News

AP graduating PhD students received the PolyU PhD Thesis Award for Merit

To recognize, honor, and promote the outstanding research accomplishments of graduating PhD students, the Graduate School establishes the PhD Thesis Award with two award classes: Outstanding and Merit.   Congratulations to Dr HOU Zhen on receiving the PolyU PhD Thesis Award for Merit. His thesis focuses on understanding Zn nucleation and growth towards stable Zn metal batteries.  Thesis Title: Boosting zinc metal anodes performance via interface engineering: reaction kinetics, morphology control and electrochemical reversibility Chief Supervisor: Dr ZHANG Biao The thesis is devoted to reversible Zn metal anodes through regulating the Zn nucleation and growth. We first demonstrate that the slow desolvation kinetics elevates the nucleation overpotential for improving the nucleation sites through introducing acetonitrile co-solvent into the electrolyte. The electrolyte recipe is further tailored to produce abundant Zn nucleation seeds and smooth Zn growth. The designed oligomer co-solvent enables preferential surface adsorption and the optimized solvation sheath. Furthermore, we propose a facile pulsed cycling protocol where an initial high current density (J) is leveraged to form sufficient nuclei for guiding even metal deposition at standard J in the subsequent process, realizing high-performance Zn, Li and K metal batteries. Besides modulating the Zn nucleation, we also control the Zn growth process by constructing a metallic tin-coated separator. Specifically, its decent electrical conductivity and zincophilicity can eliminate the inevitably formed Zn dendrites via face-to-face Zn growth, thus enabling improved cycle life even at high J and cycling capacity.    

AP student wins the Pixel of PolyU Photo Competition

Dr Kathy LENG awarded the Nation’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has honored Dr. Kathy K. Leng, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Physics, with the prestigious Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macao) for the year 2023. Her awarded research project “Molecularly Thin 2D Hybrid Perovskite and Innovative Devices” studied molecularly thin 2D hybrid perovskites, a new class of 2D materials with the characteristics of high structural flexibility and interesting optoelectronic properties. The ability to tune the responses of such materials by external stimuli enables applications in intelligent and functional devices. They also serve as new platforms for fundamental physics studies. Dr. Leng will continue her research on the large-scale growth and device applications of these materials.   Ta Kung Pao: http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/232109/2023/0915/892659.html Wen Wei Po: https://polyu.me/3PDxDHQ

Prof Feng YAN was interviewed by Nature Portfolio

Prof. Feng YAN, ADoRI-IWEAR & Chair Professor of Organic Electronics, heads a research group that specializes in advanced materials, including organic semiconductors and perovskite materials. His research includes the development of field-effect transistors and ultra-high-sensitivity biosensors, which have made significant global impacts. Yan and his team have also demonstrated that two-dimensional conjugated metal organic frameworks are excellent semiconductor materials for high-performance electrochemical transistors (ECTs). These ECTs have promising applications in flexible and wearable electronics, as well as in bioelectronics and neuromorphic devices. In addition, Yan's team is exploring the use of perovskites as an alternative to silicon-based solar cells, and has made significant breakthroughs that improve the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells in an ambient atmosphere. Yan's leadership in advanced materials is a prime example of PolyU AP's scientific focus on contributing to society.   Article in Nature Portfolio: https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-023-00143-3  

Prof. Yang CHAI develops optoelectronic graded neurons for perceiving dynamic motion

Leading a research team, Prof. Yang CHAI, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science and Professor in the Department of Applied Physics, developed optoelectronic graded neurons for recognizing and perceiving dynamic motion agilely with limited hardware resources. This advanced machine vision system can perform high information transmission rate and fuse spatial and temporal information at sensory terminal while the conventional sensors can only output “spatial” frames without fusing “temporal” information. Compared to recognition performed with traditional image sensors (~50%), the accuracy of action recognition approaches 99.2%.   To learn more: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/rio/news/2023/20230529-optoelectronic-graded-neurons-for-perceiving-dynamic-motion/

AP received prestigious prizes at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva

