News

Nobel Laureate in Physics to deliver PAIR Distinguished Lecture

PAIR cordially invites you to our Distinguished Lecture on 9 February 2023 (Thursday) at 4:00pm-5:30pm (HKT) via Zoom. The lecture “A 40-Year Journey” will be delivered by Prof. Reinhard GENZEL, Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany. Professor Genzel received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics together with British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and American astronomer Andrea Ghez, for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. In this lecture, Professor Genzel will discuss the forty-year journey, which his colleagues and himself have been undertaking to study the mass distribution in the centre of the Milky Way from ever more precise, long-term studies of the motions of gas and stars as test particles of the space time. These studies show the existence of a four million solar mass object, which must be a single massive black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt. Don’t miss the chance to learn from distinguished astrophysicist! Find out more and register at: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/pair/news-and-events/events/2023/2/20230209-pair-distinguished-lecture---prof-reinhard-genzel/?sc_lang=en

PolyU partners with Hong Kong local digital payment platform developer Yedpay in promoting FinTech innovation in ASEAN

Hong Kong's first non-bank credit card acquiring service provider Yedpay, at the 16th Asian Financial Forum on 12 January 2023, announced its partnership with Venture Cap, the subsidiary of ASL Securities located in Thailand, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Easylink, for promoting financial technology innovation.  Dr HU Haibo, Member of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT) at PolyU, noted that the core technology partnered with Yedpay, the Tap-to-Phone function, is an industry leading payment technology for Hong Kong, which is a breakthrough to the traditional point-of-sales (POS) terminals pattern in which allowing merchants to use their mobile phones to process transactions while data security is ensured. Tap-to-Phone is now in its pilot phase and can accept credit cards issued by Visa and Mastercard and is expected to be available to all Yedpay business users in the second quarter of this year.  Further reading: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/hong-kong-local-digital-payment-010000080.html

Prof. SUN Defeng awarded RGC Senior Research Fellowship 2022/23

Prof. SUN Defeng, Leading Member of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), Member of the Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR), Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AMA), has been awarded under the Research Grant Committee (RGC) Senior Research Fellow Scheme in 2022/23 for his research project “Nonlinear Conic Programming: Theory, Algorithms and Software”. The project will contribute to a broad range of important applications including the 6G wireless communication technology and automatic driving.   Among the 32 nominations received for this year’s exercise, 10 nominees at full Professor rank at  UGC-funded universities were selected for awards. Each awardee will be conferred the title “RGC Senior Research Fellow” and awarded a fellowship grant of around HK$7.8 million for a period of 60 months.   Online coverage: am730 - https://polyu.me/3GjjvxP (Chinese only)

Prof. David Cardwell, Prof-Vice-Chancellor of University of Cambridge visits PolyU

Prof. David CARDWELL, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Strategy and Planning), University of Cambridge, UK, visited PolyU on 18 January 2023. Prof. Cardwell was warmly received by Prof. TENG Jin-Guang, President of PolyU, Prof. Ben YOUNG, Vice President (Student and Global Affairs), Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) and Prof. CHEN Qingyan, Director of PAIR.  During the visit, Prof. Cardwell exchanged views with PolyU senior management on the trends and future of the higher education. Prof. Cardwell also visited some of the laboratories of PAIR’s constituent research units to understand more about the advanced research facilities and recent research accomplishments in the fields of artificial intelligence of things and resources engineering towards carbon neutrality.

ADoPRI discovers nanoscale ferroelectric new materials

A research team led by Prof. Daniel LAU, Chair Professor of Nanomaterials and Head of Department of Applied Physics of PolyU and Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) discovered that bilayers of molybdenum disulphide and tungsten disulphide produced at the nanometre scale retain their intrinsic ferroelectric property so that electrical polarisation can be reversed by simply applying an external electric current. The manufacturing of this new class of nano-scale ferroelectrics can be reproduced at large scales with low cost, low energy demand and faithful reproducibility.  The research result promises to advance the frontier of modern electronics and attract keen interest among electronics manufacturers. This research was a collaboration project involving researchers from the Renmin University of China, University of Cambridge and Nanjing University. The study has been published on Science. Further reading: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/en/media/media-releases/2023/0118_polyu-research-discovers-nanoscale-ferroelectric-new-materials-exhibiting-potential/

Ir Prof. ZHENG Yong-ping, DoRISA, featured in Ta Kung Po

Ir Prof. ZHENG Yong-ping, Director of the Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA), Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Henry G. Leong Professor in Biomedical Engineering, was featured in Ta Kung Po sharing his invention “Scolioscan”—a palm-sized 3D ultrasound imaging device for radiation-free assessment of scoliosis. Online coverage: Ta Kung Pao - https://polyu.me/3WPYJNm (Chinese only)

