News

TV Interview on Decoding the GBA《大灣區解碼》

Dr Ivan Ho and his research group were featured in the TVB programme, Decoding the GBA《大灣區解碼》, which was broadcasted on 1 July 2021. In the interview, Dr Ho discussed how the new policy of allowing cross-boundary remittance of the Mainland research funding would benefit the academic research in Hong Kong. Dr Ho also shared some examples including his research and the development on digital twin for connected autonomous vehicles, and indoor positioning and robot tracking services with the audience.

Research Paper published in the Nature Photonics journal

A research team led by Prof. Gang Li published a paper “Stable and low-photovoltage-loss perovskite solar cells by multifunctional passivation” in the Nature Photonics journal in July 2021. Nature Photonics is a monthly journal dedicated to publish top-quality and peer-reviewed research in all areas of light generation, manipulation and detection. The journal covers research related to optoelectronics, laser science, imaging, communications and other aspects of photonics. It is regarded as a top-ranking journal in the field of photonics.  Metal halide perovskite solar cells have demonstrated a high power conversion efficiency (PCE), and further enhancement of the PCE requires a reduction of the bandgap-voltage offset (WOC) and the non-radiative recombination photovoltage loss (ΔVOC,nr). In this paper, the research team reported an effective approach for reducing the photovoltage loss through the simultaneous passivation of internal bulk defects and dimensionally graded two-dimensional perovskite interface defects. Through this dimensionally graded perovskite formation approach, an open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.24 V was obtained with a champion PCE of 21.54% in a 1.63 eV perovskite system (maximum VOC = 1.25 V, WOC = 0.38 V and ΔVOC,nr = 0.10 V); the team further decreased the WOC to 0.326 V in a 1.53 eV perovskite system with a VOC of 1.21 V and a PCE of 23.78% (certified 23.09%). This approach is equally effective in achieving a low WOC (ΔVOC,nr) in 1.56 eV and 1.73 eV perovskite solar cell systems, and further leads to the substantially improved operational stability of perovskite solar cells. The paper is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-021-00829-4.

Highly sensitive, microscopic optical fibre sensors with pioneering biomedical monitoring capability

The research team led by Professor Hwa-yaw Tam, Chair Professor of Photonics and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at PolyU, developed the novel fibre optic microsensors that are biocompatible, supple and extremely sensitive to very small pressure changes inside the human body.  His team also made a critical breakthrough by basing their novel fibre optic sensors on an advanced plastic material, ZEONEX, that solves the problems of glass and traditional plastic. For more details, please click HERE.

2020 China’s Top Ten Optical Breakthroughs

Professor W Jin and his research team has worked on the “gas sensing research” which is honoured as “2020 China’s Top Ten Optical Breakthroughs” by China Laser Press.   In the applied research category, Professor Jin Wei, Chair Professor of Photonic Instrumentation, and his team developed a novel method of gas sensing called the Mode-phase-difference Photothermal Spectroscopy. The method was hailed as “a landmark technique in fibre-optic gas sensing” by a reviewer in Nature Communications, where the research results were published.  The innovation significantly outperforms state-of-the-art electrochemical and semiconductor gas sensors, and enables multi-component gas detection with a single sensing element. It paves the way for ultra-precision gas sensing for applications such as harmful gas detection in a space station and high voltage transformer condition monitoring.     

The EIE Newsletter (2020/21 Semester 2 Issue) is available now

Second Runner-up in the Postgraduate Paper Contest

The IEEE Macau Industrial Electronics Society (IES) Chapter organized the Postgraduate Paper Contest 2020 for the Hong Kong and Macau postgraduate students to promote the advanced power and electronics technologies for smart city. Our PhD student, Liu Ying, won the Second Runner-up in this contest with the research paper “A Study on the Safety of Inductive Power Transfer System for Kitchen Appliances”. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the safety of human body in the electromagnetic field generated by the inductive power transfer (IPT) system, which is designed for kitchen appliances. Comparisons of the basic and reference limit values of various safety standards are investigated through theoretical circuit analysis and extensive simulation studies. Simulation models of human body together with an IPT system for kitchen appliances are established to reveal the effect of electromagnetic field on the human body. Corresponding experiments are carried out through establishing a prototype of designed IPT system and simulating the human standing position. The measured results are consistent with the theoretical results.

