According to a statement from the University of Macau (UM) yesterday, two of its professors were elected as fellows of “prestigious international societies” through a rigorous selection process, namely the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).
The electees are Faculty of Science and Technology’s (FST) Department of Electromechanical Engineering’s Prof Xu Qingsong as fellow of the ASME, and FST Department of Computer and Information Science Prof Zhou Yicong for the SPIE.
The statement pointed out that they are Macau’s first scholars to receive their respective titles.
The statement noted that Prof Xu has over 10 years of teaching and research experience, having also served on the editorial boards of several top international journals and having won numerous awards.
Xu also developed Macau’s first “intelligent disinfection robot”, which has been incorporated in local hospitals and government buildings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement added that he has been approached by companies to commercialise his patented research results, “which are expected to promote the development of service-robot-related industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the diversification of Macau’s economy”.
The statement noted that the ASME is among the “most authoritative and influential academic organisations in the world”, focusing on mechanical engineering and related technology and having over 64,000 members in 160 countries and regions.
The ASME fellowship is “the highest honour” granted to its members and recognises scholars who have made “significant achievements and outstanding contributions to the field of mechanical engineering”. ASME fellows are numbered at over 3,300 worldwide, the statement noted.
Meanwhile, the statement said that Prof Zhou has been studying artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, image processing and multimedia security for many years, having also served on the editorial boards of various top international journals. Moreover, he “has been named among the top two percent of the world’s leading scientists”.
The statement underlined that “SPIE is an international professional organisation” recognised for its research in optics, photonics and electronics fields, with more than 17,000 members worldwide. SPIE annually chooses a small number of “outstanding optical scientists” internationally to be its fellows.
Being chosen as an SPIE fellow shows worldwide recognition for Zhou’s contributions in multimedia information security and image processing and understanding fields, the statement underlined.
This undated handout photo provided by the University of Macau (UM) yesterday shows Prof Xu Qingsong posing with his equipment at the university.
This undated handout photo provided by UM yesterday shows Prof Zhou Yicong posing in one of the university’s facilities.
