ME MPhil student awarded IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarship 2020

PolyU ME MPhil student Man Ho TSOI was elected to be the awardee of IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarship 2020. Man Ho, under the mentorship of an IEEE MTT-S member Dr Steve Wai Yin MUNG, submitted a research proposal topic titled “Design and Implementation of Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device in wireless circuit” which showed high potential for a productive career in RF (Radio Frequency)/Microwave Engineering. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) is the world’s largest professional organization devoted to the innovation and advancement of technology across disciplines. MTT-S (Microwaves and Theory and Techniques Society) is one of the technical societies within IEEE. Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarship Programme is held twice a year with a maximum of ten awardees around the world in each cycle. The scholarship programme encourages students to pursue study and job related to its field. In 2020 Cycle 1, six students from universities in USA, Russia, Spain and China were awarded the scholarship, Man Ho was one of them. 2020 Cycle 1 Awardees (October 2019 Competition) Man Ho is currently pursuing the part-time MPhil degree under the supervision of Dr Yat Sze CHOY in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Protecting personal health from impending flu season and Novel Coronavirus

The breakout of the Wuhan virus and serious influenza during the winter months in Hong Kong has raised concerns from the general public. Face masks are worn generally for the prevention of spread of virus and bacteria that cause sickness. Yet, misconceptions about the proper usage of face masks are very common in the community. Ir. Professor Wallace Leung Woon-Fong, Chair Professor of Innovative Products and Technologies of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has been studying the science behind masks and developing various combating technologies, suggested a user-friendly way to wear a proper mask. Leung pointed out that face masks are worn by general public and professionals for protection from airborne viruses spread through spit and mucous. Therefore, the outer layer of the mask is hydrophobic (i.e. hate water) so that ‘germs’ carried with water in the spit from others around would not come in contact with the user wearing the mask. On the other hand, the inside layer is hydrophilic (i.e. like water) which absorbs moisture, keeping the user comfortable. Based on the above understanding, he introduced a scientific method to distinguish the inside or outside layer of a face mask for the general public. His method is to simply add water droplets onto the surface of the mask and observe if the droplet ‘rolls up’ similar to that on a waxed surface (moisture prevention layer), or the water droplet soaks into the mask surface (moisture absorbing surface). The moisture prevention layer should be worn outside while the moisture absorbing layer should be worn inside in contact with the wearer. It is also important to test both sides in pursuit of the functionality of the mask. If both surfaces have been tested to have the same property, there is no inside or outside layer to speak of. Therefore wearing the mask with either side is fine, but it is preferred to purchase a better functional face mask. On the other hand, if the two surfaces are different, wearing the mask inside out lead to trapping of viruses and bacteria in the mask, this increases the risk of contact viruses and bacteria. Professor Leung had developed electrostatically charged nanofiber filter with multiple separator layers. The novel PVDF nanofiber filter can capture pollutant particles that are below 100 nm in diameter. It demonstrates much better performance in breathability and filtration efficiency, compared with existing technologies and products, and has a longer shelf life in high humidity up to 90 days. The filter or face mask applying the innovation would be an ideal defense against virus, such as measles, SARS, and other unknown health-threatening viruses during an outbreak. This is because most viruses are negatively charged and the PVDF nanofiber mask is positively charged making virus capture more effective. Media interview by Ming Pao 底層吸水 面層防水 戴錯口罩 病菌有「隙」可乘

