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Year: 2022

Novel meta-lens revolutionises conventional Vacuum UV optics technology

Posted on by Editorial Team

A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have successfully developed a novel Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) meta-lens which can generate and focus the VUV light, a disruptive technology for the VUV optics market.

VUV is used in semiconductor manufacturing, photochemistry and materials science. The focused VUV light source is strongly needed for the nanolithography, material processing, advanced manufacture, and other industrial areas.

However, it has been costly to work with. VUV with wavelengths between 100 to 200 nanometers (nm), is strongly absorbed by the oxygen in air, and requires a vacuum chamber or other specialised environment. Conventionally, very bulky and expensive system with special and rare nonlinear crystals are used for generating and focusing of VUV light.

In addition, virtually almost all types of glass used for conventional lenses are unsuitable for the VUV due to their strong absorption in this region. The few VUV-transmittable materials currently used for lenses are comparably fragile, placing practical limits on thin lens fabrication and design.

Professor Tsai Din-Ping, Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE) and Dr Chen Mu-Ku, Research Assistant Professor of EE, have designed and fabricated an array of the 150 nm length triangle shape zinc oxide nano-antenna to form a VUV meta-lens.

“We have developed a meta-lens with intricate nano-structures on zinc oxide thin film. It is capable of converting and focusing VUV light. This meta-lens provides a compact method for nonlinear VUV generation and focusing of the generated light,” said Professor Tsai, one of the corresponding authors of the paper recently published in Science Advances titled “Vacuum ultraviolet nonlinear metalens”.

The new VUV meta-lens in a 45 micro-meter diameter can convert UV light with 394 nm wavelength into VUV light with 197 nm wavelength, and focus the VUV light on a small spot less than 2 millionths of a meter in diameter. Tests at Rice University in the US demonstrating a focused light spot with the enhanced power density by 21 times.

“Our VUV meta-lens is compact, lightweight, effective, and can be mass produced by semiconductor electronics fabrication process. This novel and disruptive meta-device could revolutionise the conventional VUV optics technology and its market,” Professor Tsai said.

The meta-lens allows substantial streamlining of VUV system design and facilitating more advanced applications. This work provides a useful platform for developing low-loss VUV components and increasing the accessibility of the VUV regime.

This research is funded by the Area of Excellence Project (AoE), University Grants Committee/Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR government. Professor Tsai is the Project Coordinator of the AoE project “Meta-optics, Meta-acoustics and Meta-devices.”

Lingnan research cluster studies COVID-19’s wider impact

Posted on by Editorial Team

Once aware of the true scale and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, scholars at Lingnan University in Hong Kong moved quickly to set up a wide-ranging series of research projects.

They recognised the importance of studying the likely longer-term impact and understanding what the disruptions to normal life would mean for different sectors of society.

By taking an interdisciplinary approach, their aim was to look at the direct effects of the disease and the challenges faced by families, schoolchildren, university students, and those now out of work.

Clearly, a stalling economy, online schooling, and social distancing requirements would affect livelihoods and general well-being. So, Lingnan formed a distinct research cluster focused on Covid-19 and its consequences, with many of the approved projects also tied directly to one or more of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These set out a blueprint for global action over the next few decades.

The purpose was to ensure proposals put forward by different departments have real-world significance and that, on completion, the research findings and recommendations can have a genuine impact.

For instance, one current study funded by the Lingnan Research Committee is looking at the well-being and health literacy of school principals, management teams and teachers during the ongoing pandemic.

Led by Prof Padmore Adusei Amoah of the School of Graduate Studies, the work is focusing on an issue which is often overlooked. That is the increased burden shouldered by those responsible for organising online classes and dealing with the extra complications that inevitably result.

Much of the public discourse has been about the impact on school children, their parents, and the merits or otherwise of online learning. But the viewpoint of teachers and principals – and the difficulties they encounter – require similar consideration, especially if some education authorities now advocate blended or hybrid learning as the way forward.

