elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He works in mathematical research.

# 4.3 Other alumni in academia

As recorded in Wikipedia’s list of HKUST people^※:

• Tinglong Dai (戴廷龍): Associate Professor of Operations Management at Johns Hopkins University
• Panos Kalnis: Professor of Computer Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

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# 5. Alumni in business

# 5.1 Douglas Woo — the Hutchison Whampoa nexus

According to Wikipedia^※, Douglas Woo (胡君明), currently Chairman of Wellcome Group, is an HKUST alumnus.

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# 5.5 Alumni in politics and public affairs

As recorded in Wikipedia’s list of HKUST people^※, a number of alumni are also active in Hong Kong politics and district-level administrative affairs:

• Starry Lee (李慧瓊): Chairperson of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB); HKUST alumna.
• Ben Chan (陳恆鑌): Member of the Legislative Council (New Territories West geographical constituency); former Tsuen Wan District Councillor.
• Wong Pak-yu (黃柏仔): Yuen Long District Councillor.
• Lam Chun (林軒): Hong Kong social activist; former Yuen Long District Councillor.

This list is drawn mainly from Wikipedia’s compilation and reflects a degree of HKUST alumni participation in district administration and party politics. In keeping with its editorial policy, this site does not elaborate on the specific political records or public assessments of the individuals concerned; readers may refer to publicly available electoral records and news reports.

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# 6. Alumni in the performing arts

According to Wikipedia’s list of HKUST people^※:

• Alfred Cheung (張衞健): Hong Kong actor, director, screenwriter and producer
• Myolie Wu (胡杏兒): Hong Kong actress and singer
• Koni Lui (呂慧儀): Model; representative of Hong Kong and Macau at Miss International^※ 2006

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