News and Achievements

PolyU students win Gold and Bronze Awards in Global Student Innovation Challenge at iCREATe 2019

Two teams of Occupational Therapy students from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) won awards at the 13th International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology (i-CREATe 2019) held in Canberra, Australia. The teams won Gold and Bronze awards in the Design Category of theGlobal Student Innovation Challenge of i-CREATe. The winning products, “Snaker Spoon” (Gold award) and “Nailed it!” (Bronze award), were developed by Kristy Fung’s team and Elaine Mo’s team respectively. “Snaker Spoon” aimed at both children and adults with special needs, in particular those with upper limb disabilities. It can be twisted like a snake and the angle of the spoon can be adjusted to meet the user’s needs and allow for independent feeding “Nailed it!” is a product designed to help people with weak pinch strength and poor finger dexterity. It allows the user to clip nails using a palmar grasp in neutral wrist position effortlessly. In its 13th year, iCreate continues to provide an international platform for conferences, a Global Student Innovation Challenge, and exhibitions. These feature innovative technologies, new equipment, applications, techniques and materials, which can be applied to the field of Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology. iCreate is also an ideal global platform to share technical ideas and best practices. In the Design Category of the Challenge, students were expected to apply a User-Centered Design process to produce a solution that "makes life easier" for its users, enhances the user experience (UX) or improves the quality of the professional rehabilitation practice. The solution may or may not be technology based.  Four teams of Occupational Therapy students from PolyU's Department of Rehabilitation Sciences successfully reached the final round. The students were amongst 25 teams from all around the region, including Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.  After the teams gave presentations on their entries, the judges viewed the award submissions firsthand. The prize-winning teams gathered at the Gala dinner held in Australia's Parliament House. The founder of iCreate and special guest of honour, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, personally presented the awards to the winning teams. Professor Hector Tsang,Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, said, "Our Occupational Therapy curriculum is not only aimed at nurturing students to enhance practical skills but to encourage students to find creative solutions to support the recovery and rehabilitation of people with disabilities. The Department is at the forefront of developing new knowledge in rehabilitation sciences, especially in the area of neuroscience, neurological and musculoskeletal disorders and geriatric rehabilitation, and taking an innovative approach to rehabilitation. We are particularly focused on promoting research that brings discoveries in sciences to clinical practice." The two prize-winning entries from PolyU are "Snaker Spoon" (Gold Award) and "Nailed it!" (Bronze Award): Snaker Spoon – Gold Award Team members: CHAN Wai Dik Ivan, YAN Oi Wai Iris, LO Ho Yan Lulu, FUNG Tsz Ching Kristy & TO Hiu Fung Hugo  - BSc in Occupational Therapy Programme The product is aimed at both children and adults with special needs, in particular those with upper limb disabilities. The product's name comes from the spoon's ability to twist like a snake. As compared with commercial angled utensils, the angle of the "Snaker Spoon" can be adjusted to meet the user's needs and allow for independent feeding. The design can be applied to other utensils such as forks or knives. Nailed it! – Bronze Award Team member: MO Hoi Yi Elaine, WONG Hiu Yan Annie, CHAN Mung Ni Monica, LAU Wai Man & CHUI Tsz Kwan - BSc in Occupational Therapy Programme Nail clipping is a necessary grooming task and using commercially available nail clippers require a strong lateral pinch and finger dexterity. The "Nailed it" clipper is designed to help people with weak pinch strength and poor finger dexterity as well as those with arthritis. "Nailed it!" allows people to clip nails using a palmar grasp in neutral wrist position effortlessly and successfully, without imposing stress on distal finger joints and thus reducing joint pain. 

PolyU engineering students win Gold at ASM Technology Award 2019

A team of students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) won the Gold Award for its ingenious robot design at the ASM Technology Award 2019.  The annual event has been organised since 2015 to recognise excellence in technology, showcasing outstanding final year projects of undergraduates from top faculties and schools of engineering in Hong Kong. PolyU's trio - Roy CHOW Hung-ming; Ji-ho SHIN; and Rudra Ajay SOMESHWAR, under the supervision of Dr Henry CHU, Assistant Professor, and Dr Curtis NG, Technical Support Group Leader, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of PolyU, presented their final year project titled "ASME Competition Robot Development & Vision Based Target Alignment" and was honoured with the Gold Award at the competition. This was the fifth time that PolyU participated in the event and the second time that a PolyU team won the championship. The project developed by the PolyU winning team was a semi-automated robot with a unique gripper design for garbage collection with the aid of vision-based alignment. The robot featured a motorised platform for navigating a compact environment, a micro-controller system for wireless communication and control, and a vision-based system for object detection and robot positioning. It was developed in two stages with design inspiration from studying real-life tools such as robotic arms, forklift and dump cart. Initially, the team planned to design a robot for the Student Design Competition organised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), in which they were challenged to develop a fully functional prototype that can quickly and carefully pick up and return balls back to the starting area. The students then showed how their device could be transformed into an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) for garbage collection using advanced image processing techniques in the ASM Technology Award contest. "The students are eager to learn new knowledge and technology, and able to integrate them into the project to enhance the robot performance and functionality. They have developed new modules for the robot to demonstrate the potential of transforming it for use in real life," said Dr Chu. The other PolyU student project recognised this year was the "Motion Control and Positioning System for Holonomic Wheeled Mobile Robot" by Sammy SHUM Chu of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He was presented an Outstanding Award at the competition. The entries by PolyU students were among the ten final year projects that had been nominated by five universities in Hong Kong. In addition to PolyU, they included The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The City University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The University of Hong Kong. Apart from the prizes and certificates of merit, winning teams of the Gold, Silver and Bronze awards and their project supervisors will also be invited to attend an ASM Technology Tour to Europe in recognition of their outstanding performance.