Editorial | Hong Kong’s tech talent of tomorrow shines amid US-China rivalry
University teams were big winners at Silicon Valley festival, showing city’s education efforts are paying off
It aims to showcase cutting-edge inventions from around the world and connect inventors with manufacturers, commercial agents, investors and promoters. It’s a place for science, technology and commerce but not politics. And if you are from Hong Kong, it’s even more gratifying this year. Teams representing eight institutions from the city won 27 gold medals, 16 silver medals and eight special prizes, making them collectively one of the big winners at the event.
Lingnan University took home the most awards, with eight gold medals and five prizes spanning fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), automated manufacturing and transport.
That is rather good for an institution mainly known for its specialities in the liberal arts. Among its AI awards is a fascinating one for fencing training, which analyses fencers’ movements and provides individualised feedback through wearable sensors and deep learning programming. It won a gold medal as well as the Prize of the International Federation of Inventors’ Association.
Meanwhile, the University of Hong Kong took the grand prize for next-generation polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to screen for cancer and infectious diseases. PCR is a revolutionary technique that can rapidly amplify specific segments of DNA, enabling the production of millions of copies from a small initial sample. It is cost-effective, accurate and has become an essential technique for disease diagnosis, genetic testing and DNA research.
Three other local universities won prizes. Polytechnic University secured nine awards, with five gold medals for innovations including a wireless cardiac “electronic skin” and an intelligent brace to treat scoliosis. City University and Baptist University secured awards in healthcare, clean energy and biomedical research.