It is our pleasure to announce that three PolyU AP professors were awarded honors at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, including 2 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal.   The gold award-winning projects include: "A Portable Non-invasive and Ultrasensitive Saliva Glucose Sensor" managed by Prof. YAN Feng and "Durable, High-Selectivity, and Energy Efficient CO2 Electroreduction System" led by Prof. Daniel LAU Shu-ping. Prof. HAO Jianhua was also awarded a silver prize for his research project, "All-in-one Luminescence-based Point-of-care Testing Device for Virus Diagnosis".   The Geneva Inventions Expo this year attracted about 1,000 inventions from about 40 countries and regions. To learn more about PolyU's impactful innovations, please visit: https://polyu.hk/tqAvq

AP Researchers won the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award 2023

Congratulations to Dr. Songhua Cai and Dr. Kathy Leng for receiving the PolyU Young Innovative Research Award (YIRA) 2023! Their research projects are titled “Towards next-generation halide perovskites: in situ STEM characterizations assisted structure engineering” and “Scalable growth of 2D hybrid perovskite film” respectively. The Young Innovative Research Award (YIRA) recognizes young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated innovative thinking, contributed to technology advancement, and turned innovative ideas into solutions for social problems, bringing forth positive changes. Let us applaud their outstanding performance and contributions to PolyU!

2023 Departmental Outstanding PolyU Young Alumni Award in Entrepreneurial Achievement

We are delighted to share that Dr. HUI Yeung Yu has been awarded the 2023 Outstanding PolyU Young Alumni Award in Entrepreneurial Achievement of the Department of Applied Physics. He graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy from the Department of Applied Physics, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in 2015. He is currently the Manager (Business Strategy & Success Delivery) of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and was the founder and project manager of Nanothink Limited (2015–2016) and DreamsAI Limited (2019–2022) respectively. He has taken on different roles in supporting AP, such as being a member of the Departmental Advisory Committee for AP since 2021. AP has developed a new undergraduate programme titled “BSc (Hons) in Physics with a Secondary Major in AI & Data Analytics (AIDA) or Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IE)” in 2021. Dr. Hui shared his insights in a video, highlighting the important features of the new programme as an industrial representative and creating a positive impact on admission. Congratulations to Dr. Hui for his significant contributions to AP, the Faculty, the University and the community!

2023 Departmental Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award in Professional Achievement

It is our great honour to announce that Mr. SIN Tak Yin won the 2023 Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award in Professional Achievement of the Department of Applied Physics. Mr. SIN Tak Yin graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1990 and is currently the Senior Sales Director in Synaptics. He was a contributor for 2.5G/3G Mobile Phone Solution product definition and Go-To-Market strategy development in Motorola from 2000 to 2006. He also worked as the Corporate VP of Sales in DSP Group, where he and his team leveraged deep expertise in DECT-based technologies, wireless chipset solutions, and converged communications to create market-leading products that provide HD-voice quality and value-added multi-line, multi-handset services for residential subscribers. Mr. Sin was invited as a guest speaker for the FAST1000 Freshers' Seminar at AP in 2017, where he generously shared his story and experiences with our students.   Congratulations to Mr Sin for his significant contributions to AP, the Faculty, the University and the community!

Outstanding Student Award and Presidential Student Leadership Award 2022

Congratulations to Mr. Ong Chin Yuan and Mr. Tsao Yu-jui, students of BSc (Hons) in Engineering Physics, on receiving the Outstanding Student Award of Faculty 2022 and the Presidential Student Leadership Award of Department 2022 respectively. The Outstanding Student Award aims to motivate students to excel in their academic pursuits as well as to strive for personal development. We are pleased to announce that this award went to Mr. Ong Chin Yuan at the Faculty level. The Presidential Student Leadership Award aims to recognise and honour outstanding student leaders who possess, display, and apply exemplary leadership qualities and skills, demonstrated in both the University and the wider community. Mr. Tsao Yu-jui received the Departmental Award in recognition of his impressive leadership capabilities. Let's applaud them for their excellent work and contributions to the PolyU so far!