A team of scientists led by Academician Professor Xiang Zhang, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Chair of Engineering and Physics, has made a major breakthrough by using a natural magnetic material called CrSBr to achieve negative refraction — without the need for complicated artificial structures. This discovery opens the door to ultra-compact lenses, super-high-resolution microscopes, and reconfigurable optical devices that can be controlled with magnets.

The 9th HKU Quarterly Forum on Chinese Economy, hosted by HKU Business School’s Institute of China Economy (ICE), in partnership with the Hong Kong Alumni Association of China’s Central University of Finance and Economics, was held on 29 January. This was the first Forum of the series in 2026, where renowned experts and scholars discussed breakthroughs in China’s macroeconomy, key issues emerging from the development of artificial intelligence, trade and finance matters such as the renminbi exchange rate, and others. Held at HKU iCube in Central, Hong Kong, the Forum attracted an audience of more than 200 industry leaders, academic experts, alumni, and students oniste, and more than 10,000 who attended online.

Dr. Byeongock Kim, Principal Researcher at the AX Convergence Research Center of the Virtual Engineering Platform Research Division, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM, President Seog-Hyeon Ryu), under the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST; Chairman Young-Sik Kim), in collaboration with P&S Co., Ltd. (CEO Bong-Soo Park), has developed the core technology for a high-precision automated balancing machine. This technology is the outcome of two projects which have been supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) since 2020.

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology’s (SMART) Mens, Manus & Machina (M3S) interdisciplinary research group, and National University of Singapore (NUS), alongside collaborators from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore), have developed an AI control system that enables soft robotic arms to learn a wide repertoire of motions and tasks once, then adjust to new scenarios on the fly without needing retraining or sacrificing functionality.

Researchers at University of Jyväskylä (Finland) advance understanding of gold nanocluster behavior at elevated temperatures using machine learning-based simulations. This information is crucial in the design of nanomaterials so that their properties can be modified for use in catalysis and other technological applications.