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Dr. Huang Kaibin of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has been elected an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow 2021, in recognition of his contributions to wirelessly powered communications and multi-antenna communications.

The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.

Dr Huang’s achievement in wirelessly powered communications (WPC) concerns the application of wireless power transfer to overcome the energy constraints of mobile devices. His novel “power-beacon network” has become a standard architecture for WPC networks and led to the development of ground-breaking products such as the ultra-thin “power beacons” by Qualcomm.

With his key paper being cited more than 700 times, he won the 2015 IEEE Communication-Society Asia-Pacific Best Paper Award. He is also known for his 2013 original work on energy harvesting cognitive radios, which has been cited more than 600 times.

In multi-antenna (MIMO) communications, his work on multiuser orthogonal beamforming, a technique adopted in the 4G standard, has been cited 258 times and he received a Best Paper Award from IEEE Globecom 2006 (one of two flagship conferences in communications). He is the inventor of 13 granted USA patents on MIMO communications, all of which have been adopted by leading companies, including Apple Inc., LG, and Huawei. Several of the patents are influential. In particular, the patent on multi-antenna precoding, which has been transferred to Apple Inc., has been cited in 215 other patents and included in the 4G standard.

Recently, his research on 5G communications won him a number of accolades, including the 2019 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper award, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (2020-2021) and IEEE Communications Society (2021-2022), and 2018 Second Class Award (Natural Science) in Research Achievements by Ministry of Education, China. Moreover, he has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics in 2019 and 2020.

IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement. The total number of Fellows elevated in any one year must not exceed 0.1% of the IEEE voting membership. Currently, IEEE comprised over 400,000 members in 160 countries.

About HKU Faculty of Engineering
The Faculty of Engineering is one of the founding Faculties of The University of Hong Kong established in 1912. Since its foundation, the Faculty has kept pace with developments in the engineering world and is always at the forefront of engineering research, evolving into one of the largest Faculties at the University with five departments providing undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees in a wide range of important fields of modern engineering, technology and computer science.

The Faculty aims at providing an all-round education for students, equipping graduates not only with knowledge of cutting-edge technology, but also excellent communication and social skills, an innovation mindset, a lifelong learning attitude, professional integrity and international exposure. For more information, visit https://engg.hku.hk.

Media enquiries:
Ms Celia Lee, Faculty of Engineering, HKU (Tel: 3917 8519; Email: leecelia@hku.hk) or
Mr Heng Cheng, Faculty of Engineering, HKU (Tel: 3917 1924; Email: hengc@hku.hk)