This contest allows Engineering undergraduates, taught postgraduates and InnoHub members to present their project ideas and recruit prospective teammates. The process helps to improve students’ ability to effectively advocate an idea or proposal to a large group of audience. It also provides an opportunity and flexibility for students to form their own team and grow their community of interest and passion.
By taking part in the pitching events, students can:
- recruit prospective teammates to form student interest groups;
- link up with Faculty Supervisors and Advisors;
- improve your ability to effectively advocate an idea or proposal to a large group of audience;
- receive suggestions on areas of improvement for strengthening your soft and technical skills;
- gain support from Innovation Academy and Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing; and
- obtain a maximum of HK$100K funding support to further develop the idea.
- All Engineering undergraduates, taught postgraduates and InnoHub members are welcome to join.
- You can join as an individual or as a team. Leader of the team must be either an Engineering undergraduate, taught postgraduate or an InnoHub member, and the rest of the team should be students at HKU.
- Only shortlisted proposals will be invited to join the pitching in March 2023.
The proposal should be innovative ideas and/or smart technologies in:
coping with extreme weather
enhancing our community through the metaverse
Other technology-related ideas are also welcome.
Your ideas can fall into one or more of the followings categories:
- Design concept/ research idea
- Hands-on projects
- Technology-related service-learning
- Product realization/application
- All participants will be presented a “Certificate of Appreciation” in recognition of their participation in the activity.
- All proposals will be reviewed by an Assessment Panel and suggestions will be provided for improving the idea.
- Only shortlisted proposals will be invited to pitch their idea in March 2023, and will receive a Certificate of Merit.
- Potential impact
- Implementation
- Technology highlights
- Overall innovativeness
| Shortlisted Projects |
|---|
|
Breathing in the Virtual World |
|
Carbon Dragon |
|
E-HealK Telemedicine Platform |
|
High-fidelity Stereo Imaging Depth Estimation for Metaverse Devices |
|
Real-Time 3D Neural Holography for Near-eye Display |
|
Smart PV Panel Cleaning Robot |
|
StoryGPT |
- Only the shortlisted proposals will be invited to join the pitching in March 2023.
- Each proposal will have 5 minutes to pitch his/her/their idea with up to 5 minutes for question and answer. The presentation and Q&A session will be conducted in English.
| Date | Task |
|---|---|
|
Online Briefing Session |
3pm, November 10, 2022 (Thursday) |
|
Submission deadline of proposal |
By 11:59pm on January 31, 2023 (Tuesday) |
|
Pitching event |
2-4:30pm on March 8, 2023 (Wednesday) |
- A maximum of 3 proposals will be selected as winners and awarded a cash prize of HK$1,200. The winning proposals can further obtain a maximum of HK$100K funding support from the “Funding Scheme for student projects / activities by Tam Wing Fan Innovation Fund and Philomathia Foundation Innovation Fund” for development, subject to the approval by the Innovation Academy Steering Committee.
- “The Best Presenter” will be awarded a cash prize of HK$1,000.
CityMyth
CityMyth is a gamified AR city tour guide app that aims at reinvigorating the travel industry during and after the pandemic. Different from other travel apps, CityMyth integrates customized itinerary, AR experience, and scripted game（劇本殺）to familiarize travelers with the stories behind the city and add more amusement. Our product fits the needs of several user categories under the current situation of travel restrictions. For city dwellers, they can have a deeper understanding of their own city culture and history, while having an innovative form of entertainment. For travelers, they can utilize their limited travel time more efficiently and have more engagement during the trip. Regarding technology, we make use of Augmented Reality, Bluetooth Low Energy indoor positioning to realize our features. Our product is an unprecedented combination of these elements, so we believe a fad can be foreseen.
MotOral
MotOral is a mobile application that assists speech therapists in providing preventive measures of swallowing disorders for at-risk older adults. Through the app, the users could strengthen their oral motor muscles by doing exercises. Face tracking technologies are incorporated to monitor the degree of movement of muscles and provide visual feedback. Games will also be included to raise the users’ interests in using the application. User’s progress will be monitored and analysed continuously.
