PolyU wins record-breaking number of awards at Geneva Inventions Expo and snatches highest number of prestigious Grand/Special Prizes among HK delegations

29 Apr 2023

Achievements Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office

PolyU teams snatched three prestigious special prizes at the 48th Geneva Inventions Expo. Prof. SUN Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry (1st from right), joined the award-winning inventors including (from left) Prof. Yung Kai-leung, Chair Professor of PolyU’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Prof. Alisa Shum, Associate Professor of School of Biomedical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; PolyU Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology's Research Assistant Professor Dr Leo LEE Man-yuen and Professor Prof. Thomas Leung; and Prof. Benny Cheung, Chair Professor of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, PolyU.

Prof. Sun visited PolyU’s pavilion at the Geneva Inventions Expo to learn about PolyU’s innovations.

The high efficacy myopia control spectacle lens won the Prize of the State of Geneva and a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury.

The long-acting anti-obesity and insulin-sensitising drug won the Prize of the International Federation of Inventors’ Association and a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury.

The lightweight surveillance camera with ultrawide vision for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission won the Prize of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca of Romania and a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury.

Impactful innovations from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have won a record-breaking number of accolades at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva (Geneva Inventions Expo), widely regarded as among the most important annual global events devoted exclusively to inventions.

In particular, 28 PolyU innovations garnered 31 prizes – the highest number of prizes PolyU teams have ever received at this event. They include 3 Grand/Special Prizes, 5 Gold Medals with Congratulations of the Jury, 12 Gold Medals, 5 Silver Medals and 6 Bronze Medals.

In fact, PolyU teams won the highest number of the prestigious Grand/Special Prizes among Hong Kong delegations at the Expo. The PolyU inventions which earned the Grand/Special Prizes include a highly efficacious myopia control spectacle lens, a long-acting anti-obesity and insulin-sensitising drug, and a lightweight surveillance camera with ultrawide vision for the Tianwen-1 Mars mission.

PolyU’s innovations garnered 31 prizes at the 48th Geneva Inventions Expo, alongside the achievements of other Hong Kong delegations, cementing Hong Kong’s reputation as a key innovation and technology hub.

The award-winning innovations by PolyU improve people’s lives and expand humankind’s horizons – with applications not only here on Earth, but also in space. In addition, these innovations help the world adapt to climate change and prepare for future pandemics, as well as safeguard people’s health and well-being.

Among the awarded innovations, 12 are driven by PolyU start-ups, including those led by PolyU scholars – a testament of the University’s start-up ecosystem that has supported over 7,600 PolyU academics, researchers, alumni and students in their entrepreneurial endeavours.

The exceptional performance of PolyU teams at the Geneva Inventions Expo underscores the University’s aspiration to harness its excellence in education, research and knowledge transfer to drive PolyImpact – inventions and innovations by the PolyU community that create long-lasting, real-world impact.

The Geneva Inventions Expo this year attracted about 1,000 inventions from about 40 countries and regions. To learn more about PolyU’s impactful innovations showcased in the Expo, please refer to the Appendix and the website of the Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office at https://www.polyu.edu.hk/kteo/Knowledge-Transfer/Innovations-and-Technologies/Award-winning-Innovations/Geneva2023/.

