Media Releases

PolyU myopia control technology extends impact into Greater Bay Area

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today extends its licence on Defocus Incorporated Soft Contact (DISC) technology to Vision Science and Technology Co. Ltd. (VST), a local start-up. The patented technology was licensed to VST last year for commercialisation of DISC lens in Hong Kong. Following the extended licensing arrangement, VST will further promote the product to the cities in the Greater Bay Area and other parts of China in the future. Children and teenagers in the nation will also be benefited from PolyU's research success in myopia control technology to address their vision health issues. The novel DISC technology has been patented in the Mainland, Australia, the United States and various European countries. DISC lens is a multi-zone soft contact lens that provides clear vision and at the same time projects blurred, out-of-focus (defocused) images onto the retina to slow down the increase in axial length of the eye of the myopic patients. The clinical control trial conducted by PolyU showed that DISC lens can effectively retard the progression of myopia by approximately 60% amongst Hong Kong children aged 8 to 13. DISC lens, launched by VST in Hong Kong last year, has received positive responses. To offer the myopic population an alternative, VST today launches a daily disposable contact lens — DISC-1 Day. With the authorisation from PolyU, VST will collaborate with Daylite Vision Care Ltd. to apply for licence application with the China Food and Drug Administration for DISC-1 Day in order to extend the DISC distribution to the Mainland. It is expected that with the licence granted by the Chinese authority, the brand new product will be distributed to the authorised optometric clinics and fitting centres within a year, initially in the Greater Bay Area, and gradually extending across the nation. Dr Dennis Tse, Assistant Professor of the School of Optometry at PolyU, said "We are so pleased that the novel DISC technology was successfully commercialised that many children in Hong Kong can be benefited. We keenly hope that this innovative technological solution can be brought to the Greater Bay Area and other cities in the Mainland to help the nation address the spiralling myopic problem among children and adolescents." VST is a local start-up founded by a PolyU alumnus. VST received support from the HKSTP-PolyU Tech Incubation Fund (TIF) and PolyU Tech Launchpad Fund (TLF). Specialising in developing and distributing products for vision improvement, VST is the first company in Hong Kong that adopts a tailor-made professional fitting approach to manufacture and provide soft myopic control lenses. Under the licensing arrangement with PolyU, VST manufactures and provides DISC lenses via its authorised optometric clinics and fitting centres. The lenses are manufactured according to the prescription of optometrists. Mr Jackson Leung, Founder and Director of VST, said DISC lens has been well received since its launch last year. However, DISC lens users are required to take a regular fitting assessment every three months and to wait for another two weeks for the newly prescribed DISC lens. They also need to clean and disinfect the lens every day. Therefore, some customers wish to have a more convenient option. "VST therefore developed the brand new DISC-1 Day in order to offer the myopia population with another choice. DISC-1 Day lens is readily available upon optometric fitting assessment, and is for daily wear and disposal without the need for care. With power of myopia correctable up to 10.00 diopters, it is of the highest diopter with ultraviolet protection among all similar products in the market." VST was awarded a total of HK$1.6 million, including a matching fund, under TIF and TLF schemes. Both schemes are funded by the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Government. PolyU has been committed to promoting technology and knowledge transfer, nurturing entrepreneurial culture and providing support to aspiring entrepreneurs. Besides supporting start-ups by offering various seed funds, the University also provides co-working space for entrepreneurs at InnoHub in both its Hong Kong campus and Shenzhen Base, mentorship support through the Startup Consultation Clinic manned by Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, training workshops for entrepreneurs, and networking opportunities with incubators and investors. In line with the Hong Kong SAR Government's proactive endeavours in developing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-MacauGreater Bay Area, PolyU will put in further efforts in technology innovation and knowledge transfer in the region.   *****END****

