Miss HU Hongci, a PhD student from the School of Fashion and Textiles at PolyU, collaborating with the School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Mainland China, received the Best of the Best award in the Design Concept category of the Red Dot Design Award 2024 for a project titled "NexLoop." Miss HU is a PhD student under a collaborative research team comprising Prof. JIANG Kinor, Professor from PolyU's School of Fashion and Textiles, Prof. ZHENG Zijian, Professor from PolyU's Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, and Dr BAI Ziqian, Assistant Professor from SUSTech’s School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing.

NexLoop is an interactive, seamless knitted glove specifically designed for medical and rehabilitation purposes. By integrating advanced electronic textile technology, the glove enables accurate detection of hand movements and tactile sensations, thus offering therapeutic support. Electrical stimulation patches are strategically positioned around the fingers and wrist joints to deliver tactile feedback to the fingertips.

This project showcases innovation by integrating textile electronics and smart manufacturing to redefine wearable rehabilitation devices. Its seamless electronic textile technology blends functional fibres with lightweight, flexible materials, ensuring both durability and user comfort. The computerised knitting process exemplifies smart manufacturing, enabling precise, scalable, and waste-minimised production. Moreover, the glove's integration of digital intelligence allows real-time monitoring of hand movements and adaptive tactile feedback, linking human-machine interaction and advancing medical rehabilitation through intelligent design.

The Red Dot Design Award is one of the most prestigious international design competitions. The Design Concept category specifically celebrates groundbreaking ideas not yet in production to offer a platform for recognising visionary concepts. Of thousands of submitted entries, only the top 1 to 2% of designs win the Best of the Best award annually.