Project	Principal Investigator(s)	Award(s)
Novel High Efficacy Nano Multi-ring Defocus Incorporated Spectacle Lens for Myopia Control	Prof. Benny CHEUNG Chi-fai Chair Professor of Ultra-precision Machining and Metrology, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Director of State Key Laboratory of Ultra-precision Machining Technology Prof. TO Chi-ho Visiting Chair Professor of Experimental Optometry, School of Optometry Mr Jackson LEUNG Tze-man Co-founder, Vision Science & Technology Co Ltd (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Prize of the State of Geneva Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury
ABarginase: First-in-class Drug for Treatment of Multiple Obesity-related Metabolic Disease	Prof. Thomas LEUNG Yun-chung Professor, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology and Lo Ka Chung Charitable Foundation Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Prof. Alisa SHUM Sau-wun Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong	Prize of the International Federation of Inventors' Association – IFIA Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury
Mars Landing Surveillance Camera for Tianwen-1 Mars Soft Landing Mission	Prof. YUNG Kai-leung Sir Sze-yuen Chung Professor in Precision Engineering, Director of Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations, Chair Professor of Precision Engineering and Associate Head, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, PolyU	Prize of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca Romania Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury
AI-Assisted Design of Functional Clothing for Scoliosis Treatment	Dr Joanne YIP Yiu-wan Associate Dean and Associate Professor, School of Fashion and Textiles	Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury
MicroGlue: Microbial-derived Technology to Remove Microplastic Pollutants	Dr CHUA Song-lin Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology Dr LIU Yang GBA Startup Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology	Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury
A Novel Wireless Self-adaptive Hydropower Harvesting System for Applications in Urban Water Supply Pipelines	Prof. YANG Hongxing Professor, Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering	Gold Medal
Advanced Real-time Prediction and Early Warning System for the Spread of Emerging Pathogens	Prof. John SHI Wenzhong Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Urban Informatics, Chair Professor in GISci and Remote Sensing, Director, PolyU-Shenzhen Technology and Innovation Research Institute (Futian), Director, Smart Cities Research Institute, Academician, International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences (UK)	Gold Medal
A Sport-Specific Soft Manikin System for Sports Bra Design	Dr YICK Kit-lun Associate Professor, School of Fashion and Textiles	Gold Medal
Revolutionary Mussel-inspired Polyester for Next Generation Sportswear and Functional Clothing	Prof. John XIN Haozhong Lee Family Professor in Fashion & Textiles, Chair Professor of Textile Chemistry, School of Fashion and Textiles	Gold Medal
Safe and Eco-friendly Antimicrobial Materials with High Efficiency	Prof. TAO Xiaoming Director, Research Centre of Smart Wearable Technology, Vincent and Lily Woo Endowed Professorship in Textiles Technology, Chair Professor of Textile Technology, School of Fashion and Textiles Dr ZHANG Ziheng Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Fashion and Textiles, CEO, Ecolar Technology Limited (a PolyU Academic-led start-up)	Gold Medal
Advanced Intelligent System for Radiation-free Scoliosis and Posture Evaluation	Mr Jackal XU Zhenda PhD Student, Department of Computing, Founder, Zero Dynamic Medical Technology Company Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup) Prof. GUO Song Professor, Department of Computing, Chief Scientist, Zero Dynamic Medical Technology Company Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Gold Medal
Novel AI Automated Histological System for Carcinoma Detection	Dr Martin YEUNG Ho Yin Research Assistant Professor, Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Co-Founder, Anatomic Technologies Limited (a PolyU startup)	Gold Medal
A Portable Non-invasive and Ultrasensitive Saliva Glucose Sensor	Prof. YAN Feng ADoRI-IWEAR & Chair Professor of Organic Electronics, Department of Applied Physics	Gold Medal
Gold-LAMP: A Portable Ultra-fast Nucleic Acid Testing System	Prof. YIP Shea-ping Chair Professor and Head, Department of Health Technology and Informatics, Co-Founder, Pocnat Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup) Dr Thomas LEE Ming-hung Associate Professor and Associate Head (Academic), Department of Biomedical Engineering, Co-Founder, Pocnat Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Gold Medal
High-throughput Microfluidic Platform for CTCs Detection in Cancer Precision Diagnostics	Prof. YANG Mo Associate Head (Research) and Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering	Gold Medal
Long-lasting Self-disinfecting Materials Technology	Dr Chris LO Kwan-yu Associate Professor, School of Fashion and Textiles, Co-Founder, Immune Materials Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup) Prof. KAN Chi-wai Professor, School of Fashion and Textiles, Co-Founder, Immune Materials Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Gold Medal
Durable, High-Selectivity, and Energy Efficient CO₂ Electroreduction System	Prof. Daniel LAU Shu-ping Head, Director of UMF, Associate Director of PRI, Chair Professor of Nanomaterials, Department of Applied Physics	Gold Medal
One-Stop Solution with AI Visual Object Recognition for 3D Model Generation	Dr LI Yaxin Postdoc Fellow, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, CEO, Micro Dimension Limited (a PolyU startup) Prof. CHEN Wu Head and Professor, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics	Silver Medal
PolyPi: Edge-AI Empowered Robot for Autonomous In-pipe Inspection	Prof. CAO Jiannong Dean of Graduate School, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing, Director of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), Associate Director of University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics (UBDA)	Silver Medal
BioCharttery: A Climate-smart and Carbon-negative Growing Material	Prof. Daniel TSANG Chiu-wa Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Founder, BioCharttery Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup) Dr HE Mingjing Research Associate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Founder, BioCharttery Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Silver Medal
System for Evaluation and Triage for Healthy Knee	Prof. Amy FU Siu-ngor Peter Hung Professor in Pain Management, Assoc. Head (RS) & Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences Prof. CHEN Changwen Chair Professor of Visual Computing, Department of Computing	Silver Medal
All-in-one Luminescence-based Point-of-care Testing Device for Virus Diagnosis	Prof. HAO Jianhua Chair Professor of Materials Physics and Devices, Department of Applied Physics	Silver Medal
Mutual Cognitive Human-robot Collaborative Manufacturing System	Dr ZHENG Pai Assistant Professor, Endowed Young Scholar in Smart Robotics, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Co-founder, CobotAI Limited (a PolyU Academic-led start-up)	Bronze Medal
Novel Smart Precast Porous Road System Against Flooding	Prof. WANG Yuhong Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering	Bronze Medal
The Fleming Ankle – Lightweight and Wearable Exoskeleton for Mobility Enhancement	Dr Kelvin HEUNG Ho-lam Research Assistant Professor, Department of Building and Real Estate, Co-Founder & CTO, Fleming MedLab Limited (a PolyU Academic-led startup)	Bronze Medal
HiVE: Hybrid Immersive Virtual Environment	Dr Jacky CHUNG Kin-hung Senior Engineering Manager (Building Services, Construction & Safety), Industrial Centre Dr Kevin WONG Ka-fai Senior Engineering Manager (Building Services, Construction & Safety), Industrial Centre	Bronze Medal
Modular Rail Particle Damper for Noise and Vibration Reduction in Railways	Prof. NI Yi-qing Yim, Mak, Kwok & Chung Professor in Smart Structures, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit, Director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Centre (Hong Kong Branch) Dr AO Wai-kei Research Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering	Bronze Medal
Food Waste-derived 3D Printing Material	Prof. WONG Ka-hing Director, Research Institute for Future Food, Professor, Department of Food Science and Nutrition Prof. Daniel TSANG Chiu-wa Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Core Member, Research Institute for Future Food	Bronze Medal