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Tag: City University of Hong Kong

From east to west, north to south: City University of Hong Kong expands global collaboration

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A host of fresh partnerships sees City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) strengthening its position at the forefront of international outreach. By partnering with influential global institutions, CityUHK is expanding opportunities for innovative learning and research, reinforcing its commitment to academic excellence.

Building bridges to Belgium

A new cooperative relationship with KU Leuven’s Science, Engineering and Technology Group marks a substantial milestone in our European connections. Founded in 1425, KU Leuven is the world’s oldest Catholic university and Belgium’s highest-ranked institution. The feasibility of developing joint bachelor’s degree programmes and facilitating faculty exchanges, visiting scholars and post-doctoral fellows are the critical points of an MoU signed on 27 August 2024 by CityUHK’s President, Professor Freddy Boey, and the Rector of KU Leuven, Professor Luc Sels.

This MoU will make exploring cooperative education programmes possible, especially in digital medicine, biochemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and health technology.

“We are very excited to collaborate with the Science, Engineering and Technology Group at KU Leuven,” said President Boey. “This partnership demonstrates our dedication to forging dynamic alliances with global partners in keeping with our reputation as one of the most international universities in the world. We look forward to joining hands with this Group at KU Leuven to promote inspirational, interactive, and innovative learning and world-class research.”

Strengthening humanities ties with Milan

In another strategic move, an MoU between CityUHK’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and POLIMI Graduate School of Management in Milan signed on 15 July 2024 turns attention to faculty exchanges, customised education programmes, and joint degree offerings, a partnership sure to enhance the educational experiences of students and faculty at both institutions.

Cooperating with the Russell Group

Initiatives that address global challenges through knowledge exchange and research with top UK universities have also created a recent buzz. Programmes that enable academic visits feature in a partnership with the University of Cambridge through Lucy Cavendish College, while ties with Cambridge’s Department of Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology offer excellent research and exchange opportunities for CityUHK and Cambridge students. Alliances have also been significantly deepened with other Russell Group universities such as the University of Exeter and the University of Glasgow.

Journeying out to France, South Africa, and Kazakhstan

From east to west, and north to south, CityUHK is embracing diversity, globalisation and interconnectivity. Freshly minted agreements with CentraleSupélec, Paris-Saclay University in France, and the University of Johannesburg in South Africa have diversified CityUHK’s international engagements, opening new avenues for academic and cultural exchange. Meanwhile, a unique alliance with Satbayev University (SU) enhances teaching, learning, and research with the support of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Additionally, this alliance will see the establishment of a CityUHK research institute at SU to promote interdisciplinary studies.

These ventures offer unparalleled opportunities for CityUHK students and faculty to advance their careers and engage with leading academic peers worldwide and will foster, we hope, a shared innovative mindset.

CUHK hosts APRU Undergraduate Leaders’ Programme on sustainable cities development

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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) hosted the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Undergraduate Leaders’ Programme (The Programme) from 25 June to 6 July 2023. The Programme, themed “Leadership for Sustainable Cities Development”, was part of the University’s 60th anniversary celebration events and brought together a diverse group of 55 undergraduate students from 31 APRU member universities in 15 countries and regions in North and South America, Asia and Australasia. The event was co-organised by the Urban Studies Programme, School of Architecture, Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge and Office of Academic Links at CUHK.

The Programme aims to empower young leaders to become changemakers in pursuit of building sustainable, safe, resilient, and inclusive cities in response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It covered five sub-themes: energy sustainability; environmental, social and governance; green transport; smart, green and resilient communities; and waste and resource management.

Professor Ng Mee-kam, Programme Director of the Urban Studies Programme; Professor Hendrik Tieben, Director of the School of Architecture; and Dr Elsie Tsui, Project Director of the Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge, with two overseas scholars from APRU member universities, Dr Mohsen Mohammadzadeh from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland; and Professor Yang Yizhao from the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, gave lectures and led workshops and discussions on urban design during the Programme.

CUHK commits to build a better future for our cities and planet at the opening ceremony.

 

Other local industry experts and leaders from NGOs also conducted a series of talks and workshops to equip students with a holistic understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing cities today, using case studies from Hong Kong and around the world. They included Mr Wong Kam-sing, GBS, JP, Former Secretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government; Mr Leo Chan, Founder and CEO of Leader Radio Technologies Ltd; Mr Alok Jain, CEO and Managing Director of Trans-Consult Ltd; Mr Warren Luk, CEO of Good Lab; Mr Hendrik Rosenthal, Director – Group Sustainability of CLP Holdings Ltd; Ms Fiona Sykes, Resource Management Consultant of Arup Hong Kong; and Mr Harold Yip, Co-founder of Mil Mill.

