Cross-faculty project – Innovation Academy

PET Plastics Degradation

Our team is developing a self-sustaining system that digests PET plastic using the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria Escherichia coli and the cyanobacteria Synechococcus elongatus. We engineer E. coli to express PETase and MHETase enzymes and to absorb sucrose secreted by S. elongatus, which E. coli uses as its energy source. The PETase and MHETase enzymes facilitate the degradation of PET into its monomers – terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG), which can then be repurposed in the creation of new bioplastics to maintain a circular and greener supply chain.

Vera – An AI Speech Therapist

Computer Science, Cross-faculty project, Faculty of Science, The 5th Engineering Inno Show / By kit

Vera overcomes temporal, spatial, and financial barriers faced by children with speech disorders in Hong Kong, and tackles the problems faced by speech therapists. Vera is an AI-powered mobile application making use of deep learning and big data to provide accurate and immediate diagnosis and personalized treatment of speech sound disorders for children. Vera also provides speech therapists with resources that help children practice pronunciation, and progress reports that allow tracking of patients’ progress. The interactive diagnosis process is facilitated by a conversing chatbot. After diagnosis, Vera provides personalized and gamified pronunciation exercises to encourage children to receive treatment actively.

ProperT

Cross-faculty project, Faculty of Engineering, The 4th Engineering InnoShow / By leoleeyo

“The rights of many tenants in Hong Kong are left unenforced. Not only are the relevant regulations and clauses inaccessible and convoluted, it is also hard for the average tenant to know whom to approach when there is a “health and safety” issue in their buildings.

We develop a technology solution that would inform tenants about their rights using computer vision technology. Tenants can simply use their mobile phones to scan items in the common areas of their buildings to learn about the regulations and clauses relevant to those items. This would enable them to anonymously report these breaches for enforcement.”