Another important project, jointly run by Prof Maggie Ka Wai Lau of the School of Graduate Studies and Prof Stefan Kuehner of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy, involved an international survey of children’s well-being during Covid-19.

It found that children in Hong Kong had a low ranking overall and expressed most dissatisfaction about “time use” and “being listened to by adults”. Obviously, there are lessons to learn here for anyone concerned about the well-being of young people and how to help them regain the sense of stability and participation that allows them to thrive.

Taking a different path, Prof Gizem Arat of the Department of Sociology and Social Policy has been exploring possible factors for the prevention of Covid-19 cases among underprivileged ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

And, in the Department of Management, a study of the pandemic’s impact on doctors and nurses was overseen by Prof Nan Wang and Prof Nancy Yifeng Chen.

New angles will no doubt continue to emerge, and all the latest Lingnan University publications and articles related to Covid-19 can be found in the webpage.

ITS wins ahead of the world’s best universities in International Roboboat Competition 2022

Posted on by ITS Global Engagement

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) has once again proved its reputation as the world’s leading university in technology by earning the Grand Champion title in the International Roboboat Competition (IRC) 2022 held in Florida, United States, this June. The ITS team, Barunastra, ranked first in two categories, namely, Design & Documentation and Autonomy Challenge, finishing ahead of the world’s best universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.

Since 2012, Barunastra has focused on developing unmanned vessels. Barunastra has been designing and producing Autonomous Surface Vehicles, as well as Fuel Engine Remote Control and Remote Control boats. Established by ITS Robotics, Metic Club from Marine Engineering, and Hydromodelling Club from Naval Architecture, Barunastra has a solid commitment to fostering global maritime technology advancement. Therefore, Barunastra has actively participated in various competitions, winning back-to-back championships in 2018 and 2019 in IRC, in which it has participated since 2016.

Barunastra proudly presented an autonomous boat called Nala Theseus in this year’s competition. Nala Theseus has been developed with a modularity concept so that it could accommodate a large amount of cargo on board. In addition, Nala Theseus has been designed with a watertight hull that prevents damage to its electrical components. Barunastra’s achievement has not only become a source of ITS pride, but also a national treasure. Fatahillah Muhammad Daffa Shodiq, one of the team members, hopes that this accomplishment will inspire the development of autonomous boats in Indonesia, one of the world’s foremost maritime countries.

AI researcher works to integrate useful and safe robots into society

Posted on by Editorial Team

Although robots are designed by people, getting robots to perform useful tasks in a safe manner is an ongoing challenge. In order to teach robots how to perform their desired tasks, researchers like SFU computing science professor Mo Chen design artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to satisfy performance and safety requirements.

“For deep learning-based AI, we try to incorporate prior knowledge about the robots and their environments into learning algorithms so that robots can learn to perform their tasks more quickly,” says Chen.

Finding ways to integrate useful and safe robots into society in a way that assists people is a process that involves working on theory and simulations before experimenting with actual robots. Chen directs the Multi-Agent Robotic Systems Lab at SFU, where he and his team place an emphasis on fundamental, theoretical foundations, in addition to real world implementation.

“Theory is very important for designing algorithms that are guaranteed to be safe and for making learning algorithms more efficient,” says Chen. “To test our theory, we need to do a lot of simulations to make sure that the algorithm is doing what it should be doing. The next challenge is taking what the robots have done in simulations and transferring it to the real world. A lot of times we find that there are differences in the real world from simulation, so we often have to go back and refine what we developed.”

While this process is long and challenging, Chen focuses on the good that this research can do in the future. He sees many ways that robots can have a positive impact on society, whether it is having a robot greet you and help you find items in a store, using drones to help film movies or using robots to gather agricultural data to help people understand the well-being of crops.

For these goals to become a reality, however, there is still a lot of research and testing that needs to be done. Beyond the challenge of designing robots to complete desired tasks, Chen focuses on ensuring that robots are safe while maintaining their usefulness so that people can trust robots. As time goes on, he believes that we will see robots gradually integrate into society as people become more comfortable with them.

