HKU’s innovative research novelties won 42 awards at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva.

Technology transfer and knowledge exchange are how we apply our research and know-how to help society advance and meet challenges. The University has been expanding efforts to maximise the impact of our research and support scholars and students to take their initiatives into the wider world.

The standout development of the year was the launch of the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy (TEA), a collaboration with Shenzhen Qianhai to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and technological advancement in the Greater Bay Area. Training programmes, themed accelerators and industry collaborations are offered, as well as space for HKU’s training and incubation platform, iDendron@Qianhai. During the TEA’s official opening ceremony in September 2024, we announced the first batch of 11 HKU-linked start-ups admitted to the TEA and we inaugurated two major initiatives for HKU start-ups: the Entrepreneurship Engine Fund, which now has its first batch of investment partners and aims to amass more than HK$400 million in investment funds, and the HKU Super Angel Network, which is mobilising our alumni to back early-stage start-ups.

The TEA is part of our determination to foster an entrepreneurial culture at HKU, which we are promoting by facilitating students and staff to launch their own start-ups. Students trained through HKU-based iDendron programmes launched 36 start-ups in 2023–24. The DeepTech100 incubation programme, announced two years ago with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, has so far launched 81 research-based start-ups.

The HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy in Shenzhen Qianhai is designed to be a hub for aspiring entrepreneurs and technologists, providing them with the resources, mentorship, and support needed to transform innovative ideas into successful ventures.

The first cohort of 11 start-ups stationed at the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy.

Individual faculties in the University also have programmes to encourage entrepreneurship, such as the Faculty of Engineering’s Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing, which held about 200 activities and events in 2023–24 for 10,000 participants.

These efforts have brought measurable results. For example, HKU researchers had their strongest performance ever at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, winning 42 awards for 40 inventions. They also continued translating their research – there are now 310 active start-ups affiliated with HKU, and we had 121 newly granted patents in 2023–24.

The University is also engaging Mainland China in tech transfer with the first nationwide HKU Innovation & Entrepreneurship Challenge held in December 2023 and Memorandums of Understanding signed with such organisations as China Mobile (Hong Kong) Innovation Research Institute, Hongdu Aviation, and the Centre of Science and Technology Industrial Development of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Entrepreneurship is not the only way of making impact, of course. The University also funds impact projects mapped to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and in 2023–24, we awarded 14 such projects up to HK$500,000 each under the Strategic Impact Scheme. We are also encouraging everyone to communicate their work with the message: bring your research into the world and start to make an impact.

HKU and the Centre of Science and Technology Industrial Development of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the Mainland and Hong Kong Construction Forum 2024 in March.

STARTING UP

DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE

Professor Huang Mingxin introducing Dynano Semiconductor, which is among the first batch of 11 start-ups based at the HKU Techno- Entrepreneurship Academy.

A high-tech start-up incubated at HKU, Dynano Semiconductor, is revolutionising the semiconductor materials landscape by addressing the critical thermal failure issues in third-generation semiconductors. These devices are widely used in automobiles, high-speed trains and energy storage systems and the innovation, by Professor Huang Mingxin of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, provides new copper sintering material to solve the thermal pain point. Professor Huang founded Dynano in 2023 and it was recently included in the first batch of companies officially admitted to the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy, which provides the necessary physical space, as well as access to Shenzhen’s comprehensive supply chain and the national market.

“Our company’s slogan is ‘Material Innovation, World Inspiration’. We want to be one of the best companies in providing materials solutions to the semiconductor industry. We have already started testing our products with carmakers and we expect to have a first sale by early 2025,” Professor Huang said.

START-UP CONNECTS

A presentation by BiomOrgan Ltd at the Demo Day event, which was part of the Grand Opening Ceremony for the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy.

