Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme (URFP)
Undergraduate Research Fellowship Programme (URFP)
URFP Poster Session: Student Research Posters
Below is a list of research topics of the student posters in the URFP poster session arranged by Faculty. Please click the links to view the posters.
URFP 2022-23
Education
Social Sciences
Medicine
- Effect of cancer driver genes in the pathogenesis and tumour behaviour of hepatocellular carcinoma
- Potential cardioprotective effect of SGLT2 inhibitors, dapagliflozin, on cancer drug related toxicity in cardiomyocytes using cell culture model
- Neurogenesis-dependent and antidepressant-like activity of Hericium Erinaceus, Ganoderma Lucidum and Lignosus in an animal model of depression
- Elucidating the structural understanding and the molecular mechanisms of nuclear DLC1-FOXK1 complex in controlling melanoma metastasis
URFP 2021-22
Architecture
- From Reviving “Homes” to Sustaining “Communities”: Recommending a Framework for Conserving Public Housing Estates in Hong Kong with the Historic Urban Landscape Approach (Division of Architectural Conservation Programmes)
Engineering
- Measuring incompatibility different dimensions, simulations and explorations on its applications / Incompatibility between Measurements and Quantum Machine Learning (Computer Science)
- Photoacoustic microscopy at 1930nm for water imaging (Electronic Engineering)
Medicine
- Optimization and engineering of SARS-CoV-2 bispecific antibody from human neutralizing antibodies (Biomedical Sciences)
- Therapeutic potential of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cell exosomes in treating influenza (A) virus associated acute lung injury (Biomedical Sciences)
- The Effects of Selective HDAC6 inhibitor (Ricolinostat) on Multiple Myeloma (Biomedical Sciences)
- Investigation of neural mechanisms and antidepressant-like activities by transcorneal electrical stimulation in chronic restraint stress model (Biomedical Sciences)
- Characterization of antiviral activity mediated by small molecule compounds targeting influenza A nucleoprotein, derived from forward chemical genetics-based high throughput screening (HTS) (Biomedical Sciences)
- Frequent antibiotic prescription and risk of encephalopathy related hospitalisation among people living with dementia: A population-based cohort study (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
- Adult immunodeficiency in Hong Kong (Medicine and Surgery)
- The role of SRSF5 in mediating tamoxifen resistance in oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer: SRSF5 as a regulator of BQ323636.1 expression (Medicine and Surgery)
- Investigation of epigenetic regulation by melatonin on neurotransmission in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease (Medicine and Surgery)
- Immunogenicity of imiquimod, resiquimod or miltefosine in combination with conventional alum-adjuvanted Hepatitis B vaccine in mice (Medicine and Surgery)
Science
- Development of Chemiluminescent Probes for Detecting Reactive Oxygen Species (Chemistry)
- Anomalous Bloch Oscillation and Electrical Switching of Edge Magnetization in Bilayer Graphene Nanoribbon (Physics)
- Characterization of sPDZD2-GPR161 interaction in the negative regulation of Hedgehog signaling (Biomedical Sciences)
- Limiting properties of Erdős-Rényi graphs (Actuarial Science)
- Regulation of Spire1 by Phosphoinositides and PARP in DNA Damage Response (Biomedical Sciences)
- Application of A Machine Learning Framework that accelerates the solution of ODEs and PDEs (Mathematics)
- A Two-Tier Process of Planar Cell Polarity Development Suggested by Ising-based Modeling (Biomedical Sciences)
- GEN1 in processing recombination and replication intermediates (Biological Sciences)
- Characterisation of Mitochondrial Proteome Changes during SARS-CoV-2 ORF9b Expression by Rapid Immunopurification (Biological Sciences)
Social Sciences
- Neighbourhood change, gentrification and social injustice: a research of Tai Nam Street, Sham Shui Po (Geography)
- Upgrading without uprooting? An investigation on the impacts of urban renewal upon Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong (Geography)
- Assessing vegetation resilience in relation to physical landscape under recurring tropical cyclones in Hong Kong (Geography)
- Effects of the TEACCH Programme on Early Reading of Chinese Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial (Geography)
Education
- Chinese Parents’ Experiences of Reading English Storybooks to Preschool Children: A Case in Guangzhou, China (Arts and Education in Language Education – Chinese)
- Entrepreneurial spirit development through informal learning by secondary school students: A Hong Kong case (Arts and Education in Language Education – English)
