Invention

A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has achieved a groundbreaking advancement in nanomaterials by successfully developing a highly efficient electrocatalyst which can enhance the generation of hydrogen significantly through electrochemical water splitting.

In this collaborative project between Newcastle University and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), the team aimed to create a sustainable, cost-effective lower limb prosthetic socket (LLPS) using natural fiber-reinforced composites. The objectives included designing a green LLPS, assessing its environmental impact, and engaging stakeholders. Pineapple Leaf Fiber (PALF) was chosen for sustainability. The project has also inspired worldwide interest in sustainable LLPS development through a press release, receiving inquiries from students at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a group of 7th graders in the USA.

SLINTEC, Monash University Malaysia, and Newcastle University UK and Singapore teamed up for Poseidon: a patented portable water filtration device attachable to a bottle, offering clean drinking water for those lacking access.

A joint research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and collaborators recently developed a stable artificial photocatalytic system that is more efficient than natural photosynthesis. The new system mimics a natural chloroplast to convert carbon dioxide in water into methane, a valuable fuel, very efficiently using light. This is a promising discovery, which could contribute to the goal of carbon neutrality.

Doctors at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital have developed lightweight and easy-to-use Parkinson's gloves that can automatically reduce tremors, allowing patients to enjoy social life and reducing side effects from medication and risk from brain surgery.

Cancer metastasis is a major cause of cancer-related death. A research team at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently identified a protein that triggers the migration of liver and pancreatic cancer cells and metastasis, and is correlated with shortening the survival time of patients. The research findings were verified by in vitro and in vivo models, supported with clinical data, and are expected to provide a new potential target for cancer therapy.

Existing colour systems, such as RGB and CYMK, are all text-based and require a large range of values to represent different colours, making them difficult to compute and time-consuming to convert. Recently, researchers from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) made a breakthrough by inventing an innovative colour system, called “C235”, based on prime numbers, enabling efficient encoding and effective colour compression. It can unify existing colour systems and has the potential to be applied in various applications, like designing an energy-saving LCD system and colourizing DNA codons.

Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong has been putting great emphasis on research and knowledge transfer for social good. Two distinguished LU scholars’ knowledge transfer project “Personalised vocabulary learning system based on artificial intelligence techniques” , an integration of AI techniques and education, was recently awarded the Gold Medal and International Special Award at the 7th International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN) 2022, organised by the Toronto International Society of Innovation & Advanced Skills (TISIAS).

A research team co-led by materials scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently discovered a new mechanism to increase the strength and ductility of a high-entropy alloy, two properties which normally vary inversely with each other. The findings provide important insights for the future design of strong yet ductile high-entropy alloys and high-entropy ceramics.

Vaccines have become the most important weapon in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, but antibody levels after vaccination decay quickly over time. Therefore, an accurate and affordable antibody rapid test is urgently needed to adjust the revaccination strategy. A research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently invented an accurate rapid-testing device that can quantify and display the antibody level as a length of a visual bar, like a mercury thermometer, in as few as 20 minutes, enabling convenient mass screening or individual monitoring of immune protection against COVID-19.

Chula Engineering and Chula Medicine co-invent an innovative device for a rapid and accurate gastrointestinal cancer detection hoping to foster preventive medicine and reduce the number of cancer patients.

The food manufacturing industry could save significant costs by employing a 3D printing solution developed by researchers at International Islamic University Malaysia.

A research team led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has found that a proteolytic enzyme called membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) plays an important role in the regulatory mechanism of fullness, or satiety, and it could serve as a promising potential drug target for the management of obesity.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the use of robots and an urgent need for an advanced human-machine interface (HMI) system that can seamlessly connect users and robots. A research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and collaborating institution recently developed an innovative HMI system, which consists of flexible, multi-layered electronic skin and provides both visual and haptic feedback to users. The system can teleoperate the robot to imitate the user's actions to perform complicated tasks. It demonstrates the potential for conducting Covid-19 swab tests and nursing patients with infectious diseases.

