Prof. Zhou Renjie receives 2023/24 RGC Research Impact Fund

Date: 
2024-01-12
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A research project led by Professor Zhou Renjie, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering was awarded the 2023/24 Research Impact Fund (RIF) by the Research Grants Council (RGC). The project title is “Quantitative Phase Imaging Promoting Cell Biology, Biomedicine, New Materials and Beyond”.
 
The Research Impact Fund was launched in 2017 to encourage local universities to conduct more impactful research and collaborate with stakeholders outside academia. It offers maximum grants of $10 million to each successful project, with the university or other partner providing the remaining 30% of the project cost. The duration of each project must be three to five years.
 
About the project: 
 
Quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) is an emerging optical imaging technique for label-free, high-resolution imaging of living cells and other tiny substances. In QPM, the wavefront or phase
delay of a specimen is mapped so that it can be used to infer the specimen’s shape, internal structures, material composition and so on. This novel microscopy technology allows for monitoring of intracellular dynamics and their responses to different treatments without harming
the cells. Other advantages of QPM include high-precision, high throughput measurement capabilities that can potentially facilitate quality control during advanced manufacturing, especially chip manufacturing at the atomic scale. However, the precision of current QPM systems is limited, and they are difficult to operate and expensive, limiting access to them and their ability to make a profound impact.
 
The research team is committed to developing novel high-performance QPM systems and demonstrating their broad application. With the aim of commercializing QPM technologies, they will cooperate with industry to add custom functions to their QPM systems, making them easy to use and cost-effective for user-specific applications. The team will also disseminate knowledge to the scientific and industrial communities so the technologies can be more widely applied.
 
 

Professor Zhou Renjie

 

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BME
Media Release

【Our Memories beyond Flash】 Photo Story Collection for CUHK 60th Anniversary Celebratory Event by Faculty of Engineering

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To celebrate for the 60th anniversary of CUHK, we invite CUHK Engineering alumni, students, and staffs to share with us their photo stories about CUHK Engineering.  This is a precious opportunity to reminisce about the remarkable moments in CUHK Engineering history.  Past photo stories can also rekindle fond memories and affection for CUHK across generations. 

 

Details:

All CUHK Engineering alumni, students and staffs are welcome to submit photos and stories through the online platform. To commemorate our precious memories about the Faculty, the photo and excerpts of the stories will be filmed and showcased on the TV wall at Ho Sin-Hang Engineering Building for 2024. 

 

Eligibility:

All CUHK Engineering alumni, students and staff are invited to submit photo stories.  Simple identity check will be performed. 

 

Souvenirs:

For gratitude and bringing good memories to members of the Faculty of Engineering, some Faculty-designed souvenirs will be given to all participants.

 

Important dates:

Submission Deadline:  4 February 2024

Roll out of video of collected photos: May 2024

 

Specifications for submission:

  1. Photos, together with the brief stories (in no more than 50 words, either in Chinese or English), could be on anything relevant to CUHK Engineering.
  2. The original source of photos can be in any format, including but not limited to a digital file, digital print, color print, or black and white print.  However, only electronic submission in JPEG/JPG/TIFF/PNG/PDF format with at least 300 dpi will be accepted.  Each file size shall not exceed 5 MB.  Participants may be requested raw files or higher-resolution versions of the photos for publication needs.
  3. Multiple submissions by participants are allowed.  

​

Online platform for submitting photo stories: 

https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13676522

 

You are invited to read through terms and regulations of this event before submitting photo stories.

 

For enquiries, please contact us by e-mail to cuhkergg@cuhk.edu.hk.

 

Look forward to knowing your cherished memories of CUHK Engineering!

Venue
Faculty of Engineering
Date: 
Monday, January 15, 2024
Time
Monday, January 15, 2024 to Sunday, February 4, 2024
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【Our Memories beyond Flash】 Photo Story Collection for CUHK 60th Anniversary Celebratory Event by Faculty of Engineering
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Prof. WONG Kam Fai receives the Saint Francis Prize in Techno-Humanities (2024)

Date: 
2024-01-04
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Prof. WONG Kam Fai, Associate Dean (External Affairs) received the Saint Francis Prize in Techno-Humanities (2024) organized by Caritas Institute of Higher Education. 
 
As a world-recognized researcher in Natural Language Processing (NLP), an elected Fellow of the Association of Computational Linguistics, and an Honorary Fellow of the Professional Validation Council of Hong Kong Industries, Prof. Wong has published more than 250 papers and a number of books for the popularization of science. In 2011, he received the Medal of Honour from the HKSAR Government for his valuable contribution to the development of information, communication, and technology (ICT). 
 
Prof. Wong is selected for the Prize in the area of Language for his outstanding contribution in Natural Language Processing (NLP), promotion of Asian NLP research, and popularization of science in Hong Kong. 
 

