December 1, 2024, the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI) announced the list of winners of the 3rd IETI PhD Fellowship Award in 2024.
The three outstanding scholars are: Dr. Karima Femmam, who holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Mohamed Khider Biskra in Algeria and is an Assistant Professor at the University of Algiers 1 in Algeria; Dr. Lin Lin, who holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hong Kong and is a postdoctoral fellow; Dr. Kwok Yuen Fan, who holds a Ph.D. in Construction and Real Estate Economics from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is an Assistant Professor at the Beijing Normal University - Hong Kong Baptist University United International College.
Profiles of Scholars
Reasons for selection: Due to outstanding contributions in data mining and image processing.
Dr. Karima Femmam's research focuses on data mining, data processing, and image processing. She employs feature selection and feature extraction methodologies to enhance data analysis and model performance. By integrating advanced techniques in both data and image processing, she improves analytical and processing capabilities to address complex challenges in the field, with wide applications. She has published multiple high-level papers and participated in the 9th International Conference on Intelligent Information Processing in 2024 jointly hosted by IETI, the Romanian Academy, and the Romanian-American University, serving as a special guest presenter.
Reasons for selection: Due to outstanding contributions in finite-valued networks and intelligent control.
Dr. Lin Lin has made a series of significant contributions to the field of networked control systems and published her work in top-tier journals and conferences. Her research focuses on network-inspired finite-valued systems, adept at effectively describing agents with limited storage, processing, and information transmission capabilities. To tackle the challenges posed by high computational complexity and exponential dimensional storage, Dr. Lin has implemented the following strategies: proposing characteristic-polynomial-based consensus/synchronization criteria, establishing a bisimulation-based scale reduction framework, designing optimal triggering control strategies, utilizing network structural information to select minimal control nodes, employing suitable data structures for storage, and developing controller design algorithms based on graph theory and reinforcement learning. One significant achievement is her proof of the equivalence between the stabilizability/controllability/observability probability in networks and the optimal state value function in the reinforcement learning framework. This result transforms the cumbersome probability accumulation calculations into more manageable iterative computations, greatly facilitating the analysis and control of large-scale finite-valued networks. This method can be applied to various systems modeled by finite-valued networks, such as gene regulatory networks, games, multi-agent systems, and sensor networks.
Reasons for selection: Due to outstanding contributions in real estate finance and social sustainable development.
Dr. Kwok Yuen Fan has dabbled in various fields such as economics, sustainable development, corporate finance, real estate, and fintech. Through sharing relevant research, he has had a tangible social impact. He was awarded the Best Conference Paper Prize at the China Real Estate Academic Annual Conference in 2023. He has also participated in important forums such as the New Zealand Finance Meeting and the AsRES-GCREC Joint International Real Estate Conference. He participated in the 3rd International Conference on Computational Science and Social Sustainability in 2024 jointly hosted by IETI, IRIEM, and the University of Economics and Pedagogy in Uzbekistan and served as a invited speaker.
The IETI PhD Fellowship Award is a prestigious honor, specifically established for doctoral students who are currently enrolled in their doctoral programs or have completed their doctoral degrees within the past one year (calculated according to the application time and before the deadline). This award aims to recognize and encourage doctoral students who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in learning, research, project funding, awards, international cooperation, and social services. The awardees cover multiple disciplines, with particular attention paid to research in fields such as artificial intelligence, sustainable development, interdisciplinary sciences, and future technologies.
Previous awardees were outstanding doctoral students from well-known universities, including University College London in the UK, the Hebrew University of Israel, the University of New South Wales in Australia, Wuhan University of Technology in China, and Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok in Thailand.