BiomOrgan Ltd, founded by Professor Zhou Jie of the School of Clinical Medicine, has been one of the beneficiaries at HKU’s Techno-Entrepreneurship Core (TEC), including its new Start-up Connector programme which matches academic entrepreneurs with talent, customers and other resources. Professor Zhou led a team that developed a complete respiratory organoid culture system from adult stem cells, which is the first of its kind to efficiently reconstruct and reproducibly expand the entire human respiratory epithelium in culture plates. She met her industry co-founder at a top-talent meetup event organised by TEC in February 2024, which accelerated development and business growth. The start-up has also received support from TSSSU@HKU, which is administered by the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), and been admitted to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation’s Incu-Bio programme.

“Thanks to the support of the TTO and TEC, we have achieved considerable progress. Our ultimate goal is to realise the great potential of organoid technology and build Hong Kong as a leading international hub of this technology, serving academia and industry locally and worldwide,” she said.

INTRODUCING THE ROBOT CHEF

Combining stir-frying, mixing, and precision heating techniques, the multicooker developed by Professor Chen Guanhua and his team can quickly and efficiently prepare and plate up food. (Courtesy of Hong Kong Economic Journal)

Professor Sun Dong (fourth from right), HKSAR Government’s Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, paid a visit to Hestia Technology Ltd, an HKU start-up founded by Professor Chen Guanhua (fourth from left).

A chemistry professor has developed a robotic multicooker that can automatically add ingredients from the refrigerator to the pot and stir, cook and plate up food. The device, by Chair Professor Chen Guanhua and his team, was inspired by his own experience opening a restaurant 12 years ago, when he encountered a high turnover in chefs. The multicooker can cook up to 200 different recipes from Hunan, Sichuan and Italian cuisines in just a few minutes. Professor Chen and his team, including doctoral, MPhil and bachelor graduates from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, spent years perfecting and testing the device and founded a start-up, Hestia Technology Ltd, to bring it to market. In 2023 they had their first overseas sale to Japan and this year to the US. Professor Chen also uses the multicooker in some of his own restaurants.

“Many restaurants in Hong Kong and elsewhere have difficulty retaining chefs. We have set up a factory in Hong Kong to produce 3,000 multicooker units a year, and we hope our company can grow into a HK$2 billion a year business,” he said.

AI TOOL TO ASSESS CHINESE WRITING

A research team in the Faculty of Education launched the mAI Mind platform, an innovative AI-powered Chinese writing assessment platform for transforming teaching and learning experience in primary and secondary schools.

The Faculty of Education has developed an AI-powered platform to help teachers generate content and assess a student’s Chinese writing performance on various aspects of language. The mAI Mind platform was being piloted in 10 primary schools and four secondary schools in 2024, who so far report that it gives timely and personalised feedback to students and improves their writing attitudes and motivation. The project is led by Professor Elizabeth Loh Ka Yee, Assistant Dean (Knowledge Exchange), who said they are developing the platform’s ability to do school-based grading and plan to extend it to more schools and institutions teaching Chinese in various countries. The project has been supported by a TSSSU@HKU grant and was selected for the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation’s incubation programme in 2020–23.

“The mAI Mind platform adheres to established educational standards and linguistic theories that not only guarantee the relevance and quality of the feedback, but also significantly reduce the time teachers need to spend on the assessment process, allowing them to concentrate on other instructional aspects,” Professor Loh said.

STUDENT INITIATIVES

AI DRUG DISCOVERY START-UP

Introducing the innovative work of Saint Novel Biotech Ltd at the University of Oxford.

An HKU-linked start-up to speed up drug discovery by harnessing generative AI to identify and design dual-purpose therapeutic targets and drugs for ageing and age-related diseases such as cancer, has quickly won numerous competitions overseas, government support from Hong Kong and Mainland China cities, and growing interest from venture capitalists in the US and UK. Saint Novel Biotech Ltd was started when PhD (Bioinformatics) candidate Yin Danqing met PhD (Bioinformatics) graduate Li Zhuoxuan in the Lean Launcher programme, a collaboration of HKU’s DeepTech100 and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP). They had been working on separate projects but decided to co-found Saint Novel, attracting scholars from Nobel Prize winners’ labs in the University of Cambridge, University of Washington and Harvard University to join.