Classroom learning was supplemented with field trips during the Programme. Students were brought to the Heritage of Mei Ho House, MTR Corporation Ltd, Swire Coca-Cola HK Ltd, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, T-Park and Viva Blue House to allow them to gain a deeper understanding of sustainable development practices in action.

The Programme concluded with a group project competition in which students showcased their innovative solutions to sustainable city development by applying design thinking principles. A team led by Mr Thuta Ye Moe, a student from Yonsei University in South Korea, won the competition with its SkyBike proposal to build elevated bike lanes for local short-distance commuters, providing healthy and environmentally friendly transport in Hong Kong. The judges were very impressed with the team’s creativity and innovation in promoting green transport in urban areas.

Mr Thuta Ye Moe said, “The Programme has been a remarkable opportunity for leadership development and collaboration. The lectures and field trips have provided insight into green transport infrastructure, integration of technologies, energy efficiency measures and sustainability policies in Hong Kong. The Programme has encouraged each of us to engage in our communities and make a positive difference with passion.”

Students visit the Blue House to learn about heritage preservation in Hong Kong.

 

At the closing ceremony, CUHK Provost Professor Alan Chan met with the participating students. He said, “In the face of unprecedented global challenges, it is critical that we come together to collaborate and find solutions. CUHK is pleased to host the APRU Undergraduate Leaders’ Programme to facilitate collaboration across borders and provide opportunities for young leaders to address important issues related to sustainability, which is ever more pressing in a time of climate crisis.”

About the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)

APRU is a network of 60 leading universities that brings together thought leaders, researchers and policymakers to exchange ideas and collaborate on effective solutions to the challenges of the 21st century. CUHK has been a member of APRU since 2017. One of APRU’s initiatives is the Undergraduate Leaders’ Programme, which is hosted by member institutions to support emerging undergraduate leaders in becoming real-world changemakers by driving awareness, action, and change, supporting them in their academic and personal goals. By providing cultural exchange experiences and unique learning opportunities, the Programme seeks to equip the next generation of leaders with the skills they need to contribute to positive change for the betterment of societies worldwide.

CityU becomes world’s first university to manufacture next-generation electron microscopes

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A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is pioneering advanced technology for the next-generation self-design and manufacture of electron microscopes (EMs). CityU is the first university in the world to achieve this.

An EM system composed of a pulsed electron source, a fast camera, a staged pumping vacuum system, and an aberration corrector has been developed by a team led by Professor Chen Fu-rong, Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

The team’s ultimate goal is to develop a miniature high space-time resolved “quantum” EM that can be used to study atom dynamics of beam-sensitive materials.

Since EMs are capable of imaging at a significantly higher resolution than light microscopes and provide measurements and analysis at the micro-nano, and even the atomic scale, they are much sought after, especially in medicine, life science, chemistry, materials, integrated circuits and other research industries.

The team has also overcome some longstanding problems in the development of EMs. Currently, EMs cannot overcome the scientific bottleneck of radiation damage and a static view of the sample, hindering their capability for studying small molecule and electron beam-sensitive materials. Furthermore, their size limits their application in space-expensive environments, such as space shuttles, and deep sea and deep earth research ships and devices.

To overcome these limitations, the CityU research team designed pulsed electron sources and the fast camera that can be used with a desktop EM. By equipping the fast camera with a deflector, the speed of imaging is not limited to the readout time. This is the first time that such a concept can be verified on a desktop EM system. The team also designed an aberration corrector, which can further improve imaging resolution.

In the future, with the ability to independently design and hold intellectual property rights, the team will be able to produce customised miniature EMs at a lower cost. For instance, the LaB6 desktop electron microscope is expected to be sold at 60% of the price of similar products on the market.

“The miniaturisation of high-end instruments is an inevitable trend in industrial development,” said Professor Chen, concurrently Director of the Time-Resolved Aberration-Corrected Environmental EM Unit and Director of the Shenzhen Futian Research Institute at CityU.

With the support of the Futian District Government, the team is the only university-based research group to have produced several high-end EMs.

The research team is developing a high spatio-temporal resolution desktop scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) that utilises pulsed hollow cones to enable observation and reconstruction of protein structures in 3D in room temperature and liquid conditions. This overcomes the current limitation of observing protein structures only under extremely low-temperature conditions using cryo-electron microscopy.

The next stage is to establish a world-leading electro-optical design and manufacturing centre in the Greater Bay Area that will focus on technology transfer and research into electron optics technology.

“This centre aims to spin off electron optics-related technologies for established and start-up companies,” said Professor Chen.

