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HKBU patented technologies take top prizes in international invention competition
18 Apr 2016
Professor Roland Chin (second from right) and Professor Rick Wong (right) congratulate (from left) Professor
Cheung Nai-ho, Professor Cheah Kok-wai and Professor Ken Yung
HKBU's hi-tech inventions achieved magnificent results at the 44th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva held in Switzerland from 13 to 17 April 2016. The HKBU entries won the Grand Prix International Invention Award, three Gold Medals and two Special Mention Medals.
The top prize of the event, the Grand Prix Award (also named the International Invention Award), went to the ultra-hard anti-scratch cover for touch screen devices invented by the team led by Professor Cheah Kok-wai, Chair Professor of the Department of Physics. This invention also received the Gold Medal in the Industrial Processes Category and the Special Award For The Invention. Compared with the existing less durable and easily scratched glass covers on mobile devices, this HKBU-invented non-fragile thin substrate can be applied to screens using only standard industrial deposition processes, providing excellent scratch protection. For more details of the invention, please refer to:http://hkbuenews.hkbu.edu.hk/?t=enews_details/974.
The second winning invention was the autologous neural stem cell harvest technologies developed by the team led by Professor Ken Yung of the Department of Biology. This innovative personalised neurological disorder therapy using magnetic-tagged neural stem cells pulled from live brains of animals won the Gold Medal in the Surgery Category and the Award for High Scientific and Technological Level of the Invention. The team used magnetic nanoparticles covered with antibodies to safely extract neural stem cells from rats. Neurospheres successfully generated in vitro from the extracted neural stem cells can be transplanted back to the same animal. Unlike the use of embryonic stem cells, this novel technique may reduce ethical disputes and offers a genetically stable means of therapy with lower risks of immune rejection. For details of the invention, please refer to:http://hkbuenews.hkbu.edu.hk/?t=enews_details/344.
In addition, the novel patented laser technology for artwork and antique authentication invented by the team led by Professor Cheung Nai-ho of the Department of Physics won the Gold Medal in Computer Sciences Category. Unlike conventional laser ablative microprobes, this HKBU-patented technique causes no visible damage to art work even under a high-magnification microscope. Moreover, the method measures the chemical information of an artwork in real-time and achieves 100 to 1,000 times better sensitivity than current methods. Practical applications include tracing the provenance of an artwork and for forensic analysis of questioned documents. For details of the invention, please refer to:http://hkbuenews.hkbu.edu.hk/?t=enews_details/1186.
This is the first time HKBU has participated in the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, the world’s largest event of its kind. This year, the inventions fair rewarded 45 inventions among the 1,000 presented from 40 countries.
Professor Roland Chin, President and Vice Chancellor, expressed his sincere congratulations to the winning teams for their painstaking efforts and persistence in the inventions which are impactful and of benefit to society and mankind. He also thanked colleagues of the Knowledge Transfer Office, Faculty of Science as well as the relevant departments for the support they have provided to the research teams.