appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Richard Chen

Imagine a woman sitting at her vanity as a robotic arm reaches across the table, picks up her lipstick, and applies it to her lips while running through her morning schedule.
Meet Iron Bestie, a personalised make-up assistant that just snatched top honours at what organisers billed as Hong Kong’s first physical artificial intelligence hackathon, beating more than 160 global competitors in an intense 48-hour hardware-meets-software sprint this week.
Powered by vision-language models and voice recognition, the AI arm can identify make-up on a table, select the right product based on a user’s calendar, and apply it directly to their face. To keep personal routines secure, local redaction middleware ensured sensitive user data remained private, the investors said.
The winning team included an unexpected duo: Luo Yuqing, a business information systems graduate from the City University of Hong Kong who said she had no formal coding background, and Zeng Yitao, a senior algorithm developer from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen.
When the robotic hand wrapped around my wrist on the first day, it felt like I was holding hands with someone I like
Luo Yuqing, City University graduate
For Luo, who only started tinkering with AI out of curiosity a year ago, taking home the Grand MVP award in her debut hackathon transformed how she sees robotics, thanks in part to an unexpected glitch on day one.
“When the robotic hand wrapped around my wrist on the first day, it felt like I was holding hands with someone I like,” Luo said.
“That tangible interaction removed the distance between human and robot – it made me realise how alive embodied AI can feel.”
For Zeng, who engineered the motion-control algorithms behind the arm’s movements, victory came down to pure execution.
“We won primarily because our product was complete – every single pipeline from voice interaction to physical grasping was fully operational,” he said. “Hackathons act as a low-cost simulation platform where strict deadlines force you to rapidly identify technical gaps and test team dynamics.”
Hosted by venture firm Brizan Ventures alongside SpacemiT and alloop.ai from Sunday to Wednesday, the competition drew more than 1,000 applicants worldwide before narrowing to 160 finalists – nearly 80 per cent of them students, according to the organisers.
Staged at dual venues at the Hong Kong Science Park in Sha Tin and its Shenzhen hub, teams raced to build functional physical prototypes across five commercial tracks before pitching live to judges.
Yet despite their trophy, Zeng acknowledged that a 48-hour build was far from a commercial product.
“Our algorithm wasn’t particularly complex, and two days weren’t enough for us to build market-ready embodied AI, which requires massive capital and compute,” he said.
The event also showcased younger talent, including an all-secondary school crew from Sha Tin College.
“It was our first time tackling a hackathon on this scale against university and PhD students,” one team member said. “Navigating the stressful moments together showed us how physical AI functions in real life and gave us confidence for our future tech paths.”


Tesla auditing Chinese suppliers ahead of Optimus roll-out: sources

Huawei accused of stealing robot tech to get hands on T-Mobile’s trade secrets

Scott Bessent confirms weekend meeting with He Lifeng days before Xi’s US visit

Unitree’s US$30 billion stock wipe-off spurs regulatory caution on humanoid robot IPOs

Robotics

Coded for glamour and glory, AI make-up arm steals the show in Hong Kong hackathon

Personalised make-up assistant Iron Bestie is powered by vision-language models and voice recognition. Photo: Handout

Iron Bestie beat more than 160 other finalists. Photo: Handout

The AI talent war: tech giants court researchers years ahead of graduation

Students pose for graduation photos on the campus of Zhejiang University of Technology, June 2, 2026. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

College students at the Large-scale Recruitment Fair for Science and Engineering Universities in Harbin, China, March 24, 2026. Photo: Getty Images

China’s AI revenue projected to reach US$13b on breakthroughs, adoption: Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs boosted its year-end annualised recurring revenue projection for mainland Chinese AI models to US$13 billion from US$10 billion. Photo: Shutterstock

The MiniMax booth at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, on July 17. Photo: AP

Lenovo Capital takes aim at robotics, coding agents in  ‘sniper’ AI investment strategy

A Lenovo robot forms a heart shape with its hands during the 2025 World AI Conference in Shanghai. Photo: VCG

Ant Group’s embodied AI arm Robbyant kicks off external funding

Robbyant, an embodied intelligence company under Ant Group, showcases its R1 robot, which is capable of cooking complete meals with minimal human intervention, at the technology exhibition during the 2025 Inclusion Conference in Shanghai on September 12, 2025. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Tech

Tech Trends

News

Hong Kong

Personalised make-up assistant handed top honours after lipstick demonstration, beating more than 160 global competitors in finals


Personalised make-up assistant handed top honours after lipstick demonstration, beating more than 160 global competitors in finals.


Coded for glamour and glory, AI make-up arm steals the show in Hong Kong hackathon

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Personalised make-up assistant handed top honours after lipstick demonstration, beating more than 160 global competitors in finals

Personalised make-up assistant handed top honours after lipstick demonstration, beating more than 160 global competitors in finals