A research team led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently designed a structured thermal armour (STA) that achieves efficient liquid cooling even over 1,000°C, fundamentally solving a 266-year-old challenge presented by the Leidenfrost effect. This breakthrough can be applied in aero and space engines, as well as improve the safety and reliability of next-generation nuclear reactors.

While the Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing, another public health threat, antibiotic resistance, continues unabated. Microbiologists and chemists from two universities in Hong Kong recently made a breakthrough in synthesizing the first vaccine against one of the most deadly antimicrobial resistant pathogens, Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii). The vaccine shows good protection against the superbug in mice, indicating great potential as a vaccine for humans.

Scientists created “elite” antibodies that can beat a broad range of coronavirus strains, including Delta, using a new technique that dramatically speeds up discovering potent antibody candidates.

Researchers at the National Dental Research Institute Singapore (NDRIS) have developed a novel device that aims to limit the spread of aerosols generated during dental procedures, thereby lowering the risk of COVID-19 crosscontamination in the dental setting.

Inspired by a kind of tree leaf, scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) discovered that the spreading direction of different liquids deposited on the same surface can be steered, solving a challenge that has remained for over two centuries. This breakthrough could ignite a new wave of using 3D surface structures for intelligent liquid manipulation with profound implications for various scientific and industrial applications, such as fluidics design and heat transfer enhancement.

Similar to a magnet that always has both south and north poles, a kind of special quasiparticles in condensed matter called “Weyl Fermions” always appear in pairs with opposite chirality. There had been no experimental report that unpaired Weyl points exist in condensed matter until recently, a City University of Hong Kong (CityU) physicist observed the first unpaired singular Weyl magnetic monopole in a specific kind of single crystalline solid.

Cochlear implants help deaf patients in hearing, yet the current technology remains far from perfect. A research team led by scientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has shown that neonatally deafened rats could be trained with cochlear implant stimulation to restore the ability to locate the directions of sound origins. The finding implies that shortcomings in current cochlear implant technology, rather than the lack of auditory experience in early childhood, maybe the reason why cochlear implant patients usually have poor spatial hearing performance.

From having your audio interrupted to your data being wiped out, researchers highlight the security limitation of Bluetooth technology implementations.

Scientists at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) have designed their first electric motorbike using a specially-constructed battery.

GenScript Biotech Corporation ("GenScript", Stock Code: 1548.HK), a world-leading life sciences research and application service and product provider, and Duke-NUS Medical School, a premier, research intensive medical school, announced today that the U.S. Patent and Trade Office has issued a notice of allowance for the patent application for a novel Surrogate Virus Neutralisation Technology (sVNT). Neutralising antibodies have been scientifically shown to play major role in preventing infection by blocking the virus from infecting the cells.

To promote sustainable development and the use of eco-coffins, Lingnan University in Hong Kong (LU)’s Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) has taken the lead in developing dual-use coffins as furniture for environmental purposes. The Lingnan University team is collaborating with Forget Thee Not, a social enterprise promoting green burial and funerals, to design furniture that can be conveniently reassembled into coffins. They aim to add a personal and heartfelt touch to honour the deceased, and the coffins are also more ecologically sustainable and cost-effective than the traditional funeral and burial process.

A research team from the Faculty of Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has recently developed a water-tube-based triboelectric nanogenerator that can efficiently convert various irregular and low-frequency mechanical energies, including ocean wave energy, into electricity, providing a new avenue for the development of “blue energy”.

A deep learning algorithm can detect emotion, including depression, using a voice signal. The system, developed by Teddy Surya Gunawan at the International Islamic University Malaysia, could be used by suicide prevention call centres and psychological counsellors.

Diamond is the hardest material in nature. But out of many expectations, it also has great potential as an excellent electronic material. A joint research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has demonstrated for the first time the large, uniform tensile elastic straining of microfabricated diamond arrays through the nanomechanical approach. Their findings have shown the potential of strained diamonds as prime candidates for advanced functional devices in microelectronics, photonics, and quantum information technologies.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has presented the whole-genome sequence and analyses of the endangered whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the largest extant fish on Earth.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has recently reported a significant discovery that could bring solar hydrogen production a step closer to reality.