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The 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held at Hong Kong Science Park recently. A total of 21 teams of students from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) participated in the Competition and eleven of them received awards, including one first-class award, four third-class awards and two merit awards in the Innovation category, and two first-class awards, one second-class award and one merit award in the Entrepreneurship category.

Innovation First-class Award: Developing a High-resolution Emission Inventory Tool for Low-carbon City Management – A Pilot Test in High-density Hong Kong

Global cities produce more than 70% of the world’s carbon emissions from energy activities, thus they play an important role in a changing climate and cause environmental problems. The spatial inventory of urban carbon emissions can serve as the evidence-basis for carbon emissions mitigation. CAI Meng, a PhD student of the School of Architecture, supervised by Professor Chao REN of the Institute of Future Cities and Professor Edward Ng of the School of Architecture, developed a hybrid method to model urban carbon emission inventory at fine resolution using open urban data. The newly developed method is demonstrated through its application in high-density Hong Kong. Annual carbon emission maps can be generated for the building and transport sectors. Validation results have shown the robustness and broad applicability for global cities.

The spatial distribution of carbon emissions in Hong Kong can provide reference information for low-carbon city management for other high-density cities, contributing to the global collaborative effort in the mitigation of carbon emissions. Currently, the research team is collaborating with the Global Carbon Project and Global Earth Observation of the European Commission to apply the method for global cities’ carbon emission inventory and mapping work.

Entrepreneurship First-class Award: Dr. Body

Dr. Body’s posture detection and rehabilitation tracking system was developed by Rex Chun-hung MA, a year-4 Integrated BBA student of CUHK Business School and his teammate. The system provides the public with comprehensive, accurate and fast posture health checks. The posture health analyser collects offline users’ posture data through image processing, algorithm calculation and big data analysis, then reconstructs a three-dimensional model of the user’s body to analyse potential posture problems through comparison with clinical parameters. With Dr. Body APP, the posture health management platform, users’ data is recorded online to provide personalised follow-up services, such as providing rehabilitation training guidance, and customised correction equipment to enhance the effectiveness of rectification and rehabilitation. Dr. Body aims to use advanced technology to resolve users’ body posture problems, improve overall medical efficiency, and reduce the burden on healthcare systems, for the sake of public health.

Entrepreneurship First-class Award: LaSense Ultra-sensitive Gas Sensing and Control System

Coal-fired thermal power plants are the main source of electrical power in China, accounting for more than 60% of the total power generation. They are also the main source of air pollutant emissions. A large number of Nitrogen Oxides (NO_x) are produced in coal combustion, which are toxic gases in various forms. In recent years, with the more strict environmental protection policy, coal-fired power plants have been urged to carry out ultra-low emission renovation work. PhD student XU Ke and Professor REN Wei from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at CUHK, established a startup named LaSense Technology in November 2019, and have designed and developed a real-time, calibration-free and ultra-sensitive (sub-ppm) gas sensing and control system, which can meet the requirements of the simultaneous measurement of NO_x and NH₃, in order to meet the urgent market demand from the energy industry. The system will be used in the denitration process control to improve the denitration capacity and efficiency of the power plant, and to achieve the source prevention of air pollution as well.

The 6th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was organized by the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association. Winning teams will represent the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the biennial “Challenge Cup” National College Students’ Extracurricular Academic and Technology Contest, the China College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and the Beijing-Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cup.

CUHK winning projects are listed below.