TechTalk

HKAE TechTalk – Nature-Inspired Solutions to Water-Energy Nexus

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

January 20, 2026 (Tuesday) 4:00-5:00pm
Nature is an expert in water and energy management. Over billions of years’ evolution, biological systems have orchestrated a variety of principles to regulate mass and energy transport, especially by harnessing elegant surfaces and interfaces.
This talk will present our recent development on proposing a field-matching principle that provides a new framework for surfaces and interface designs to achieve efficient water-energy nexus. This principle suggests that by tailoring the heterogeneous surfaces to reconstruct the fluid field and the physical gradient field, the two originally mismatched fields can be perfectly matched to maximize the energy output. Such a field-matching principle is also substantiated by introducing the matching coefficient, which serves as an important metric of interface design to mediate the transport and energy processes. The common feature of this principle across diverse fields allows us to establish a unified potential-energy equation, which complements the well-established theoretical framework of energy conversion and helps to guide the development of new materials and systems, even involving acoustic, optical, and magnetic fields.

TechTalk – A Station Location Design Problem in a Bike-Sharing System with Both Conventional and Electric Shared Bikes

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

January 15, 2026 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
Bike-sharing systems (BSSs) have emerged in many cities worldwide. One key issue regarding the strategic design of BSSs is the deployment of bike stations. Innovations in technology have enabled new types of bikes, such as shared e-bikes, to work alongside conventional shared bikes. However, existing studies on bike station location design mainly focus on single bike type, and there is a lack of a theoretical model to determine the optimal bike station locations for a BSS where both conventional shared bikes and e-bikes are considered. This study investigates the station location design problem in a BSS with conventional shared bikes and e-bikes. Problem formulation, solution method, and numerical examples are presented to offer key insights into the planning of BSSs.

HKAE TechTalk – AI and Health – Can we live longer with AI?

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

December 18, 2025 (Thursday) 4:00-5:00pm
Hong Kong is one of the places with the longest life expectancy in the world. Many attributes this to the success of the healthcare system. The public healthcare system offers high quality healthcare services to all residents, ensuring no one is deprived of adequate healthcare due to lack of means.
Hong Kong’s health system, however, faces huge challenges from the aging population and rapidly advancing medical technology. These two biggest challenges have become the major drivers of healthcare costs, leaving questions on sustainability and accessibility. We are seeing Artificial Intelligence (AI) disrupting many aspects of health and healthcare delivery. Will AI help to address these challenges? How can AI help?

TechTalk – Nanomechanics of Semiconductors for Deep Strain Engineering

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 27, 2025 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
Under strain, the physical properties of semiconductors can undergo significant changes. However, bulk semiconductor crystals are usually rigid and brittle, making it challenging to achieve high strain levels. Our experiments show that by microfabricating semiconductors like silicon and diamond into micro/nanostructures, they can approach their theoretical strength and sustain ultralarge elastic deformation, opening a new pathway for deep elastic strain engineering of semiconductors via nanomechanics. To realize such strain-engineered device applications, we microfabricated single-crystalline diamond microbridge arrays and achieved sample-wide uniform elastic strains of up to ~10% under uniaxial tensile loading. This ultralarge strain significantly reduced diamond’s bandgap by >2eV or converted diamond from an indirect to a direct bandgap semiconductor, demonstrating great potential for wide bandgap semiconductors and optoelectronics. Moreover, we have extended deep elastic strain engineering to two-dimensional material systems. This includes pioneering the first tensile and shear tests on free-standing monolayer 2D materials, such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, as well as their homo- and heterostructures (e.g., twisted bilayer graphene). These studies not only reveal the anomalous nanomechanical properties of 2D materials, but also underscore the potential of elastic strain engineering (up to ~6%) for tuning 2D electronic and optoelectronic devices.

TechTalk – Capturing More than a Beautiful Picture – Applying Smartphone Imaging to Clinical Screening and Monitoring

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 11, 2025 (Tuesday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
Smartphone cameras are advancing rapidly every year. While smarter smartphone photography can now produce stunning, eye-appealing photos, it can also be applied to clinical applications. In this Tech Talk, Professor Terence Leung will share their team’s experiences in using smartphones to (a) screen newborn babies for significant jaundice in Ghana and the UK, (b) screen pregnant women in India and young children in Ghana for anaemia, and (c) monitoring the deterioration (decompensation) of cirrhosis patients. Technical issues such as the effects of ambient lighting, differences in the spectral sensitives of colour sensors in different smartphones, and other environmental effects will also be discussed. The talk will end with a discussion on the future trend in smartphone imaging and its impacts on medical imaging.