- Incidental grammar acquisition from reading: The development of L2 implicit and explicit knowledge (Arts and Education in Language Education – English)
- Does the Modified Oral Inferential Comprehension Intervention Program Improve Narrative Comprehension Skills of Children with Developmental Language Disorder? A Single-Case Early Efficacy Study (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Does the Modified Oral Inferential Comprehension Intervention Program Improve the Vocabulary and Narrative Production Skills of Children with Developmental Language Disorder? A Single-case Early Efficacy Study (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
URFP 2020-21
Architecture
- Conserving Hong Kong’s Vanishing Industrial Heritage with the Best Practices from Singapore (Division of Architectural Conservation Programmes)
- Staple Chain Studies and Environmental Advocacy pertaining to Fossil Fuel Industry in Singapore (Urban Studies)
Business & Economics
- The Economic Legacy of Xenophobia Evidence from the Boxer Uprising (Economics & Finance)
- Does Environmental Commitment Stifle Technological Innovation (Economics & Finance)
Education
- Exploring the social construction of masculinity through ESL classroom discourse in a Hong Kong boy’s school (Arts and Education in Language Education – English)
- Is the VAULT vocabulary intervention efficacious for a Mandarin-dominant Mandarin-Cantonese bilingual late-talker? Answers from a single-case experimental study (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Word Learning in Affective Prosody in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their Language-matched Peers: A Test of Three Hypotheses (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Does child-directed speech serve affective or didactic function: A perceptual and acoustic investigation (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Effects of online individualized cognitive stimulation therapy (iCST) on cognitive and language functioning in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or mild dementia (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
Engineering
- Reconfigurable Computing Device: Logical Design and Performance Evaluation (Computer Engineering)
- Transmission of virus-laden aerosols through building drainage system (Mechanical Engineering)
- Data-free model inversion of face recognition model (Computer Science)
- Integrated Photo-triggered Gene-editing System with Ferroptotic Effect (Medical Engineering)
Medicine
- Testing Five-flower Tea and Its Five Common Herbs In-vitro for Interactions with Cytochrome P450 3A4 (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
- Identification of novel downstream effectors of the oncogenic protein p85β (Biomedical Sciences)
- Proximity-based Labelling of RNA Localisation and RNA-protein Interaction with an Aptamer-mediated Singlet Oxygen Photosensitisation System (Biomedical Sciences)
- The Role of Muscle-derived Brain-Development Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the Development and/or Maintenance of Neuromuscular Junction (NMJ) (Biomedical Sciences)
- Social Inequalities, Risk Communication and Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak in Hong Kong (Nursing)
- Metabolomics Research of Sarcopenia (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
- Montelukast and the Risk of Neuropsychiatric Events in Patients with Asthma: A Population-wide Cohort Study (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
- Discovery of the effects of GLIPR-1 gene expression on the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma and the underlying mechanisms (Medicine and Surgery)
- The therapeutic effectiveness of intravenous injection of modified RNA therapy for the treatment of Fabry disease with microbubbles as carrier (Medicine and Surgery)
- Impact of Vitamin D deficiency on survival after experimental intracerebral haemorrhage (Medicine and Surgery)
- Emerging rodent-borne infectious diseases (Medicine and Surgery)
- Pilot study of universal newborn screening programme (NBS) of severe combined immunodeficiency disorder (SCID) and T-cell lymphopenia (TCL) by T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC) quantification using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) of dried blood spots (DBS) (Medicine and Surgery)
Social Sciences
- Social Networking Technologies: Shaping Energy Practices for Sustainability (Geography)
- Discussing the Effectiveness of Waste Management in Hong Kong (Geography)
- Decadal Variation of the Impacts of El Niño on Hong Kong Winter Precipitation and Its Relation to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (Geography)
