We are pleased to announce that five students in the MAE Department have been awarded the VTech Innovation and Sustainability Award 2021/22 for their outstanding final year projects with elements of ‘Innovation’ and ‘Sustainability’.
Congratulations to all awardees!
The VTech Innovation and Sustainability Award is the initiative of VTech Group of Companies (VTech) to promote innovation and awareness of sustainability. The Award is open to final-year undergraduate students studying Energy and Environmental Engineering (EEEN) or Mechanical and Automation Engineering (MAEG) in the academic year 2021/22.
With a generous donation from VTech, the Award recognizes and rewards students for their final year projects which demonstrate excellence in developing innovative technology to improve sustainability of human life.
The five students were nominated to give a presentation and attend the award presentation ceremony at VTech Office on 30 June 2022. The judging panel comprised representatives from VTech and MAE Department, namely Dr. Allan Wong (Chairman and Group CEO of VTech), Dr. King Pang (Group President of VTech), Mr. Hillson Cheung (President of VTech), Prof. Dongyan Xu (Professor of MAE Department) and Prof. Darwin Lau (Associate Professor of MAE Department).
We would like to thank VTech for its effort to promote innovation and awareness of sustainability in CUHK.
Awardees’ Sharing
NG Hui Yin (MAEG)
“My appreciation goes out to VTech for giving me the opportunity to participate in this Award as well as to Prof. WONG Hay for his assistance and advice on my project. My project is about a non-thermal plasma surface disinfection device which is effective, reusable, and economical in order to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The device aims to help disinfect the surface of common everyday objects such as Octopus cards, coins and keys. The disinfection mechanism of the device lies in the generation of non-thermal plasma which generates reactive species, e.g. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS). ROS such as ozone, has been shown to have the ability to kill bacteria, mould and even virus. ROS and RNS inactivate virus by inducing mechanical damage to the viral envelope, therefore inhibiting its infection to the human cells.”
HO Ka Chun (EEEN)
“It is my honour to be awarded the 1st runner-up of the VTech Innovation and Sustainability Award. My project aims to construct ‘A Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation Platform for Smart Electric Vehicle Charging Station’. By using this method, we can implement and benchmark different smart charging strategies and algorithms proposed by the academic papers into the platform, which combines software model, programming and hardware together for testing. Compared to the full hardware testing method, we didn’t require large scale of EVs and controllable grid in the setup which could save cost and allowed us for retesting without long simulation running process and many resources consumption. As a result, it is a sustainable method to provide realistic situation and cost-effective on algorithms verification.”
HON Wing Ngai (EEEN)
“It is a very meaningful experience to participate in the VTech Innovation and Sustainability Award. My project is ‘E-platform Construction for Recycling Facilities in CUHK Smart Garden’ which can perform real time monitoring and remote control to facilities inside garden, such as water pump and light. By combining the concept of IOT, we could manage the hydroponic garden easily. All parameters of the garden can be displayed in APP. Setpoints for the automation control, such as irrigation and lighting, can be directly modified on APP. We can adjust the setpoint range easily on APP without complex coding process. With this feature, the automation control process can fit different growth stages of plants to reduce consumption during planting. Less water, electricity and nutrient solution are consumed for garden maintenance.”
CHU Wai Ying (EEEN)
“I would like to thank MAE Department and Dr. HAN Dongkun for supporting me to participate in the VTech Innovation and Sustainability Award. I am honored to be one of the awardees. My project is about harvesting and investigating renewable energies, with a focus on solar power and wind power. The proposed solar system has specific environmental settings and a Magic Square configuration which make the system able to generate higher and more stable power output under partial shading conditions. For the wind power system, the system is designed with the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator combined with a fault-tolerant system which is able to generate higher power output when fault occurs. Both proposed systems were designed and demonstrated in Simulink. With these systems, the users will benefit from less operating costs. Also, these systems are more practical and easier to apply than other commonly used systems.”
YIM Ming Yeung Arthur (MAEG)
“I would like to thank Prof. WONG Hay for offering me advice and help on my project, and thank VTech for giving me a chance to participate in this Award. In my project, I designed a portable air disinfection device by using non-thermal plasma. Using the NTP generated by corona discharge to disinfect the virus/germ in the air is different to the air purifiers on the market nowadays. Most of the air purifiers on the market are using UVC light or filtering virus, and the parts (UVC light bulbs and filters) need to be replaced every year or even shorter period of time. For the NTP disinfection device, it can be used for a long time and fewer parts need to be replaced.”