CALAS

Good news! Prof. Ray has been invited to serve as a Technical Program Committee (TPC) member at the CODES+ISSS 2025, the premier conference on system-level design, hardware/software co-design, and embedded systems. As part of Embedded Systems Week (ESWEEK), this conference gathers top researchers and industry experts to advance innovations in Cyber-Physical Systems, AI-driven embedded design, and IoT applications.

Our goals is to enhance CALAS’s global presence, to foster new International collaborations, and to strengthen our research impact in Cyber-Physical Systems, AI-driven design, and IoT. More good news will come next.

We’re thrilled to welcome Eden (Xudong Zhao) to CALAS as a new PhD Candidate. With expertise in laser wind lidar systems, AI technologies, and AIoT, plus an MSc from CityUHK, Eden brings a strong background in engineering and innovation. Best wishes for a successful PhD journey!

Big congratulations to Harry and Lucas for their paper, “InstantViT: Real-Time Attention Accelerator for Dense Predictions of Vision Transformer (ViT)”, being accepted as a poster at the prestigious 2025 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in London, UK.

Great work, Harry and Lucas. Keep shining!

Our CALAS New Year gathering was successfully held on January 22nd at the elegant Hilltop in The Valley, Hong Kong Jockey Club. Starting at 6 PM, this annual tradition brought our members together for an evening of celebration, networking, and fun activities.

We enjoyed a sumptuous dinner featuring highlights like juicy Wagyu beef, paired with delicious snacks. The event provided ample opportunities to connect with colleagues and VIP guests. Entertainment options, including billiards, darts, and a reserved bowling alley, made the evening lively and engaging.

The traditional gift exchange, led by lottery, added a festive touch, with generous red envelopes shared by Prof. Patrick. Special thanks to Prof. Ray and Prof. Patrick for their excellent organization and warm hospitality, creating a fruitful and memorable experience.

Thank you, everyone, for making this a fantastic start to the new year!

We are thrilled to see Gavin (Guangyan Li), Lucas (Zewen Ye), Donald (Donglong Chen), Winston (Wangchen Dai) and Gary (Gaoyu Mao)’s outstanding work, titled
“ProgramGalois: A Programmable Generator of Radix-4 Discrete Galois Transformation Architecture for Lattice-Based Cryptography”,
featured as part of the Special IoT Section in ACM TRETS (ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems) Volume 17, Issue 4!

This recognition highlights their contributions to FPGA-based systems for industrial and IoT applications, particularly in advancing lattice-based cryptographic architectures. Kudos to the team for this well-deserved achievement!

We are proud to celebrate the success of Donald’s team at UIC and Winston, distinguished graduates of CALAS. Their team has been honored with the prestigious GDCA Outstanding Paper Award (First Prize)  for their remarkable project: “Yet Another Improvement of Plantard Arithmetic for Faster Kyber on Low-end 32-bit IoT Devices”.
This achievement is a testament to the continuous growth and excellence of CALAS alumni, showcasing their impactful contributions across the Greater Bay Area and beyond.
Congratulations once again to Donald, Joshua, Prof. Chen, and the entire team on this well-deserved recognition. The CALAS legacy continues to flourish and inspire!

On November 26, CALAS had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Erica Han and her student from Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. During her visit, we introduced our ongoing research and recent achievements, including our latest projects and innovative contributions. Prof. Han shared her expertise in domain-specific computation, sensory networks, and video image processing, highlighting their applications in futuristic networks and smart agriculture.

Prof. Han and Prof. Ray share a long-standing academic connection, having worked together during their time at UCLA, where she pursued her PhD and Prof. Ray served as a postdoc. Their reunion marked a valuable exchange of ideas and research perspectives.

We look forward to deepening our collaboration with a reciprocal visit to her group in Shenzhen soon. This meeting reaffirmed the CALAS commitment to fostering interdisciplinary collaborations and broadening our research horizons. Special thanks to Prof. Han for this inspiring interaction!

Yesterday, the CALAS team had the privilege of attending a lecture delivered by Prof. Wayne Luk, a leading expert in meta-programming and hardware acceleration. Prof. Luk shared his recent advancements in leveraging different hardware, including FPGAs, to optimize computational efficiency based on project-specific features. He also introduced groundbreaking work on causal discovery using FPGA-based platforms, which sparked lively discussions and insightful questions from our team.

Prof. Luk, who is also the supervisor of Prof. Ray, highlighted the strong academic lineage of CALAS, tracing its roots to Imperial College London and its current success at CityU. This visit was a valuable opportunity to learn from his expertise, and the enthusiasm shown by CALAS members reflected the spirit of curiosity and collaboration that drives our group forward. Special thanks to Prof. Luk for inspiring us with his innovative research and contributions to our field.

Our CALAS hiking activity along the Eagle’s Nest Nature Trail was held successfully! Starting at 10 AM, the hike lasted for 1.5 hours, providing a great opportunity for team bonding and knowledge exchange. A special thanks to Clarice, the organizer of this activity, for her efforts in bringing us together. We were also delighted to welcome back Dr. Irfan, our previous PhD graduate, who shared valuable insights from his academic journey. Additionally, it was a pleasure to introduce our new members—Jason and Camilla (new PhD students), Dr. Shen, and Dr. Yang (postdoctoral researchers).

This gathering facilitated meaningful conversations and strengthened connections within the group. Prof. Ray shared exciting updates and opportunities for our PhD students, adding to the motivation of the team. The event concluded with a delightful lunch at a Chinese restaurant, hosted by Prof. Ray. Special thanks to everyone for making this a memorable CALAS gathering!

Many Congratulations to Gavin and Lucas with other members for their paper being published on ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems (TRETS) recently. Good job! The title of the paper is “ProgramGalois: A Programmable Generator of Radix-4 Discrete Galois Transformation Architecture for Lattice-based Cryptography”.