HKAE TechTalk – AI + IoT + Construction = ?

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 18, 2025 (Tuesday) 4:00-5:00pm
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the construction industry, driving innovation and efficiency like never before. AI enhances decision-making through predictive analytics, process automation, and real-time insights, while IoT connects devices and systems, enabling seamless communication and data collection. With the introduction of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) and Multi-trade Integrated Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MiMEP), this synergy further optimizes off-site prefabrication, improving precision, reducing waste, and accelerating project timelines. From smart sensors monitoring site conditions to AI-driven schedules, this convergence paves the way for smart, sustainable, and advanced construction solutions.

TechTalk – Comprehensive Interfacial Modifications for Improving the Efficiency and Stability of Rigid and Flexible Optoelectronics

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 13, 2025 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
Rigid and flexible optoelectronics devices (OEDs), e.g., solar cells (SCs), LEDs, and photodetectors (PDs) have been widely investigated for potential applications from solar farms to buildings, wearable electronics, and biomedical sensors. The poor heterogeneous interfaces between different layers of OED structures will cause irreversible degradation. In this talk, we will discuss new approaches to enhance the interfaces from electrodes to active layers to achieve high-performance foldable OEDs. While typical transparent electrodes, e.g., indium tin oxide (ITO), are costly and brittle, we developed a new class of foldable transparent electrodes through the unique triple atomic interfacial integrations of composite materials[1], showing superior device stability against mechanical-electrical-moisture operation with a folding radius of 0.75mm. We further improve device performance by several strategies, including sublattice structuring, adhesion enhancement, and strain relaxation of SCs[2-7], synergetic ligand designs of LEDs[8-10], and crystallization enhancement of PDs[11-12]. We demonstrated SCs with 25.8% efficiency and over 2000 hours operational stability[3], pure primary-color ultra-flexible LEDs with prolonged stability[8] and PDs with detectivity surplus III-V semiconductor ones[11].

TechTalk – Rydberg Atomic Receiver: Next Frontier of Communications and Sensing

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 6, 2025 (Thursday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
The advancement of Rydberg atoms in quantum information technology is driving a paradigm shift from classical receivers to Rydberg atomic receivers (RARE). RAREs utilize the electron transition phenomenon of highly-excited atoms to interact with electromagnetic (EM) waves, thereby enabling the detection of wireless signals. Operating at the quantum scale, such new receivers have the potential to breakthrough the sensitivity limit of classical receivers, sparking a revolution in wireless communications. In this talk, I will first introduce the fundamentals of RAREs, covering their definition and properties, the interaction of Rydberg atoms with EM waves, as well as the electromagnetically-induced-transparency based quantum measurement. Then, the pros and cons of of RAREs compared as opposed to classical receivers will be discussed. The second part of this talk will present our latest progress in RARE aided communications and sensing, ranging from MIMO communications, sensing architecture, and integrated communication and sensing. The talk will be concluded with some promising future directions on integration of RARE into modern wireless communication systems.

Young Scholar TechTalk – Towards Resilient Intelligence in 6G Wireless Networks

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

November 4, 2025 (Tuesday) 4:00pm-5:00pm
As we move towards Sixth Generation (6G) wireless networks, the focus shifts from speed and capacity to building intelligent, adaptable, and resilient systems. This talk explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into 6G networks, focusing on developing resilient intelligence for dynamic and resource-constrained environments. We present a novel framework that combines reinforcement learning, multi-agent coordination, and reward modeling to tackle challenges in wireless optimization, especially in environments with sparse, noisy, and delayed feedback. Our methods enable continuous adaptation to dynamic changes in traffic, mobility, and energy constraints, enhancing the resilience of 6G systems for critical applications like autonomous transport, industrial IoT, and emergency response. Through practical case studies, we demonstrate how adaptive intelligence can optimize network performance and improve the scalability of future wireless systems, offering insights into the path towards resilient, intelligent 6G networks.