KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

Launch of "JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network"

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has earmarked HK$167 million for a three-year programme to provide better support for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their families and schools. The HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, the Education Bureau and six NGOs will collaborate in this programme, commencing in the 2015/16 academic year. Coaching programmes, teacher training and research will be conducted to improve the social communication, emotional regulation and learning strategies of the students to help with behavioral problems and enhance their overall learning ability and social skills. The evidence-based programme will place emphasis on the partnership of families and schools, which aims to enhance skills of teachers and parents competency in handling these cases and provide students with prompt and appropriate intervention, according to Dr Irene Ho and Dr Sandra Tsang of the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences.

HKU holds an entrepreneurship forum with 67 speakers sharing their experiences at DreamCatchers

Sixty-seven speakers shared their experience on start-ups at an entrepreneurship forum, DreamCatchers, held at The University of Hong Kong on May 31, 2015. The forum was attended by 1000 delegates. The keynote was delivered by Mr Pony Ma, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tencent.

HKU earth scientist collaborates with international experts to develop new laser-induced fluorescence techniques to uncover never-before-seen details in fossils

HKU Department of Earth Sciences' Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory Head Dr Michael Pittman has developed, together with eight international colleagues, a simple new technique to analyse fossils. The technique, called laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF), utilises lasers to stimulate fluorescence in fossils that normally do not fluoresce under standard UV lighting, with the new view photographed through a camera lens. Each colour of laser emits a different wavelength of light, which excites the minerals that make up a fossil in different ways. LSF provides an instantaneous, non-invasive, geochemical fingerprint of fossilised bone, soft tissue, integument and the surrounding rock matrix. The ability to look for hidden specimens in a fossil's rock matrix used to be only possible using X-rays, CT scans and other high-cost imaging methods. With LSF, researchers can set up a basic station quickly and for around HK$4000.

High-energy efficient LED driver invented by HKU researchers and commercialized

A research team of HKU Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering led by Professor Ron Hui Shu-yuen, Chair of Power Electronics, invented a passive LED driver that has an edge over conventional LED in terms of lifespan and environment friendliness. Its components can last 10 years and are 80% recyclable. With the assistance of the University's Technology Transfer Office, the technology has been licensed to a tech company in Hong Kong. It is being tested in Heshan, Guangdong, and will be tested in places with more extreme temperatures before going into mass production.

HKU Youth Quitline marks its tenth anniversary in helping young smokers

The youth-oriented smoking cessation hotline "Youth Quitline", jointly established by the Smoking Cessation Research Team at the HKU Faculty of Medicine, the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, and the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health has since 2005 received over 7,000 telephone inquiries, provided smoking cessation counselling for 1,591 youth smokers. As of January 31, 2015, the smoking cessation rate after joining the programme for six months was 23.6%.

HKU Stephen Hui Geological Museum launches exhibition to showcase 65 million years of climate change

The HKU Stephen Hui Geological Museum launched a permanent exhibition on "Cenozoic Climate Change" on Earth Day (April 22, 2015) to trace the history of climate change back 65 million years to the start of the Cenozoic Era – the advent of the age of mammals, which continues into the present. On display are a range of paleoclimate "proxies", from 3,000 year-old tree rings and marine sediments to fossilised marine micro-organisms and mammals, all of which serve as organic "records" of the planet's climatological past. According to Professor Zong Yongqiang of the HKU Department of Earth Sciences, a look into the earth’s Cenozoic past will reveal short-term "abrupt climate changes" when temperature and CO2 levels rise rapidly, sometimes causing highly disruptive effects including extinctions of certain species. Carbon dioxide concentrations have risen steeply since the beginning of the industrial revolution, which should be alarming to people that climate change should be taken seriously and that the climate could respond in an abrupt and unexpected way.

HKU Medical Faculty develops new atrial fibrillation management app and launches AF screening programme

The HKU Department of Medicine has initiated two new measures for management of stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), namely the AF management app and private doctors AF screening programme. HKU AF CAL is a free new mobile app designed to help doctors managing their patients with atrial fibrillation. By using the five clinical calculators, doctors can assess the ischemic stroke risk and major bleeding risk of patients with AF, and assessing the quality control of anticoagulation for those patients on warfarin. The research team will in phase road-show 18 regions in Hong Kong providing certificate course for up-to-date AF management to private doctors. The team will recruit 1,000 private doctors to perform AF screening and the ultimate goal is to reach 100-150 thousands of high-risk patients and provide them with proper treatments.