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TechTalk – Micro-robots Powered by Stimuli-responsive Materials

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Conventional mechatronic, hydraulic and pneumatic motors and actuators are used for large-scale robots from ≥10 cm to the human size. At the other, nanometric end of the length scale, nano-robots are powered by molecular motors. However, a number of applications in compact environments require robotic devices in the size range of 10 µm to 10 mm, but these are too small to be powered by the conventional mechatronic systems, and too large for molecular motors. Such a length scale ideally suits a few types of high-performance stimuli-responsive actuating materials that are emerging out of a very active research field in the past two decades, with examples including shape-memory polymers and metals, nanoporous noble metals, reactive polymers and liquid-crystal elastomers, carbon-based materials and transitional metal oxides. In addition to high actuating power densities, some of these materials also offer built-in sensory functions such as resistivity responses to mechanical, heat and humidity changes in the environment, and even energy generation capabilities. Integration of these materials and their signal flows in compact designs thus poses a novel strategy for robotics at the micro length scale. This talk will review some recent progress in this field.

Young Scholar TechTalk – Subgraph Federated Learning with Missing Neighbor Generation

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

In computer science, a graph is a network modeling objects and their unique interactions. The graph learning model is a specialized machine learning model that learns on graphs. Similar to traditional machine learning models, a well-performed graph learning model can capture the global data distribution with sufficient and unbiased training data. However, in a distributed subgraph system, most data owners only possess small amounts of the data (small subgraphs) in their local systems and can have unpredictable biases.
In this talk, the speaker will introduce this novel yet realistic setting – subgraph federated learning, which aims to let distributed data owners collaboratively train a powerful and generalized graph learning model without directly sharing their subgraphs. Towards this setting, two major techniques are proposed by the research team. (1) FedSage, which trains a GraphSage model based on FedAvg to integrate node features, link structures, and task labels on multiple local subgraphs; (2) FedSage+, which trains a missing neighbor generator along FedSage to deal with missing links across local subgraphs. Empirical results and theoretical analysis of proposed models respectively demonstrate the effectiveness and prove the generalization ability.

TechTalk – Cyber-Physical Internet (CPI) for Cross-Border Logistics of Manufactured Products

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

The vision of “Cyber-Physical Internet (CPI)” is to establish a new paradigm for sending and receiving manufactured goods just like sending and receiving instant messages over the internet using online chatting platforms. Four innovations are critical to achieve this ultimate vision: (1) digitization architecture for entangling the flows of information and materials into one flow of cyber-physical objects for manufacturing and logistics operations; (2) network services for configuring local aera network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) and catchment area network (CAN); (3) value mechanisms to motivate and facilitate participation and collaboration between multiple stakeholders including shippers, carriers, forwarders; and (4) decision analytics for synchronized logistics planning, scheduling and execution. These innovations are based upon some fundamental breakthroughs of CPI routers and TCP/PIP protocols that are yet to be developed.

Tech Talk – Innovation of Originality for Solving Sand Shortage Crisis around the World including Hong Kong

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Sand is the most exploited raw solid material in the world and used for construction of buildings, roads, railways, bridges, tunnels and beaches. It is also used to make the glass and silicon chips. The annual consumption for use in glass, concrete and construction materials has reached 50 billion tones, which is extremely high. Consequently, according to United Nations’ reports, the world is facing a shortage crisis of sand, as one of the greatest sustainability challenges of the 21st century. Such sand shortage crisis around the world has affected the use of sand in Hong Kong since Hong Kong does not produce any sand and all the sand used in Hong Kong is imported from Mainland China. In this Teck Talk, Professor Yue will present his technological innovation of originality. His innovation can solve this global sand shortage crisis. More importantly, his innovation can provide a stable supply of quality sand for construction and industry and offer new raw material resources for developing new industry in Hong Kong. Professor Yue has discovered that the local ordinary soil in Hong Kong can be converted into the materials of sand and clay. The sand is silica sand and mainly quartz mineral. The clay is mainly kaolinite mineral. Both materials can be used as the raw solid materials in construction and other industry. Professor Yue will demonstrate that his technical innovation is simple, environmental-friendly, sustainable and cost-effective and can be applied to many places around the world for producing quality sand materials.

Smart Water Auditing for Hong Kong

Innovation Wing Two, Second exhibition / By

The project is an integral part of a flagship research initiative being carried out under the auspices of the HKU Center for Water Technology and Policy. The Water Centre was jointly established by the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Social Sciences to conduct cutting-edge research on water science, technology and policy issues that pertain to the broader urban sustainability agenda. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the members of our inter-disciplinary project team. They come from the Department of Civil Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Politics and Public Administration and the Faculty of Social Sciences.

nD Blockchain for ESG Reporting

Innovation Wing Two, Second exhibition / By

The introduction of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Guide (Guide) by HKEX in 2013, and the subsequent upgrade of the Guide’s reporting obligation to “comply or explain” in 2016, have significantly moved the dial for Hong Kong issuers’ ESG reporting. However, ESG reporting faces many bottlenecks, including data authenticity, consistency, and transparency. Professor Huang’s team developed an IoT- and blockchain-based platform to upgrade the ESG reporting industry.

CHITCHAT: Clinical History Taking Chatbot Mobile App for Medical Students

Innovation Wing Two, Second exhibition / By

Undergraduate medical education has been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. While lectures can be easily conducted online via Zoom, clinical bedside teachings, including training of history taking skills from patients, cannot be easily replaced. A novel chatbot mobile app for training of undergraduate medical students’ clinical history taking skills was developed.

MindPipe: High-performance and Carbon-efficient Four-dimensional Parallel Training System for Large AI Models

Innovation Wing Two, Second exhibition / By

MindPipe, the first 4D parallel training system for large DNN models, has the following objectives:
1. Greatly reducing load imbalance in GPU pipeline parallel stages; 2. Effectively resolving contention of the 3D parallel communication tasks; 3. Deterministically scheduling multiple subnets to be trained in supernet parallelism, a novel parallel dimension proposed by MindPipe; and 4. Automatic near-optimal 4D configuration of GPUs considering both DNN converging efficiency and GPU utilization.

Wireless AI Perception: A New Sense for Machine Intelligence

Innovation Wing Two, Second exhibition / By

Computer vision enables machines to “see”. The capability of machine vision based on cameras, however, is fundamentally limited to a certain field-of-view with good lighting conditions – they cannot see through any occlusions or in the dark.
Wireless sensing opens a new sense for machine perception to decipher the physical world, even in absolute darkness and through walls and obstacles.
It can capture human activities invisibly in a contactless and sensorless way.