JUN 2022 | ALL ISSUES
KT Salon updates faculty on latest KT and entrepreneurship developments
Since last year, the central management has been organising KT Salons to share with faculty members the University’s latest developments and support in relation to KT and entrepreneurship. In the third KT Salon held online on 5 May 2022, the central management provided updates on the guidelines for academic-led start-ups, the GBA Startup Postdoc Programme @Hong Kong/ Shenzhen and patent filing.
Meanwhile, the hosts elaborated on domain-based entrepreneurship and the two designations, namely “Powered by PolyU Tech” and “PolyVenture from PolyU Entrepreneurship Programme”, for PolyVentures 2025. PolyU start-ups meeting the requirements are encouraged to adopt one of the designation logos to reinforce their PolyVenture identity and the sense of community. During the event, Prof. LI Pei, Professor of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology also shared her experience in pursuing entrepreneurship as an accomplished academic.
Tech Launchpad Fund announces tech start-ups celebrates tech start-ups
Launched in 2014, with annual funding support amounting to HK$8 million from the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) under the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities, the PolyU Tech Launchpad Fund aims to accelerate the growth of early-stage technology start-ups founded by PolyU students, graduates and academics, offering them a maximum matching fund of HK$1.5 million.
The ten early-stage technology start-ups of the 2022-23 cohort were shortlisted from 30+ applications received during the Investment Panel Meeting, where applicants competed for a matching grant ranging from HK$0.5 million to HK$1.5 million. Congratulations to the following PolyU start-ups!
- Active Biotechnology (Hong Kong) Company Limited
- APEX PowerLab Company Limited
- ARISE Education Limited
- Bo InnoHealth Biotechnology Company Limited
- Grand Rise Technology Limited
- Happy Ace Corporation Limited
- iMeddy Limited
- NeutralCrete Limited
- RC Labs Limited
- Vision and Action Technology Company Limited
Commissioner for Innovation and Technology visits PolyU InnoHub and meets with University-supported start-ups
PolyU is dedicated to promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. The University fosters academic-led start-ups to translate research results and innovations into products for mass production, benefitting society at large. Commissioner for Innovation and Technology Ms Rebecca PUN visited the PolyU InnoHub, a co-working space for University-supported start-ups, and met three PolyU research teams to understand their innovations and applications. She was also briefed about how the University supports start-ups and incubates entrepreneurship by PolyU's Executive Vice President Dr Miranda LOU.
The innovations developed by the three research teams are closely related to COVID-19. The disinfectant coating developed by Prof. LI Pei and Tenny LAM, a PolyU DBA student, was commercialized through their start-up named Grand Rise Technology Limited. The coating can be applied to various equipment for disinfection, contamination control and anti-epidemic protection.
The company has also recently developed 3D protective masks made from natural antimicrobial biomaterials, as well as a disinfectant coating with enhanced protection features. Another academic-led start-up is Immune Materials formed by Associate Professor Dr Chris LO and his research team. Their innovation is a novel COVID-19-killing 3D printing material which can be used to produce equipment that is touched frequently such as door handles, to reduce the chance of virus transmission.
Prof. YIP Shea-Ping, Dr Thomas LEE and their research team are establishing a start-up for the production of a portable nucleic acid testing device for COVID-19. The device can test both human and environmental samples with 100% sensitivity and specificity, and can thus facilitate personal and environmental hygiene management.
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Proof-of-Concept Fund encourages student entrepreneurship
PolyU Student Entrepreneurial Proof-of-Concept (POC) Funding Scheme is a funding initiative launched in 2017 as one of the key entrepreneurship education components at PolyU, aiming to instil a problem-driven innovation mindset into young talents through experiential learning and student-initiated research and development. As of 2021, over 120 student projects have benefitted from almost HK$1.7 million in funding and other non-financial support.
With the kind support from "Dr Winnie S M Tang-PolyU Student Innovation & Entrepreneurship Scholarship", the scheme has been revamped to pick innovation seeds from innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) competitions and the faculties for a scholarship of up to HK$20,000. The endorsed ideas went through the POC Bootcamp, which includes the I&E workshops over the weekend, three weekly consultation sessions with the seasoned team coaches from our pool of mentors, and a final pitch in which they compete for the HK$10,000 top-up prizes for the top three spots. The said scholarship also encouraged the awarded project teams to explore and apply Geographic Information System (GIS) by providing HK$5,000 top-up prizes and an introductory training on location and geospatial intelligence.
