Hong Kong Science Park Phase 3 Opening Ceremony

Hong Kong Science Park Phase 3 Opening Ceremony was held on 25 Sep 2014. I joined this event to be the first of witness for our commitment in expanding our vibrant innovation & technology ecosystem for exciting development.

In the beginning, Mr. Allen Ma (CEO, HKSTPC) led stars of incubatees / tenants for drum performance.

Then our Chairman, Mrs. Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, gave welcome speech. She appreciated all staff, incubatees and tenants contribution in Science Park.

Many guests were invited to attend this ceremony. There was little rain in the beginning and then sunny. Mrs. Law Fan said “Water means Money”.

The Hon John Tsang Chun-wah, GBM, JP (Financial Secretary, HKSAR) gave guest speech. Two key points I got were enhancing the investment environment for our Technology Company / Startup and increase funding to support University technology transfer.

Phase 3 Opening Ceremony was started.

Group photo with all guests

Reference:
HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org
Phase 3 Opening Ceremony - http://www.hkstp.org/en-US/News-Media-Events/Events-Seminars/2014/Hong-Kong-Science-Park-Phase-3-Opening-Ceremony.aspx#.VCRGHPmSzBQ

Prof. Kwok L. Tsui's Quality Talk in CityU 30th Anniversary Technology Forum

I attended Prof. Tsui Kwok Leung’s presentation in CityU 30th Anniversary Technology forum on 24 Sep 2014 entitled “Advanced Manufacturing”. Prof. Tsui’s talk named “A Quality Journey: From Manufacturing to Field Operation with PHM”.

Firstly, Prof. Tsui reviewed how statistical methods for improving Manufacturing Quality included Reliability, Design of Experiments, Statistical Process Control and Sampling Inspection. Then advancement of technology improved from Production Quality to Operation Quality. Those technology advancement included Computation Power (Real Time Data Processing and Computation Capability), Data Collection, Sophisticated Modeling Advancement, and Improving Prediction Capability for Population to Individuals.

Then Prof. Tsui introduced what different using Prognostics and System Health Management (PHM) for improving Operation Quality compared with old one.

Prof. Tsui explained why PHM needs through discussion of consequences of system failure. Many major failures caused significant failure impact which not only consider money but life! For instance, Toyota case happened may be because of complex information system, rare events, very intermittent and electronics No Fault Found (NFF). He proposed to use PHM approach to solve it.

The Objectives of PHM (Pecht):
1. Eliminate unexpected/unscheduled down-time of information systems caused by failures of electronic hardware and software.
2. Develop the technology for self-cognizant electronic systems that can recognize their own health and take autonomous corrective action, thus resulting in ‘personalized health-management’ strategies.

Finally, Prof. Tsui explained PHM through two examples. There were a Simple Bearing and Rechargeable Battery. It observed the process known as degradation.

However, I was more interested in another case named Battery Degradation. Prof. Tsui’s research had three objectives below:
1. To identify data-driven technology, and hence track the battery degradation trend for fusion prognostics.
2. To develop models to evaluate the battery status & predict the remaining useful performance – State of Health (SOH) regarding to external stress, under various current load.
3. To develop models to understand capacity behavior and to estimate State of Charge (SOC) under various conditions.

For SOC study, two experiments were performed and they were Dynamic Stress Test (DST) and Federal Urban Driving Schedule (FUDS).

Reference:
CityU 30th Anniversary Homepage - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/cityu30/index.htm
CityU SEEM Department - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/

CityU 30th Anniversary Technology Forum

The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) launched a year-long series of programmes and activities to celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2014. 30 Years of Research and Innovation@CityU comprises exhibitions and technology forums on research activities and knowledge transfer. I attended one of forum on 23 Sep 2014 entitled “Food, Energy, and the Environment” in which mainly presented by BCH professors.

Prof. Paul Lam (Director, State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, CityU) gave an opening address and introduced guest speakers to us.

The first speaker was Mr. George BALAZS (Vice-Chair for the Oceania Region of the IUCN Marine Turtle Specialist Group) and his talk named “Magnificent and Mystical Marine Turtles: Cultural Links to Conservation”. Mr. Balazs introduced different types of turtles included Leatherback, Hawksbill Honu’ea, Olive Ridley, etc. Then he demonstrated the satellite tracking of Pelagic North Pacific Loggerheads included HK, China, Korea, Japan, Hawaii and USA.

The following chart showed the number of green turtles nesting at East Island from 1973 to 2014. The number of green turtles increased recently because of changing behaviors. At the end, George concluded that “Of all the things one can take when visiting a New Place, the most important is an Open Spirit”. (In Chinese: 以開放的態度接受與你不同的新地方、人、事物。)

The second speaker was Prof. Henry CHUNG (Professor, EE Dept., Director of Centre for Smart Energy Conversion and Utilization Research (CSCR), CityU) and his presentation title was “Smart Energy Saving Apparatus”. Beginning, Prof. Chung introduced his centre’s research areas included Smart City, Battery Modeling, Lighting System, Energy Metering & Management, Energy-recyclable burn-in System, Solar System, and Smart Power USB.