 

Prof. WONG Kam Fai.

 

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SEEM
Media Release

中大學者黃錦輝發表約250篇科普論文 奪聖方濟各人文科技獎　

為表揚對發展人文科技作出貢獻的學者，明愛專上學院葉應桃李如意人文及語言學院今（4日）舉辦第2屆聖方濟各人文科技獎頒獎禮，包括中大工程學院教授兼副院長黃錦輝在推動亞洲自然語言處理研究及香港科學普及上具傑出貢獻，而在語言範疇方面獲獎，並獲頒15,000美元獎金。

Date: 
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Media: 
HKET Daily
Media LInk: 
http://t.ly/q8Sr0

Two teams of Engineering students win gold prizes in the 9th China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

Date: 
2023-12-22
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The following two teams of Engineering students win gold prizes in the 9th China International College Students’ “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition:

Project Name – An Intelligent Robotic System for Neurosurgery

Under the supervision of Professor Cheng Shing-shin from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering and Professor George Wong Kwok-chu from the Department of Surgery, Yan Junyan and his team members, Qiu Yufu, Chen Jibiao and Fang Haiyang from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, have introduced the world’s first flexible robot with an intelligent navigation system for neurosurgery. The robot’s end effector can avoid damaging important functional areas of the brain and achieve a level of precision superior to the average neurosurgeon.

Project Name – Dexterous Multi-layer Rigid-flexible Hybrid Structure Robotic System

The project team comprising Wang Xuchen, Ng Wee-shen and Lin Hongbin has developed a series of multi-layer rigid-flexible hybrid structure robotic products that can dexterously perform difficult tasks in confined spaces, under the supervision of Professor Au Kwok-wai Samuel and Professor Ma Xin from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering. These products include minimally invasive surgical robots for narrow physiological structures in ear, nose and throat surgery, as well as industrial robots for inspection and secondary machining of aerospace components with physically inaccessible or confined spaces.

The prizes were presented at the National & Greater Bay Area Youth Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competitions – Hong Kong Regional Award Ceremony, which was organised by the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association. For details, please refer to: https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/en/press/cuhk-wins-seven-awards-at-the-national-greater-bay-area-youth-innovation-entrepreneurship-competitions-hong-kong-regional-award-ceremony-2023/.

Ms. Lillian Cheong, Under Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry (centre) presents the prize to Yan Junyan (right) and Qiu Yufu (left) of the project team “An Intelligent Robotic System for Neurosurgery”

Ms. Lillian Cheong presents the prize to Professor Ma Xin (far left), supervisor from Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, and his students Wang Xuchen (second left) and Lin Hongbin (far right) of the project team “Dexterous Multi-layer Rigid-flexible Hybrid Structure Robotic System”

 

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CUHK Engineering develops energy-efficient redox flow battery with biomimetic molecular catalysts

Date: 
2023-12-20
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As 100 countries committed at COP28 to tripling global renewable energy use by 2030, the demand for large-scale energy storage is set to increase sharply. Sulphur-based redox flow batteries may be the best solution but their low energy efficiency makes them difficult to commercialise.

A CUHK professor has proposed a molecular catalyst that can energise the flow battery with a fast reaction rate, decreasing the overpotential for more than three times and increasing the charging power by nearly six times.
 
A research team led by Professor Yi-Chun Lu, Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), has successfully developed a biomimetic molecular catalyst to enable a low-cost, energy-efficient, sulphur-based redox flow battery via homogeneous catalysis, successfully tackling the bottleneck of the poor kinetics of sulphur-based redox flow batteries. A report on the breakthrough was recently the cover story of world-leading scientific journal Nature Energy’s December issue.
 
The application of conventional sulphur-based redox flow batteries is limited by poor kinetics and low energy efficiency
 
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), around 100 countries pledged to treble global renewable energy use by 2030, which is greatly increasing the demand for large-scale energy storage. Although lithium-ion batteries are commonly used to store energy, there is a risk of combustion and explosion when thousands of them are stacked together, making them unsuitable at large scales. Aqueous redox flow batteries are one of the most competitive technologies for large-scale energy storage due to their high safety, low cost and design flexibility in power and energy. However, further development of conventional commercial redox flow batteries is hindered by the high cost of vanadium, the active material.
 
Sulphur-based redox flow batteries are extremely attractive because sulphur is abundant, meaning its price is 1,000 times lower than vanadium. However, there are bottlenecks in the commercialisation of sulphur-based redox flow batteries: poor cycle life and low energy efficiency. In 2021, Professor Lu and her team proposed a charge-reinforced ion-selective (CRIS) membrane to significantly improve the cycle life by reducing the crossover rate of polysulphide, leaving the low energy efficiency as the major bottleneck for practical commercialisation.
 