“Our mission is to develop first-in-class, dual-purpose drugs for ageing and age-related diseases to redefine future medicine. We recognise the immense global challenges posed by an ageing population and the escalating prevalence of age-related diseases, so we are focussing our efforts on groundbreaking technologies, such as generative AI, spatial omics and metabolic programming. Our core team is already well-accomplished, having published over 50 papers in prestigious journals and successfully been admitted to the Incu-Bio programme at HKSTP,” Ms Yin said.

WRITE RIGHT

As one of the first cohort of companies at the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy in Qianhai, WeWrites is strategically positioned to expand into the Mainland market.

A student-led company is one of the first 11 start-ups admitted to the HKU Techno-Entrepreneurship Academy in Qianhai, Shenzhen, where its founders are tapping into a wider market. WeWrites Ltd develops affordable, AI-powered educational tools to help teachers and students with a variety of tasks, such as marking, task management, exam preparation, teacher training, and student tutoring and personalised support. The start-up was founded by second-year students from the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Financial Technology programme – Lucas Martins and Calvin Xu, who earlier received mentorship, networking and other support through HKU’s DeepTech100 programme and iDendron. Their plans are to develop the platform further with such things as handwriting recognition and expand to physical locations for lessons and the publication of books.

“The idea for WeWrites came from witnessing the intense competition in Mainland China’s educational landscape, where many talented students struggle with the Gaokao exams,” Mr Martins said. “As a high scorer in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, I wanted to leverage technology to create equal educational opportunities. We now have a team of experienced educators and tech enthusiasts, and we have established partnerships with several Chinese private schools and educational institutions, with more in advanced discussions.”

GREEN INVESTING

Edoardo Francesco Sabatino, CEO of ClimateKick, at the pitching competition of the Hong Kong Green FinTech Summit, a flagship event of Hong Kong Green Week.

Edoardo Francesco Sabatino, a 2023 graduate of the EMBA- Global Asia programme, founded a Green FinTech start-up that is making significant strides in connecting green investors with renewable project developers. ClimateKick was established during Mr Sabatino’s year abroad at Columbia Business School. The team, comprising members from Europe, USA, and Asia, leverages FinTech to equip investors with tools for assessing and monitoring the financial and sustainability performance of firms, while also facilitating capital access for emerging green projects.

Supported by HKU’s DeepTech programme and others, the company initiated fundraising efforts this autumn, with plans for a forthcoming HK$4.5 million round. They were also invited to participate in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s FiNETech series which, among other things, promotes next-level collaboration on GreenTech. Mr Sabatino said ClimateKick also tackles greenwashing by rigorously vetting projects and is developing proprietary climate AI models to offer insights to both green project developers and investors.

“Our strength lies in our specialised focus on climate investments. We are forging trusted relationships with highly technical developers and transparency-driven investors. Our vision is to evolve into a digital green investment bank that seamlessly matches multiple green project opportunities with investors,” he said.

QUALIFLY: PERSONALISING EDUCATION WITH AI

QualiFly was named as a Top 8 Social Start-up in the 2024 Hult Prize Nairobi Global Summit.

A student-led start-up finished in the top eight of the Hult Prize 2024, a global competition that drew 100,000 teams that previously won regional competitions and were selected to represent their country. The Hult Prize is the largest pitch competition in the world run in partnership with the United Nations and challenges youth entrepreneurs to solve pressing issues through social entrepreneurship. The HKU team, QualiFly, is an AI EdTech start-up that disrupts traditional teaching and learning with AI tutors and assistants, providing personalised experiences based on students’ strengths and weaknesses. More than 2,000 users have used QualiFly’s products, which were developed in collaboration with teachers and education technology experts.