ME Student wins in HKIE Student Project Competition 2019

The HKIE-SSC Student Project Competition, organized by The Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE), is an important annual event to attract HK young generation currently studying in universities to explore safety & health engineering for a touch of both life-critical systems and popular science innovation. The objectives of the competition are to promote safety engineering and science innovation, and to provide an open and competitive platform for engineering students to demonstrate their engineering capabilities and share the learning process in safety regime. This year, a PolyU ME year 3 student, JIANG Jiacong, presented a novel design about improving the testing method of elevator over-speed governor during periodic elevator examination. His innovative idea was acclaimed by the judges and awarded the CIC award. He was the only undergraduate winner in the safety category among other postgraduate awardees. The award ceremony was held in the 25th HKIE-SSC Annual Dinner organized by the HKIE – Safety Specialist Committee on 14 Jan 2020. Over-speed governor (GOV) is equipment to monitor and limit the moving speed of elevator cars. The maintenance and examination are therefore very essential in elevator annual test. However, the testing method of GOV using nowadays is still traditional, inconvenient and complicated with low accuracy, which also includes some safety problems. Therefore, it is highly relevant to develop a safer, more efficient, more accurate and user-friendly solution. Based on the analysis and understanding of existing safety problems, a novel testing device is designed, which can conveniently and safely measure the speed with an optical tachometer, and simultaneously accelerate the governor wheel with an electric disc so as to identify whether the GOV is qualified. Preliminary results show clearly the advantages of this new invention and prospects of being widely popularized. The project was supervised by Dr Xingjian Jing of the Department, who has been actively working on solving various critical engineering problems including system control, engineering noise & vibration, energy harvesting, structural health monitoring, complex system identification, sensing and measuring systems, custom-tailored robotic systems and so on. For Dr Jing’s research and development, it can be referred to www.polyu.edu.hk/me/people/academic-teaching-staff/jing-xingjian/ It is always welcomed for those who wish to realize his/her creative ideas into engineering practices to contact Dr Jing cordially striving for an innovative future. Several undergraduate FYP projects and MSc/PhD projects under his supervision achieved impactful results exposed in media news, prestigious awards and top journal publications in the past years.

ME PhD student awarded Best Paper Finalist in ROBIO 2019

PolyU ME PhD students Jiewen Lai and Kaicheng Huang won the Best Paper Finalist award with the paper entitled “A Learning-based Inverse Kinematics Solver for a Multi-Segment Continuum Robot in Robot-Independent Mapping”, at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (IEEE-ROBIO 2019) in Dali, China from 6 to 8 December 2019. IEEE-ROBIO is one of the most prestigious conferences in the robotic field. It is an annual conference co-sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (IEEE RAS). Continuing with more than a decade of its tradition, ROBIO aims to provide a premier forum for researchers, developers, and entrepreneurs involved in the general areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, and biomimetics to disseminate the latest results and exchange views on the future research directions of the related fields. This year, ROBIO provided 6 best paper awards to the 403 accepted and orally-presented papers from all over the world, and 20 of the accepted papers were peer-nominated as the finalists for those competitive awards. Jiewen and Kaicheng are both under the supervision of Dr Henry Chu in our department. Their research interest includes soft robotics, biomimetic robotic system, robotic manipulation, and machine intelligence.

HKPolyU Racing Team inherits the legend

The HKPolyU Racing Team has finished the 2019 Formula Student Electric China (FSEC) competition on 18 to 23 Nov 2019 at the Zhuhai Airshow Center, China. In the FSEC held in Zhuhai this year, nearly 2,000 students from 54 pure electric fleets and 14 self-driving fleets came here through breakthrough levels. The HKPolyU Racing, the first and only formula racing team, formed by Hong Kong local university students, has been representing Hong Kong to compete in the Formula Student Electric China (FSEC) since 2017. At the FSEC 2019, besides competing in the car’s overall design and technical features, as well as contesting on the racing track its acceleration, control, endurance, and various functions, the team also had to present its business proposal. It was thrilling that the HKPolyU Racing Team ranked 31 out of the 54 participating teams in terms of overall results, which was a step ahead compared to 2018 season and the best percentage amongst the three straight seasons. Achievements of the HKPolyU Racing Team in FSEC 2019 included: ranked 7th in the Business Presentation Event passing all scrutineering checks finished competing in 2 out of 4 dynamic events; skid-pad & autocross   It took the team the whole year to design and manufacture the car. Their dedication and enthusiasm have gained tremendous support from various external parties as well as the University. This year, more than 20 industrialists or organizations offered substantial sponsorships through various means like giving the students financial back-up, sponsoring materials, offering technical advice, providing a testing venue, etc. The team obtained over 2 million HK dollars donations in the past year, and the main donors were as follows:   HKI China Land Limited Kolinker Industrial Equipments Ltd. Ngai Hing Hong Plastic Materials (Hong Kong) Ltd. Dr Hou Lee Tsun, Laurence Hong Kong Productivity Council   Their dream of racing was triggered by 9 PolyU Mechanical Engineering students in 2015, who aspired to construct their Final Year Project on building a racing car for joining a formula competition. Since then, the team of the 9 core members has gradually grown into a team with over 70 students from different disciplines. It was a huge step for the students to spark a racing dream and take to the large-scale annual international competition. Their initiative, aspiration, creativity and endurance are what we really proud of. RECRUITMENT DETAILS

ME researchers discovered universality of droplet coalescence in PNAS

Glancing out a window on a rainy day, your eyes are accidentally caught by a small droplet rolling down the glass, where its “other half” is awaiting… Now, the “dating” is about to begin and the droplet reaches out to another. The moment they touch, a connecting liquid bridge forms and quickly grows – the two droplets then coalesce into a bigger one before you could see clearly what has happened. While you are still wondering why it was so fast, another coalescence has just flashed by… Droplet-droplet coalescence is of essence to numerous natural and industrial processes, for example, rain clouds formation and fuel spray in rocket engines. Nowadays, with the help of high-speed cameras, many experimental scientists have successfully captured the transient coalescence of liquid droplets that cannot be perceived by naked eyes. They discovered that, as the two droplets merge into one, the connecting liquid bridge grows by obeying two distinct rules: it either grows linearly with time when the droplets are smaller (or more viscous) or grows with the square-root of time when the droplets are bigger (or less viscous). To unveil the secret of the different rules governing droplet coalescence, Dr Xi Xia, former research fellow (now Associate Professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University), Mr Chengming He, PhD student, and Dr Peng Zhang, Associate Professor of the PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering, established a theory that unifies the dynamics of liquid bridge growth. The theory is amazingly simple but innovatively integrates some mathematical techniques, such as integral equation and asymptotic analysis, with some physical insights, such as flow self-similarity and interfacial vortex. This work has been recently published online on PNAS (Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences). [X. Xia, C. He and P. Zhang, “Universality in the viscous-to-inertial coalescence of liquid droplets”, http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1910711116]

ME Student Team wins in the ASME Student Design Competition Finals 2019

Team of BEng in Mechanical Engineering (ME) students won the 2nd Runner-up in the 2019 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Design Competition (SDC) Finals held on 9 November 2019, in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The ASME SDC Finals, sponsored by Boeing every year, is a well-known international student design competition of its kind. The 14 competitors, each are from the regional SDC events held at the ASME Engineering Festivals. “The Pick-and-Place Race”, the theme of this year, is to challenge students to design a speedy robots that could quickly grasp various size of balls – small as ping pong to as large as basketballs running in its full speed without dropping off the balls in the competition field. The first 15 seconds is decisive for the winner. Our team, comprising year four undergraduate students, Parth MAHESHWARI, Maral SHAGATAY and KWAN Kai Lok, supervised by Ir Dr Curtis NG of ME developed an agile robot which can swiftly moving around pick and hold different sizes of balls . With tactical strategy, our robot stood out from other competing robots and eventually made it to the Final Four and brought home the 2nd Runner-up! “Our students were wholly dedicated to this challenge. They were highly self-motivated to work on the prototype and well prepared for the competition. With great support from Prof. SQ Shi (Head of Department of ME, PolyU), ME technical team, International Affairs Office (IAO) and Industrial Centre (IC), our robot could manage to compete with other strong competitors in ASME SDC Finals 2019 and took the 2nd Runner-up. “Students are excited with their achievement and we are highly proud of them.” Ir Dr Curtis NG said. The competition was held in conjunction with the ASME’s 2019 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.  

