1. Introduction

The Data Science and Analytics (DSA) Thrust at HKUST(GZ) is pleased to introduce the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program. This program provides students with practical research experience in data science, machine learning, AI, and analytics.

2. Program Overview

2.1 Program Tracks

The DSA-REU program offers flexible research opportunities for students and faculty. Students can participate in various formats:

Full-Year Research Program (8–12 months) allows students to balance research with their academic studies.

Summer/Winter Internship (8-10 weeks) is a more intensive short-term opportunity.

Custom Research Duration may be set based on faculty needs and student availability.

In line with the University's Work-Study Program guidelines, the workload is designed to be flexible and will not interfere with students' studies. Students may work up to 8 hours per week (40 hours per month), with the possibility of additional hours during breaks based on project needs.

2.2 Eligibility

• ✅ Primary Candidates: Priority will be accorded to undergraduate students in their second year or higher.
• ✅ Sophomore Applicants: All Year 2 students are required to formally declare the BSc in DSBD during the major selection period. Non-compliance will result in the discontinuation of stipend payments.
• ✅ First-Year Applicants: Year 1 students may only be considered upon submission of a compelling justification that clearly demonstrates both a robust foundational knowledge and a strong academic motivation.
• ✅ Upper-Level Students: Eligibility for third- and fourth-year students is restricted exclusively to those enrolled in the BSc in DSBD program
• 🎓 Academic Standards: A minimum Cumulative Grade Average (CGA) of 3.0 (or equivalent) is recommended.
• 💻 Technical Proficiency: Competency in programming and data analysis tools such as Python, C/C++, R, SQL, or similar technologies is preferred.

3. Faculty Participation

Faculty mentors will guide students throughout their research. They will propose research projects, train students in necessary techniques, and supervise their progress. Mentors are responsible for providing feedback, tracking attendance and work hours, and encouraging research dissemination, such as presenting findings at conferences.

4. Program Timeline

The program follows a flexible schedule based on faculty availability and project needs. The timeline includes several key phases:

Phase	Description
Faculty Mentor Registration	Faculty mentors submit research project proposals.
Work-Study Position Setup	Approved research projects are designated as work-study positions, and the available research assistant positions will be announced to all undergraduate students via email.
Research Exposure & Meetings	Faculty mentors conduct pre-application research exposure sessions to introduce prospective applicants to the research topics and work environment.
Student Applications & Selection	Students submit the REU Application Form, along with a CV and academic transcript. Faculty mentors review applications and select students (max. 2 students per project) based on suitability and research interests.
Research Agreement	Selected students and faculty mentors sign the Research Agreement Form, formalizing participation and research commitments.
Monthly Progress Checks	Students provide regular updates on the research progress during monthly meetings with faculty mentors.
6-Month Symposium	Faculty mentors assess and provide feedback on student research progress.
Final Report Submission	Students submit final research reports for mentor review.
Presentation & Publication	Students have the opportunity to submit research reports or papers to journals/conferences and compete for DSA research awards. Award recipients will receive travel grants and funding support from the DSA Thrust for international academic conference participation.

5. Resources

💰 Financial Support: Students will be paid through the University’s Work-Study Program. The hourly rate is RMB 25 (pre-tax), and students are paid based on verified work hours.

• 💻 Computing & Data Resources: Students will have access to high-performance computing and cloud platforms to support their research.

🌐 Academic & Industry Insights: Students can attend seminars, workshops, and industry visits for learning and networking opportunities.

6. Contacts

Email: dsbd@hkust-gz.edu.cn

Supplementary Documents

• 1. DSA_REU_Research Project (for Mentors)
• 2. DSA_REU_Application Form (for Students)
• 3. DSA_REU_Research Agreement Form (for Mentors&Studens)
• 4. DSA_REU_Monthly Work-Study Program Attendance Sheet (For Mentors)

Research Opportunity Available

Project Title: AI & Graph Learning: Unlocking the Power of Networks

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yongqi Zhang

Project Title: Retrieval Augmented Generation Behind Wearable Devices

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yongqi Zhang

Project Title: DeepSeek-V3 Inference Efficiency Optimization

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Zeyi Wen

Project Title: Green GPU Computing for Large-Scale LLM Inferences

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Guoming Tang

Project Title: Introducing LLMs to Building Energy Modeling

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Guoming Tang

Project Title: Human-AI Collaborative Sample Selection Framework

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Weikai Yang

Project Title: Pictorial Chart Understanding

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Weikai Yang

Project Title: Exploration the brain activities during memory retrieval

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Zixin Zhong

Project Title: Reinforcement learning: theory and application

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Zixin Zhong

Project Title: Exploring Vision-Language Models for Spatio-Temporal Data Prediction

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yuxuan Liang

Project Title: Enhancing Spatial Awareness in Multi-agent Networks for Urban Applications

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yuxuan Liang

Project Title: Efficient Hyperparameter Optimization for LLM Inference

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Zeyi Wen

Project Title: Exploring Reasoning Models as Textual World Models

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yuyu Luo

Project Title: LinguaSQL: Unlocking NL2SQL Potential Through Multilingual and Multi-Dialect Prompting

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Yuyu Luo

Project Title: Enhancing Natural Language Querying for Structured and Unstructured Data via Deep Reasoning Models

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Wei Wang

Project Title: Generative Models for Relational Datasets

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Wei Wang

Research Opportunity Closed

Project Title: Ego-View Drone Video Understanding for Scene Understanding

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Xiaowen Chu

Students: Yehua Huang, Zebin Chen

Project Title: Enhancing Reasoning in Large Language Models: Data, Algorithms,and Applications

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jia Li

Student: Bowen Liu

Project Title: Speeding Up Your LLMs: Advancing Speculative Decoding

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jia Li

Student: Han Xiao

Project Title: Agentic Design for High-Quality Math Data Generation and Evaluation

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jiaheng Wei

Student: Yilin Liu

Project Title: Robust supervised fine-tuning on noisy LLM alignment data

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jiaheng Wei

Student: Zhouan Shen

Project Title: Efficient LLM Training via High-Quality Data Selection

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jiaheng Wei

Student: Keyu Hu

Project Title: AscendFlow Law

Faculty Mentor: Prof. Jing Tang

Student: Zehan Lu