News

A PRI Member honoured with the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022

PRI Member Dr Tommy Minchen WEI has been selected as one of the Awardees of the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022.   The YIRA assessment panel has reviewed the submissions, interviewed shortlisted applicants and selected 6 YIRA awardees out of 59 submissions.   The PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) aims to honor our young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problems in society with a vision for a positive change to the future.   We take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Wei for his achievements.

Prof. Alan LAU Pak-tao co-edited a book “Machine Learning for future Optical Communications Systems”

PRI core member, Prof. Alan LAU Pak-tao co-edited a book “Machine Learning for future Optical Communications Systems” and it is already available at Here and the e-version will be accessible by any library worldwide that has a subscription with Elsevier. Description Machine Learning for Future Fiber-Optic Communication Systems provides a comprehensive and in-depth treatment of machine learning concepts and techniques applied to key areas within optical communications and networking, reflecting the state-of-the-art research and industrial practices. The book gives knowledge and insights into the role machine learning-based mechanisms will soon play in the future realization of intelligent optical network infrastructures that can manage and monitor themselves, diagnose and resolve problems, and provide intelligent and efficient services to the end users. With up-to-date coverage and extensive treatment of various important topics related to machine learning for fiber-optic communication systems, this book is an invaluable reference for photonics researchers and engineers. It is also a very suitable text for graduate students interested in ML-based signal processing and networking.  

Dr CHEN Wen has been invited to be an Associate Editor for "Optics Express" in OPTICA Publishing Group

PRI Member, Dr CHEN Wen has been invited to be an Associate Editor for "Optics Express" in OPTICA Publishing Group starting from 1 April 2022. Optica Publishing Group publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed articles in its portfolio of journals, which serve the full breadth of the optics and photonics community. Optics Express is the all-electronic, open-access journal for optics providing rapid publication for peer-reviewed articles that emphasize scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and photonics. Additionally, Optics Express publishes papers dedicated to new developments in the science and engineering of light and their impact on sustainable energy, the environment, and green technologies in its dedicated section, Energy and Environmental Optics Express.   Please click the following links for details: https://opg.optica.org/oe/journal/oe/about.cfm#board

Prof. Alan Pak Tao LAU in collaboration with the research team at CUHK developed the World’s fastest Germanium-Silicon(GeSi) on Silicon Photonics Transceiver at 216 Gb/s for Short-Reach Interconnects.

Prof. Alan Pak Tao LAU, core member of PRI, and PolyU PhD student Xiong WU in collaboration with Prof. Hon Ki TSANG of CUHK developed the World’s fastest Germanium-Silicon(GeSi) on Silicon Photonics Transceiver at 216 Gb/s for Short-Reach Interconnects.   Abstracts For next generation highly integrated transceivers, silicon photonics (SiP) has attracted widespread interest in using mature CMOS production processes to manufacture high-yield, low-cost photonic integrated circuits (PIC) with the potential for integration with CMOS electronics. SiP now routinely integrate GeSi electroabsorption modulators (EAM) and GeSi waveguide photodiodes which have high responsivity and high bandwidth of over 65 GHz. Their ultra-compact dimensions make it possible for multi-channel transceivers to be realized on a small chip area. In this work, we joined forces with CUHK and combine our expertise in signal processing and device fabrication to demonstrate a world-record 216 Gb/s and 200 Gb/s over 1 km and  1.5 km fiber transmission respectively for GeSi-based modulators.   Please click HERE for more details.

The research team led by Professor Tam Hwa-yaw developed the world’s first optical fibre-based data-driven predictive maintenance system

Please check Here for his interview with TVB programme (Chinese Only)   Description:   Tremendous pressure is being imposed on railway operators to enhance service reliability and infrastructure maintenance to reduce disruption arising from train, track and overhead power line failures. This requires condition-monitoring systems that can effectively and continuously monitor mission-critical components to produce big data in respect of railway asset maintenance for the development of advanced fault identification and prediction techniques. PolyU developed the world’s first optical fibre-based data-driven predictive maintenance system that enables railway industry to shift from costly and inefficient scheduled maintenance regimes to predictive maintenance.  The system identifies defects in rail tracks, overhead power lines, wheel flats, and cracks in bogies and carriages. Five systems were installed in MTR Hong Kong and two in SMRT lines in Singapore in 2014, and 2016, respectively. The system monitors developing faults and had successfully predicted broken power line along the Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport Line in 2015, several weeks in advance. The goal is to herald a safer railway industry with reduced maintenance cost, and high quality of service. 