For the future, Chen is excited to continue collaborating with other researchers. In addition to his current research, he hopes to train robots to understand their effects on the environment and other agents, and make decisions based on these effects. This will help robots interact more naturally and safely with people.

HKBU biologists discover three new coral species in Hong Kong waters

Posted on by HKBUCPRO

Biologists from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) have discovered in Hong Kong waters three new species of hard coral which have never been identified anywhere else in the world. The findings come shortly after their discovery of one new coral and two new nudibranch species, which was announced last year under their research project on coral health in Hong Kong.

The new marine species were identified by Professor Qiu Jianwen and MPhil student Mr Yiu King-fung of HKBU’s Department of Biology. The descriptions of the new corals have been accepted for publication in the academic journal Zoological Studies.

New species found during coral health research

About eight years ago, Professor Qiu and his team started a series of research projects related to coral health in Hong Kong, including studies on the impact of coral bioeroding sea urchins and coral-eating nudibranchs, as well as coral bleaching caused by global warming. A coral facility was set up at HKBU to culture corals and conduct controlled experiments to examine their physiological changes under different culture conditions. With continuous field surveys and in-depth research, the team has revealed the high diversity of sun corals in Hong Kong waters.

The three new sun coral species discovered this time were named by the HKBU team as Tubastraea dendroida, Tubastraea chloromura and Tubastraea violacea, and they all belong to the genus Tubastraea. The samples were collected when the team surveyed coral-eating nudibranchs at Sung Kong and Waglan Island in the eastern waters of Hong Kong. With the addition of three new members, the number of known species in the Tubastraea genus has increased from seven to ten.

The features of the three new sun coral species are as follows:

Tubastraea dendroida

Similar to most sun corals, Tubastraea dendroida has a typical bright orange colour, but its shape is rather unique. Instead of growing in clumps like most of its related species, this new species has a tree-like structure, with the main stem of its colony attenuating from the base to the tip. The HKBU team therefore named it “dendroida” to reflect its tree-shaped body.

Tubastraea violacea

Covered with a thin layer of pale purple tissue on the corallites (skeletal cups), Tubastraea violacea stands out from other related sun coral species as its polyp wall tissues and skeleton are violet in colour, and it has been named “violacea” accordingly. Nevertheless, its tentacles are yellow and the corallites have a thick wall. Based on comparisons with DNA sequences in public databases, the team found that this species may have colour variants elsewhere, such as a yellow colour variant in New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

Tubastraea chloromura

This coral has a delicate olive green skeletal wall and a circle of yellow tentacles surrounding its mouth. As a result, the species has been named “chloromura”, with “chloro” and “murus” meaning “green” and “wall”, respectively.

From coral gene sequences recorded in public databases, HKBU biologists envisage the potential distribution of Tubastraea dendroida and Tubastraea violacea in Japan and the Western Pacific Ocean. However, at this stage, Tubastraea chloromura is only known to inhabit Hong Kong waters.

All of these three coral species are non-reef-building corals. They do not host symbiotic algae that produce nutrients and energy via photosynthesis. Living in deeper waters at depths of between 10 and 30 metres, they gain energy and nutrients by capturing zooplankton from seawater using their tentacles.

New species discoveries suggest rich biodiversity

“Our discovery of three new species of Tubastraea enhances our knowledge of the diversity of this sun coral genus. Given that corals are one of the best-studied marine animals, our study reveals how little we know about marine diversity, and how many undescribed species are still awaiting our discovery,” said Professor Qiu.

Identification of the three new coral species comes less than a year after Professor Qiu and his team announced their last discovery in October 2021. While implementing a project supported by the Environment and Conservation Fund to assess the diversity and impact of coral-eating nudibranchs, the team discovered a new sun coral species in the genus Tubastraea and two new species of nudibranchs in the genus Phestilla in Hong Kong waters.

