Josua Chan Wing-hei and Max Lee Jwo-lem, two enterprising PolyU alumni and co-founders of the PolyU-nurtured startup LifeSparrow Solutions, have been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Consumer Technology List 2024. This prestigious recognition comes after their innovative development of an AI technology that transforms search-and-rescue operations through a drone imagery system, swiftly locating missing hikers and reducing search time by more than 65%.

Hiking has gained immense popularity in Hong Kong, but this activity has also resulted in occasional accidents and missing persons cases. This pressing issue has inspired the duo, both graduates of the Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, to establish LifeSparrow Solutions in 2020 during the aviation sector’s downturn caused by the pandemic.

Determined to give back to the community, they developed SparAI (System for Precision Assessment of Risks and AI-driven Interventions), an innovative system that has been instrumental in supporting the life-saving operations of the Fire Services Department. One notable example of SparAI’s impact was its pivotal contributions to the search-and-rescue mission for a 17-year-old student in 2023.

Since its inception, LifeSparrow Solutions has secured HK$2 million in funding from PolyU, Cyberport, and Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP). The startup is now poised to broaden the application of SparAI to diverse scenarios for crisis response, revolutionising the way we approach search-and-rescue operations.

Click here to learn more about LifeSparrow Solutions.