The goal is to stay 15 years ahead of the world’s other EM user facilities in terms of instrumentation and science, he added.

The centre will be organised around novel electron optics for servicing a series of high space/time resolution EMs dedicated to science applications, such as artificial photosynthesis, quantum materials and water science, in environments with a varied range of external stimuli (for example, electric fields, lasers, high temperatures and low temperatures) that are not accessible today.

This platform will lead to breakthroughs in quantum devices, future energy, life science and medicine, said Professor Chen, thereby helping to transform the team’s research findings into applications with real-world benefits, and stimulating collaboration between industry and academia.

CityU’s discovery of a protein that promotes cancer metastasis

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A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has discovered a novel protein, Lysyl hydroxylase 1 (LH1), which is a key factor in promoting cancer cell migration and metastasis in liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) and pancreatic cancer (pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDAC). They also found that a high LH1 level is associated with poor prognosis (the development of disease and long-term survival) of HCC and PDAC patients. The team expects the research findings to provide a new potential treatment target for cancer therapy.

Cancer metastasis is a major cause of cancer-related death, and the migration of cancer cells through increasingly stiff solid tumours is a common feature of HCC and PDAC metastasis, but the mobility of cells in the tumour microenvironment remains poorly understood. “We aim to study the molecular mechanism of cancer cell migration in the confined microenvironment and to identify novel genes and proteins related to the process,” said Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Vice-President (Research and Technology) and Yeung Kin Man Chair Professor of Biomedical Sciences at CityU, who led a multi-institution team to conduct the research.

The research team discovered that LH1 enhances the migration capability, including speed and invasion capacity of HCC and PDAC cells in confined space through binding and stabilising Septin2 (SEPT2), a protein that plays an essential role to ready the cells for the high mechanical demands of migration, thus promoting the metastasis of HCC and PDAC cells. They also discovered that high LH1 expression is correlated with poor prognosis for both HCC and PDAC patients. The findings were published on 31 January 2023 in Molecular Cancer, a leading peer-reviewed journal on cancer-related research from a molecular perspective.

The research work was carried out mainly by CityU PhD student Eileen Yang Zihan and Dr Zhou Zhihang of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The multi-institution research team consists of researchers from the Tung Biomedical Sciences Centre of CityU, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, the Precision Medical Technology Centre of CityU Futian Research Institute, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

“The main challenge in this research is recreating the complex cancer microenvironment, but the team successfully developed a series of multidimensional 2D and 3D in vitro and in vivo models to comprehensively study the cancer cell migration process in confined space,” explained Professor Yang. “The findings are expected to provide a potential new target for cancer diagnosis and drug development.”

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/media/news/2023/03/09/discovery-protein-promotes-cancer-metastasis

New-generation antenna developed at CityU promotes 6G wireless communications

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A research team led by Professor Chan Chi-hou, Acting Provost and Chair Professor of Electronic Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has developed a new-generation antenna that allows manipulation of the direction, frequency and amplitude of the radiated beam and is expected to play an important role in the integration of sensing and communications (ISAC) for 6th-generation (6G) wireless communications.

The new-generation antenna is called a “sideband-free space-time-coding (STC) metasurface antenna”. One of its innovative features is that there are many switches on its surface, and the response of the metasurface can be changed by turning on and off the switches to control the electric current, thus creating a desired radiation pattern and a highly-directed beam.

Structures and characteristics of traditional antenna cannot be changed once fabricated. However, a significant feature of the new-generation antenna is that the direction, frequency, and amplitude of the radiated beam from the antenna can be changed through space-time coding software control, which enables great user flexibility.

Professor Chan, who is also Director of the State Key Laboratory of Terahertz and Millimeter Waves (SKLTMW) at CityU, said that the energy from the radiated beam of the new-generation antenna can be focused to a focal point with fixed or varying focal lengths, which can be used for real-time imaging and treated as a type of radar to scan the environment and feedback data.

Dr Wu Gengbo, postdoctoral fellow at CityU’s SKLTMW, explained that the invention was inspired by the new concept of AM leaky-wave antennas that he proposed in 2020 in his PhD studies at CityU. “A high-directivity beam is generated at the input frequency, allowing a wide range of radiation performance without having to redesign the antenna, except for using different STC inputs,” he said.

“The invention plays an important role in the ISAC for 6G wireless communications,” Professor Chan explained. “For example, the radiated beam can scan and duplicate an image that is similar to a real person, so that mobile phone users can talk with each other with 3D hologram imaging. It also performs better against eavesdropping than the conventional transmitter architecture.”

The findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature Electronics under the title “Sideband-Free Space-Time-Coding Metasurface Antennas”.

