Notable Alumni

Since opening its doors in October 1991, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)has produced graduates who have distinguished themselves in technology, business, academia and public affairs^※. Below is a field-by-field record of its best-documented representative figures.

---

# 1. Standard-Bearers of Tech Entrepreneurship

# 1.1 Frank Wang — Founder of DJI

Frank Wang^※ (born 1980 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang) is an alumnus of HKUST's Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. He enrolled in 2003 and, in 2006, founded DJI based on his final-year thesis on flight control systems^※, making him the most influential entrepreneurial alumnus of his generation. By 2024, DJI held more than 90 per cent of the global consumer drone market^※. His student years, his mentorship under Professor Li Zexiang, the journey from an HKUST dormitory to a Shenzhen warehouse, and the geopolitical challenges of recent years are covered in the dedicated article Frank Wang and DJI — From an HKUST Undergraduate Thesis to 80 Per Cent of the World's Consumer Drones^※.

Market position and personal achievements at a glance:

---

# 1.2 Jiaya Jia — Founder and Chairman of SmartMore

Jiaya Jia^※ is listed in the HKUST alumni entrepreneur directory. He entered Fudan University's Department of Computer Science in 1996 and, after completing his bachelor's and doctoral degrees, taught first at The Chinese University of Hong Kong before joining HKUST's Department of Computer Science and Engineering as Chair Professor. In 2019 he founded SmartMore^※, which applies AI vision technology to intelligent manufacturing. His academic profile appears separately in the article Leading Scholars^※.

---

# 1.3 Zhang Tao — Founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics

Zhang Tao earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, then entered HKUST for a master's degree in software algorithms, interrupting his studies to start a company^※. It was his third attempt at entrepreneurship: two earlier ventures — an aircraft project (2009) and a tech media outlet, Leiphone, founded in 2010 — had both stalled. In 2016, he founded Pudu Robotics in a small office of around ten people in Shenzhen's Nanshan District^※, focusing on commercial cleaning and delivery service robots.

Market position: As of 2026, Pudu Robotics had deployed more than 120,000 robots across over 1,000 cities in more than 80 countries and regions, serving over 40,000 customers, and ranked first in the commercial service robotics industry with an approximately 23 per cent global market share; its overseas share was closer to half^※. In April 2026, the company completed a Series D round of nearly RMB 1 billion, reaching a post-money valuation above RMB 10 billion and cumulative funding exceeding RMB 2 billion, and has begun preparations for a Hong Kong listing^※. Zhang himself holds close to 350 patents and has repeatedly been named to Forbes China's technology innovators lists and 36Kr's "36 Under 36" entrepreneurs ranking.

---

# 2. School of Engineering Distinguished Engineering Alumni Awards (Inaugural, 2026)

The HKUST School of Engineering held the inaugural Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award ceremony on 10 January 2026^※, the first award dedicated to recognising School of Engineering alumni, honouring graduates who have excelled in engineering excellence, leadership and social contribution.

The three inaugural recipients were:

---

# 3. Other Alumni in Technology and Entrepreneurship

According to the HKUST alumni entrepreneur directory^※, the following alumni have made their mark in entrepreneurship:

HKUST alumni have founded 311 companies, including two unicorns^※ (though this database is narrow in scope, covering only companies within its own purview). Of the "18 unicorns in Hong Kong" identified in 2022, six were founded or co-founded by HKUST School of Engineering faculty or alumni^※, spanning AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing, sensors and autonomous driving.

ExtremeVision founder Luo Yun has served as co-founder and technology partner of the company since 2015, overseeing its algorithmic platform development and industrial project deployment^※. Her connection to HKUST is documented at the research level: she co-authored the paper on FedVision, a federated-learning visual platform, with Yang Qiang, Chair Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and the first Chinese AAAI Fellow^※ — the platform was itself the product of a collaboration between WeBank and ExtremeVision. As for the widely circulated claim that she was "a doctoral student in AI at HKUST under Yang Qiang," no verifiable source exists, and this archive makes no assertion on the matter. The company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 30 March 2026 (ticker 6636.HK) as the "first AI visual-algorithm marketplace" stock, raising approximately HK$499 million in its IPO^※.

