Zhu Wanyi

TechTalk – The West’s Fading Factory Floor

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

May 5, 2026 (Tuesday) 10:30am-11:30am
In this talk, I’ll walk you through my research on medical and industrial exoskeletons at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as the development work at the two companies I founded in the United States. I’ll then focus on two main points.
First, the darker side of the overwhelming push across U.S. universities to encourage entrepreneurial work.
Second—and despite the first point—my next venture: how it took shape in my mind, influenced by the geographic and political landscape of West–East economic rivalries.
My goal is to create genuine motivation for some of you to join me, either as a co-founder or collaborator, to help bring this new venture to maturity.

TechTalk – Cell Mechanics: from Disease Progression to Tissue Morphogenesis and Mechanotransduction

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

May 15, 2026 (Friday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
In this talk, Professor Yuan Lin will introduce their recent efforts in elucidating the role of mechanics/physics in different cellular and tissue-level processes. First, he will demonstrate that mechano-transduction via intercellular integrin complexes between the invading spheroid leader cell and mesothelial cells triggers and augments mesothelium apical constriction, which then leads to the shrinkage of mesothelial cell-cell junctions and eventually induces their rupture. At the same time, the growth of intercellular integrin adhesion causes wetting at the spheroid-mesothelium interface and induces deformation of spheroid cells, further facilitating its invasion into the mesothelium. After that, he will talk about how collective active contraction of cells and their interactions with outside dictate the pattern formation of tissues. Finally, he will show how tubulin family proteins (i.e., isotypes) regulate the microtubule accessibility for luminal proteins via the force-induced reversible protofilament separation, and ultimately mechanosensitive response of the cell.

TechTalk – Future Directions of Robotic Surgery: Interventional, Ingestible, Injectable, Implanted Robotic Devices

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

April 20, 2026 (Monday) 10:30am-11:30am
Robotic technologies are becoming pervasive in healthcare, with a lot of advanced platforms preclinically or clinically employed and providing a great benefit for both patients and the entire healthcare system. Robots for minimally invasive surgery, robots for radiation therapy delivery, robots for steering catheters and miniature devices in the human body are already a reality and pose interesting challenges to clinicians and engineers in terms of controllability, safety and navigation.
In addition to robotic instrumentation used in acute setting for interventional applications and minimally invasive surgery, robots can be also used for chronic monitoring and therapy inside the human body. Implantable and ingestible in vivo robots are emerging as leading alternatives for continuous therapy, and are featured by additional challenges, in terms of biocompatibility, safety, communication and powering.
Starting from the speaker research experience, this talk illustrates the challenges for development and clinical translations of robots operating in acute and chronic setting.

HKAE TechTalk – Fiber-based Tactile Emulation Mechanisms and Intelligent Wearables

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

April 21, 2026 (Tuesday) 4:00-5:00pm
True human-like tactile emulation technology aims to replicate human sensory experience. The study includes human-like fabric tactile simulators that can perceive and adjust interface forces and temperatures by changing hardness, size, surface morphology and thermal properties at mm- and cm-scales. Various operating mechanisms of tactile sensory simulation are explored, from which fiber-based multi-mode tactile sensory emulation wearable devices are developed together with their applications. This leads to a new research direction that further enhances the level of scientific and technological innovation for healthcare, Internet of Things, smart cities, art technology, robotics, education, sports, personal protection, fashion, textiles and entertainment.

TechTalk – Embodied Photography and Cinematography

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

April 23, 2026 (Thursday) 10:30pm-11:30pm
Embodied photography and cinematography require a robot to integrate aesthetic judgment, camera control, and scene understanding in real time. This talk presents a unified view of the problem, spanning how robots can learn photographic style from human demonstrations, how they can robustly control focus and exposure in challenging lighting conditions, and how these capabilities can enable new applications such as intelligent birdwatching. We first discuss imitation learning methods that capture photographer intent and composition. We then cover event-based autofocus and auto-exposure systems that maintain image quality under low light and extreme illumination. Finally, we explore open-world tracking and language-guided observation for targeted wildlife capture. Together, these directions suggest a future in which robots act as active visual partners, not just passive imaging devices.

TechTalk – Forge New Quality Productive Forces and Build a Powerful Country in Flexible Electronics

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

March 25, 2026 (Wednesday) 10:30pm-11:30pm
Flexible electronics is a totally new technological field sharing equal performance with traditional microelectronics. It has unique features such as transformability, portability, light-weight, and large-area application, etc. It is a highly integrated form of disruptive technological innovation. Industrial Internet is a result of the new generation of information technology integrated with manufacturing, which is now driving industrial economy forward from digitalization to closer networking and smarter development. “Flexible Electronics+” will lead the future scientific and technological development of China, improve China’s national competitiveness, and mutually promote the deep integration of networking with smart development and high-quality industrial development. It can give a powerful boost to China’s switch from a big power to a strong power, which is significant in changing the global economic, profit and safety patterns.

TechTalk – MIT’s Research, Education, and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

March 12, 2026 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
MIT is a world-leading university that not only produces breakthrough fundamental research but has also spawned over 30,000 active companies—together representing the world’s tenth-largest economy. MIT has likewise pioneered numerous influential educational initiatives. In this talk, the speaker will share personal observations on MIT’s research, education, and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

HKAE TechTalk – Advanced AI-based Adaptive Dynamic Traffic Control

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

March 24, 2026 (Tuesday) 4:00-5:00pm
To effectively design adaptive traffic signal control for congested traffic networks, it is essential to account for three fundamental characteristics of traffic flow: (i) its dynamic nature, (ii) spatial patterns, and (iii) stochastic behaviour. In this presentation, we will discuss how these three key attributes are captured and embedded within a rigorous analytical framework, which is then transformed into an intelligent traffic control system through AI-based computational techniques. This system, known as Dynamic Intersection Signal Control Optimization (DISCO), is validated using VISSIM simulations and tested in real-world environments. The applications span diverse scenarios—including roundabouts and adaptive area-wide control—demonstrating DISCO’s versatility and effectiveness in practice.

TechTalk – From Brain to Neuromorphic Chips: A Tale of Two Systems Dancing

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

March 5, 2026 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
In the quest for truly intelligent computing, we’ve discovered that the most powerful breakthroughs emerge when two complementary systems “dance” together rather than working in isolation. This talk presents four distinct research achievements that surprisingly share a common thread: dual-system collaboration. We demonstrate (1) brain-machine co-evolution enabling real-time drone control with 20% performance gains, (2) data-hardware co-alignment through adaptive ADCs achieving 146× energy efficiency, (3) noise-driven dual-network training reducing power by 21×, and (4) security-compute co-location on RRAM chips saving 17.6× area. Beyond individual technical merits, these works reveal a fundamental design principle spanning from biological to artificial intelligence: true intelligence doesn’t arise from perfecting single systems, but from orchestrating the dance between complementary partners. This insight opens new pathways for neuromorphic computing, brain-computer interfaces, and human-machine collaborative intelligence.