RS held i-CREATe for the first time with HKOTA and CREATe Asia

RS held the 15th International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology (i-CREATe 2022) on 26-28 August 2022, together with the Hong Kong Occupational Therapy Association (HKOTA) and the Coalition on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology, Asia (CREATe Asia). 

The i-CREATe, initiated in 2007 as one of the Thai-Singapore collaboration projects by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, aims to serve as a platform for assistive and rehabilitation technologies in ASEAN countries. It has become an annual conference of the CREATe Asia since 2016 and been held every year in different Asian countries or regions. It is the first time for i-CREATe to be organised in Hong Kong this year and RS was honoured to host it as one of the anniversary events to celebrate PolyU’s 85th birthday.

With the theme “Enabling All with Assistive Technology”, the 3-day conference was run in a hybrid mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 200 local and overseas participants from the fields of occupational therapy, engineering, and rehabilitation engineering joined the conference enthusiastically and enjoyed its rich, well-planned programme in person or online. The conference programme featured six keynote speeches by highly qualified international speakers, four plenary sessions by 12 well-respected local specialists, 36 free paper presentations by experienced clinicians and researchers, as well as round-table discussions for speakers, scholars, experts, teachers and students to exchange knowledge, information and experiences pertinent to the development of assistive and rehabilitation technologies. 

At the opening ceremony on 27 August, there were the pre-recorded opening speech by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and another pre-recorded speech by Mr Chapal Khasnabis from the World Health Organization. We had also invited Mr Chua Hoi Wai, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, and Prof. Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation), PolyU, to deliver an informative speech separately. The opening ceremony was graced by the representatives from 26 supporting organisations of the conference, including six PolyU and CUHK academic departments/units, three professional organisations, 16 NGOs and the Hospital Authority. 

The Global Student Innovation Challenge (gSIC), an iconic annual event at i-CREATe, was held all day on 26 August. This year we had 40 student teams from different Asian countries/cities such as China, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong competing closely with each other in two categories, the Design Category (17 teams) and the Technology Category (23 teams). We are happy that our OT students have won several awards in the contest with their innovative devices and solutions, including three Merit, the Best Video Presentation and the Best Onsite Exhibition-1st awards in the Design Category, as well as the Best Onsite Exhibition-2nd award in the Technology Category. A detailed list of awardees is shown here. 

Near the end of the conference, Prof. Kenneth Fong (Professor at RS and Co-chair of i-CREATe 2022’s Organising Committee) delivered a closing address, in which he thanked all the attendees for participating in the 3-day conference. He also acknowledged the devotion and efforts of his colleagues at RS and the two co-organisers, HKOTA and CREATe Asia. Finally, he expressed his gratitude to the supporting organisations for their great help and support.  

Please visit our photo gallery (click here) for more snapshots of the event.