The team is led by Matthew Chan, a PCLL candidate, and includes final-year student in the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Applied Artificial Intelligence, Jose Abraham, and recent graduate of that programme Kaustubh Nigami, as well as Jason Cheung from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “Being able to represent Hong Kong and be named a top eight finalist out of 100,000 teams globally has been a significant milestone for us. It has reinforced our belief that AI can enhance education and make it more accessible. The experience has also connected us with a vibrant community of passionate entrepreneurs,” Mr Chan said.

SEEN AND HEARD

RAISING THE PROFILE

The project titled ‘Research and development of the lead Δ42PD1 antibody drug as an immunotherapy against cancers and infections’ led by Professor Chen Zhiwei (centre) was one of the three projects awarded funding under the HKSAR Government’s inaugural RAISe+ Scheme.

Professor Chen Zhiwei, Chair Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy, Suen Chi-Sun Professor in Clinical Science and Director of HKU’s AIDS Institute, received two large grants in 2024 that are propelling the development of new treatments for liver cancer and HIV, respectively. Under the government’s new Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus (RAISe+) Scheme to promote collaboration and the commercialisation of research, Professor Chen received support for a promising antibody drug he developed against cancers and infections, and he has formed a start-up Orimmune to take the drug to clinical trials with industry partner, Immuno Cure.

Professor Chen also received a Theme-based Research Scheme grant this year to advance a therapeutic vaccine he developed that has potential for ART-free HIV-1 control. Working again with Immuno Cure, as well as the Chinese University of Hong Kong and participating hospitals in Mainland China, the vaccine will undergo an Investigator Initiated Trial and phase two clinical trial.

“These are two big projects to be happening at the same time, but we have already built our teams and we have support from the company and the hospital teams. The beauty of this work is that we identified targets and created new therapies, over more than a decade of work. We are doing first-in-class new drug discovery and clinical development,” he said.

AI DOCTOR IN YOUR POCKET

Vitogram achieves 97% accuracy in estimating heart rate and 81% accuracy in detecting significant valvular heart disease.

A software system that can turn an ordinary mobile phone into a medical-grade stethoscope was awarded a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury at the 49th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. Vitogram uses AI to collect and analyse heart sounds for early valvular heart disease detection. Preliminary analysis of the first 363 patients in a clinical study revealed that the phone-based AI model could detect significant valvular disease with an accuracy rate of 81 % – similar to a traditional electronic stethoscope. Its success also bodes well for its use in personalised health management, heart disease screening, use of telemedicine and remote disease monitoring.

A start-up company, Vitome Ltd, has been established to commercialise the technology and Vitogram has been registered as a medical device with the US Food and Drug Administration. It was developed by a team led by Professor Joshua Ho Wing Kei in the School of Biomedical Sciences, who calls it an “AI doctor in your pocket”.

“Detection and analysis of heart sounds is just the first application of Vitogram. We are developing additional sound-based AI systems that fully harness this under-appreciated modality in the field of digital health, and we are running clinical studies to fully validate the applicability of our various digital health systems,” he said.

SUPPORT+ FOR CANCER PATIENTS

The SUPPORT+ team had booths in different hospitals to promote cancer awareness and prevention.

SUPPORT+ is an initiative by HKUMed’s Department of Clinical Oncology, led by Professor Wendy Chan Wing Lok, to support advanced cancer patients and their families. It offers comprehensive information in three languages on cancer management, palliative care, and social support resources through a mobile app, dedicated website and active social media engagement. The content is tailored for patients and caregivers of various cancer types and was created in collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Social Sciences. Registered users, primarily patients and caregivers from the Hospital Authority, can record symptoms on the app and communicate directly with palliative care nurses. SUPPORT+ has been instrumental in aiding families through challenging times.

“Our goal is to enhance home care during the arduous journey of cancer. Over the past year, more than 1,300 families have found our service invaluable. We plan to integrate advanced technologies, including AI, and add more videos and animations to enrich user experience and expand our reach,” said Professor Chan, adding that SUPPORT+ remains dedicated to evolving and meeting the needs of cancer patients and their families, ensuring effective care management and robust support.