Faculty of Engineering Laboratory Tour – DreamLab

Date: November 16, 2019 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00am – 12:00nn
No. of sessions: 6 sessions

Presenter: Timothy Ng and team representatives (‘BREED’ bio-inspired robotic group); Jasper Yeung and team representatives (HKU Racing team); David Liu and Eric Chen (Robomaster team)

Contact: Emily Leung and Edward Hung, Innovation Wing, Faculty of Engineering

Welcome

Dear Students,

Welcome to the Dreamlab, a place where we turn our ideals and dreams into reality. Ideas may come and go, but it’s the projects: the physical manifestation of our concepts, that will live on amongst the minds of many. The Dreamlab is essentially a makerspace, a place that is reserved for creative explorations, engineering, tinkering, inventing, etc. basically a place for crazy experimentation and development.

Here at the Dreamlab, we build everything from the ground up. We put into design the systems we have in our minds, and head on to make a first prototype! A common misconception is the notion that you need to be well funded or have a very fancy lab to start with robotics or any prototyping work. Most of the projects here are assembled with equipment from the lab, except for a few large manufacturing items. You’ll see it when you arrive, all it takes to build something great is your own creativity and determination to see your project through.

A space is made to be a space by the people who inhabit it. Likewise the Dreamlab is defined by the people in it and the projects they are working towards. It is this diversity of people that contribute to the creative spirit of making, whereby these serendipitous late night discussions become the catalyst of new concepts and solutions to existing problems that plagued us. Everyone here is a part of a larger community of creators, working together towards pushing the boundaries of science and technology.

I hope you enjoy your visit. Fair warning, make sure to bring only an open mind, and a truckload of questions to satisfy your curiosity.

Happy Tinkering!

Timothy Ng

Timothy Ng
Leader of 'BREED' bio-inspired robotic group

Timothy‘s interest lies in the intersection between the arts and sciences. He believes creativity and innovation come by working through with challenging and complex problems, which requires the ability to quickly cycle through different perspectives and approaches to the problems.

Agenda

  • Gather at the Research Student Centre

    Let's gather at the front door of the Research Student Centre located at the G/F of the Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong.

  • Welcome and Introduction to the DreamLab and the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing

    The Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing (Inno Wing) will serve as an iconic landmark of the Faculty of Engineering. Home of future cutting-edge research projects, the Inno Wing will provide an open environment to foster multidisciplinary innovation among students and teachers, enabling generations of students to gain comprehensive knowledge and a deep understanding of the latest discoveries and challenges in a wide range of emerging technologies. It will serve as a platform to engage the young generation in exploring the world, raising their creative and multidisciplinary abilities, and ensuring they acquire the practical hands-on experience they need to serve the community.

    The Inno Wing will actively support outreach and service-learning projects for students to apply their knowledge to serve people in need. Knowledge exchange activities, such as public seminars, workshops, and exhibitions, will also be organized. The exhibition gallery of the Inno Wing will showcase research inventions and student achievements to the public.

    Introduction slides

  • Project highlight - 'BREED' bio-inspired robotic group

    Marine Propulsion and Maneuvering have been developed by mankind for hundreds of years, and we have gained a thorough knowledge of seafaring activities. While being extremely useful to mankind, our understanding of propulsion is limited to steady motion. Fish, on the other hand, are graceful swimmers with the ability to move through water with great agility and efficiency. Many recent studies have shown that the unsteady, rhythmic nature of a fish’s gait is very efficient, from Lighthill’s foray into small and large amplitude slender body theories to Triantafyllou’s great success with MIT’s roboTuna, and its resulting studies in the fish’s ability to take advantage of unsteady flow patterns present in the waters.
    In our attempts to further mankind’s initiatives for ocean exploration, modern UAV’s has been developed, characterized mainly by their versatile symmetric thrusters based on propellers which while able provide its user unprecedented stability and control, comes at the cost of speed as the thrusters are disruptive to the overall flow of water about the body.

    Other biomimetic systems have been developed as well, with emphasis on the use of control surfaces(hydrofoils) to manipulate flow without disrupting its continuity, mimicking the role of fins in a fish. However, these systems are limited to low speeds, whereby the Reynolds number(RE) tend to be low, raising interesting questions about how fish perform turns at high speeds, which gives rise to their high agility.

  • Project highlight - HKU Racing Formula Student 2019

    HKU Racing is the University of Hong Kong’s very first motorsports team. Founded in late July of 2018. The team starts with 2 friends having a vision to one day participate in formula student. With the support of the university, the team quickly gains momentum and has since grown to a team of 40 plus students, all passionate about motorsports.

    HKU Racing

  • Project highlight - Robomaster 2019

    RoboMaster Robotics Competition focuses on the comprehensive application and engineering practice ability of the participating members in science and engineering disciplines, fully integrating many robot related technical disciplines such as “machine vision”, “embedded system design”, “mechanical control”, “inertial navigation”, “human-computer interaction”, etc. At the same time, the innovative combination of e-sports presentation and robotic competition makes the robot confrontation more intuitive and intense, attracting the attention and participation of many technology enthusiasts and the public.

    Robomaster 2019

  • Open discussions

    Welcome to discuss and share with us any innovative ideas and your passion for Engineering and Innovation. We are happy to listen, interact and collaborate 🙂

Photos
Useful links
HKU Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing