Professor Francis C.M.

BSc Acadia; MMath, PhD Waterloo
Honorary Professor

Tel: (+852) 2859 2170
Fax: (+852) 2858 4141 / (+852) 2559 8447
Email: fcmlau@cs.hku.hk
Homepage: https://www.cs.hku.hk/~fcmlau

Professor Lau is an active member of the IEEE Computer Society. He pioneered the society's Distinguished Visitors Program for Asia/Pacific in 1993. He served on the society's board of governors in 1998, as a member-at-large of the Publications Board, and then as vice president for chapters activities in 1999. He was a member of the society's Technical Activities Board, in charge of Asian technical activities, and was a core member of the ACM-IEEE/CS Joint Task Force on Curriculum 2001. He received a Golden Core recognition in 1998 and an IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000 for outstanding achievements and contributions to the IEEE Computer Society.

In Hong Kong, Professor Lau has served as a member of the engineering panel of the Research Grant Council, a member of the vetting committee of the Innovation and Technology Fund, and a member of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers' accreditation committee for computer science programmes.

Professor Lau's research interests include parallel and distributed computing, wireless networking, cluster and grid computing, cloud computing, pervasive computing, computer music, and Internet and the web. He has written many journal and conference papers, and is a co-author of two books. Professor Lau is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Interconnection Networks (JOIN), and on the editorial boards of several international journals. Professor Lau has been invited to give keynote addresses in various international conferences.

Research Interests

Operating Systems, Parallel and Distributed Computing, Wireless Networks, Object-oriented Programming, Computer Music, Internet and the Web.

Selected Publications

• H. Tan, T. Lou, Y. Wang, Q.-S. Hua, and F.C.M. Lau , Exact Algorithms to Minimize Interference in Wireless Sensor Networks, Theoretical Computer Science, 2012.
• X. Feng and F.C. M. Lau, Behavioral Modeling with the New Bio-inspired Coordination Generalized Molecule Model Algorithm, Information Sciences, 2012.
• H.X. Li, Q.-S. Hua, C. Wu, and F.C.M. Lau , Minimum-Latency Aggregation Scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks under Physical Interference Model, Ad Hoc Networks, 2012.
• L. Tong and F.C.M. Lau , Skew-Space Garbage Collection, Science of Computer Programming, 2012.
• C. Wu, Z. Li, X. Qiu, and F.C.M. Lau , Auction-based P2P VoD Streaming: Incentives and Optimal Scheduling, ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications, 2012.
• Q.-S. Hua, Y. Wang, D. Yu, and F.C.M. Lau, Dynamic Programming Based Algorithms for Set Multicover and Multiset Multicover Problems, Theoretical Computer Science, Vol. 411, Issue 26-28, June 2010, 2467-2474.
• S. Xu, F.C.M. Lau, and Y. Pan, A Computational Approach to Digital Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Springer-Verlag and Zhejiang University Press, 383 pages, February 2009.
• Z.C.H. Yu, F.C.M. Lau, and C.L. Wang , Object Co-location and Memory Reuse for Java Programs, ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization, Vol. 4, No. 4, January 2008.
• C.-Z. Xu and F.C.M. Lau, Load Balancing in Parallel Computers: Theory and Practice, Kluwer Academic Publishers (Boston), 1996/1997, xv + 210 pp.

Recent Research Grants

• Distributed Data Queries in Wireless Sensor Networks under the Physical Interference Model, HK GRF, 9/2011, $454,130.
• Throughput-Optimal Wireless Link Scheduling under the Physical Interference Model, HK GRF, 9/2009, $455,936.
• HKU Grid Point for Systems Research and Applications in Multiple Disciplines, HK UGC Special Equipment Grant, 12/2008, $7.5M (UGC) + $2.5M (HKU).
• Nature-inspired particle mechanics algorithm, HK GRF, 9/2008, $358,660.