KE Stories - About KE - HKU Knowledge Exchange

Something to Chew On

Tooth decay is an unpleasant experience that we all want to avoid and the Faculty of Dentistry has been educating young people in schools for years on how to do so. But tooth decay is also something else: an example of science in our everyday lives.

Out of the Shadows

Private supplementary tutoring has become ubiquitous in Hong Kong, and is increasingly visible elsewhere. It is widely called "shadow education" because it mimics regular schools. As the curriculum in the schools changes, so it changes in the shadow. The intention may be to help students keep up or get ahead, but shadow education has implications for education systems as a whole – and for social equity.

A Breath of Fresh Air

When an infectious disease erupts, most people look to medical professionals for a solution. But the Faculty of Engineering has been demonstrating that their discipline can help to control the spread of infection, too.

Keen on Competition

Until 14 June 2012 Hong Kong lacked something that many other developed countries have: a competition law. Its long-awaited introduction has been aided in some part by the input of a HKU legal expert.

Science Inspiration

Science studies in secondary schools can be pretty ordinary – read the textbooks, listen to the teacher, watch the teacher do the experiment. But the Junior Science Institute (JSI) is showing students there is a lot more to a subject that relates very much to their daily lives.

Opening Access to Information

The government is looking for an expert to do a study on green buildings. A company is looking for a biotechnology specialist to advise on its new project. A researcher in the U.S. wants to find an expert who can team up for a project on domestic violence in China. How can they find the right people?

A Culture Change

Knowledge exchange is not a new thing at HKU. It has simply been brought out into the light and given its proper status as one of three prongs – the others being education and research – that define our mission. If we do not share our knowledge with industry and society, and create ties with the community so our students have more opportunities to learn, we are not making the most of our work.

Lighting the Way to Discovery

How does an idea get translated from the lab to the community? This is an eternal question in knowledge exchange. Professor C M Che, Dr Hui Wai Haan Chair of Chemistry and one of the top chemists in the world, has learned the answers the hard way.

The Toxic Tale of Hong Kong's First Patented Drug

One man's poison is another man's cure. At least that's the case for arsenic. Best known as a favourite substance for killing off royalty and victims in murder mystery stories, arsenic has enjoyed a comeback in recent years as a medical treatment, in particular for leukaemia.