The new medical school that's approved to be established by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) aims to enroll the first batch of students in 2028. Prof. Nancy Ip, the President of HKUST, stated that an open recruitment will be conducted to attract global teaching and research talents. In her eyes, the establishment of the new medical school won't trigger competition with the two existing medical schools in Hong Kong. Instead, all the local medical schools can cooperate to elevate Hong Kong into an international medical innovation hub via differentiated development.
HKUST, Photo source: reference image
In an interview with RTHK, Prof. Nancy Ip stated that after the government's approval for the establishment of the third medical school in Hong Kong, HKUST has received numerous applications from foreign talents who have expressed their interest in joining. Many of them are graduates from the medical schools in Hong Kong who have developed their careers overseas. Upon hearing the news that HKUST plans to establish a new medical school, they have expressed a strong desire to return to Hong Kong.
Prof. Nancy Ip
Prof. Ip also mentioned that the two existing medical schools in Hong Kong are both excellent, making HKUST needs a lot to learn from them. Since there are many possibilities for each other's cooperation in the future, the three schools will closely discuss whether some courses can be shared among them and provide students with opportunities to attend curriculum exchanges, etc. Meanwhile, since the medical schools of HKU and CUHK have launched second degree programs, HKUST can learn about the challenges involved and keep optimizing its own course arrangement. She hoped that the medical school of HKUST could integrate the factors of clinical practice, scientific research, medical innovation, and entrepreneurial cooperation together in the future to form an innovative system, transforming medical research achievements into practical applications and promoting the development of the biomedical industry in Hong Kong. She also emphasized that if students are interested in establishing start-up companies based on their own research achievements, HKUST will welcome and offer assistance to them.
As for the possibility of developing traditional Chinese medicine teaching, Prof. Ip said that she would not consider it for the time being since she thought the new medical school should first lay a solid foundation for Western medicine teaching. In the future, the school would definitely cooperate with traditional Chinese medicine experts to expand the sphere of teaching and research.
The future campus of the new medical school, Photo source: online simulated picture
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects approximately one in every 100 children worldwide, yet many families face lengthy waits for professional assessment and intervention services, often missing the critical window for early support. To address this challenge, researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have developed "ASD Super Agent," Asia's first integrated AI platform for autism support. By integrating three core functions—early screening, personalized intervention, and continuous family follow-up—the HKUST team hopes this innovative research will help parents identify potential autism risks earlier, access evidence-based professional recommendations, and precisely seize the key timing for early intervention, providing families with immediate and comprehensive support.
HKUST research team has developed “ASD Super Agent”, Asia’s first integrated AI platform for autism support. Led by Prof. Kani CHEN (center), Professor of the Department of Mathematics and Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST; CHEN Xingze (left), a postgraduate student from Individualized Interdisciplinary Program; and WANG Xianfei (right), a postgraduate student from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at HKUST. Photo source: HKUST
Led by Prof. Kani CHEN, Professor of the Department of Mathematics and Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST, the research team visited special education institutions, child development centers, and psychiatric hospitals across Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Beijing during the development of “ASD Super Agent”. The team also engaged with nearly 500 parents of children with autism. The researchers found that many families face lengthy assessment waiting times, high treatment costs, and fragmented information regarding intervention services. Consequently, the HKUST team developed “ASD Super Agent” specifically for parents and caregivers, transforming AI research into a practical autism support tool that offers one-stop assistance from risk assessment to home-based training recommendations.
Prof. Chen said, “Many families struggle to access timely assessment and sustained support for children with autism. Delays in diagnosis can mean missed opportunities during the most effective period for intervention. By leveraging HKUST's strengths in artificial intelligence, data science and interdisciplinary research, we hope ASD Super Agent can bridge this gap, empowering parents and caregivers with practical, evidence-based support and helping more children receive timely intervention.”
Early Screening Through Everyday Home Videos
Parents can use a smartphone or smart device to record short videos of a child’s daily activities, complete standardized questionnaires, and provide basic developmental information. “ASD Super Agent” then generates a risk assessment and analytical report that families can use as a reference when seeking professional evaluation. Photo source: HKUST
One of the platform's key features is AI-assisted early autism risk screening in natural, everyday settings. Parents can use a smartphone or smart device to record short videos of a child’s daily activities, complete standardized questionnaires, and provide basic developmental information. “ASD Super Agent” then generates a risk assessment and analytical report that families can use as a reference when seeking professional evaluation.
In preliminary testing, the system achieved an area under the curve (AUC) score of 0.92 (where values closer to 1 indicate stronger discriminative precision), demonstrating strong screening performance. As the platform remains under testing and development, further clinical studies and real-world validation will be conducted before deployment. To safeguard users’ privacy, the platform follows a strict data-minimization approach by prioritizing on-device posture feature-extraction and processing only essential information required for analysis.
Personalized Intervention Powered by the "20+1" Framework
Through “ASD Super Agent,” the HKUST team aims to empower parents to identify potential autism risks earlier and obtain evidence-based professional guidance, thereby enabling them to act at the most critical juncture for early intervention and delivering timely, comprehensive support to families. Photo source: HKUST
Beyond screening, “ASD Super Agent” provides tailored intervention recommendations based on each child's specific developmental needs. Parents can describe their child's specific challenges such as emotional regulation difficulties, limited eye contact, communications challenges, or repetitive behaviors and receive customized support suggestions.
The platform's distinctive "20+1" framework combines the strengths of established evidence-based intervention approaches with professional expertise from practitioners. The "20" refers to more than 20 internationally recognized autism intervention models embedded within the system, while the "+1" enables therapists, special education providers and organizations to incorporate their own proven intervention methods and practical experience into the platform's knowledge base.
By bringing together research-based methodologies and frontline professional expertise, “ASD Super Agent” can provide recommendations that are both scientifically grounded and responsive to the individual needs of children and their families.
The intervention approaches incorporated in the platform include Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI), TEACCH Structured Teaching, and the Localized BSR Model, among others.
Each recommendation can also be accompanied by relevant academic literature and background references, supporting more informed discussions between families and healthcare or educational professionals and helping children access timely intervention during the crucial developmental window.
Supporting Families While Advancing Autism Research
Parents can describe their child's specific challenges, such as emotional regulation difficulties, limited eye contact, communication challenges, or repetitive behaviors, and receive customized support suggestions. Photo source: HKUST
Recognizing that autism support is an ongoing journey, “ASD Super Agent” is designed to provide continuous follow-up rather than one-time guidance. By integrating text records, video assessments and developmental information provided by families and professionals, the platform builds a dynamic developmental profile for each child. It can help break long-term goals into manageable daily actions, track progress over time, and support informed discussions between families and professionals.
The platform currently supports voice interactions in Cantonese, Putonghua and English, making it accessible to a broad range of users.
Beyond family support, the research team has established a multimodal autism database containing video, posture and behavioral data that now exceeds 1.1 million records. This valuable resource provides a foundation for AI model development and autism research. Through continued data collection and analysis, the team aims to improve risk assessment accuracy, enhance the precision of intervention recommendations, and deepen understanding of autism development and support strategies.
Looking ahead, the researchers will continue to refine the platform's user experience, expand clinical validation studies, and further strengthen system performance. Their goal is to make high-quality autism support more accessible, inclusive and readily available to families in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and beyond.
