Inventions

Giants in History: Rajeshwari Chatterjee (24 January 1922 – 3 September 2010) was the first female engineer from Karnataka in India. Chatterjee earned a Master’s degree and doctoral degree from the University of Michigan on a scholarship awarded by the Delhi government

The Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) of Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong has developed the CREW Wheelchair Control System which intelligently predicts a carer’s intentions so as to better control a wheelchair, improving the safety of both wheelchair users and carers. The research team recently won the Gold award at the international MUSE Design Awards, and has already filed patent applications in Hong Kong and Mainland for this ground-breaking system.

As part of its aim to improve business and government agency efficiencies through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI), a research and development institute of the Department of Science and Technology, has signed a 3-year partnership with Bizooku Philippines on 27 August 2021.

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.

Magnetic patterns in meteorites, Treating mitochondrial diseases, underwater sensors and a broad COVID-19 vaccine in the September Editor's Choice. Plus, what's it like to communicate vaccine research in a pandemic and Asia Research News 2022.

Scientists in Korea make hand-drawn and flexible pressure sensors that can control a phone from underwater.

A tiny device incorporates a compound made from starch and baking soda to harvest energy from movement.

The Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS) of Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong recently organised a STEM-design competition for secondary school students to develop gerontechnology products tailor-made for rural elders to improve their quality of life. Pui Shing Catholic Secondary School students’ “smart shopping cart”, equipped with an infrared-based, automatic motion-tracking system that helps seniors transport a large amount of goods with less effort, won the Overall Championship Award and the Age-friendly Innovation Award.

A spinning toy meets hydrodynamics and sets point-of-care diagnostics in motion.

Invented by Professor Ho Wing-kei at the Department of Science and Environmental Studies of The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), the novel graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst provides an innovative way for environmental purification. Compared to the traditional photocatalyst such as titanium dioxide, which can only be activated by UV light, and has a relatively low effectiveness in air pollutant degradation, the newly developed photocatalyst can utilise visible light (daylight or indoor light) as the light source for photocatalytic reactions.

Scientists develop high performing electrocatalyst to synthesize ammonia in an effort to replace conventional eco-unfriendly methods

With the aim of promoting knowledge transfer, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) hosted the Award-Winning Innovations Salon (AWIS) to showcase its award-winning projects recognised in international invention and innovation competitions in 2020. During the past year, the University won 22 international awards.

Undergraduate students explore a more efficient way to measure protein-containing vessels released by cells

New ‘armoured’ T cells attack cancer without being suppressed by drugs given to transplant patients to avoid organ rejection.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has unveiled a new eco-friendly and low-cost method to synthesize indolopyran, one type of nitrogen ring compound, contained in about 60% of drugs that are recently approved by FDA.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has proposed a new experimental approach for estimating the H‐bond free energy of local biological water.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has unveiled a highly-flexible and durable electrode using the dream material, graphene.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has unveiled a new technique that gives an enhanced hydrogen production yield by 5 times via the deposition of highly porous superaerophobichydrogels on a desired electrode surface.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has discovered that when the rotational quantum states of non-polar molecules change under the influence of laser fields (non-resonant laser fields), so does their motion trajectories.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has succeeded in generating bipotential self-renewing iVPCs by direct lineage conversion.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has proposed a new physical phenomenon that promises enhanced storage capacity of a fingernail-sized memory chip by 1,000 times.

South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) partners with Pukyong National University and Chosun University to develop the next-generation of batteries for EVs.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) established an advanced direct conversion strategy to generate iMNs from human fibroblasts in large-scale with high purity, thereby providing a cell source for treatment of SCI.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has demonstrated that in the presence of polymers (preferably, polyionic liquids), crystals of various types grow in common solvents, at constant temperature, much bigger and much faster when stirred, rather than kept still.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has succeeded in fabricating highly integrated arrays of PTFTs and logic gates via all-solution processing.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has unveiled a new water-splitting hydrogen catalyst, namely Ru@MWCNT.

A recent study, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has presented new electrolyte additives for high-performance LIBs that would enable an electric vehicle (EV) to travel longer distances on a single charge.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has presented an external-power-free single-structured PRB, named a dye-sensitized photo-rechargeable battery (DSPB) with an outstanding light-to-charge energy efficiency (ηoverall) of 11.5% under the dim light condition.