Looking back, the last time a new hard coral species was discovered and named in Hong Kong was about 20 years ago. “The discovery is very encouraging as it provides strong evidence of the high marine biodiversity in Hong Kong waters, and it helps fill in the knowledge gaps in biodiversity as advocated in the Government’s Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. It also inspires us to further explore the diversity of marine animals, study their functions and ecosystem services, and protect them from potential human disturbances,” Professor Qiu added.

TMU parasitology researchers engaged in field investigation in Africa amid COVID pandemic

Posted on by Taipei Medical University

Taipei Medical University research team, led by Professor Chia-Kwung Fan of the Department of Molecular Parasitology and Tropical Diseases, visited the Kingdom of Eswatini, a diplomatic ally of Taiwan, between October and December in 2021.
During the visit, the team successfully carried out a parasitic disease investigation and continued to support the bilateral public health cooperation for parasite control and prevention which was initiated 12 years ago.

Professor Chia-Kwung Fan has for many years been a key supporter of public health diplomacy, leading the collaboration with Mbabane Government Hospital , Malaria Center and the Parasite Prevention Center to monitor various parasitic diseases in Eswatini, such as intestinal parasites, malaria and schistosomiasis by disseminating knowledge and skills required for laboratory work and pest control through tailored training programs. The hope is to bring neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to an end by 2030 (in line with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals Target 3.3 on communicable diseases) through cross-national collaboration.

The planned collaboration in research was forced to suspend due to COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which could lead to the lost momentum in in disease prevention and control and the consequent reappearance of chains of infection. Professor Fan therefore led a team of researchers, consisting of post-doctoral researcher, Chia-Mei Chou , doctoral student of the Department of Public Health, Hsiao-Ching Kuo , and doctoral student of the Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Yun-Hung Tu , to re-initiate the collaborative research project in Eswatini.

Reflecting on the task, Professor Fan indicated that the project was awash with unknown and possibly severe challenges. In addition to the preparation of protective equipment and vaccines necessary for protection from COVID-19, a large majority of time was spent with the health personnel in Eswatini strategizing the best plan of action to go deep into the community through scenario planning and carrying out itinerary checks for the inspections, blood collection and questionnaires. On top of the monitoring of intestinal parasites, they also targeted provinces with potential pork tapeworm epidemics risks for serum screening.

Yun-Hung Tu found that even with the training and work experience of a professional medical examiner, he finds it challenging working in the field while wearing full PPE and shuttling between local communities to recover blood, urine and feces samples. Meanwhile, Hsiao-Ching Kuo encountered problems during her research when the off-road bus she took broke down and there was power outage in the accommodation area followed by bad weather. The outbreak of the South African variant of Omicron further complicated matters and resulted in the cancellation of the return flight. While in the field members of the TMU research team faced numerous situations that tested their adaptability and communication skills.

Despite a series of challenges, Professor Fan and his team successfully completed the investigation and produced a solid analysis with recommendations for the local authorities and communities to plan for follow-up treatment. Professor Fan believes that long-term bilateral medical and public health collaboration projects serve to benefit a new generation of medical talent in the fields of biomedical research and international collaboration. Taiwan is uniquely placed to offer its strong clinical capabilities in medical and parasite control and public health to contribute to the wellbeing of international communities. Professor Fan hopes that TMU and the Taiwanese government will continue to pay attention to the development of related fields in medicine and continue to support such partnerships between Taiwan and its international friends.

Programmed cell death in cancer cells: Overcoming resistance through paraptosis-inducing compounds

Posted on by Tokyo University of Science

Researchers from Japan have developed novel complex-peptide hybrids, which can induce programmed cell death in apoptosis-resistant cancer cells

Inducing programmed cell death (PCD), such as apoptosis, is a widely used therapeutic option for the treatment of cancer. Unfortunately, many cancer cells become resistant to PCDs, and continue multiplying. In a new study, researchers from Tokyo University of Science synthesized new complex-hybrid compounds named triptycene-peptide hybrids (TPHs), which successfully induced a kind of PCD known as paraptosis in Jurkat cells—a type of lymphocytes. These paraptosis-inducing compounds can revolutionize cancer therapy in the future.

