HKU Geography MSc(GeoDS) student team won the 2025 Esri Young Scholars Award group championship! —— Using geographic spatial technology to find a way of hope for the ‘‘Map of Despair’’

Team Glory: HKU Geography won the 2025 Esri Young Scholars Award (Hong Kong)!

A team of five students from the Master of Science in Geospatial Data Science (MSc(GeoDS)) programme at the University of Hong Kong, including Li Junpeng, Qian Jiachun, Wang Fangqi, Xin Mingxuan, and Zhu Muyi, won the group championship in the 2025 Esri Young Scholars Award competition with their project 'Mapping Despair: Geographic Insights into Suicide in HK'! This honour not only certifies the team's academic ability but also provides a new solution to societal issues with the power of technology.

Project Highlight: Using geographic spatial technology to ‘‘find hope in desperation’’

Why is this project worth attention?

Technology for Good: Using geographic spatial data and technology to address societal pain points, showcasing the humanistic care of geographic information science.

Student Power: Five students collaborated across disciplines to complete the full research process from data collection to policy recommendations.

Core Breakthrough: Data visualisation makes the truth ‘‘within easy reach’’

The team not only applied the Geographically Weighted Random Forest (GWRF) model and the SHAP framework, but also transformed complex data into immersive map stories through Story Map. Click to explore the team's research findings: https://arcg.is/1T0P9S1

Key Discovery: Data revealing the ‘‘Code of Despair’’

High-Risk Areas: The northeastern part of the New Territories and Kowloon City have witnessed a significant increase in suicide risk due to issues such as aging population and high housing prices.

Social Insights: Variables such as income disparity, living environment, and community support have significant impacts on suicide rates!

Policy Recommendations: The team suggests strengthening measures such as community mental health support to prevent suicide.

Why is this project ‘‘tugging at people’s heartstring?’’

The team members stated, "We are not trying to 'glorify despair', but rather hope to make the silent voices heard through data."

We are proud of this outstanding team! We look forward to their continued innovative research to advance the development of geographic information science and big data analysis, contributing more wisdom and strength to society in the future!