# 3.2 Latest Figures on the Alumni Start-up Ecosystem

HKUST's start-up incubation engine continues to expand; the statistics vary slightly depending on the reference point and the measure used, but the direction of travel is consistent:

In the first half of 2026, HKUST alumni founders raised more than RMB 8.4 billion from primary markets alone, spanning 19 companies and 25 funding rounds; early-stage deals (angel through Series A) accounted for over 60 per cent, and three leading companies contributed more than RMB 5 billion combined^※. The aforementioned Series D round for Zhang Tao's Pudu Robotics and the IPO of Luo Yun's ExtremeVision both fall within this cohort. The press has characterised this as a "professor–student–industry" cycle: in many cases, a start-up's core technology is first proven out in a departmental research group or competition team; the supervisor then joins as co-founder or angel investor; and after graduation the students take the original team to Shenzhen or other Greater Bay Area cities. This model is the direct continuation of the "Li Zexiang school" systematised by Professor Li Zexiang (discussed below), and it is this structural dynamic — not mere year-to-year fluctuation — that keeps the numbers climbing.

---

# 4. The "Li Zexiang School": A Distinctive Lineage in Hard-Tech Entrepreneurship

Beyond the individual alumni, one thread of HKUST's entrepreneurial phenomenon deserves separate treatment: the hard-tech entrepreneurship lineage that has grown up around Professor Li Zexiang of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, widely known as the "Li Zexiang school." This lineage has produced not only DJI's Frank Wang but an entire "mentor–student–industrial base" incubation mechanism — the most systematic element in HKUST's narrative of deep industry-academia collaboration.

From research group to industrial base. Professor Li Zexiang has taught for many years in HKUST's Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering and has served as mentor or co-founder to numerous firms, including DJI and Googol Technology (see Research Output and Spin-off Companies^※). According to press reports, in 2014 he came from HKUST to Songshan Lake in Dongguan and founded XbotPark (the Songshan Lake Robotics Industrial Base)^※, scaling up the "engineering-practice-driven entrepreneurship" training model he had developed at HKUST and transplanting it into the industrial heartland of the Greater Bay Area.

The "dream factory for innovation" scorecard. According to reports^※, within four to five years the base had successfully incubated more than 50 innovative projects or teams, with a success rate approaching 80 per cent^※ — significantly above provincial, national and global averages. Another report puts the number of hard-tech companies to emerge from the base at over 60, with a survival rate of about 80 per cent, some 15 per cent growing into unicorns or near-unicorns, and a combined valuation above RMB 80 billion^※, across fields including intelligent equipment, industrial robotics and cleaning robots (such as Narwal).

Relationship with HKUST. It should be noted that XbotPark is an independent industrial base located at Songshan Lake, Dongguan, and is not a subsidiary of the University. Its core methodology, its mentors and its early projects, however, overlap heavily with the faculty-and-student network of HKUST's Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. In that sense, the "Li Zexiang school" can be read as an "outflow" and institutionalisation of HKUST's entrepreneurial DNA into the industrial side of the Greater Bay Area — turning the contingency of DJI's birth in a university dormitory into a replicable incubation process.

Note: The incubation counts, success rates and other figures cited in this section are as reported in the media and are time-sensitive; moreover, since XbotPark is an independent entity, its achievements should not be folded into HKUST's official statistics. This section aims to trace the lineage of an entrepreneurial school, not to claim institutional ownership. Where living entrepreneurs are involved, this archive follows its rules and relies on publicly available positive accounts.

A generational marker for "new-generation hard-tech entrepreneurs." In recent years, international media have often grouped Frank Wang with ByteDance's Zhang Yiming, Unitree's Wang Xingxing and DeepSeek's Liang Wenfeng as China's "new generation of hard-tech entrepreneurs" (the "Fantastic Four"). According to press coverage^※, this cohort is distinguished by hands-on engineering and deep-tech accumulation. One clarification is in order: of the four, only Frank Wang (DJI) comes from HKUST. Zhang Yiming, Wang Xingxing and Liang Wenfeng are not HKUST alumni (Liang Wenfeng, for example, did his undergraduate degree at Zhejiang University). This archive does not count the latter three as HKUST alumni; they are mentioned only as background context for the era.

