The 5th Biomedical Engineering Innovation Competition "Love. Innovate for Happy Ageing" (第五屆「愛．創耆樂」) on 18 January 2025 on PolyU campus.
Speeches delivered by (top left): Dr Hin-chung Lau, Senior Lecturer of BME, Programme Leader (BSc in BME) and Assistant Dean (Student Development) of Faculty of Engineering; (bottom left): Ms Wong, Assistant Director of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council; (top right): Prof. Yongping Zheng, Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of Research Institute for Smart Ageing and Director of Jockey Club Smart Ageing Hub; and (bottom right): Mr Chow, Chairman of Shang Sin Chun Tong Charitable Foundation.
Highlights of the competition day.
The 5th Biomedical Engineering Innovation Competition "Love. Innovate for Happy Ageing" (第5屆「愛．創耆樂」) took place on 18 January 2025 on the PolyU campus. It was a blast filled with fun and excitement with 650 students (formed 121 teams) participated in the competition.
Co-organised by PolyU BME, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council and PolyU Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA), "Love. Innovate for Happy Ageing" aims to nurture the younger generation in thinking creatively and developing solutions that meet the emerging needs of society due to the ageing population in Hong Kong. It upholds the spirit of interdisciplinary learning through STEM.
There are 2 categories in the competition - "Challenge Competition", an intergenerational robotic car competition; and "Design Competition", a creative gerontechnology product design competition.
The "Challenge Competition" is comprised of 2 groups: "Micro:bit" and "Lego", where each team's robotic cars are tied with balloons and controlled by the senior (over 60 years old). The goal is to target at the balloons on the opponent's cars, and defense their own balloons at the same time.
Participating teams of the "Design Competition" compete with their gerontechnology products designed and developed to maintain the seniors' physical and mental health. Before building their final product prototypes, the teams are required to participate in activities arranged by BME, so as to understand the real needs of the seniors, learn about the designs of existing gerontechnology products, as well as get feedback from professionals and/or real users to optimize their product ideas. The winning teams are selected based on their products' innovation, STEM application, usability and potential for improvement. Scholarships are also awarded to teams whose products were considered suitable for further research and development, encouraging the participants to continue designing products using STEM knowledge and skills.