Three PAIR projects awarded Research Impact Fund to deliver innovations for a sustainable community

Three research projects led by scholars at the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) have been awarded the Research Impact Fund (RIF) 2022/23 by the Research Grants Council, with a total grant value of HK$14.35 million. Thirteen projects were supported by RIF in this exercise. PolyU was awarded a total funding of HK$27.55 million for five projects, topping local universities in terms of the number of funded projects. Project Description Project Coordinator Budget to be funded by the RGC* (HKD) A novel approach to target cancer stemness using peptidic chimeric antigen receptor (pCAR) macrophages New scientific knowledge for a novel therapeutic strategy against liver cancer stem cells for hepatocellular carcinoma Prof. LEE Kin-wah Terence Member of Research Centre for Chinese Medicine Innovation (RCMI) (in collaboration with HKU) $4,150,000 Flexible and Stretchable Batteries for Wearable Applications For wearable technologies, smart electronic textiles, electronic skins, soft robotics, bioelectronics and the Internet of Things Prof. ZHENG Zijian Associate Director of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) (in collaboration with CityU and CUHK) $5,550,000 Next Generation of In-situ Precision Three-dimensional Surface Metrology: A Smart Self-adaptive Multiscopic Approach for Industrial 4.0 The project attempts to research and develop a customizable smart SAMS system for in-situ precision 3D surface measurement under different manufacturing environments and applications for lasting impact on the advancement of measurement science and technology ready for Industry 4.0. Prof. Benny C.F. CHEUNG Associate Director of Research Centre for SMART Vision (RCSV) and Management Committee Member of Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE) (in collaboration with HKU) $4,650,000 *The RGC funds 70% of the project cost while university / organisational partner(s) will match the remaining 30% of the project cost. Further reading: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/media/media-releases/2023/0106_five-polyu-projects-awarded-research-impact-fund/

Nobel Laureate in Physics to deliver PAIR Distinguished Lecture on 9 Feb online

PAIR cordially invites you to our Distinguished Lecture on 9 February 2023 (Thursday) at 4:00pm-5:30pm (HKT) via Zoom. The lecture “A 40-Year Journey” will be delivered by Prof. Reinhard GENZEL, Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching, Germany. Professor Genzel received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics together with British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and American astronomer Andrea Ghez, for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. In this lecture, Professor Genzel will discuss the forty-year journey, which his colleagues and himself have been undertaking to study the mass distribution in the centre of the Milky Way from ever more precise, long-term studies of the motions of gas and stars as test particles of the space time. These studies show the existence of a four million solar mass object, which must be a single massive black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt. Don’t miss the chance to learn from distinguished astrophysicist! Find out more and register at: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/pair/news-and-events/events/2023/2/20230209-pair-distinguished-lecture---prof-reinhard-genzel/?sc_lang=en

Prof. Raymond WONG Wai-yeung, ADoRISE, to be featured on RTHK TV programme

The fifth episode of the RTHK programme “Our Scientists” featuring Prof. Raymond WONG Wai-yeung, Dean of the Faculty of Science (FS), Interim Director of the School of Fashion and Textiles (SFT) and Associate Director of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), will air this coming Saturday (21 January 2023) at 8:00p.m. on Channel 31 of the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). In this episode, Prof. Wong will share his research on sustainable energy development and enhanced energy conversions technologies. The eight-episode documentary brings audience to the exciting world of science. It interviews a number of outstanding scientists to understand their intellectual and continuous pursuit for scientific exploration and knowledge, as well as the challenges, joy and success along the scientific journey. Further reading: https://www.rthk.hk/tv/dtt31/programme/ourscientists2022/episode/857745 (Chinese only)

RIAIoT AI specialist introduces ChatGPT at a science popularisation programme

Prof. GUO Song, Leading Member of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), delivered a speech on ChatGPT at a science popularisation programme for youths organised by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Hong Kong Institute of Science & Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences on 7 January at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. In his speech, Prof. Guo introduced ChatGPT, an AI chatbot which can simulate human conversation just like the manga character “Doraemon”, and the three elements behind the technology: model, data and computing.   Online coverage: Wen Wei Po - https://polyu.me/3CxiDVe Dot Dot News - https://polyu.me/3vOUcP6 Hong Kong China News Agency - https://polyu.me/3IwC4RK