Apoptosis, a type of programmed cell death (PCD), is a biological process through which unwanted cells are eliminated in multicellular organisms. In most cells, certain proteins known as “caspases” trigger apoptosis. This process is especially important for the treatment of cancer, since inducing cell death in cancer cells can help in their elimination.

Other than apoptosis, several types of PCDs occur in cells, including paraptosis, necroptosis, and autophagy. Of these, paraptosis is the most recently identified type of PCD, which is caused by the influx of excess calcium in the cells, leading to cell death.

Cancer cells often become resistant to drugs that induce apoptosis and other types of PCDs. In such cases, inducing paraptosis, which is not dependent on caspases, could act as a promising anti-cancer treatment. Hence, the development of compounds that can induce paraptosis in cancer cells is crucial.

To this end, a team of researchers from the Tokyo University of Science, led by Prof. Shin Aoki in collaboration with Mr. Kohei Yamaguchi and Dr. Kenta Yokoi, conducted a study to develop novel complex-peptide hybrids with paraptosis-inducing potential. This study was made available online on 11 April 2022, and subsequently published in Volume 33 of the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry, on 20 April 2022.

“Previously, we synthesized an iridium complex-peptide hybrid compound and observed that it induced cell death in cancer cells, which was different from apoptosis. Since this compound was unlike other paraptosis-inducing compounds, we wanted to understand its mechanism of paraptosis induction. Our goal now is to synthesize new compounds and elucidate how they induce paraptosis in cells, before we share this crucial information with the public,” explains Prof. Aoki while discussing the team’s motivation behind this study.

The newly synthesized compounds were composed of a triptycene core—an aromatic hydrocarbon—with two or three cationic peptides made of the amino acids lysine and glycine (represented as KKKGG) through a C8 alkyl linker chain, at different positions of the triptycene units. As a result, three triptycene core hybrids (TPHs) were produced, namely, 5, syn-6, and anti-6.

The team subsequently performed experiments on Jurkat cells, a type of immortalized human lymphocytes used in research, to understand the type of PCD that occurred in these cells on treatment with syn-6 and anti-6. They found that death in these cells was inhibited by carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP) which is an uncoupling reagent and an inhibitor of mitochondrial calcium uptake, RuRed, which is an inhibitor of the mitochondrial calcium channel), and 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB), which is an inhibitor of D-inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor. However, cell death was not inhibited by inhibitors of the other types of PCDs.

Hence, they ruled out autophagy, necroptosis, and apoptosis, confirming that paraptosis is a major PCD pathway induced by syn-6 and anti-6 in Jurkat cells.

“Studies have indicated that the TPHs syn-6 and anti-6 induce the transfer of excess calcium from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to mitochondria, resulting in a loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. It is very likely that these phenomena are strongly related with the fusion of the ER with the mitochondria, followed by cytoplasmic vacuolization, resulting in cell death,” said Prof. Aoki, when asked why these two TPHs were selected for the study. The TPHs syn-6, and anti-6 are more hydrophilic than other TPHs, which could also be a reason for their high paraptosis-inducing anti-cancer potential.

Through additional imaging experiments, the team detected the presence of cytoplasmic vacuolization, elevated mitochondrial calcium concentrations, and the degradation of the ER in Jurkat cells treated with syn-6 and anti-6.
Based on previous findings, the team hypothesized that in Jurkat cells as well, the influx of calcium in the mitochondria might be facilitated by the close proximity of the ER and the mitochondria. As expected, they found that the ER and mitochondrial membranes were attached to one another, facilitating direct transfer of calcium.

These findings confirmed that Jurkat cells treated with syn-6 and anti-6 had undergone programmed cell death, owing to paraptosis. They also provide crucial information for the design of compounds that can be used as therapeutic agents against cancer and other diseases.

Here’s hoping that these promising findings contribute to the development of effective therapy against the ever-evolving cancer cells.