“We hope that the new-generation antenna technology will become more mature in the future and that it can be applied to smaller integrated circuits at lower cost and in a wider range of applications,” Professor Chan continued.

Novel electrocatalysts for hydrogen production offer hope for solving the energy crisis

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Two efficient and inexpensive novel electrocatalysts for hydrogen production offering sustainable green solutions for the energy crisis have been developed by City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels while the production of low-cost, high-performance hydrogen evolution catalysts is a core problem in the energy field.

A research team co-led by CityU materials scientists has recently developed an innovative, ultra-stable and highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst. Electrochemical HER is a widely used hydrogen-generation method. Commercial HER electrocatalysts are made from expensive precious metals. A promising type of HER electrocatalyst intensively studied by scientists is single-atom catalysts for their potential in catalytic HER applications because of their high activity, maximised atomic efficiency, and minimised catalyst usage. However, the fabrication of single-atom catalysts is generally complicated, and requires a lot of energy and time.

The new electrocatalyst is based on two-dimensional mineral gel nanosheets and does not contain any precious metals. It can be produced on a large scale and help achieve a lower hydrogen price in the future.

“Compared with other common single-atom substrate precursors, such as porous frameworks and carbon, we found that mineral hydrogels have great advantages for the mass production of electrocatalysts owing to the easy availability of the raw materials, a simple, environmentally friendly synthetic procedure, and mild reaction conditions,” said Professor Lu Jian, Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (MNE) and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at CityU, who led the research.

The experiments found that the new catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity, long-term durability and ultra-stability.

The findings were published in Nature Communications under the title “Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution”.

Another breakthrough by Professor Lu’s team is a new type of hydrogen evolution catalyst.

“Using a simple method called magnetron co-sputtering, my research team has successfully produced a high-performance, low-cost substitute for platinum-based electrocatalysts, providing an effective solution to this problem,” said Professor Lu.

The new electrocatalyst, based on AlMnRu (aluminium, manganese and ruthenium) films, has a crystalline-amorphous (non-crystalline) dual-phase nanostructure. Dual-phase materials are needed because each phase has separate benefits: the local chemical inhomogeneity, short-range order and severe lattice distortion in the nanocrystalline phase are desirable, while the amorphous phase offers abundant active sites with a lower energy barrier for hydrogen evolution reaction.

“This aluminium-based alloy electrocatalyst has unique bonding states, a small lattice size, and crystalline/amorphous coexistence, providing a structural basis for achieving high catalytic efficiency,” Prof Lu explained. “We use aluminium rather than a noble metal as the principal element of the catalyst, and ruthenium, which is cheaper than platinum, as the noble metal component.”

The innovation was published in the top academic journal Science Advances, titled “A crystal-glass nanostructured Al-based electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction”.

 

Research co-led by CityU boosts efficiency of perovskite solar cells to record high

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An international research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is accelerating the commercialisation of perovskite photovoltaic technology with a new approach that boosts the efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) to a record high of 25%.

The team’s innovative approach involves applying a ferrocene-based organometallic compound called ferrocenyl-bis-thiophene-2-carboxylate (FcTc2) as the interfacial material to improve the efficiency and stability of inverted PSCs.

“We are the first team to boost the efficiency of inverted PSCs to 25% and pass the stability test set by the International Electrotechnical Commission,” said Dr Zhu Zonglong, Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry (CHEM).

The findings were published in the prestigious journal Science under the title “Organometallic-functionalised interfaces for highly efficient inverted perovskite solar cells”.

PSCs are a promising alternative to traditional silicon solar cells because of their low-cost, low-manufacturing temperature, and lightweight and flexible properties. They can be printed on plastic films as flexible solar cells or coated on window glass to absorb sunlight.

However, the operational lifetime of a device can be hampered by the chemically reactive components in perovskite materials that can become volatile and degrade under high temperatures and humidity.

“The unique properties of ferrocenes help to manage the problems faced by PSCs,” said Professor Nicholas J. Long from Imperial College London, an expert in organometallic compounds whose team developed the compound.

Dr Zhu added: “Ferrocenes can reduce the surface energy of the perovskite surface, enhancing both efficiency and stability.”

PSCs are made of layers of materials and the perovskite layer is for light harvesting. The ferrocene molecules accelerate the electron transfer from the perovskite active layer to the electron transporting layer, which further increases efficiency.

There is another merit to these organic groups, according to Dr Zhu. “The ferrocene-based organometallic compound firmly anchors the ion on the perovskite surface via a chemical bond, reducing the PSCs’ sensitivity to the external environment, and delaying the degradation process of a device,” he explained.

