KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU Engineering award-winning solar car ready for public exhibitions

HKU solar car team - Helios, won the Overall Champion Award and Innovative Design award of the "New Energy New Generation" Solar Car Competition held by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) earlier. The first public exhibition to show the abilities of the solar car will be held during the annual JUPAS Info Week on May 10, 2016. It will then be showcased in primary and secondary schools starting from July. Helios won the competition with its extensive application of principles of engineering mechanics in its design and the high precision in the machining of the parts and components. It was also able to strike a good balance between energy capture from the solar irradiation and energy consumption during running.

HKU Computer Scientist Dr Cui Heming receives Croucher Innovation Award 2016

Dr Cui Heming, Assistant Professor of the HKU Department of Computer Science, received the Croucher Innovation Award 2016. Dr Cui's recent research has led to several U.S. patents, open source projects, and publication in premier systems software and programming languages conferences. His previous systems have led to several new security errors detected in real-world software. His awarded project focuses on building practical software systems to greatly improve the reliability of today’s general online services. Although this project has started for only one year, a preliminary system built by Dr Cui and his collaborators has been published in the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP) 2015, the world’s best software system conference in year 2015. All the source code and evaluation results of this system are publicly available for industrial deployment.

HKU researchers call for citywide environmentally-friendly rainwater drainage

HKU Civil Engineering Assistant Professor Dr May Chui Ting-fong has conducted a feasibility study on the application of sustainable stormwater drainage systems (SuDS) in Hong Kong, funded by the Central Policy Unit's Public Policy Research Funding Scheme. SuDS features include bioretention systems, green roofs and porous pavements. These features, when built over a wide area, can retain and slowly release water, reducing peak flows into the drainage system. The findings suggest that using 5 to 10% of space installing the SuDS features could provide more effective stormwater control. Dr Chui said Hong Kong has been falling behind developed nations in adopting SuDS features and urges the government to adopt a drainage system that addresses the city's environmental needs, such as green rooftops that can absorb water as well as porous pavements.

HKU biomedical engineers develop new cartilage regeneration technology to grow cartilage from one's own cells for cartilage repairs

An HKU research team, led by Dr Barbara Chan, Associate Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has developed a new cartilage regeneration technology to grow cartilage tissues out of cells taken from one's body. The cells, in particular stem cells extracted from one's bone marrow, can be grown into cartilage tissues of the shape and size fit for cartilage repairs and replacements. Since the replacement parts are fully biocompatible, patients could be benefited from rapid healing without the need to harvest donor cartilage from the patients. The research team is in the process of translating the technology for use on human. The commercialization of this technology was assisted by the HKU Technology Transfer Office.

HKU Faculty of Engineering organizes the "Invention for Schools Contest"

The "Invention for Schools Contest" is organized by the Faculty of Engineering with the support of HKU Knowledge Exchange Fund. Over a hundred students from primary 2 to secondary 5 joined the competition. They are required to use credit card-sized computers to make inventions that would be useful to their schools.

HKU start-up wins Red Herring's 2015 Top 100 Asia Award

Living Tissues Company Limited, one of the HKU startup companies, has been awarded the 2015 Red Herring Asia Top 100 Award. This Red Herring Top 100 Award honors companies that deliver potentially strong technology and innovation in Asia, Europe and the Americas. Many world-renowned corporations like Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were once winners of this prestigious award.

Knowledge Exchange Awards 2015

The Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards were introduced in 2011 in order to recognize each Faculty’s outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organizations. Results of the 2015 Faculty KE Awards are now available.