Molecular catalysts as ‘battery vitamin’ to enable energy-efficient redox flow batteries
 
Professor Lu and her team proposed a molecular catalyst, riboflavin sodium phosphate (FMN-Na), to accelerate the polysulphide conversion with high energy efficiency. Riboflavin, known as vitamin B2, is a common vitamin that can be found in food and dietary supplements. In the human body, riboflavin derivatives function as an energy carrier. Inspired by the natural electron transfer chain, Professor Lu and her team adopted FMN-Na to energise the flow battery with a fast reaction rate.
 
This biomimetic strategy could dramatically decrease the overpotential by more than three times and increase the energy efficiency from 53% to up to 76%, meaning the charging power increases by nearly six times. The iron-sulphur flow batteries operated stably for over 2,000 cycles (projected lifetime > 20 years) and this facile strategy was also applied to sulphur-iodide flow batteries with high stability for over 1,300 cycles. Professor Lu and her team cooperated with Luquos Energy, an energy storage start-up founded by Professor Lu, to demonstrate a 100 cm2 cell stack with a high operating current density of 100 mA cm–2, which has great potential for practical application.
 
Professor Lu said, “Our work shows that homogeneous catalysis is an effective approach to addressing the sluggish kinetics of polysulphide. We believe that this approach can be widely applied to other flow batteries systems.”
 
The full text from the journal can be found at:
 
 
Attachment
 

Professor Lu Yi-chun (right) and the first author Lei Jiafeng (left), a PhD student in CUHK’s Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, show the prototype of the sulphur-iron redox flow battery with the molecular catalyst

The molecular catalyst (FMN-Na, orange power on the left) and polysulphide electrolyte with molecular catalyst (liquid on the right).

The 100 square centimetres polysulphide-ferrocyanide redox flow battery stack.

The reaction mechanism of the molecular catalyst, FMN-Na, for catalysing polysulphide reduction. FMN transforms the polysulphide reduction reaction from a sluggish electrochemical process into a fast chemical process.

Cover of Nature Energy’s December issue

 

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MAE
Media Release

中大工程學系提升硫作為電池原料可用性　有望解決液流電池商用化瓶頸

香港中文大學工程學院機械與自動化工程學系教授盧怡君領導的研究團隊成功研發出了一種仿生的分子催化劑，通過均相催化的方式實現了低成本、高能效的硫基液流電池，成功破解了硫基液流電池動力學不佳的瓶頸問題。該突破性研究最近被世界頂級學術期刊《自然能源》選為12月刊的封面論文。

Date: 
Friday, December 22, 2023
Media: 
HKET Daily
Media LInk: 
https://t.ly/MJlq1

Engineering professors lead two newly inaugurated Jockey Club STEM Labs for research on electronic design automation and precision medicine

Date: 
2023-12-19
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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has received generous support of HK$49.7 million from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust (the Trust) to establish five Jockey Club (JC) STEM Labs. Among them, the JC STEM Lab of Intelligent Design Automation is led by Professor Ho Tsung Yi from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The Lab aspires to make CUHK an iconic centre for next-generation technologies and applications in electronic design automation. The JC STEM Lab of Nature-inspired Precision Medical Engineering is led by Professor Mao Chuanbin from the Department of Biomedical Engineering; and it will focus on transforming nature’s tools into precision medicine to combat challenging diseases such as cancer.

The Trust has allocated HK$500 million for the JC STEM Lab initiative. It is a central component of the Trust’s talent and sector development strategy and aims to support the laboratory set-up at University Grants Committee-funded universities for the awarded scholars under the Government-initiated Global STEM Professorship Scheme, so as to nurture STEM talent in Hong Kong and promote the translation of new science and technology into social impact. The University held an inauguration ceremony yesterday (18 December 2023) to express gratitude and appreciation to the Trust. The officiating guests at the ceremony were Professor Rocky S. Tuan, Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK; Professor Alan Chan, Provost of CUHK; and Ms Ada Chu, Head of Charities (Talent & Sector Development) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

For more details, please visit: https://www.cpr.cuhk.edu.hk/en/press/cuhk-establishes-five-jockey-club-stem-labs-to-boost-innovation-research-and-talent-development/.

 

Officiating guests and five JC STEM Lab Directors, including Professor Ho Tsung Yi (2nd from the right) and Professor Mao Chuanbin (2nd from the left), host the plaque unveiling ceremony.

Group photo of Professor Rocky S. Tuan (6th from the left), Professor Alan Chan (7th from the left), and the representatives of CUHK Faculty of Engineering.

Group photo of Ms Ada Chu (5th from the right), Professor Ho Tsung Yi (6th from the right), and his team of the JC STEM Lab of Intelligent Design Automation.

Group photo of Ms Ada Chu (5th from the right), Professor Mao Chuanbin (6th from the right), and his team of the JC STEM Lab of Nature-inspired Precision Medical Engineering.

 

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