Prof. Mingxin Huang from the Department of Mechanical Engineering wins the HKU Innovator Award

Steel material is widely integrated in human society and is used in constructing cars, bridges and airplanes etc. Prof. Huang and his team has been working on development of high-performance steel for the past 13 years. Prof. Huang and his team invent a super steel that creates two world records in terms of strength, ductility and toughness and was published twice in Science. Super steel is aimed to go beyond the lab. It has a low material cost and can be produced with existing industrial facilities which allows large-scale application, including automobile, bulletproof vest or even aerospace. 

During the outbreak of the pandemic, Prof. Huang invented the world's first anti-COVID stainless steel that can be used to produce lift buttons and doorknobs etc. The patent of this anti-COVID stainless steel has been licensed for global market, and received intense news coverage including BBC.

Besides, Prof. Huang co-founded a start-up company which raised more than 150M RMB investment from venture capitals to invent and commercialize a group of ultra-high strength automotive steels. These new materials, put into use on cars since 2022 in major car makers such as Greatwall motors, have provided the automotive industry very promising lightweighting and safety improvement solutions without cost penalty. Foreseeing a global market of about 9M tons per year, Prof. Huang looks forward to the huge impact it will bring to the industry and eventually to the society’s economy.

Prof. Mingxin Huang received the HKU Innovator Award 2022.