- Towards Equitable and Sustainable Transportation – Accessibility Analysis in Tseung Kwan O (Geography)
- Microstructural Properties of Visual White Matter Tracts and Sensory Eye Dominance (Psychology)
- Online learning challenges in COVID 19 and mental health issues – The Role of Depression and Online Self-Regulated Learning (OSRL) in the relationship between Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Academic Outcome (Psychology)
- The effect of valence and detailedness of shared autobiographical memories (AM) on offered support and liking (Psychology)
- Modulation of Cantonese Listening Proficiency on Chinese Reading With Narratives in Mandarin-Cantonese Bilinguals Students in Hong Kong (Psychology)
- A Study of Gender Differences in Offering Social Support Through Shared Autobiographical Memories (Psychology)
- Daily Associations Between Insomnia and Depression: Emotion Regulation as a Mediator (Psychology)
Science
- Homology-based search for microtubule associated proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans (Biological Sciences)
- Investigating the Role of DLC1-i1 and the Molecular Regulation of Its Expression in Embryonic Chick Spinal Motor Neurons Using CRISPR/Cas9 Genome-Editing Approach (Biomedical Sciences)
- Behavioral analysis of dietary consumption in Southwest China (and the impact of COVID-19 and wildlife consumption ban) (Biological Sciences)
- First Order Algorithms for Optimization and Zeroth-order Optimization (Mathematics)
- Distribution of Zeros of a Random Polynomial (Statistics & Actuarial Science)
- Quantitative analysis of oxysterols in a NAFLD cell model (Biological Sciences)
- Learning Invariant Information in Machine Learning (Mathematics)
URFP 2019-20
Architecture
- In what ways are the community architectural heritage in Hong Kong worth conserving – A study of Hong Kong Public Toilets and their Cultural Significance (Division of Architectural Conservation Programmes)
Engineering
- Acceleration of computation on field robots using FPGA-based reconfigurable computers (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Mapping of electrical potentials in the human body: a review and future prospects (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
Medicine
- The Effect of Neurostimulation on Synaptoplasticity (Neuroplasticity) in Depression (Biomedical Sciences)
- Development and characterization of a novel nanoparticle-based drug delivery system of bosentan monohydrate for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
- The roles of neutrophil elastase and proteinase 3 in energy metabolism (Pharmacology and Pharmacy)
Science
- Coordination chemistry and photophysical characterization of lanthanide complexes (Chemistry)
- Asymmetric (4+3) cycloaddition of epoxy enol silane with dienes catalyzed by Chiral Binaphthyl Disulfonic Acid and derivatives (Chemistry)
- Demonstration of generic Quantum controllability under QAOA setting (Mathematics)
Social Sciences
- Contemporary Manchu Ethnic Tourism and Ethnic Identity Represented (Politics and Public Administration)
- Integrating Mobilization and Institutionalization: Wiping “Black” and “Evils” in China (Politics and Public Administration)
- One more minute and I’ll leave the game!’: The relationship among belongingness need, time perception and gaming addiction (Psychology)
Education
- Do Cantonese-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder show superior discrimination of speech pitch across languages? An experimental study (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- An early efficacy study of Cross-situational Statistically-based Word Learning intervention for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) using a single subject experimental design (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Effective perceptual training on non-native lexical tone identification for monolingual and bilingual tone language speakers (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- An early efficacy study of Enhanced Milieu Teaching approach on grammar intervention for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) using a single subject experimental design (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
URFP 2018-19
Architecture
- Reorienting the conservation practice in Hong Kong: The application of Singapore’s conservation zoning model in Hong Kong (Division of Architectural Conservation Programmes)
Dentistry
Education