ME Student Team awarded in the 2019 Greater Bay Area Design Competition

A student team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) have made notable achievements in the 2019 Greater Bay Area Design Competition (2019粵港澳大學生工程訓練綜合能力競賽) held in Guangzhou on 26-27 October 2019. For the first time, the HK PolyU team won the 2nd Class and the Most Collaboration Awards in the competition. Sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China and organized by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province and the South China University of Technology, this year challenge was to design an unmanned robot for a pick-and-place race. A total of 35 teams from different universities in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong Province participated in this competition. They are The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Macau, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), South China University of Technology, Shenzhen University, etc. The PolyU ME student team, comprised of final year undergraduate students, Parth MAHESHWARI, KWAN Kai Lok, and Maral SHAGATAY supervised by Ir Dr Curtis NG. They developed a robot which can swiftly move around in the field, and pick and place different sizes of balls from 16 PVC pipes. The team was one of the robust teams that can complete the challenge within 50 seconds in the knockout round of the competition. “Our students were very dedicated to the competition. They were self-initiative to work on the prototypes and well-prepared for the competition,” said Dr Curtis NG, the team advisor.

Distinguished Lecture on Nanotechnology in Canada by Prof. Wallace Leung

PolyU scholar, Prof. Wallace Leung, Chair Professor of Innovative Products and Technologies, Mechanical Engineering, has been invited by the Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (WIN), University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, to deliver on October 21, 2019 a Distinguished Lecture Series in the Quantum Nano Center, Waterloo, on ‘Novel Nanofiber technology for Energy and Environment’. WIN is the largest organization in Canada working on nanotechnology. The Distinguished Lecture Series is to honor scholars in the world working on nanotechnology. The WIN Distinguished Lecture Series was created in 2008 to bring a small number of outstanding researchers and scholars to Waterloo, to interact with faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. They have hosted many internationally respected scientists, including Nobel Laureate Yuan T. Lee from Academia Sinica in Taiwan, Jacob Israelachvili of the University of California, Zhong Lin Wang from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and more recently Arun Majumdar from Stanford University. The lectures are open to the public and are extremely well attended. It is a great honour that Prof. Wallace Leung is being recognized for his research on nanofibers and he was invited to share the nanofiber technologies developed jointly by him and his group in the Distinguished Lecture Series at WIN. The lecture was well attended with the audience showing great enthusiasm and interest in various novel clean energy and environment technologies that are feasible with the application of nanofibers. The lecture was also recorded live and posted on the WIN website.

ME Student Team acclaimed for innovating Tennis Ball Collector Robot

Three final year undergraduate students of the Department, Vincent Yu Wai Yin, Sampson Chung Shan and Clarence Lau Wing Hay, as a team working for their final year project, designed a tennis ball collector robot which can search, collect and store tennis balls autonomously. The robot is able to move swiftly and avoid obstacles such as ball net fence on the tennis court. It can also autodetect tennis balls and fetch them everywhere on the court. Its sophisticated device enables the robot to retrieve balls on the edge without hurdle. The project was highly acclaimed for its skillful mechanism and practical application. The student team further enhanced the robot, under the project supervisor, Dr Wong Wai On of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with the help from a PolyU alumni KF Leung as well as great support from the PolyU Industrial Centre. The Tennis Ball Collector Robot won the Silver Prize in the 5th China College Students “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award held from 12 to 16 October 2019. The team was invited to showcase the robot in HKTDC DesignInspire held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 5 to 7 December 2019. A Hong Kong entrepreneurial team considered the Tennis Ball Collector Robot has high market prospects. It is expected that it will be commercialized in the coming year.     References: [明報新聞網] 網球機場手推車回收 機械人代勞 The 5th Hong Kong University Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 第5屆中國互聯網+大學生創新創業大賽 花絮