The pitching team who receives the highest total scores in the “Structure of Pitch” and “Delivery of Pitch” wins “The Best Presenter” award.
- 5 proposals are shortlisted and they will give a 5-minute presentation and a 5-minute Q&A via Zoom on March 2, 2022 (Wednesday).
CityMyth
CityMyth is a gamified AR city tour guide app that aims at reinvigorating the travel industry during and after the pandemic. Different from other travel apps, CityMyth integrates customized itinerary, AR experience, and scripted game（劇本殺）to familiarize travelers with the stories behind the city and add more amusement. Our product fits the needs of several user categories under the current situation of travel restrictions. For city dwellers, they can have a deeper understanding of their own city culture and history, while having an innovative form of entertainment. For travelers, they can utilize their limited travel time more efficiently and have more engagement during the trip. Regarding technology, we make use of Augmented Reality, Bluetooth Low Energy indoor positioning to realize our features. Our product is an unprecedented combination of these elements, so we believe a fad can be foreseen.
Megahealthy; Megasports
“With the rising demand of the sports facilities and the fact that HK people care more about doing sports after Tokyo Olympics, the apps Megahealthy; Megasports is designed to offer more options of sport facilities and more opportunities for people to do sports in the pandemic.
Smart rentals: After the private sports venues/ facilities providers release the venue and the available time on the app, the users can rent the facilities and select their favourable time slots, and the app will import statistical algorithms according to the user’s sports preferences /past record of no-show and calculates the probability of users’ no-show on that day. Once the no-show probability exceeds 70%, the waitlist will be opened for other users to rent.
Smart Exercise Stations: Users can choose the level of difficulty according to their own techniques and backgrounds of doing the sports. The users can imitate the elements on the photo, take a photo of themselves and upload it to the apps. AI algorithms will automatically calculate the similarity rate of the same photo posture and the athlete’ posture, and then give the users points. Their achievements can be shared in social media platforms.
AI Coach: The users first answer questions about their sports background and techniques according to the system instructions, and then can upload photos of their skills. AI will automatically generate technical suggestions and practice goals which are suitable for the user’s level. “
MotOral
MotOral is a mobile application that assists speech therapists in providing preventive measures of swallowing disorders for at-risk older adults. Through the app, the users could strengthen their oral motor muscles by doing exercises. Face tracking technologies are incorporated to monitor the degree of movement of muscles and provide visual feedback. Games will also be included to raise the users’ interests in using the application. User’s progress will be monitored and analysed continuously.
WHALE
Project WHALE is aiming at unleashing the potential of technology to bridge the communication gap between caregiver and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Target audiences include individuals with ASD experiencing sensory abnormalities and their caregivers. These children may not be able to express their feelings and needs while caregivers also find it difficult to correctly identify the needs of them. To ease this problem, we propose developing the sensory wristband and the caring mobile application. The key features of the sensory wristband include recording environmental data and monitoring the internal physiological and emotional states of the children with ASD. We plan to incorporate multiple sensors including Photoplethysmogram and Galvanic Skin Response Sensor to measure internal states and external environment. For the caring mobile application designed for caregiver, the app will alert caregiver when the children with ASD feel highly aroused. The highlight feature is providing personalised report specifying possible triggers arousing children with ASD through adopting algorithms to cross-reference the anomaly with environmental stimuli to locate probable causes and provide preclinical advice. Major impact is to allow caregiver to understand more about the challenges going through by the children with ASD and provide more suitable help in correct timing.
Smart Glove — Extension of the Tactile Sense
The tactile sense is critical for visually impaired people to sense the world, but one shortcoming is that they can not feel the object in the distance. This can cause many problems, such as pumping into the obstacles when using the hands or being less efficient in grasping the handrail on transportation. However, many on-market products focus on large-scale assisting instead of this smaller one. So, we are considering developing a glove that can transduce the distance information to vibration intensity to realize the extension of the tactile sense. Currently, we are using three pairs of ultrasonic distance sensors and vibration motors fixed on three sides of the glove to help the user sense the obstacles. Further development such as minifying the hardware, connecting to the Bluetooth, or developing AI is needed to reduce the discomfort caused by the glove and increase its functionality in assisting the users.
