Prospective Students

Thank you for your interest in working with me. I am currently recruiting PhD students for the Fall 2027 intake and research assistants. This page explains how I approach research and mentorship, what I expect from students, and how to get in touch.

My Research Style

I am broadly interested in technologies that sense and augment human capabilities to solve real-world problems. In particular, I work on adaptive sensing systems that make robust inferences while accommodating individual users and their everyday routines. My current research has two main areas:

• Wearable interaction: Designing on-skin interaction techniques that make small wearable devices more flexible and enjoyable to use.
• Health sensing: Developing accessible sensing systems that make healthcare more affordable and reduce the burden on users.

My projects often span hardware prototyping, field data collection, signal processing, AI model development, technical evaluation, and empirical user studies.

What You Can Expect from Me

Close Mentorship

• I will work closely with you on challenging and meaningful research problems, including at least one individual meeting each week.
• In addition to research training, I will help you develop your academic writing, presentation, and other skills needed for a research career.

Financial and Research Support

• Regular research studentship: Around HK$19,000 per month.
• Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme: Applicants with an excellent academic and research record are encouraged to apply for the HKPFS. The scheme offers a monthly stipend of HK$28,700 and additional financial support.
• Conferences and research activities: I will support students in presenting our work at conferences and participating in research activities in or outside of Hong Kong.
• Facilities and equipment: My research often requires computing resources, hardware prototypes, and occasionally medical devices. Necessary equipment will be supported according to project needs.

Clear Expectation

• I understand that pursuing a PhD can be frustrating, as the gratification of your hard work is delayed by many factors such as the paper review process and rejections. Therefore, I will try my best to communicate my expectations clearly with you from day one, so that you don’t feel lost.
• I encourage practicing sustainable work. That said, I understand the necessity to refill your energy from time to time, so taking a few days off or appropriate vacations will be supported.

What I Expect from You

• Motivated. The single most important thing that I expect from you is that you MUST enjoy doing research. Research is 100% hard and lonely and, quite often, frustrating. For a research project, you are very likely to stay in the lab alone and work on a solution and fail dozens of times before you can come up with an appropriate solution, which may not be appreciated by reviewers, resulting in rejections a couple of times! Although you will have my support, if you are to survive all these, what drives you every day must be your true interest in what you are doing.
• Proactive. I expect you to take ownership of your research projects and proactively seek my advice when needed.
• Relevant skills. I expect you to have solid skills in either of the following: (i) building AI models; (ii) designing signal-processing algorithms; (iii) developing hardware prototypes; (iv) running user studies.
• A quick learner. Techniques are evolving very quickly; you should be able to quickly familiarize yourself with the new ones.

How to Apply

If you are interested in working with me after reading this page, please email me at wentaox_AT_hkbu.edu.hk with:

1. Your CV.
2. Your academic transcript.
3. A short summary of no more than 300 words outlining what you want to achieve through your research, why it matters, and how you would evaluate it.

Please also review the HKBU Graduate School’s official admission requirements and application procedures.