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HKU dental professionals invent “super” toothbrush to clean all dental surfaces
HKU Faculty of Dentistry Honorary Associate Professor and local dentist Dr TC Ng, together with HKU Faculty of Dentistry Professor Jin Lijian, have designed an “NJ Toothbrush” which is the only toothbrush in the world targeting all dental surfaces including those niches often unreachable. The team said in a short two minutes’ brushing using the NJ Toothbrush, users would be able to approach major anatomical features and niches. It can therefore maximise the control of plaque biofilms and resultant oral/periodontal inflammation along with regular professional oral healthcare. A PCT patent application has been filed for the innovation. HKU expects the NJ Toothbrush to be available on the market in two years’ time, and the price would be about the same as electronic toothbrush.
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HKU Department of Architecture helps SoCO to build social houses for street sleepers
HKU Faulty of Architecture works with Society for Community Organization(SoCO) to renovate four old units in Tai Kok Tsui into “social houses” for single street sleepers. A total of 24 units were built using steel plate components. It could accommodate ex-street sleepers for up to three years.
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HKU teams win top prizes at the 18th APICTA Awards
HKU teams won two top prizes at the 18th Asia Pacific Information and Communication Technology Alliance (APICTA) Awards held in Guangzhou from October 10-13. Fano Labs, an HKU A.I. spin-off company specialising in speech and natural language processing (NLP) technologies won the top award in the “Business Services - ICT Solutions” category. Tale, a three-student team project on an AI-enabled solution for the coaching of presentation skills won the top award in the “Student - Tertiary Students Project” category respectively. The Awards are dubbed as the Oscars of the ICT arena in the Asia Pacific region. HKU Pro-Vice Chancellor and Vice President (Research) Professor Andy Hor said the awards strengthened the University’s confidence in its drive towards innovation and start-ups, which are also aligned with the current focus of Hong Kong, as mentioned by the Chief Executive in her latest Policy Address.
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HKU set up online counselling platform “Open Up” for Hong Kong young people
Funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, HKU Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP), together with three leading youth non-profit organisations, Caritas-Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and The Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, have set up the Jockey Club Online Youth Emotional Support “Open Up”, an online counselling platform for young people aged between 11 and 35, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Those in need can message counsellors at “hkopenup” on social media platforms including Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WeChat. The project team led by Professor Paul Yip, Director of CSRP, polled 1,527 and 1,732 young people using mobile phone and online surveys respectively. Findings reveal that young people prefer text messaging to phone calls or face-to-face conversations. Online respondents tended to have more emotional problems than phone call respondents, among them 46% had considered suicide and 8% had attempted suicide.
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HKU students win Apple APP innovation competition
HKU students from the Department of Computer Science got excellent results in “2018 Mobile Application Innovation Contest”. Three of the students won first prize in a competition organised by Apple and Mainland’s Zhejiang University, which is open to students in tertiary education. The students spent two months to design “Air Guitar”, a motion-sensing guitar simulator app for beginners which uses a smartphone instead of a guitar pick for users to practice plucking skills. Another group of HKU students also won an award with their “Luminosite” APP. The design combines navigation and AI obstacle awareness system to provide environmental information to people who are visually-impaired through voice and telephone vibration. The competition received about 600 APP designs and projects submitted by applicants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other places.
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HKU-led study shows 60% of shark species threatened by shark fin trade
An HKU-led study found that global shark catches now exceed one million tonnes per year, more than doubled what they were six decades ago, threatening 60% of shark species.
HKU School of Biological Sciences Professor Yvonne Sadovy, lead author of the study said Hong Kong is the port of entry for about half of all officially traded dried shark fins globally, which is around 6,000 tonnes, but estimated that only 12% of shark fisheries are considered sustainable, while 25,000 tonnes of dried fins each year originate from unsustainable and often illegal fisheries. A 2017 study showed that 33% of shark fins found on sale in Hong Kong’s dried seafood stores were from species listed as Threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN). The study researchers urge consumers to reject shark fin products altogether, and for restaurant chains to refrain from selling and serving shark fin immediately.Read More -
HKU biologist suggests delay in ivory ban in Hong Kong may spur poaching
A new study has examined how recent ivory bans – and gaps thereof – could help or harm the preservation of elephants. Ivory trade has fueled the rampant and ongoing poaching of these important animals across Africa, leading to unprecedented population declines throughout much of the continent. The study’s lead author, Dr Luke Gibson, Associate Professor of the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China and Honorary Assistant Professor at the HKU School of Biological Sciences, suggested that the closure of mainland China's domestic ivory market at the end of 2017 may shift more of the trade to Hong Kong as the full ban in Hong Kong won’t be implemented until the end of 2021. The researchers believe that mismatch in timing of the two bans may be inadvertently widening the window for illegal trading and smuggling, fueling the poaching of elephants in Africa.
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