KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU quantum physicist Dr Giulio Chiribella receives Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2018

Dr Giulio Chiribella, an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science, was a recipient of the Croucher Senior Research Fellowship. Dr Chiribella is a quantum information scientist. He will explore a new paradigm of communication, in which multiple transmission lines are combined in a genuine quantum way. Future communication networks may be able to guarantee the transmission of data even in scenarios where no communication is currently possible. The new paradigm has also the potential to increase the security of communications.

HKU Chair of Power Electronics Professor Ron Hui led sustainable lighting systems research brings new LED products and theory breakthrough

A theme-based research project on sustainable lighting, funded by the Research Grants Council and led by Professor Ron S.Y. Hui, Chair of Power Electronics at the HKU Faculty of Engineering, developed a sustainable LED street lamp that could be bright, energy-efficient, long-lasting and recyclable. Energy-saving passive LED drivers having long product lifetime of over 10 years and over 80 percent materials recyclability have been tested in hundreds of street lamps across Heshan in Guangdong province, with an additional 8,000 due to be replaced in the Mainland city. His team also developed a smart system for precise dimming and colour control of LED lamps comprising warm-white and cool-white colour, a breakthrough both in technology and theory.

HKU spin-off artificial intelligence startup closes Series Pre-A round led by Horizons Ventures

Fano Labs, a Hong Kong-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup specialising in speech and natural language processing (NLP) technologies and a spin-off from HKU, raised a Series Pre-A round led by Horizons Ventures. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Dr Miles Wen, a PhD graduate from HKU and Professor Victor O.K. Li, Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at HKU. With Fano Labs' technical focus in Chinese dialects processing and analysis, the funds raised will fuel the company's expansion into the billion-dollar Chinese call centre industry, where many of these calls are in various Chinese dialects. As of today, the company has already developed speech and NLP technologies for Cantonese and Sichuanese, in addition to English and Mandarin.

HKU research team develops economical new liquid-repellent material

The new material developed by the research team in HKU Faculty of Engineering using microfluidic-droplet-based technique can repel water and oil, a breakthrough that could eliminate laundry. Research team leader Professor Wang Liqiu and his student Dr Zhu Pingan said they were inspired by springtail cuticles, and the new material, in the form of a coating, yields robust liquid-repellency with enhanced mechanical durability. There is also the possibility of mass production at a low cost of about HK$1 per square metre, which was much cheaper than commercially available products such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) water-repellent film. Professor Wang added that the materials used for the coating are non-toxic and few fabrics or finishes on the market could achieve such properties.

Knowledge Exchange Awards 2017

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 2017 Faculty KE Awards are now available.

HKU partners with Cyberport to set up digital tech entrepreneurship platform to support start-ups

HKU and Hong Kong Cyberport signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the HKU x Cyberport Digital Tech Entrepreneurship Platform to provide support to digital tech start-ups spanning the aspects of human capital, innovation and technologies, entrepreneurship, and legal and business expertise. At the launch of HKU's FinTech Nucleus at Cyberport, SHIELD, a cyber security technology developed by the HKU Center for Information Security and Cryptography was showcased. A portfolio optimisation software "PORTimizer®" and MPF mobile app "MPF Optimal Allocation" developed by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science was also demonstrated.

HKU mechanical engineering students won the Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition

Team DAELead, a team of four third-year mechanical engineering students from The University of Hong Kong, has been selected by an expert team of judges as the winner ofthe Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition. Team DAELead beat fierce global competition to win the €30,000 first prize with their effective design for a Private Stowage Compartment (PSC) underneath passenger’s feet. The HKU team was among the top 5 teams, shortlisted from 365 entries globally, to spend a week at the Airbus ProtoSpace facility in Toulouse, France to visualise, prototype and test their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment, before presenting them at the final.