PRI researchers Dr Chai Yang and his research teams developed Retina-like sensors give machines better vision

PRI researchers, Dr Chai Yang and his research teams, developed devices that can perceive objects in a light-intensity range substantially wider than that of state-of-the-art sensors based on silicon. Such instruments could improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of machine-vision technology.   The research achievement has been published in Nature Electronics and selected as the “Research Highlights” in Nature journal. Please click the following links for details:   Nature Electronics:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-022-00713-1 Nature’s Research Highlights: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00360-8

PRI researchers Professor Tam Hwa-yaw and his research teams developed fibre-optic sensor for pioneering biomedical monitoring ability

The research team led by Prof. Tam Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of the Photonics Research Institute developed fibre-optic sensor for pioneering biomedical monitoring ability.   Please check Here for his interview with TVB programme: Innovation GPS (Chinese Only)   Description: Cochlear implantation surgery is the current standard of care to treat profound sensorineural hearing loss. The quality of hearing restored to a deaf patient vastly depends on accurate positioning of the Electrode Array of the cochlear implant while preserving the delicate cochlear membranes. PolyU fabricated novel ZEONEX based polymer optical fibers integrated with these cochlear implants aid in force detection and navigation in real-time during the implantation process. The low stiffness properties of these fibers compared to the widely used glass fibers can be considered as one of the key features that make them excellent candidates for this surgical prosthesis. The ZEONEX based polymeric fibers have also been incorporated in the assessment of femoral fracture recoveries. Femoral fracture is a life-threatening injury where early surgical stabilization is now the standard treatment for this injury to allow mobilization and rehabilitation. The outstanding flexibility of these novel fibers together with biocompatibility and insensitivity towards humidity permit them to be utilized with orthopaedic implants to estimate the recovery of the fractured femurs. This is carried out by observing the strain response of polymer optical fiber sensors to various loading and unloading conditions of the femurs.  

PRI Members obtained The President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Knowledge Transfer 2021 of PolyU

Further to the invitation of nominations in February 2021 and the subsequent assessment processes for The President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Knowledge Transfer 2021 of PolyU. We are pleased to announce the following results of the Awards.   Team Awards  Faculty/School  Sub-category   Name of Awardee  Unit  FENG  Industry  Prof. Tam Hwa-yaw Ir Dr Lee Kang Kuen Dr S.Y.M. Liu Dr Stephen Cho Mr David H.Y. Au EE   Individual Awards  Faculty/School Sub-category Name of Awardee Unit FAST Society Dr Joanne Yip ITC   We take this opportunity to congratulate all the awardees for their achievements.

PRI and Department of EIE co-organized seminar: Searching compact binaries using space-based photometric observations

Photonics Research Institute and Department of Electronic and Information Engineering co-organized a seminar with the topic of “Searching compact binaries using space-based photometric observations”. The seminar was successfully held on 24 February 2022 at 10 a.m. (Hong Kong Time) via Zoom. It was honor to invite Prof. Pak Hin (Thomas) Tam, Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Sun Yat-Sen University in Mainland China, to be the keynote speaker in the seminar.   ABSTRACT The mass and orbital distribution of existing black holes and neutron stars in binaries can have important implications on binary massive stellar evolution, shedding light on gravitational wave astronomy. However, the known number of compact objects in binaries is orders of magnitude less than those predicted. Traditional ways to look for black holes (e.g., in X-ray binaries) are biased against wide binaries, and possibly mass-gap black holes. Recent studies employing radial velocity searches and optical photometry have started to reveal such systems less probed before. In recent years, exoplanet-search satellites such as Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have opened an era of high-precision photometry of a large number of stars. I demonstrate that TESS photometric data do contain periodicity signals of known pulsar-like systems, by observing the orbital period-modulated flux variation from the stellar companion. We have also made an estimate of searchable black hole binaries (~a few) in the field of Kepler. In the end of the talk, I will introduce the CSST Big Bay Area Science Center and the upcoming funding opportunities.      

Professor Tam Hwa-yaw has led a research team to develop novel fibre optic microsensors

Professor Tam Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of PRI, has led a research team to develop novel fibre optic microsensors, which can be implanted into people’s bodies to enable more accurate medical surveillance for surgery and treatment. The research team used an advanced plastic material to develop the microsensors. Named the “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors”, the microsensors are biocompatible, supple and extremely sensitive to very small pressure changes inside human bodies. It can be made as small as a few micrometres and their sensitivity to pressure is 20 times that of traditional optical fibre sensors. Also, as the microsensors are humidity insensitive, shatter-resistant, chemically inert and biocompatible, they can potentially be used for a broader range of medical applications.   The “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors” research findings were published in 2021 in US-based The Optical Society’s Optics Letters. Some of the applications jointly developed with other universities have already been granted patents.   Please click here to view more detail about the report.