It's the very last day of 2025. Unable to sleep, I find myself looking back on the past year, trying to feel satisfied with where I am.
Research
On the research front, the EU SMARTS project—which I impulsively moved to the UK for two years ago—is drawing to a close. I went from knowing nothing about Operations Research to successfully completing what is rumored to be one of SESAR's best projects. Before coming to the UK, I felt my work in Air Traffic Management (ATM) was too shallow; pure Machine Learning and Data Science applications felt too detached from the actual industry. My obsession with bridging that gap drove me to seize this SESAR opportunity without hesitation. Seeing the optimizer API I wrote actually being validated on an industry partner's system has given me a truly grounded sense of accomplishment.
Over these two years, combining ATM with its core methodology—Operations Research—to study airspace design and dynamic configuration has borne fruit. My citation count finally broke 100 (not a huge number, but let me celebrate a little). I also won the first Best Paper award of my academic career for my work on dynamic airspace configuration. My only dissatisfaction is the pile of unfinished manuscripts (thanks, procrastination)—I hope to clear this backlog before my current contract ends.
I believe there is still immense potential in airspace operations. Looking at the UK's Airspace Modernisation Strategy (2023–2040), the structures used since the 1950s need updating to meet post-pandemic demand. New entrants like high airspace operations and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) will make things increasingly complex. Environmental considerations, such as designing airspace to minimize contrails, are also fascinating topics to explore.
Startup
On the startup front, even though I haven't been able to return to Hong Kong, FinCatch has kept growing. From the start, our vision was to build "more than a chatbot." Watching our system perform 24/7 event, trend, and investment analysis across all covered companies, I truly believe we've created a compelling use case for LLMs.
This year, we secured our first angel investment from the CityU Angel Fund, and our investment research platform finally went live. We also successfully delivered the Hong Kong Customs project in collaboration with Zhipu AI, gaining valuable experience, resources, and infrastructure beyond just AI investment research. Our main goal for the next six months is to better align with the market.
Life
Finally, the biggest achievement of 2025 is simply that I'm still here—living well, eating well, sleeping well, and traveling.
Goodbye, 2025. I hope everyone has a happy and smooth 2026.