From maps to star Maps: The scientific journey of Kwan Mei-po
From urban planning to space observation, reshaping Hong Kong’s scientific vision through satellites and AI
13 May 2026
While the city sleeps, 3:30 a.m. is when Professor Kwan Mei‑po is at her sharpest. There are satellite images, mobility data and a universe of questions to pore over. Such is the life that has gone on for decades, surviving on four and a half hours of sleep daily, she jokes, and once, as a hard‑pressed student in the United States, on just one hour. The pre‑dawn hours are reserved for her hardest thinking, defining the clearest time for the work only she can do.
“I do my most demanding intellectual work in the pre-dawn hours, when the world is still and my mind is clear,” says Professor Kwan, director of the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science (ISEIS) and head of Chung Chi College.
A notification alert breaks the silence of the night. The professor’s screen lights up with an image from CUHK Satellite‑1, an Earth‑observation satellite her team spent more than three years designing and developing. Launched into orbit aboard a Jielong‑3 rocket from the South China Sea in mid-February 2026, the satellite links up with the Hong Kong Youth Scientific Innovation satellite – released into space in September 2024 for disaster monitoring and sustainable development – to form Hong Kong’s first Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.
Working in tandem with the earlier satellite, CUHK Satellite‑1 is the core of a new space network that ushers in a groundbreaking era for Hong Kong’s Earth‑observation aspirations. The system widens monitoring coverage and refreshes data faster; in a disaster or urban emergency, it can rapidly generate assessment outputs from space, turning hours of delay into near real‑time insights.
AI brain in the sky
Hardware is only part of the story. Professor Kwan’s group is advancing “in-orbit computing”, running artificial intelligence (AI) models directly aboard satellites instead of sending raw images to Earth for processing. This function makes satellites capable of detecting floods, landslides or industrial fires while in orbit.
In a sudden disaster, time is critical. Onboard AI collapses hours of processing into almost instant alerts. For tasks such as flood mapping or urban damage assessment, CUHK Satellite-1 can generate evaluations in orbit rather than transmit only raw pixels.
The engineering challenge is formidable. AI models demand power and memory, both of which are scarce on small satellites. Working closely with electronics experts, her team streamlined models and code, and redesigned the computing so satellites could think fast without draining their batteries.
ISEIS is also building a carbon‑monitoring system that links up satellites, ground sensors and digital twins, which are virtual, data‑driven replicas of real‑world objects, systems or processes. Instead of broad-based national data, the goal is to measure emissions at the level of streets and neighbourhoods. Cars that drive around with monitoring instruments on board add finer detail, with CUHK serving as an early test bed.
The same tools enable early warnings before disasters strike. By analysing historical satellite data, Professor Kwan’s team has identified subtle signals months before a slope failure or subsidence event. Today, the institute monitors infrastructure, including the Hong Kong International Airport and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, in near real time.
Intellectual quest
Talent, discipline and necessity form a pattern of basic instincts that Professor Kwan has believed in and practised for years. Learning was never about absorbing what teachers said; it was about racing ahead, posing her own questions and following her curiosity.
At CUHK, she majored in geography and resource management while taking elective courses in Chinese, mathematics, social work and the social sciences. The turning point came during an exchange year at International Christian University in Tokyo.
There, a geography professor took her on as his sole mentee, travelling long distances each week to teach her one-on-one in English. He introduced her to economic geography, ports and urban development, and brought her into his research institute as the only outsider among senior scholars. “My eyes were suddenly opened,” she recalls. “Cities weren’t just maps. They lived and breathed.”
Urban planning became her calling. She studied planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, full of idealism. But later, working in the US, she saw how often planning bowed to markets rather than the public good. Zoning yielded to redevelopment capital; ideals cracked under private-sector pressure. “We thought we could change the world,” she says. “The world had other plans.”
DIY determination
Instead of surrendering to disillusionment, the budding programmer pivoted. If planning practice was constrained, technology might offer freedom. With no formal computer science training, she became a self-taught computer analyst at a database department of a large hospital. Colleagues doubted her. Quietly, she rewrote core systems others had failed to fix. The boss rewarded her with hefty pay rises and Fridays off; other tech firms dangled equity and senior titles.
She grasped something crucial: conventional credentials were not needed to master complex systems. She could chart her own path.
That realisation led her to a fledgling field – geographic information science (GIS). For her PhD, she fused information systems and geography to analyse spatial data and generate important knowledge about the world. It proved visionary. As governments and researchers awakened to the power of spatial information, demand for GIS expertise surged. Universities pursued her before the doctoral dissertation had been written up. More companies offered senior roles and shares.
‘I shall overcome’
She chose academia but soon confronted another reality. In American universities, meritocracy looked different if you were Asian and female. She was often the only woman and the only person of colour at the table.
“The expectations were higher for people like me,” Professor Kwan says. “They never write it down, but you feel it.” She realised she would need to do double or triple the work to be judged well. So she did. Paper by paper, project by project, keynote by keynote, she built a portfolio of roughly 150 pages. “Every line is real,” she says. “No padding. No games. Just work.”
If the system was tilted, she would simply outrun it, she told herself.
Back home before borders closed
In 2019, Professor Kwan made a surprising decision after years overseas. She returned to Hong Kong, in part to care for her ageing mother. Then the world shut down. The pandemic halted travel. Conferences moved online. For the first time in years, she spent uninterrupted time with her mother. “In a way, I was lucky,” she says.
Staying on in Hong Kong gave the professor a chance to build something ambitious. At CUHK, she began shaping a cross‑disciplinary Institute of Space and Earth Information Science, bringing together geographers, engineers, computer scientists, clinicians and public health experts.
Professor Kwan envisions Hong Kong as a hub for advanced Earth observation, leveraging CUHK’s collaborations to unlock satellite data for the global good. Her work bridges cutting-edge tech with real-world impact, from disaster response to urban sustainability.
One of the boldest ISEIS’s ventures is the debut of Hong Kong’s government‑funded Earth‑observation satellites. The first was launched in September 2024, and the second, CUHK Satellite‑1, in February 2026. This pair marks the start of a planned constellation that will monitor forest cover, inland water, urban heat and disaster zones. Her team designed both satellites themselves, tailoring sensors to environmental and human health concerns.
Opening up the universe for youngsters
Professor Kwan becomes most animated when the conversation turns to young people. “Many teenagers in Hong Kong narrow their dreams to a few traditional paths”, she says. “Space science and Earth observation can reopen their sense of possibilities.”
To that end, she has helped design an undergraduate programme that links aerospace and Earth informatics, and she regularly invites secondary school students to visit ISEIS. She hopes that, one day, space and Earth systems will sit alongside physics and geography in the secondary curriculum—not so that everyone becomes a space scientist, but so that students see that the universe is larger than they think.
CUHK continues to build strong cross‑disciplinary research partnerships, translating academic excellence into real‑world impact. This is evident in Professor Kwan’s AI‑powered satellite project, Professor Lam Hon‑ming’s soybean experiments in space, and Professor Ren Wei’s Mars exploration research using a laser heterodyne spectrometer. As Professor Kwan notes, this vibrant, multidisciplinary space research aligns with the national 15th Five‑Year Plan and supports the country’s ambition to become a major space power.
By Jenny Lau
Photos by Keith Hiro and the interviewee
