School Retreat 2019

The School held the annual departmental retreat on 10 January 2019. A total of 67 staff members participated in the off-campus event. The retreat kicked off with Head’s introduction, followed by a sharing on Optometry Clinic initiatives by Ms Rita Sum, Associate Consultant Optometrist. After that, representatives of three specialty teams shared the updates of specialty development, namely Dr Ronnie Huang of Children Vision Team, Dr Vincent Ng of Myopia Management Team and Mr Jimmy Tse of Specialty Contact Lens Team. Later on, staff members also engaged in a team-building activity and an outing to Tai O.

Lai King Centre Receives Social Capital Builder Logo Award Three Times in a Row

School of Optometry’s Integrative Community Health Centre (ICHC) in Lai King received the 2018 Social Capital Builder Logo Award in the biennial Social Capital Builder (SCB) Award Presentation Ceremony to recognize the Centre’s outstanding contributions to the development of social capital. This is the third time in a row that the ICHC received this award. The ICHC in Lai King is the first off-campus health centre of PolyU. The ICHC is built on the concept of integrative holistic health care, and strives to promote proactive health management. Besides delivering primary eye care consultations and vision rehabilitation service to the community, ICHC is also keen on providing community services such as the community vision screening project and the diabetic retinopathy screening service. To accord recognition to individuals, enterprises and organizations which have contributed to the development of social capital in Hong Kong, and to commend outstanding CIIF-funded projects, the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund of the Labour and Welfare Bureau has organized the biennial SCB Awards since 2012. For details of the SCB Awards, please click here .

Applications for Admission to Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Optometry (2019/20)

The School is now inviting applications for admission to our Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Optometry programme in September 2019. Details of application period are as follows: Application Period International Applicants 12 Sep 2018 – 15 Jan 2019 Local Non-JUPAS Applicants 27 Sep 2018 – 11 Feb 2019 JEE Applicants 1 Nov 2018 – 11 Jun 2019   You are welcome to obtain programme information and submit applications via Study@PolyU.

Dean's Honours List 2017/18

Congratulations to the following graduates who have been selected to be named on the Dean's Honours List 2017/18: School of Optometry Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Optometry LAM Yuk Yu MA Jessica Yuen Wuen WONG Kim Ho

SO 40th Anniversary Gala Dinner

Over 350 guests gathered at the School of Optometry 40th Anniversary Gala Dinner on 9 November 2018, marking the grand finale of the year-long celebrations of the School’s 40th Anniversary. The School also presented the “Lifetime Achievement Award” to Prof. George Woo for honouring his dedication in advancing the optometry profession over the past decades. The array of performances included saxophone ensemble, jazz funk dancing and erhu solo. PolyU President Prof. Timothy Tong and his band also staged and earnt loud applause from the audience. Prof. Hua Yan, President of Tianjin Medical University improvised a fantastic erhu performance as well. Our sincere thanks to all staff, students, alumni and friends for their unfailing support to the School of Optometry! More fabulous photos and highlights at: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/so/so40a

International Conference of Vision and Eye Research (iCover) 2018

The International Conference of Vision and Eye Research (iCover), organized by the School of Optometry, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and co-organized with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong and Jinan University, had been held successfully on 8-10 November 2018 at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. With a successful experience of the conference in 2017, the conference attracted around 140 scientists and clinicians from academia and industry worldwide. The 7 sessions of presentation addressed a broad spectrum of topics in vision and eye research, including multi-disciplinary vision science, glaucoma, perceptual learning & cognitive neuroscience, gene therapy and myopia control. A keynote session addressing the featured research areas was organized and respectively delivered by Prof. Kwok-fai So of The University of Hong Kong, Prof. W. Daniel Stamer of Duke University, Prof. Robert Hess of McGill University, Prof. Zhuo-Hua Pan of Wayne State University and Prof. Ian Morgan of Australian National University. The keynote speeches were on “A translational study on loomingevoked defensive response and the underlying subcortical pathway in autism”, “Restoring trabecular outflow function: The next generation of glaucoma therapeutics”, “New laboratory-based approaches to treat amblyopia in adults”, “Optogenetic approaches to treating blindness” and “Turning Around The Epidemic Of Myopia And High Myopia”. The iCover2018 received positive feedbacks from speakers and delegates that it offered an excellent platform to reach a wider international exposure and have insightful views on latest vision and eye research. With generous support from the KB Woo Fund, Best Poster Awards and Best Paper Awards were presented to the three best posters and free papers presented by students and post-doc fellows at iCover2018. It rewarded a combination of excellent research, innovation, and presentation. We are grateful to have Prof. Xiangtian Zhou and Prof. Ian Morgan as the Judges of the Awards. Congratulations to the following awardees: Best Poster Award 1st Prize - Ms Tianmin Ren (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) 2nd Prize - Ms Jessica K. W. Tsang (The University of Hong Kong) 3rd Prize - Ms Wei Wang (The University of Hong Kong) Best Paper Award 1st Prize (Same score) - Dr Heather Kayew Mak (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) 1st Prize (Same score) - Ms Yamunadevi Lakshmanan (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) 3rd Prize - Ms Ming Ming Zhu (The University of Hong Kong) More details on：http://www.i-cover.org/

The 16th Hong Kong Optometric Conference

The 16th Hong Kong Optometric Conference (HKOC) was successfully held on 8 November 2018 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with the theme “The Contemporary Role of Optometrists in Primary Care”, attracting hundreds of participants. The HKOC was jointly organized by the School of Optometry, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and the Hong Kong Optometric Association (HKOA). During the conference, 6 distinguished speakers from the USA, Canada, the mainland China and Hong Kong shared their research insights with the participants.

PolyU Education Info Day 2018

The PolyU Education Info Day 2018 was successfully held on PolyU campus on 6 October. The School organized a series of activities including booth exhibition and consultation, info seminars and guided clinic and lab visits, attracting six thousands of visitors. Info Day provides an excellent platform for secondary school students, parents and the public to obtain first-hand information about our undergraduate programmes, admission requirements and career prospects, as well as receive consultations from our academic staff. More photos on Facebook .

OPAA Master Class 2018/2019 Mentorship Programme: Call for Mentees

The OPAA Master Class 2018/2019 Mentorship Programme is now open for student application. This Mentorship Programme is part of the annual signature event organized by the Outstanding PolyU Alumni Association with the aim to provide a platform for students to learn from outstanding PolyU alumni in respect of their invaluable expertise and experience. Please visit here for programme details, and submit application on or before 7 October 2018. (Programme details is accessible by PolyU staff and students only.)

"Evidence-based Myopia Control" Public Talk

Dr Vincent Ng, Associate Consultant Optometrist of our School, has delivered a public talk on “Evidence-based Myopia Control” on 15 Sep on PolyU campus. Dozens of audiences attended the talk and got to know the history of myopia research, the latest development of myopia research, as well as its applications and effectiveness. It is common to find young adults with over 600 degrees of myopia in Hong Kong and the severity of myopia is escalating. In addition to the cost of myopic refractive correction, the myopia-related ocular complications, such as retinal degeneration, peripheral retinal breaks and glaucoma, have raised significant health concerns. In celebration of SO's 40th Anniversary, our school has delivered a public talk on “Evidence-based Myopia Control” that aimed to let the public understand more detail information about myopia control.