- A survey of current speech therapy services for children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia and Hong Kong (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- An objective investigation of lingual and labial coordination in tongue twister production by Cantonese adults (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Comparing the effectiveness of three training methods on English vowel perception in Cantonese-speaking secondary school students learning English as a second language (ESL) (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Comprehension monitoring in Chinese-English good and poor comprehenders (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Literacy development in second-language learners: The Co-development of Chinese and English biliteracy in native and non-native Cantonese speaking children in Hong Kong (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- The processing of light verb constructions in Cantonese (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Understanding the roles of theory of mind and receptive prosody in reading comprehension among Chinese children with autism spectrum disorder (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
Engineering
- Diffusion operator with mediator for hypergraphs (Computer Science)
- Fast2Vec: An efficient network embedding framework (Computer Science)
- Learning colored transparent object matting from a single image (Computer Science)
- On the weak neural dependence phenomenon in wide deep neural networks (Computer Science)
- Quantum machine learning with superposition of causal order (Computer Science)
- Enhancing the field of view of nonlinear optical microscopy (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Sensory substitution based vibro-tactile prosthetic glove (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Unit commitment of a power system with renewable energy integration and load forecasting (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
Medicine
- Conditional knockout of vinculin in neural crest cells disrupts gangliogenesis in enteric nervous system development in mice (Biomedical Sciences)
- In-vitro study of Camptothecin in an hnRNPA1 cell line (Biomedical Sciences)
Science
- Phosphorylation of Ybx1 protein and regulation of the nodal signaling pathway during zebrafish embryogenesis (Biological Sciences)
- Preparation of recomibinant protein of adiponectin in E. coli and testing of its bioactivity in cell lines with adiponectin receptor expression and its potential effects on promoter activation of pituitary hormones (Biological Sciences)
- Influenza A virus PB1-F2 cytotoxic motif promotes self aggregation to elicit NLRP3 dependent IL-1β release (Biomedical Sciences)
- Role of TRPC1-induced Ca2+-signaling in neuromuscular synapse development (Biomedical Sciences)
- Using neuronal tracing and a passive transparent brain to visualize neuronal pathway (Biomedical Sciences)
Social Sciences
- Chinese online media and nationalism in foreign affairs: A case study of China-South Korea tensions in the 2017 anti-THAAD incident (Politics and Public Administration)
URFP 2017-18
Education
- Attitudes of pre-service and in-service teachers towards reflective practice: An empirical analysis with the multicomponent model (Policy, Administration and Social Sciences Education)
- The efficacy of a Chinese reading strategy instruction program for K3 children in Hong Kong (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Treatment effect of expiratory muscle strength training as an adjunct treatment for improving swallowing functions in nasopharyngeal cancer survivors: a randomized controlled trial (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Visuospatial short-term memory correlates of receptive vocabulary ability in Cantonese-speaking and English-speaking preschool children in Hong Kong and Australia (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
Engineering
- Free-floating bikesharing in Asia, Europe and North America – Understanding early adoption and expansion trends (Civil Engineering)
- Sustainable ground improvement with the use of sand-rubber mixtures – a comprehensive laboratory study (Civil Engineering)
- C-Explorer – Browsing communities in large graphs (Computer Science)
- Classification for pathological images using machine learning (Computer Science)
- Deep learning on mobile GPUs (Computer Science)
- HKU-Face: A large-scale dataset for deep face recognition (Computer Science)
- Deep learning in customer-centric precision marketing (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Resilient data collection protocol with In-Network processing for oil and gas refinery networks (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Solar powered airship (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Unsupervised Chinese character style generation (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Interfacial folding of aqueous two-phase systems using flow oscillations (Mechanical Engineering)
Medicine