---

# 5. Alumni in Academia

# 5.1 Kin Fai Mak — Condensed Matter Physicist

Kin Fai Mak^※ completed a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics at HKUST in 2005^※, then took his PhD in physics at Columbia University (graduating 2010). After positions at Cornell University's Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science (2012) and Pennsylvania State University (2014), he was promoted to full professor at Cornell in 2022^※. In 2024 he became Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) in Germany^※. He enjoys an international reputation in the characterisation and control of two-dimensional quantum materials, with over 100 publications^※ and more than 60,000 citations^※. In 2025, HKUST conferred on him an Honorary Fellowship^※.

# 5.2 Sun Binyong — Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

According to the Wikipedia list of HKUST people^※, Sun Binyong studied at HKUST and was later elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working in mathematics.

# 5.3 Other Alumni in Academia

According to the Wikipedia list of HKUST people^※:

• Tinglong Dai: Associate Professor of Operations Management at Johns Hopkins University
• Panos Kalnis: Professor of Computer Science at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
• Hean Tat Keh: Professor and Head of the Department of Marketing at Monash University; holds an MBA from HKUST and a PhD in marketing from the University of Washington^※; his research focuses on services marketing, consumer behaviour and responsible consumption, and he is the first Asian-Australian scholar to head the department.

For a fuller portrait of HKUST's Chair Professors and its members of learned academies, see Leading Scholars^※ and Honorary Fellows and Academicians^※, which can be read alongside this section.

---

# 6. Alumni in Business

# 6.1 Douglas Woo — Chairman of Wheelock and Company

Douglas Woo^※ (born 1978) is Chairman of Wheelock and Company Limited and Managing Director of Wheelock Properties (Hong Kong)^※. He holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Princeton University and received his MBA in 2010 from the joint programme offered by the HKUST Business School and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management^※ — making him one of the better-known graduates of the HKUST–Kellogg joint MBA. He also serves as a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

---

# 7. Alumni in Politics and Public Affairs

According to the Wikipedia list of HKUST people^※, a number of alumni are active in Hong Kong politics and district administration:

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

This list is compiled mainly from Wikipedia and reflects that HKUST alumni have some presence in district administration and party politics. In keeping with this archive's conventions, we do not offer assessments of these individuals' specific records or public reputations; interested readers are invited to consult public election records and news reports themselves.

---

# 8. Alumni in Entertainment

According to the Wikipedia list of HKUST people^※:

• Alfred Cheung: Hong Kong actor, director, screenwriter and producer
• Myolie Wu: Hong Kong actress and singer
• Koni Lui: Model; Hong Kong/Macau delegate to Miss International 2006^※

---

# 9. Alumni in Sport

# 9.1 Chan Yuk Chi — Head Coach of Tai Po FC

Chan Yuk Chi^※ (born 8 September 1984) read computer science at HKUST, earning a bachelor's degree in engineering^※. During his studies he continued to travel back to Tai Po to train with Tai Po FC; in the year he graduated, Tai Po were promoted to the Hong Kong First Division, and he promptly turned professional, playing for the Tai Po first team until his retirement in 2017, after which he stayed on as a coach^※. Holding a Hong Kong Football Association "C" coaching licence, he is now head coach of Tai Po FC in the Hong Kong Premier League — the only verifiable professional-sport alumnus in this archive to date, and a reminder that HKUST's notable-alumni roster extends well beyond technology and business.

---

# Related Reading

• Frank Wang and DJI — From an HKUST Undergraduate Thesis to 80 Per Cent of the World's Consumer Drones^※
• Leading Scholars^※ — academic backgrounds of successive Vice-Chancellors and a portrait of academicians of the two academies
• Notable Professors and Academic Leaders^※ — full profiles of current scholars including Li Zexiang and Nancy Ip
• Honorary Doctors, Honorary Fellows and Visiting Professors^※ — includes the full story behind Kin Fai Mak's Honorary Fellowship
• Research Output and Spin-off Companies^※ — the research origins of the Li Zexiang entrepreneurial lineage

---