***

Reference

Title of original paper: Design, Synthesis, and Anticancer Activity of Triptycene–Peptide Hybrids that Induce Paraptotic Cell Death in Cancer Cells

Journal: Bioconjugate Chemistry

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.2c00076

About The Tokyo University of Science

Tokyo University of Science (TUS) is a well-known and respected university, and the largest science-specialized private research university in Japan, with four campuses in central Tokyo and its suburbs and in Hokkaido. Established in 1881, the university has continually contributed to Japan’s development in science through inculcating the love for science in researchers, technicians, and educators.

With a mission of “Creating science and technology for the harmonious development of nature, human beings, and society”, TUS has undertaken a wide range of research from basic to applied science. TUS has embraced a multidisciplinary approach to research and undertaken intensive study in some of today’s most vital fields. TUS is a meritocracy where the best in science is recognized and nurtured. It is the only private university in Japan that has produced a Nobel Prize winner and the only private university in Asia to produce Nobel Prize winners within the natural sciences field.

Website: https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/

About Professor Shin Aoki from Tokyo University of Science

Professor Shin Aoki is a professor of cancer biology & research at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science. He is engaged in the study of medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, bioinorganic chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry. He is a recipient of the Award of Japan Society of Coordination Chemistry for Young Scientists (1999); the AJINOMOTO Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan (2001); and the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists (2002). He is a graduate from the University of Tokyo with B. S. (1986), M.S. (1988), and Ph.D. (1992) degrees in pharmaceutical sciences. He holds a post doctorate degree from the Department of Chemistry, the Scripps Research Institute, USA.

Erasing cheating online

Posted on by Gitanjali Goswami

The pandemic helped usher in a new normal for online education, but the opportunities also bring challenges around exam integrity. Gitanjali Goswami tracks the trend of academic cheating cases in recent years, and analyses how universities are exploring and improving methods to assess students’ calibre.

“Typically, in a face-to-face exam room… students will be sat at desks spaced around the room,” explains Dr Thomas Lancaster, a Senior Teaching Fellow in Computing at Imperial College London in the UK. “They can’t obviously see each other, they will have to hand over their mobile phones, or put them in their bags out of reach at the start of an exam, and there will be someone in the room, an invigilator or a proctor, to make sure that they are not looking at their notes.

Around a year into COVID-19, many higher education leaders and supporters of digital and online education identified the pandemic as a watershed moment for shifting university thinking on how students are taught. In December 2020, Professor David Maguire, Interim Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dundee in the UK, noted that resistance towards online education had all but disappeared in the university space.

“What’s happened in the last eight months as a consequence of the pandemic has really had a major impact on universities, and it’s made this change [to bolster online and digital teaching], I think, much more urgent,” he said during the 2020 Reimagine Education Conference and Awards. His observations had already bore out a month earlier in startling fashion, with the Learning and teaching reimagined report, co-authored by Universities UK, Advance HE, Emerge, and Jisc, the latter of which he serves as chair.

According to the report, where there had been reluctance to adopt online prior to the pandemic, there was now an acceptance of its need. Of the students, lecturers, and leaders surveyed, 90 percent agreed that lectures would go online, compared to 10 percent in previous years. When speaking to leaders, Professor Maguire added, few believed the changes would be rolled back.

Looking at recent trends

Concerns around academic integrity aren’t new. The 2009 paper, Academic dishonesty, ethical norms and learning, co-authored by Gunnel Colnerud and Michael Rosander highlights that when either the students lack clarity of examination rules or rules are insufficiently explained, the occurrence of dishonest behaviour rises. Other reasons include stress and the fear of losing grades.

The pandemic created a perfect storm to exacerbate the negative side of these factors. It is the proctor’s role to provide clarity for students, but as Dr Lancaster notes, many exams went without. Rotem Arie, a teacher assistant at Brandeis University in the US, argues in her 2021 paper, Academic Dishonesty and COVID-19: A Biological Explanation, that stress was aggravated during the pandemic. Combined, this led to a global spike in academic cheating cases.

