The Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) of the University of Macau (UM) presents the 2022/2023 “Teaching Excellence Award” and “Research Excellence Award” to 4 professors today (8 February). After the selection by FST management committee, the “Teaching Excellence Award” were presented to Prof U Leong Hou, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Prof Hao Tianwei, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The “Research Excellence Awards” were presented to Prof Ma Shaodan, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Prof Zhou Jiantao, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science. The award aims to commend these professors for their constantly improvement in teaching and perseverance and innovation in research. They successfully enhance the quality of teaching and research of UM, as well as setting up a role model for other academic staff and students.

Leong Hou U, Associate professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science, has been teaching at UM since 2011. Over the past few years, he has undertaken many large-scale Data Engineering and Artificial Intelligence conferences as the chairman and core member of the local committee, and has led many students to participate in international programming contest. The competition creates important opportunities for students by broadening their international horizons. He coordinates and teaches an interdisciplinary MSc in Data Science which attracts students from many different disciplines. In teaching, he also shows inclusiveness to students, and values the perspectives of students with different academic backgrounds. He successfully creates a positive and valued learning environment. At the same time, through sharing the cutting-edge scientific research results in big data processing and analysis, theory and practical knowledge are effectively delivered in the class, thus, a platform is established for students to cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Tianwei Hao, Assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, joined UM in 2017. In regards of teaching, he prepares well before every class and usually cites additional background information and examples, using various teaching tools, such as thought experiments and animation videos, to help students absorb the most cutting-edge knowledge and have better learning experiences, most importantly, his teaching makes the class more attractive which largely stimulate students’ enthusiasm and learning motivation. Prof Hao believes that learning is like a boat sailing against the current must forge ahead or it will be driven back, therefore, continuous learning is the best way to teach by precept and example. He keeps improving his research and hopes set up a role model of independent learning for students.

Shaodan Ma is a Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, and the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City at the University of Macau. Her research focuses on array signal processing, transceiver design, localization in wave communications and massive MIMO systems. She has published over 180 papers in referred journals and conferences. She was a symposium co-chair for various international conferences including IEEE ICC 2021, 2019 & 2016, IEEE/CIC ICCC 2019, IEEE GLOBECOM 2016, etc. Currently she serves as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Communications Letters, and Journal of Communications and Information Networks. She received Macao Science and Technology Award (3rd prize, Natural Science Award) in 2022.

Jiantao Zhou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science who joined UM in 2012. His research focuses on artificial intelligence security and privacy protection. Professor Zhou has made a lot of achievements in the field of multimedia information security and forensics in social networks. His highly robust forged image detection and positioning technology has been successfully applied to the security department of Alibaba and used to detect the authenticity of certificate images. Professor Zhou is currently the associate editor of two top journals in the field of multimedia information processing, IEEE Trans. Image Processing and IEEE Trans Multimedia, and the co-chairman of the 2023 Program Committee of the flagship conference in the multimedia field, IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME). Won the third prize of the Natural Science Award of the Macau Science and Technology Awards.

FST presents the “Excellent Teaching Award” and the “Research Excellence Award” as a recognition to academic staff in making unremitting efforts in teaching and research. It reflects the pursuit of the qualities in teaching and research of the Faculty, as well as the aims of stimulating talent development, scientific progress and local competitiveness of the university.