KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU survey reveals gaming addiction problem among Hong Kong upper primary students

The Social and Health Psychology Laboratory of the HKU Department of Psychology conducted a "Survey on the Gaming Habits among Hong Kong Upper Primary students" from March to May in 2017. A total of 2,006 Primary 4 to 6 students were surveyed. Results reveal that the problem of gaming addiction is prevalent among the students. The research team is concerned about the needs of children and parents, and so they built a Game Over Programme (GOP) website to provide information and downloadable resources for the prevention of gaming addiction. The website was kick-started on June 20 to provide background information about the project and will be fully launched in early August.

HKU graduates' start-up team develops new bone substitute

Novus, a start-up company formed by an HKU Faculty of Medicine PhD graduate with two fellow PhD students and a winning team of the HKU DreamCatchers 100K Entrepreneurship, developed a new bone substitute which can be applied in a variety of bone-related surgical procedures and will soon be tested in animal total hip replacement. The company will partner with CityU's School of Veterinary Medicine to sponsor NGO Paws Guardian free surgeries for stray dogs.

Global Youth Entrepreneurs Forum 2017 takes place at HKU

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and HKU DreamCatchers jointly organised a two-day Global Youth Entrepreneurs Forum 2017 attended by over 1,000 young entrepreneurs from 33 countries and regions around the world under the theme "WE THE FUTURE".

HKU launches first-of-its-kind Water Footprint Calculator to raise water conservation awareness

The "Jockey Club Water Initiative on Sustainability and Engagement," initiated by the Faculty of Social Sciences, with a donation of over HK$14.7 million by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, launched the first-of-its-kind Water Footprint Calculator mobile app, focusing on food and daily dining habits. This innovative and engaging tool, integrated with evidence-based scientific data, could raise public awareness of the importance of heeding water conservation and integrate the concept of water sustainability into our daily life, subsequently leading to a change in attitudes and behaviour in favour of water conservation. The first phase of the Water Footprint Calculator covers more than 90 local popular dishes, snacks, and drinks. Through the mobile app, the public can calculate the water footprint of their choices of daily meals, either by eatery type (such as Chinese restaurant or Hong Kong-style restaurant) or by food category (such as rice/noodles or dim sum), and understand the total amount of freshwater needed to produce the ingredients of those dishes.

Ocean Park, CHSC and HKU hold Happy Kids • Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017

Ocean Park hosted a presentation for the Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017, organised in collaboration the Committee on Home-School Co-operation (CHSC) and HKU Department of Social Work and Social Administration for the third consecutive year. The theme this year was to encourage students to develop a positive attitude and appreciate the happy moments in life. Since the launch of the Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme 2017 in mid-March this year, over 6,700 students have received awards. Participating students were required to record every happy moment and something they are grateful for each day in a journal and each school then selected and rewarded 15 students who exhibited the most positivity. Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration said the number of student suicides remained alarmingly high. This year’s Happy Kids · Bountiful Life Award Scheme helped strengthen students’ mental health and prevent youth suicides.

HKU mechanical engineering students won the Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition

Team DAELead, a team of four third-year mechanical engineering students from The University of Hong Kong, has been selected by an expert team of judges as the winner ofthe Airbus Fly Your Ideas 2017 global student competition. Team DAELead beat fierce global competition to win the €30,000 first prize with their effective design for a Private Stowage Compartment (PSC) underneath passenger’s feet. The HKU team was among the top 5 teams, shortlisted from 365 entries globally, to spend a week at the Airbus ProtoSpace facility in Toulouse, France to visualise, prototype and test their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment, before presenting them at the final.

HKU and NGOs organise the first psychosocial intervention programme for children with eczema and parents

Eczema is the most common paediatric skin disease prevalent in around 30% of Hong Kong children. The HKU Department of Social Work and Social Administration, the Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation will jointly offer the territory's first non-pharmaceutical intervention training programme for children with eczema and their parents, so as to enhance the holistic well-being of the parents and the self-esteem, emotional coping and resilience of children in dealing with the disease, as well as facilitate better parent-child relationship in spite of their eczema experience. In a pilot study conducted in 2016 with 27 pairs of parent-child dyad, the results revealed significant improvement in the parents’ psychological and spiritual well-being after the group intervention.