The first cohort in 2022 has supported 32 student projects, formed by 89 students or young graduates. The coming cohort will further admit 30+ student projects in Q4 2022.
PolyU InnoHub x HKAI Lab Webinar explores AI and career opportunities
Why is the AI technology important nowadays? How do we grasp opportunities from the AI trend? In April, together with HKAI Lab, a non-profit initiative funded by Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and SenseTime, PolyU held a webinar about AI technology and career opportunities, attracting a hundred of entrepreneurs and aspiring people. Two AI start-ups, Customindz Limited (viAct) founded by PolyU alumni and Hollo Limited, shared their entrepreneurship journeys in the areas of construction and mental healthcare. A representative from HKAI Lab also introduced their supports and resources for tech start-ups developing and commercialising AI inventions and technologies, from seed funding, AI technology resources to consultation and workspace.
Academic-led start-ups present self-developed antiviral products to CEOs
PolyU encourages and supports its academics in their entrepreneurial pursuits to translate research excellence into real-world applications for the benefit of society. In March and April, two webinars were organised to connect academic-led start-ups with industry.
The webinar “Transforming Antimicrobial Research into Socially Responsible Business” featured Dr Chris LO and Prof. CW KAN from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC), who together with the rest of the interdisciplinary research team, developed world’s first Anti-virus 3D Printing Material. The two speakers also co-founded Immune Materials Ltd to commercialise the technology, benefitting healthcare professionals and bringing impact to the community. At the webinar, they presented to the audience their novel technology and how it contributed to fighting against COVID-19 in a timely manner.
At another webinar titled “Transforming Biomaterials Research into Commercial Products”, where Prof. LI Pei and PolyU DBA student Mr Tenny LAM, co-founders of Grand Rise Technology Limited, shared about their entrepreneurial journey. Their major product, a non-toxic and eco-friendly antimicrobial spray coating called CareCoatex™, was introduced to the audience. Prof. Li also talked about her research background, findings and applications. Meanwhile, Mr Henry Ho, Director of ISS, discussed CareCoatex™ from a user’s point of view.
The webinars demonstrated how PolyU transforms its world-class research into impactful real-world solutions through commercialisation and supporting academics to pursue their entrepreneurial endeavours. Over 200 participants in total were attracted to these webinars.
PolyU wins six prizes at 2022 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has once again excelled in this year’s online special edition of the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva (Geneva Inventions Expo) - Special Edition 2022 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days – Virtual Event. This year, PolyU has garnered a total of six awards, including one Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury, one Gold Medal, three Silver Medals and one Bronze Medal. Four of the six participating projects are operated by PolyU supported start-ups which has already commercialised its research outputs. As the only university in Hong Kong taking part in the Nation’s space missions, the PolyU team is also actively developing instruments for the national space mission by leveraging its expertise in precision engineering.
In addition, PolyU is also striving to leverage its research to improve people’s quality of life. The participating projects this year, which incorporate research in the areas of cooling coatings, eco-friendly building materials, smart fabrics, nutritional supplements and AI music learning platform, are just a few examples of this effort. The six projects are:
|
Project |
Principal Investigator |
Awards |
|
Camera Pointing System for China’s Lunar Exploration Missions (Chang'e 3 and 4) |
Prof. YUNG Kai-leung |
Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury |
|
UmiCool: an Eco-friendly Smart Sub-ambient Radiative Cooling (SSRC) Coating |
Prof. DAI Jianguo |
Gold Medal |
|
Carbon-negative Climate-smart Biochar Partition Block |
Prof. Daniel TSANG Chiu-wa |
Silver Medal |
|
Omni-Cool-Dry: a Desert Beetle Inspired Skin-like Fabric for Dymanic Thermal and Moisture Management |
Dr SHOU Dahua |
Silver Medal |
|
AkkMore™: a Fungus and Plant Based Supplement Against Obesity or Prediabetes |
Dr Gail CHANG Jinhui |
Silver Medal |
|
Algorithmic Music Composition Software for Popularising AI Education |
Dr CHEN Gong |
Bronze Medal
|
For more information, please check out our press release.