According to online examination integrity platform, ProctorU, there was a drastic rise in the rate of proctors addressing the presence of unpermitted resources before exams commenced. The 2021 Exam Conduct and Integrity Report found a more than eight percentage point increase. During the same period, the proportion of active interventions by proctors on test-takers skyrocketed. In a single month comparison, ProctorU observed three times the ‘confirmed breaches’ in November 2021 compared to November 2019, jumping from 8,038 cases to 26,543.

While the stressors of COVID-19 may have exacerbated issues around exam integrity, some experts observe that these occurrences also a symptom of rapid change. Dr Valerie Denny is Vice-President of the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) and Assistant Professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide in the United States.

“While research is still underway, it is safe to say that cheating for permanent online instruction changed little, while temporary online instruction increased, and some would say dramatically,” she says. “Often courses were converted to the online modality within a few days or weeks and without the benefit of instructional design best practices, and without the benefit of remote monitoring tools. Instructional designers and instructors did the best they could with this forced change.”

Finding effective solutions

Addressing the integrity concerns that online exams present has led to some radical solutions. “In offline classes there is an absolute guarantee that there is no cheating at all because there are supervised examinations,” says Professor Shalabh, Professor and Dean of Academic Affairs at the Indian Institute of Technology- Kanpur.

“In the online classes… it is nearly impossible to say what was happening because nothing was happening before of our eyes.”

Professor Shalabh tells the Higher Ed Report that as a teacher, he needs to keep in mind that “students are human beings, and when they are given an opportunity [to cheat], they have an internal fight inside them of what is right and what is wrong”. His team’s approach was to remove any incentive students would have from cheating. Instead of grading students on whether or not their response to a question was correct, students were instead evaluated on how they answered an exam question.

“I said [to my students] … ‘if you have attempted [a question], even if the answer is wrong, then also you will get the full marks’,” he says. “Now I have removed the advantage of giving the right answer. That means [from student’s perspective] … then why should they use unfair means?”

To swiftly adapt to the transition, services such as CodeTantra and ProctorU were also used to facilitate proctoring online examinations. Services such as these require students to keep their cameras on. ”

If they move quite frequently and abnormally then the software will freeze

, and the students will not be able to appear in the examinations” Shalabh tells the Higher Ed Report.

Addressing new challenges

Online proctoring services eased the process of adapting to complete online examinations, but Dr Lancaster says no system is completely fool proof. “There are ways around them and it is also possible to accuse students of cheating just because they happen to, for example, move their mouth while working on their exam paper while thinking aloud. This happens in a real exam situation as well,” he says. “You’ve got to follow-up with certain things.”

Students have also expressed their displeasure with online proctoring tools because of privacy concerns. Some students don’t want to be seen in their home environment, particularly if their primary area of study happens to be their bedroom. “All these concerns are quite rightly being raised by students, and student bodies. And I think that the sector has to consider this.”

The resumption of in-person examinations at universities might also present its own challenges. Dr Lancaster says he is concerned that students may be unprepared for the exam hall. “There is the expectation that students who haven’t taken an exam in-person for up to two years are ready and able to go back into an exam hall and they know the best ways to learn, and the best exam techniques. That’s quite strange.”

Such transitions have opened a gateway for further research to demonstrate “the efficacy of permanent online learning and… the importance of proper course design [for] different modalities,” says Dr Denny.

“As we move forward and further away from the pandemic, my hope is that some of the lessons from permanent online can be integrated back into the classroom environment, particularly with respect to course design which focuses on misconduct and cheating prevention.”

This article was abridged from 2023 QS World University Rankings Higher Ed Report. Download the full edition.

