This undated photo taken from the official website of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University shows Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong (first right) joining award-winning inventors at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions (from left) Yung Kai-leung, Chair Professor of PolyU's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Alisa Shum, Associate Professor of School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; PolyU Department of Applied Biologyand Chemical Technology's Research Assistant Professor Leo Lee Man-yuen and Professor Thomas Leung; and Professor Benny Cheung, Chair Professor of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Hong Kong Polytechnic University won a record-breaking 31 prizes at the internationally acclaimed Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, showcasing the city’s strength in innovation and technology.
The awards – the highest number a PolyU team has ever received at the largest annual event devoted exclusively to inventions – include three grand/special prizes, five gold medals with congratulations from the jury, 12 gold medals, five silver medals and six bronze medals.
Hong Kong, which sent 293 projects to compete this year, had an unprecedented triumph at the expo, with two grand awards – namely, Prize of the State of Geneva, and Prize of the International Federation of Inventors' Association – eight special awards, and about 30 gold medals with congratulations from the jury.
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Speaking at a briefing on Thursday, Executive Vice President of PolyU Miranda Lou Lai-wah said that the achievement affirms the school's ability to transform innovative technologies, as each of the 28 inventions – which received 31 awards – has been applied to different walks of life.
The PolyU team, with innovations in fields such as aerospace, artificial intelligence and medicine, became one of the biggest winners from the Hong Kong delegation at the event by grabbing the highest number of prestigious grand/special prizes
The PolyU team, with innovations in fields such as aerospace, artificial intelligence and medicine, became one of the biggest winners from the Hong Kong delegation at the event by grabbing the highest number of prestigious grand/special prizes.
Kelvin Wong, director of the Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office at the university, said it is not easy, within a short period of time, to turn scientific achievements into applications for life, which can help various sectors improve living quality and people’s health via technology.
One of the PolyU winners, Yung Kai-leung, who is Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering and director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations, won the Prize from the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca Romania and gold medal with the congratulations of the jury for his invention of a lightweight surveillance camera with ultrawide vision for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, the country's first Mars exploration mission.
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Yung said the key technologies developed for the space gadget have also been used in products on Earth such as in surgery robotics and for robotic in-line inspections of water mains.
Benny Cheung Chi-fai, chair professor of Ultra-precision Machining and Metrology and director of the State key laboratory of Ultra-precision Machining Technology, and his team won the Prize of the State of Geneva and gold medal with the congratulations of the jury, with a spectacle lens that helps kids control myopia.
He said the novel Nano Multi-ring Defocus Incorporated Spectacle lens combines the cutting-edge Defocus Incorporated Soft Contact lens and Ultra-precision Nano Multiring Machining Technology to slow myopic progression in children.
Cheung added that the lens was launched in November. The next step is to work with various companies to commercialize it.
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“We hope to help more children delay the deepening of myopia, so the price will be controlled within a reasonable range,” he said.