- TTC9A deficiency induces social-anxiety and alterations on amygdaloid-hippocampal neuroplasticity-related gene expression of mice (Biomedical Sciences)
- Enhancing motor learning and performance through the manipulation of augmented feedback and psychological stress (Public Health)
- External focus of attention promotes both increased movement processing and enhanced postural stability (Public Health)
Science
- The role of centromere, kinetochore and cell cycle checkpoint proteins in anoxia-induced suspended animation and recovery in S. cerevisiae (Biological Sciences)
- Investigation and validation on gene expression during development of nucleus pulposus – Hox genes and cell surface markers (Biomedical Sciences)
- Modulation of the cGAS-STING pathway by MERS-CoV (Biomedical Sciences)
- Probing the influence of the R-Zn-R bond angle in dialkylzinc complexes on the Lewis acidity of the zinc metal centre and implications for zinc activities (Chemistry)
- Studies on the effect of stereochemistry on (4+3) cycloaddition to synthesize perhydroazulenes (Chemistry)
- Field trip investigation in Inner Mongolia (Earth Sciences)
- Upper-ocean stratification in the polar North Atlantic and its impact on deep-water ventilation during past interglacials (Earth Sciences)
URFP 2016-17
Business and Economics
- A new measure for individual ability – An example from major league baseball (Economics and Finance)
Engineering
- The behaviour of heavily over-consolidated clays (Civil Engineering)
- Cause of the disastrous landslide in Shenzhen on December 20, 2015 (Civil Engineering)
- Effect of high-pressure micro-gas inclusions on artificial rocks (Civil Engineering)
- Investigation on a high-speed long-runout landslide in Zhenxiong, Yunnan (Civil Engineering)
- An empirical comparison of different supports in sequential robotic manipulation (Computer Science)
- Using meta structure in heterogeneous information networks (Computer Science)
- Network anomaly detection (Computer Science)
- Self-balancing robot with PID control and neural networks control (Computer Science)
- Distributed optimal power flow: An augmented Lagrangian-sequential quadratic programming approach (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- A virtual reality platform for dynamic human-scene interaction (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- In situ reinforcement of titanium alloy through eutectic solidification (Mechanical Engineering)
- The influence of misalignments in a ball screw assembly on the starting torque of a servomotor (Mechanical Engineering)
- Rogue waves in a fluid with density stratification: Applications to ocean engineering (Mechanical Engineering)
- Mapping of the myocardial mechanical properties using elastic tensor imaging (Medical Engineering)
Medicine
- Identifying potential mediators in regulating BART-miRNA in EBV-positive nasopharyngeal epithelial cells (Biomedical Sciences)
Science
- Design, synthesis and photophysical study of cyclometallated N^C^N alkynylplatinum(II) complexes (Chemistry)
- Novel mechanisms for targeting cancer cells using nanotechnology based drug delivery (Biological Sciences)
Social Sciences
- Does it matter who excludes you? Source social status moderates the exclusion-aggression link (Psychology)
URFP 2015-2016
Business and Economics
- Are NBA teams rational in the draft? (Economics and Finance)
- Buyer Power by NGOs (Economics and Finance)
Education
- Interactions of cognitive and motor rehabilitation in stroke (Institute of Human Performance)
- An acoustical examination of differences in speech motor control associated with bilingual and monolingual speakers (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
- Examining the grammatical complexity of preschool children with Specific Language Impairment using the revised Index of Syntax Development (Speech and Hearing Sciences)
Engineering
- 3D Printing Infilling Structure Optimization (Civil Engineering)
- Evaluation of Drought Impacts on the Water Resources of the Dong River Basin in Southern China (Civil Engineering)
- Performance of Common Visualisation Algorithms in the Medical Domain (Computer Science)
- FPGA Architecture Exploration and CAD Router Optimization (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- A Novel Primary-Side Control Method of Wireless Power Transfer Systems (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
- Development of a low-cost on-chip flow cytometer (Medical Engineering)
Medicine
Science
- Red-light-induced Carbon Disulfide Release from a Cobalt Complex (Chemistry)
- From Holomorphic Functions to Complex Manifolds (Mathematics)
- Investigation on Tensor Network Renormalization Group (Physics)
- On the Predictions of Early Galaxy Formation from Quantum Wave Dark Matter in the Hubble Frontier Fields (Physics)
Social Sciences