PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Oscar Au

Also known as Oscar Chi-Lim Au, 區子廉

Oscar Au is a signal-processing researcher whose fast motion-estimation algorithms entered MPEG-4 and China AVS-M, and whose later work applies AI to wireless sensing. He earned degrees at the University of Toronto and Princeton, completed a Princeton postdoctoral year, and joined HKUST in 1992. His HKUST work covered video and image coding, watermarking, steganography, and speech and audio processing; his team placed three proposals in the HEVC draft in 2011. He held IEEE lecturer and committee roles, became an IEEE Fellow in 2012, and contributed to IEEE 802.11bf wireless-sensing work and a 2025 foundation-model patent application. As of October 2026, he is Vice President (Strategic Development and Alliance) at Origin Wireless.

Now at
Origin Wireless AI
Works
549
Citations
7,236
h-index
41
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1986–1991

    Toronto and Princeton degrees

    He earns a B.A.Sc. at the University of Toronto in 1986, then an M.A. in 1988 and a Ph.D. in 1991 at Princeton. His dissertation, Signal Detection in Non-Gaussian Transformation Noise, is supervised by John B. Thomas.

  2. 1991–2014

    Postdoc and professor at HKUST

    After a postdoctoral year at Princeton, he joins HKUST as an assistant professor in 1992 and remains a professor there through 2014. His fast motion-estimation algorithms enter the ISO/IEC 14496-7 MPEG-4 and China AVS-M video-coding standards; his research spans video and image coding, watermarking and steganography, and speech and audio processing.

  3. 2009–2013

    IEEE lecturer and committee chair

    He is elected an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for 2009 and 2010. He becomes vice-chair of the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s Multimedia Signal Processing Technical Committee in 2011 and chair in 2012 and 2013.

  4. 2011

    Three proposals enter HEVC

    In 2011, his HKUST team moves three proposals into the HEVC working draft: chroma entropy coding is accepted at Daegu in January 2011, and sub-LCU Qp representation and dQP calculation are accepted at Geneva in March 2011.

  5. 2012

    An IEEE Fellowship

    He is one of six HKUST School of Engineering professors elected IEEE Fellows in 2012 for contributions to multimedia coding and security.

  6. December 2021

    Local reporting for WLAN sensing

    In a December 2021 IEEE 802.11 email, he defines local reporting as making sensing measurements such as CSI available to upper layers at the sensing receiver.

  7. October 2025

    Wireless sensing foundation model

    In October 2025, he appears as an inventor on a patent application titled Wireless sensing using a foundation model, which describes a foundation-model method for wireless-sensing tasks.

  8. As of October 2026

    Vice president at Origin Wireless

    He is Vice President (Strategic Development and Alliance) at Origin Wireless, Inc., which K. J. Ray Liu founded for wireless AI in sensing and indoor positioning.

Career

  1. NowOrigin Wireless AIVice President (Strategic Development and Alliance)
  2. 2002–2004University of Hong Kong
  3. 1992–2014Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyAssistant Professor and Professor
  4. 1991–1992Princeton UniversityPostdoc

Education

  1. 1991Princeton UniversityPh.D.
  2. 1988Princeton UniversityM.A.
  3. 1986University of TorontoB.A.Sc.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Secure Reversible Image Data Hiding Over Encrypted Domain via Key Modulation2015 · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology · 217 citations
  2. Multiresolution Graph Fourier Transform for Compression of Piecewise Smooth Images2014 · IEEE Transactions on Image Processing · 193 citations
  3. Data hiding watermarking for halftone images2002 · IEEE Transactions on Image Processing · 192 citations
  4. Designing an Efficient Image Encryption-Then-Compression System via Prediction Error Clustering and Random Permutation2014 · IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security · 191 citations
  5. Highly efficient predictive zonal algorithms for fast block-matching motion estimation2002 · IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology · 174 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Princeton University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Princeton University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Six HKUST Professors Elected Prestigious IEEE Fellows The Highest Share in Asia for 2012 | HKUST hkust.edu.hk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Oscar Au - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Six more HKUST professors become IEEE Fellows | HKUST hkust.edu.hk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Video denoising - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. HKUST Annual Report 2010 - 2011 - page 98-99 publications.ust.hk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. HKUST Annual Report 2010 - 2011 - page 60-61 publications.ust.hk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. 53 SPS Members Elevated to IEEE Fellow | IEEE Signal Processing Society signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Re: [STDS-802-11-TGBF] Follow-up on Local Reporting for 11bf ieee802.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. US20250337657A1 - Wireless sensing using a foundation model - Google Patents patents.google.com. Checked 21 October 2026.