Two teams of EIE postgraduate students and research staff from the Photonic Systems and Devices Focus Area attained the First and Second Prizes in the innovation category of the 7th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

The 7th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was organized by the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association between April and May 2021. The competition was co-organized by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). It aims to develop science and innovation education, and gather the most talented innovators and entrepreneurs from all tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. Two teams of EIE postgraduate students and research staff from the Photonic Systems and Devices Focus Areaattained the following prizes in the innovation category of this competition! Award Project Student / Staff First Prize (Innovation - Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering category) High Performance Solution-Processed Perovskite Solar Cell Towards Sustainable Development ZHANG Heng Kai (PhD student) REN Zhiwei (Postdoctoral Fellow) LIU Kuan (Postdoctoral Fellow) Second Prize (Innovation – Information Technology category) Intelligent Driver Health Assessment System Based on the Optical Fiber Interferometer YU Jianxun (MSc in EIE student) CHEN Shuyang (PhD Student) QU Jiaqi (PhD Student) Solar energy, the most generous gift from the nature, can satisfy all the need for industry production and people’s daily life. Perovskite solar cell is the most promising photovoltaic technology to be the game changer of energy field for its low fabrication cost, high power conversion efficiency, tunable bandgaps and facile manufacture process. As epitaxial growth gives the highest-quality crystalline semiconductor thin films for optoelectronic devices, the project “High Performance Solution-Processed Perovskite Solar Cell Towards Sustainable Development” introduced a brand-new approach for achieving high quality and high efficiency perovskite solar cell.  While another winning project “Intelligent Driver Health Assessment System Based on the Optical Fiber Interferometer” developed an assessment system to monitor the drivers’ health. The system is implemented in the sensing part, which is a smart cushion embedded by the optical fiber interferometer to collect human’s ballistocardiograph (BCG) signal. The raw data collected will be transmitted to the cloud server by the 4G communication module for analysis. It achieves contactless health condition assessment and non-invasive vital signs monitoring for drivers to avoid traffic safety hazards caused by the drivers in poor health condition.

An EIE research team from the optical communication research group won the First Class Prize of the Technological Invention Award in the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Award 2020.

An EIE research team from the optical communication research group won the First Class Prize of the Technological Invention Award in the Guangdong Province Science and Technology Award 2020. The team jointly conducted the winning project “數據中心多維度光互聯關鍵技術及應用” (translation: “Key technologies for multi-dimensional optical interconnects for data centres and their applications”) with the scientists from the Jinan University and the Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. The project studied the bottleneck problems in increasing the capacity of optical interconnects for data centres. It achieved the breakthroughs in solving formidable difficulties in three technologies in relation to new mode optical fibres, digital signal processing core chips based on the new mode, and chips for silicon photonic switches. This project has generated significant economic benefit and obtained 38 patents in various countries. One of its technologies has been applied to the intelligent monitoring of optical fibre cables and power networks.

Mr Chen Yuqi, our BEng in EIE graduate and the CEO & co-founder of Hai Robotics, has been selected by the Fortune China as one of the 40 business elites under the age of 40 in 2021!

Congratulations to Mr Chen Yuqi, our BEng in EIE graduate, for being selected by the Fortune China as one of the 40 business elites under the age of 40 in 2021! The “Fortune China’s 40 Under 40 List” features successful young and forward-thinking leaders in different business fields, who create social and economic values for China and the world. Mr Chen is the CEO and co-founder of Hai Robotics, a pioneer company in developing autonomous case-handling robotic system. Hai Robotics is committed to providing efficient, intelligent and customized warehouse automation solutions for factories and warehouses through advanced robotics technology and AI algorithms. In 2015, the company developed HAIPICK, the first autonomous case-handling robotic system, and put it into commercial operation. With the HAIPICK system, clients can increase their storage density by 80% to 130%, and improve the workers' efficiency by 3 to 4 times through automation and transformation of the warehouse. The system has facilitated many local and international enterprises including SF, JDL and DHL to optimize their warehouse operations. Fortune China: http://www.fortunechina.com/rankings/c/2021-04/27/content_389451.htm

The paper coauthored by Dr Yuyi Mao and Dr Jun Zhang in the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials journal has received the 2021 IEEE Communications Society Best Survey Paper Award.

The paper “A survey on mobile edge computing: The communication perspective” coauthored by Dr Yuyi Mao, Dr Jun Zhang and other collaborators from The University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has received the 2021 IEEE Communications Society Best Survey Paper Award. This award is given to papers published in any journal owned exclusively by the IEEE Communications Society in the past five years. The winning paper was published in the IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials journal (impact factor: 23.7) in 2017. It provides a comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art mobile edge computing (MEC) research with a focus on joint radio-and-computational resource management. The paper also discusses a set of issues, challenges, and future research directions for MEC research, including MEC system deployment, cache-enabled MEC, mobility management for MEC, green MEC, as well as privacy-aware MEC. This paper, including its Arxiv preprint, has received more than 2000 citations according to Google Scholar, and it has become a classic reference on MEC.