Mak Pui In, PhD candidate in the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Macau (UM) who was awarded a Commendation of Merit by the Macao SAR government early this year, passed his oral defense with the top classification and becomes the 5th PhD, nurtured by UM, in the area of Microelectronics, while his PhD thesis is the 12th finished in the University.

Mak Pui In defended, on 6 July, his PhD thesis entitled “Multistandard-Compliant and Low-Voltage Analog-Baseband Techniques for Wireless Communication system”. He was awarded the top classification of Very Good with Honour and Distinction, by unanimous decision of the Jury. Professor Ken Martin, one of the examiners and who has been Tenure University Professor for 25 years, indicated that there has been the trend, in the US, to consider that from Asia, and China, in particular, nothing innovative or new ideas will appear in the Microelectronics field. However, the very original thesis of Mak Pui In was one of the best PhD thesis he had ever seen, thus contradicting the previous observation.

Mak Pui In was born in Macao. In 2003, he received the Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from UM. In 2004, owing to his outstanding academic performance, he was admitted directly to the PhD study which he completed in just two and a half years. During the period he took up the PhD programme, he had authored about 20 technical articles in IEEE/IEE journals and in conferences. Some of these articles had enabled him to receive/co-receive various awards. In 2005, he had one US patent in pending related to a new technology developed by him.

The chairman of the examination committee of the above-mentioned oral defense is Professor Iu Vai Pan, Rector of UM. Other members include Professor Ken Martin, Stanley Ho Professor of Microelectronics of University of Toronto of Canada and IEEE Fellow, Professor Peter Chung-Yu Wu, Dean of College of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science of National Chiao Tung University of Taiwan, Professor Wang Zhihua, Executive Vice-Director of Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University of Beijing, Professor Han Yingduo, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Visiting Professor at UM from Tsinghua University, Professor Rui Martins, Vice-Rector of UM and Supervisor, as well as Professor Ben Seng-Pan U, co-supervisor, from Chipidea Microelectronics.