HKUST Annual Report 2016-17

27 Zooming in on Consumer Choice Utilizing big data, Prof Kim Jun (Marketing) and coauthors explored how people search for digital cameras to study online consumers’ search and choice behaviors. Key findings revealed consumers explore a limited range of products, and that the final product they purchase is very different from the products they discovered on the first day. This suggests that consumers have an approximate idea of the quality and type of features they want. As people buy a product close to what they initially found, it means marketers can recommend close variants of what the consumer initially searched for during the process. The paper received the prestigious John DC Little Award for the best article published in the INFORMS Journal . Speeding the Development of Mobile Augmented Reality Prof Pan Hui (Computer Science and Engineering) and his researchers have built an innovative augmented reality (AR) platform to facilitate entrepreneurs and programmers in developing AR programs and applications for mobile and wearable devices. The team identified and developed major AR components, including hardware platforms and software frameworks, then provided enabling technologies, such as object tracking and process offloading, to significantly accelerate the development cycle. Beating Bacteria by Purifying the Air Prof King Lun Yeung (Chemical and Biological Engineering, Environment and Sustainability) and his research team developed a novel air purification system that removes up to 99.999% of airborne bacteria and viruses, including influenza (H1N1, H3N2), EV71 and MERS-Cov (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus). The technology effectively combats and inhibits the growth of bacteria, germs or viruses that cause respiratory diseases, offering solutions to protect health. The purification system was made available in the retail market as a household purifier in September 2016. How Air Pollution Impacts Public Health Analysis focused on estimating the health effects of air pollution in China by Prof Guojun He (Environment and Sustainability, Economics, and Social Science) revealed a significant impact on cardiorespiratory mortality both in the short and long run, with the chronic impact much larger than the acute impact. The research showed that children, the elderly and people living in rural areas are more vulnerable. It also indicated that improving air quality in China could bring tremendous public health benefits. The research has generated papers published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, British Medical Journal, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Research Highlights