In the experiment, the CityU team showed that these newly invented solar cells could run under continuous light illumination for more than 1,500 hours and still maintain over 98% of their initial efficiency. The devices also met international standards for mature photovoltaics, exhibiting superior stability in a hot and humid environment (85 degrees Celsius and 85% humidity).

“The most challenging part of this work was fabricating highly efficient PSCs along with promising stability. The reliable results mean that the commercialisation of PSCs is on its way,” said Dr Zhu.

The collaboration team has already patented the technology. “We hope to further scale up the production of PSCs with this novel molecule and simple method, contributing to the global ‘zero-carbon’ sustainability goal,” he said.

The study was supported by CityU, the Innovation and Technology Fund, grants from the Early Career Scheme and the General Research Fund from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, and the Natural Science Foundation, Guangdong Province.

Novel meta-lens revolutionises conventional Vacuum UV optics technology

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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.”

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

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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.

CityU’s advanced robotic VR system teleoperates robots for COVID-19 swab tests

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A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently developed an innovative human-machine interface (HMI) that can teleoperate robots to imitate the user’s actions and perform complicated tasks. The breakthrough technology demonstrates the potential for conducting COVID-19 swab tests and nursing patients with infectious diseases.

A key part of the advanced HMI system, named Robotic VR, is the flexible, multi-layered electronic skin developed by Dr Yu Xinge, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at CityU, and his team. The system’s bottom layer of skin-tone elastomeric silicone serves as a soft adhesive interface that can be mounted on the skin and joints of the user.

“This new system enables teleoperating robotics to conduct complicated tasks. Doctors wearing the HMI system with VR glasses can remotely control the robots and experience the tactile sensations of the robots to accurately conduct surgery, and medical workers can remotely manipulate the robots to look after infectious patients or collecting bio-samples, thus greatly decreasing the infection risk,” says Dr Yu.

The team conducted experiments such as remotely controlling the robotic hand to collect throat swab samples for COVID-19 tests and to teleoperate humanoid robots to clean a room and even provide patient care. The team is developing a next-generation system for the robotic collection of nasal swab tests.

The layers of the electronic skin are interconnected with a collection of chip-scale integrated circuits and sensing components, including resistors, capacitors, a Bluetooth module, a microcontroller unit (MCU), and soft sensors and actuators developed by the team.

The sensors of the Robotic VR system can accurately detect and convert subtle human motion into electrical signals, which are processed by the MCU and wirelessly transmitted to the target robot. In this way, the user can teleoperate the robot to imitate their motion to accomplish tasks remotely. The pressure sensors on the robot can send feedback signals to control the vibration intensity of the haptic actuators through the Bluetooth module, thus providing haptic feedback for the user. The user can then precisely control and adjust the motion and strength of the robot, or its arm, according to the intensity of the feedback.

The sensors of the Robotic VR system can accurately detect and convert subtle human motion into electrical signals, which are processed by the MCU and wirelessly transmitted to the target robot. In this way, the user can teleoperate the robot to imitate their motion to accomplish tasks remotely. The pressure sensors on the robot can send feedback signals to control the vibration intensity of the haptic actuators through the Bluetooth module, thus providing haptic feedback for the user. The user can then precisely control and adjust the motion and strength of the robot, or its arm, according to the intensity of the feedback.

“The new system is stretchable and can be tightly mounted on human skin and even the whole human body for a long time. In addition, the interface provides both haptic and visual feedback systems, providing an immersive experience for users,” says Dr Yu.

The HMI system links users to robotics or computers and plays a significant role in teleoperating robotics. However, conventional HMIs are based on bulky, rigid and expensive machines, and the lack of adequate feedback for users limits their application for conducting complicated tasks.

With the advanced circuit design and outstanding mechanical characteristics, Dr Yu believes Robotic VR can teleoperate various machines, e.g. driverless cars, while people with disability can remotely manipulate a robot to carry heavy goods. Dr Yu also expects this new system to help provide a new approach in wirelessly connecting people to a robot or virtual character in the metaverse.

The system supports three wireless transmission methods – Bluetooth (up to tens of metres), Wi-Fi (up to about 100 metres), and the Internet (worldwide) – which can be adjusted according to the practical applications.

The research study was published in Science Advances under the title “Electronic Skin as Wireless Human Machine Interfaces for Robotic VR”. The corresponding authors are Dr Yu and Professor Xie Zhaoqian from Dalian University of Technology (DUT). The first authors are PhD students Liu Yiming, Yiu Chun-ki and post-doc fellow Dr Huang Ya from BME, and Ms Song Zhen from DUT.