1st anniversary of largest university-based innopreneurship programme in Asia — HK Tech 300 spawns over 300 start-ups

Posted on by Editorial Team

Fledgling entrepreneurs are eager to start their own ventures and break new ground as innovation and start-ups begin to show promise. To nurture tech talent and entrepreneurs, City University of Hong Kong (CityU) launched HK Tech 300, a large-scale flagship innovation and entrepreneurship programme in March 2021 with an allocation of HK$500 million. Themed “Venture Beyond Boundaries”, the programme helps students, alumni, researchers and other members of the public to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey. This substantial funding and long-term commitment make HK Tech 300 the largest university-based entrepreneurship programme in Asia. In the first year of operation, the programme offered more than 1,000 participants entrepreneurial training, gave seed funding to over 300 teams, and provided nearly 50 start-ups with up to HK$1 million each in angel funding.

Specially designed flexible 4-stage programme

HK Tech 300 has created a 4-stage stage approach to creating 300 start-ups in three years: entrepreneurial training offered by professional organisations, seed funding for early-stage idea validation, angel fund investment to help start-ups grow, and venture capital investment to nurture nascent enterprises until take off. This flexible programme allows applicants to join any of the first three stages based on their specific capabilities and needs.

The programme has so far awarded 302 start-up teams a seed fund of HK$100,000 each, and another 49 start-up companies angel fund investment of up to HK$1 million each. These start-ups specialise in multiple domains, ranging from deep tech, information and communications technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and biotech and health technology to fintech and environmental and educational technology.

CityU is one of the world’s fastest rising universities, ranking 1st in Hong Kong for Citations per Faculty in the QS World University Rankings averaged over five years from 2017 to 2021. According to a Stanford University study, over 170 CityU faculty members were among the top 2% of the world’s most cited scientists in 2021. In addition, CityU was named one of the Top 100 worldwide universities for approved U.S. Patents by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), having been granted the most U.S. utility patents among universities in Hong Kong for five consecutive years.

“Thanks to our pioneering science and technology research, CityU has won numerous prestigious international awards and made invaluable contributions to the betterment of society. We remain committed to bringing about positive change to industries and the community at large through the transfer of knowledge,” said President Way Kuo of CityU. Another key feature of HK Tech 300 is openness as the programme is not limited to CityU students and alumni. The general public is welcome to use CityU’s patented technologies to develop tech products and services, thereby accelerating technology and knowledge transfer. President Kuo said he is proud of the teams and start-ups spawned by HK Tech 300, noting that they are committed to transforming advanced technologis developed by CityU into applications that bring about real-world benefits.

Translating excellent research into practical applications

HK Tech 300 offers career alternatives and opportunities by helping Hong Kong scientists and researchers to create start-ups. As of April this year, over 20% of the teams and companies awarded seed funding and angel fund investment were established by CityU PhD students and researchers, and 10% of awardees were members of the public.

Thanks to the substantial funding allocated to HK Tech 300, the number of start-ups with diversified backgrounds and specialities is gradually increasing, and several have attracted interest and investment from venture capital funds. These encouraging results confirm the value of CityU’s unwavering commitment to fostering a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem in Hong Kong.

More details can be referred to https://bit.ly/3Roi3yQ.

ITS chosen as implementing partner for WiSCi Camp: Southeast Asia 2022

Posted on by ITS Global Engagement

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) was chosen to be an implementing partner for ten (10) female senior high school students of the residential-based Science Camp (WiSci): Southeast Asia, a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) Camp for teen girls allowing access to education, mentorship, and leadership training. The virtual camp is taking place from July 4 to 9, 2022.

WiSci Camps is a public–private partnership by the US Department of State, the United Nations Foundation’s campaign Girl Up, and Intel. Since 2015, camps have been hosted in Africa, Europe, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and the Middle East. WiSci Southeast Asia will be the very first hybrid camp experience. This year, ITS American Corner becomes the home of ten (10) campers and two (2) counselors from the Surabaya area.

Seventy (70) campers and thirteen (13) counselors from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia participate in WiSci Camp 2022. During the camp, campers will learn leadership skills with their counselors, learn about STEAM topics via sessions with private-sector partners, and conduct a project preparation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and SDGs with their cohorts. Campers will also become acquainted with prominent female scientists though a women’s panel discussion, including with representatives from the US embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and Intel trainers.