The Biomedical Engineering (BME) programme offered at PolyU prepares students for numerous career opportunities. The combination of academic studies in multiple disciplines providing knowledge and practical training delivering experience supplies students with the tools necessary to thrive in the future.

There are many opportunities to assist professors in their many projects. Personally, during my first year of study, I had the opportunity to co-author a paper on individuals with unilateral transfemoral amputation with Dr. Kobayashi from PolyU, a Ph.D. student, and Dr. Hobara and his team from Japan. PolyU also has funded an initiative called the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme which allowed my friends and me to propose a project to create a novel ankle-foot orthosis. The project was approved and we were provided with adequate funding, as well as a scholarship that could be used for personal monetary needs. We hope to produce a successful product at the end of our funding next year.

Hong Kong is a vibrant city filled with opportunities and fun activities. My classmates are extremely friendly and I have made many friends from many different backgrounds. I hope to meet you too at PolyU!

The PolyU Biomedical Engineering programme is ideal for students who are looking for a variety of interdisciplinary knowledge and a flexible career path. With courses that provide training in various disciplines, students are able to devise innovative ways to apply their knowledge in the fields of medicine and healthcare.

Throughout my studies, I have been given a lot of opportunities to test my ideas and flex my brain through freshman projects and sophomore year R&D projects. These hands-on projects have given me a better understanding of the technical and nontechnical aspects of implementing an idea. If you are not satisfied with mandatory projects, BME is always excited to see its students step out of their comfort zones and take part in co-curricular activities. For example, I joined Dr Wen’s laboratory last year as a student assistant and translated my work into a project for a start-up company founded by a graduate of PolyU BME (Toby Li). I am planning to expand this work in my capstone project in the coming year!

While learning to excel in their chosen professions, students at PolyU also develop healthy habits and a sense of integrity. I was selected as a member of the university’s men’s tennis team 3 years ago, in my freshman year. I am still training and competing today. I am blessed to have met such wonderful teammates and coaches during my university life.

Keen to use biomedical knowledge to solve clinical problems, I enrolled in the BSc(Hons) course in Biomedical Engineering with Prosthetics and Orthotics at PolyU. I have had the honour of placing on the Dean’s Honours List and have made many achievements in my student life, research, and entrepreneurial journey.

The Road to Becoming a Clinical Practitioner and Researcher

Hence, I took the initiative in leveraging a self-learned artificial intelligence (AI) tool in my capstone project, entitled “A Time-dependent Machine-learning-based Prediction System for Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis”, under the supervision of Dr Chunyi Wen, Assistant Professor of BME. This AI-based system helps predict a person’s likelihood of developing KOA with interpretable results. It could prove to be a valuable tool for devising accurate and personalised KOA therapeutic plans.

This project earned me an invitation to present at the International Medical Congress and the chance to author two scholarly papers. Representing the Faculty of Engineering, my research was also nominated as outstanding student work by PolyU. In 2020, my study was archived by the PolyU Library, as one of only 16 such studies accepted that year.

I continued my academic journey by pursuing a part-time MPhil in Biomedical Engineering and developed a KOA prognostic model for primary healthcare to aid community-based disease screening. I also embarked on a career as a prosthetist-orthotist to gain clinical exposure and networking opportunities.

My Entrepreneurial Adventure with BME

Based on my undergraduate capstone project, I co-founded Clinical AI Research Limited (CLAIRE) with the vision of using AI to solve clinical problems and thereby ameliorate chronic disease management while also safeguarding public health. Endorsed by the Department, I started to enter local and international competitions for funding. As a result of the hard work of my talented team and academic support from the Department, CLAIRE is now on track to become a successful start-up company. It has received five entrepreneurship awards and four innovation awards. We have conducted two academic presentations and four project showcases, and the project has been covered by the media four times.