PolyU partners with employers to shape tomorrow’s talents

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) hosted a luncheon today to engage over 220 local and multi-national firms from various sectors, including finance, engineering, construction, logistics, healthcare and hospitality. Themed "Partnering with Employers – Shaping Tomorrow's Talent", the Luncheon served to provide an opportunity for PolyU to connect with the current and potential employers of its graduates. The Hon Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration, HKSAR Government attended the event as the Guest of Honour and delivered a speech. "The Government has a clear vision to develop Hong Kong further into a high value-added and diversified economy. To this end, we need to develop a good mix of talents who have broad horizons, equipped with different skillsets and a solid grasp of international affairs, to sustain our competitiveness and contribute towards the diversified development of Hong Kong," Mr Cheung said. "I am delighted to note that universities have responded positively to the Government's call for promoting innovation and technology and offered more cross-disciplinary programmes in the planning cycle, including programmes on artificial intelligence and financial technology," he said. "I am confident that PolyU's partnership with the Government and the business community will go from strength to strength, and that the graduates will excel on all fronts." Professor Philip C. H. Chan, Interim President, PolyU also took the opportunity to share with the employers PolyU's vision in education. He said "PolyU, through the provision of a holistic education, aims to nurture future-ready graduates who are professionally competent, socially responsible, innovative and entrepreneurial." PolyU has an unique strength in grooming specialised professionals in  more than 10 disciplines, including Aviation Engineering; Design; Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development; Fashion and Textiles; Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics; Sustainable Structural and Fire Engineering; Optometry; Occupational Therapy; Physiotherapy; Radiography; and  Transportation Systems Engineering. Many of the subjects are ranked among top 50 in the world. For instance, according to the QS University Ranking, our Civil and Structural Engineering subject is ranked 10th in world; while our Hospitality and Leisure Management subject is ranked 3rd in world. PolyU's Faculty of Business ranked 3rd in Asia and 17th in the world in 2018 KUBS Worldwide Business Research RankingsTM. PolyU constantly develops new programmes to keep up with the times and support students map their future path. For example, BSc(Hons) in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence will be rolling out in the academic year of 2019 to meet the upcoming needs for Fintech and AI roles such as data scientists, software engineers, and machine learning engineers, etc. PolyU's graduates are well poised to seize the opportunities in the global landscape as well as those presented by nation's initiatives along the Belt and Road and in the Greater Bay Area. The employability of the PolyU students is well illustrated by the survey results on the destinations of PolyU graduates. About 4,000 out of the 4,671 graduates provided response to the survey. Over 83 per cent were employed / self employed by December 2017, while more than six per cent carried on their studies. Over 92 per cent of the graduates received their first job offer by end of September and the monthly salary of the graduates of some programmes could be as high as $32,000. Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President, PolyU, in her closing remarks, thanked the employers for joining hands with PolyU to nurture the rising generation. She urged the employers to continue to partner with PolyU so that its graduates could better contribute to the social and economic development of Hong Kong, as well as bringing positive changes to our society and our world.   *****END****

PolyU provides multi-disciplinary support to the nation’s historic landing on the far side of the Moon

