KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU Department of Architecture helps SoCO to build social houses for street sleepers

HKU Faulty of Architecture works with Society for Community Organization(SoCO) to renovate four old units in Tai Kok Tsui into “social houses” for single street sleepers. A total of 24 units were built using steel plate components. It could accommodate ex-street sleepers for up to three years.

Faculty Knowledge Exchange Awards 2018

The annual Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards recognise each Faculty’s outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organisations. Results of the 2018 Faculty KE Awards are now available.

HKU research team calls for environmental conservation of Hong Kong quarries

An HKU research team led by Dr Poon Sun-wah, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Real Estate and Construction, spoke of the history and heritage of quarrying in Hong Kong. An exhibition entitled "The Legend of Rocks: Destiny of Quarries" is now showing at the City Gallery in Central until September 10. Currently, the only quarry remaining in Hong Kong is the Lam Tei Quarry, meeting less than 10% of local demand. While the Government is interested in developing new quarries to supply local needs, the research team believes that environmental conservation should be fully considered in the planning stage and be included in the developmental blueprint with reference to foreign conservation experience.

HKU invents world’s first Smart Address Plate System

HKU developed the world’s first Smart Address Plate System (SAP), which is more accurate in navigating than the widely used GPS. Professor Anthony Yeh, Chair Professor of the Department of Urban Planning and Design in HKU, explained that while GPS has an average error of 10 to 30 meters and does not work well indoors, SAP can pinpoint the exact location of the user, allowing the user to find his way to both outdoor and indoor destinations easily via a single mobile app. It also reduces the error to a range of 1 to 3 meters. The system consists of three components: the smart address plate with a Bluetooth proximity sensing device, smart address coding system and a smart address plate management system.

Compared to other navigation systems available on the market, SAP is the most economic option. Installing SAP in a 30,000 square-foot, five-storey mall with 300 shops would cost around HK$700,000 and on average HK$2,800 for each shop. The team is filing a patent related to this new invention, and is discussing with the government, major shopping malls and office buildings regarding its application so that Hong Kong can become the first city in the world to use this set of innovative system.

HKU Urban Studies and Planning team offers solution to a GPS blind spot in multilevel road networks

Present vehicle navigation system that uses GPS has a long existing problem in determining which road level a vehicle has entered, especially for flyovers parallel to the ground level. Professor Anthony Yeh Gar-On’s research team at the Department of Urban Planning and Design solved the problem with their Angle Difference Method which can instantly identify whether a vehicle has entered a flyover or is still on the ground level. It works with an ordinary smartphone that can be put anywhere at any angle in the vehicle with a plugged in or installed onboard diagnostic (OBD) device. The invention won a gold medal award at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions. The team is in talks with major digital map providers to apply the patented method into their navigation systems.

Making Our City More Walkable for All

The HKUrbanLab, the research and knowledge exchange arm of the Faculty of Architecture at The University of Hong Kong, is working with Civic Exchange and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service on a project called ‘Walking with Wheels’, aimed at finding the best barrier-free routes for people in wheelchairs and those with prams and trolleys. Watch the full video.