Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): CityU Matchmaking Symposium for Innovation Projects

2015年3月12日星期四

CityU Matchmaking Symposium for Innovation Projects

The CityU Matching Symposium for Innovation Projects was held on 12 Mar 2014 and it aimed to introduce industry representatives, entrepreneurs, and potential investors to several creative and innovative CityU projects in which led to new product prototypes, new practice and new intellectual property. Dr. Hongyi Sun (Associate Professor, SEEM Dept., CityU; and Coordinator, UGC-funded Community of Practice for Discovery and Innovation) was facilitator in the symposium.

Mr. David Ai (Director of the Knowledge Transfer Office, CityU) gave opening remarks. He said this Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC) project has the goal of giving all students the opportunity to make an original discovery while at City University. Moreover, it also aimed to share knowledge to society. Nevertheless, knowledge transfer should be a mission of research.

The first speaker was Prof. Richard WALKER (Department of Public Policy) and his topic named “Public Management Evidence Lab: Manufacturing Nudeges”. A “Nudge” is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.

Prof. Walker said there were 14,300 tonnes waste produced per day in which 63% went to Landfill and only 37% could be recycling. The cost for commercial waste disposal was about HK$400-500 per tonne (~HK$1.25M a day or HK$465M a year). The following diagram showed a sample in CityU which enhanced 3% of recycle using recycle bins.

After that Prof. Walker briefed their Nudging Changes approach and implementation model.

The second speaker was Dr. Ray C.C. CHEUNG (Assistant Professor, EE Dept.) and his topic was “CityU Apps Lab (CAL) – Developer community skilled in rapid development and deployment of mobile apps”. He introduced three outstanding projects in CAL.

The first app named “Posture Check”. This app helps health-concerned users to detect any postural fault before it turns serious. The project was supported by the Chiropractic Doctors Association of Hong Kong (CDAHK).

The second app named “HabiToStep” which aimed to cultivate habits step-by-step with people around the world. It used marathon as example to show their concept “Community is Powerful”.

The last app introduced was “Fantarvis” which was a new online platform to let users shared their idea and discover stories that impact their life. Their concept was “Stay in touch with the community anytime and anywhere!”

Finally, Dr. Ray Cheung briefed the 3-Tier Model of CAL from “Workshop training” to “Project engagement” and then to be “Startups”.

The third team of speakers were Chau Yin Chi, Tse Pui Yee Eva, Ngai Lok Yi Anthy, Chan Ka Lee and Hui Wing Sum (CityU students) and their project entitled “Transfriendly”. Since visually impaired in Hong Kong were facing considerable difficulties in accessing public transportation (especially without visually-handicapped-friendly facilities), they would like to develop app to solute this problem.

Then they presented their concept and proposal such as Target Demographic, using Smartphone as Solution, Social Impact, Growth Opportunities, Venture, Capital Requirements, Financial Assumptions and Timeline.

The last team of speakers was Mr. David CHUNG and Ms. Carmen LAM (Graduates of the School of Creative Media and Founders of Animae Studio) and their topic was “Alumni Sharing – From Innovation to Entrepreneurship”. They had invented an interactive input and control system for touch screen use.

It is a breakthrough that allowing user to play simultaneously with physical toys and virtual games on tablets. They had got 5 patents (included HK, US & China) and 3 awards.

At the end of symposium, Dr. Sun gave closing remarks. He said the symposium would be an excellent platform to learn about new ideas from academics, to forge partnership, and to promote their organizations.