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) proudly supported the nation's current lunar exploration, Chang'e-4 lunar probe, which successfully performed the historic landing on the far side of the Moon on 3 January 2019. Adopted by Chang'e-4 mission was PolyU's advanced technologies, namely the design and development of an advanced Camera Pointing System, and an innovative lunar topographic mapping and geomorphological analysis technique in landing site characterisation for the space craft. "PolyU is very honoured to be involved in and to make contributions to the nation's lunar missions, in particular in this debut landing on the far side of the Moon, the first-ever in the history of mankind," said Professor Alex WAI, Vice President (Research Development), PolyU. "PolyU attaches great importance to the mission and mobilises multi-disciplinary resources to ensure the deliverables meet the stringent requirements of a space mission." Landing site characterisation For the first lunar mission in the world to land a space craft on the far side of the Moon, the selection of a safe landing site with scientific value is of paramount importance. Dr Bo WU, Associate Professor of Poly's Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, has led a team to conduct a research titled "Chang'e-4 Landing Site - Topographic and Geomorphological Characterisation and Analysis" since March 2016. Funded by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the team amassed a large amount of lunar remote sensing data from multi-sources to create high-precision and high-resolution topographic models for two potential landing regions, one of them is the current Chang'e-4 landing site, the Von Kármán crater inside the South Pole - Aitken basin on the far side of the Moon. Dr Wu and his team studied two landing regions for Chang'e-4 mission, each covering an area of about 1,500 square kilometers, which is 1.4 times of the total area of Hong Kong. They analysed in detail the terrain slopes, terrain occlusions to sun illumination and telecommunication, crater distribution, rock abundance, and geological history of the region. These analyses helped the team to put forward a sound and evidenced-based proposal of possible landing sites. The team gathered information of more than 400,000 craters and over 20,000 boulders in the candidate landing regions. It had also analysed the terrain surface and calculated the gradient of the slopes to identify relatively flat sites for safe landing. Rock abundance of the region had to be considered in detail because boulders can be as large as 35 metres in diameter and can block the way of the rover, whereas small rocks may get into the wheels, hence creating problem in the rover's movement. "The Chang'e-4 landing site is on the far side of the Moon, without direct radio communication from Earth," said Dr Wu. "In addition, the terrain surface of the landing region is also very rough with elevation differences up to 16km, which required a nearly perpendicular descent design. These made the mission very challenging." The study in terrain occlusions to sun illumination and telecommunication is particularly important to ensure good illumination conditions to charge the solar panels on the lander and rover so that the onboard scientific sensors can be functional, and ensure good signal reception and data transmition between the control center on Earth and the lander and rover. After the successful landing of Chang'e-4 on 3 January 2019, the team worked together with the CAST team to immediately locate the precise location of the lander and analysed the terrain occlusions to sun illumination and telecommunication around the lander for better scheduling of action of the lander and rover. Dr Wu is excited to get involved in the project. "When I started my career in surveying, I have never dreamed of taking part in space exploration missions. But all things are possible if we are bold in taking out that one step," he shared. Camera Pointing System Prof. Kai-leung YUNG, PolyU's Chair Professor (Precision Engineering) and Associate Head of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering also leads a team to contribute to the nation's lunar probe by developing the Camera Pointing System (CPS) jointly with CAST. The CPS weighs 2.8 kg and measures 85 cm (length) by 27 cm (width) and 16 cm (depth). Mounted on the upper part of the lander of Chang'e-4, CPS is capable of moving vertically by 120 degrees and rotating sideway by 350 degrees, under Moon's gravity (i.e. one sixth of Earth's gravity). It is deployed for capturing images of the Moon as well as facilitating movement of the lunar rover. The design of the sophisticated CPS is extremely complicated. To withstand the stringent environment and to ensure the proper functioning of the device once landed on the Moon, all electrical parts, signal lines and wirings are installed inside the product shell. A well-designed, complicated, precise interior structure has to be machined to install and protect all wirings properly. Good multi-axis machining know-how and experience is a must to complete this project. The far side of the Moon receives high density of radiation and is exposed to extreme temperatures. The CPS therefore needs to be protected by the product shell with good surface finish and treatment to reflect the radiation and heat. And to avoid corrosion and rusting, the number of assembly parts and joints have to be minimised. As a result, many parts were specially combined to form one single component in the design stage and were machined and fabricated by removing unnecessary materials from one single solid material block. The process is far more complicated and time-consuming and needs high precision machining process design and know-how. The CPS was delicately manufactured in PolyU's Industrial Centre, a key member in the project that played a pivotal role in producing space instruments to meet the stringent requirements in design and features for space deployment. "I am very proud to be able to take part in the first-ever landing mission for mankind," said Prof. Yung. "I shall continue to work for the nation's space explorations." PolyU's continuous support and future endeavour The expert teams have been working to support the nation's lunar missions for years. The CPS developed by Prof. Yung's team was first adopted by Chang'e-3 launched in 2013. That is the first Hong Kong-made and developed instrument being deployed for the nation's lunar exploration programme. The functionalities and performance of CPS were proved to have met the stringent requirements as the two sets of CPS operated smoothly as planned after the landing of the space craft. Dr Wu's team also worked on the topographic mapping and analysis of the landing site of the Chang'e-3 mission in 2013, and made contributions to the strategic planning and selection of the landing site for Chang'e-3. "The ultra-high standard of the research outcomes delivered by PolyU in the space projects confirm our competence in innovation and technologies. PolyU has been consistently delivering our research promise: to translate our research into impactful and practical technological solutions. In the future, PolyU continues to adopt a cross-disciplinary approach and integrate our pool of expertise and resources to develop sophisticated, appropriate and effective solutions for the nation's space exploration programmes, including Chang'e-5 lunar mission and the nation's first mission to explore Mars later," said Prof. Wai.   *****END****

PolyU to hold Info Day for Taught Postgraduate Programmes on 12 January

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) will offer 90 taught postgraduate programmes in 2019/20, and is now inviting applications. Addressing the evolving needs of the society and the industries, PolyU remains committed to providing dynamic and high-quality programmes for nurturing talents to be capable of facing challenges of the times. In the coming academic year, PolyU is going to launch new programmes such as Master of Science in "Global Food Safety Management and Risk Analysis", "Accounting and Finance Analytics", and "Business Analytics". There are also programmes with restructured curriculum, such as "Industrial and Systems Engineering" and "Management and Marketing". PolyU's "Info Day for Taught Postgraduate Programmes" will be held on 12 January 2019 (Saturday) from 2pm to 6pm on PolyU campus to provide prospective applicants first-hand information and consultations on their further studies. More than 80 information seminars and consultation sessions will be organised by the eight Faculties/Schools of PolyU: Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles; Faculty of Business; Faculty of Construction and Environment; Faculty of Engineering; Faculty of Health and Social Sciences; Faculty of Humanities; School of Design; and School of Hotel and Tourism Management. For more details of the Info Day, please visit:- http://www.polyu.edu.hk/tpginfoday. For programme details and application procedures, please visit Study@PolyU website https://www.polyu.edu.hk/study. As applications received will be considered on a rolling basis, applicants are advised to submit their applications as early as possible. Info Day Enquiries Hotline: (852) 2333 0600 Info Day Enquiries E-mail: asevents.enquiry@polyu.edu.hk