Programme:
Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Electronic and Computer Engineering 

Awardee:
Curtis Choy Tak-hei

Event:
15th IEEE Symposium on Computer Applications and Industrial Electronics

Award:
Student Best Paper Award

Project:
“Parallel Implementation of Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition in EEG Signal Processing”

Organiser:
The IEEE Malaysia Industrial Electronics & Industrial Applications Joint Chapter

Details:
Curtis Choy Tak-hei, a student in the Electronic and Computer Engineering programme, received the Student Best Paper Award at the 15th IEEE Symposium on Computer Applications and Industrial Electronics (ISCAIE 2025) for his final year project, titled “Parallel Implementation of Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition in EEG Signal Processing”.

The analysis of brain waves, known as electroencephalography (EEG) signals, is crucial for diagnosing conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and other mental disorders. Traditional methods of decomposing these signals into separate components for further analysis are often slow and complex. To address this, Curtis introduced a faster approach, called Parallel Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (PEEMD). Utilising multiple computer processors simultaneously, PEEMD significantly accelerates the analysis process, with speeds that are up to 1.75 times faster for synthetic signals and 1.69 times faster for real EEG signals. This makes it much more practical for handling long recordings.

Under the supervision of Dr Kevin Hung, Curtis conducted his final-year project as part of Dr Hung's biosignal processing research group, regularly attending the group's research meetings. Dr Raymond Ho, a HKMU PhD alumnus, also contributed to guiding Curtis's project. Curtis also received the sponsorship from the Hsin Chong – K.N. Godfrey Yeh Education Fund for Learning Programmes 2024/25 to participate in the ISCAIE 2025.

This year’s ISCAIE was held in a hybrid format from 24 to 25 May in Penang, Malaysia, bringing together approximately 110 participants from around the world to share and discuss the latest advancements in the field. Among the many exceptional submissions, three student papers were selected for the “Student Best Paper Award”.