Then Prof. Chung briefed electrical transmission system in Hong Kong that separated into 3 major parts which were Generation, Transmission and Distribution. He mentioned the history of development in CSCR and explained their technology gave an immediate solution to reduce the electricity consumption without modifying existing infrastructure. He concluded his talk by the statement “Excellence Through Passion and Innovation”.

Prof. Michael LAM (Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) was the third speaker and his topic named “Analytical Tools for Environmental and Food Safety Applications”. He explained to us some advantageous features of sensing technology included in-situ measurement, non-destructive analysis, non-demanding on sample volume, low operating cost, … etc.

Then Prof. Lam introduced Chemosensors for food safety in which a small “sensor” that went together with pre-packaged food products to demonstrate their safety to customer in an eye-catching way. One of Prof. Lam researches was biogenic amines as meat spoilage indicators.

The forth speaker was Dr. YW Lam (Associate Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) and his topic entitled “Genetically Modified Crops: Monster or Saviour?” Dr. Lam briefed the history of agriculture technology and used “cultivated rice” as example. Then he stated the first “Transgenic Plant” which commercialized in 1994 named “Flavr-Savr Tomatoes”. This Tomato was removed a gene and became “Gene Silencing” that kept fresh upto 45 days.

Dr. Lam explained we need GM food to increase the yield of food production to solve the future population of people in the world. The argument of GM food was existing for the long time but Forbes Magazine stated “The debate over the risks associated with GMO food is effectively over” because of the publication issued “The 100 billion animal experiment” (A.L.Van Eenennaam and A.E. Young (2014) "Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations" J ANIM SCI, Sep 2, jas.2014-8124)

The last speaker was Dr. Paul Shin (Associate Professor, BCH Dept., CityU) and his topic named “Conservation of Horseshoe Crabs”. I left early but I only know that the blood of Horseshoe Crabs could manufacture Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) for testing Endotoxin in Medical Devices. I had also visited laboratory for breeding horseshoe crabs in 2012 (CUBIC event).

Reference:
CityU 30th Anniversary Homepage - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/cityu30/index.htm
CUBIC Life Science Group Tea Gathering - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/10/cubic-life-science-group-tea-gathering.html

CityU EngD (EM) Gathering Talk – Innovative Entrepreneurship & 3D Printing

Engineering Doctorate EngD (EM) Society organized a talk on 20 Sep 2014 (Saturday night) at Alumni Function Room in 11/F., AC3, CityU. We are honor to invite Dr. SUN Hongyi (Associate Professor, SEEM Dept., CityU) to present his recently research project granted HK$1.35 Million entitled “Professional Development Platform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship” and I was honor to share 3D Printing in Science Parks.

In the beginning, we introduced ourselves to each other and shared EngD study life. Dr. Rocky Lam briefed the aims of this gathering talk to communicate and connect EngD cohorts for exchanging expertise and creating business opportunities.

Dr. Sun was the first guest speaker and his introduced the CityU education Platform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CePIE) which was a platform for online course to link up Government, Industry and University. It also like supermarket for sharing and trading IP, technology, products, solutions and training. It was supported by UGC and CityU with the funding HK$1.35 Million.

Then Dr. Sun demonstrated the platform at http://www.cityu.edu.hk/CePIE/ and he invited us to join the Industrial Mentor.

After that he mentioned his trademarked Innovation course named “3333”. The first 3 means “Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. The second 3 means “New idea, product and business”. The third 3 means “Thinking, Participating and Going to Market”. The last 3 means “Capability of Learning, Adopting and Leading”.

I was the second speaker and my topic was “3D Printing in Science Park”. I briefed the history and technology of 3D Printing. The concept of 3D printing was able to trace back to 1892 US Patent named “Manufacture of Contour Relief Map”. However the first 3D printer was patented in late 1980s. In late 1992, SEEM (previous named MEEM) Dept. of CityU jointly with the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), a government subsidised agency, developed a technology transfer project on stereolithography (SLA) technology for rapid plastic prototype making (KS Chin, 1998).

Then I introduced five 3D printers which serviced in Science Park as follows:
1. Replicator 2X (Makerbot)
http://store.makerbot.com/replicator2
* Raw material is ABS filament, low cost 3D printer
2. Objet500 Connex3 (Stratasys)
http://www.stratasys.com/3d-printers/design-series/precision/objet500-connex3
* Raw material is resin, advanced multi-materials color 3D printer
3. ProJet660 Pro (3Dsystem)
http://www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers/professional/projet-660pro
* Raw material is powder, color 3D printer
4. Roland Modela ProII MDX-540
http://www.rolanddg.com/product/3d/3d/mdx-540/mdx-540.html
* Soft material used wood and plastic, Milling machine with 4 axis
5. Lumex Avance-25 (Matsuura)
http://www.matsuura.co.jp/english/contents/products/lumex.html
* Laser sintering and milling
* Raw material is metal powder

Finally, I shared some 3D Printing products which made by using ProJet660 Pro to EngD cohorts.

After that we discussed in different topics about EngD studying and future cooperation between industry and university.

Reference:
Engineering Doctorate (Engineering Management) - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/pdf/EngD_Leaflet.pdf
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/
CityU education Platform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CePIE) - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/CePIE/
KS Chin (1998) “Implementation of Rapid Prototyping Technology — A Hong Kong manufacturing industry's perspective”, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. technol. Vol.14, pp570-579.

Dinner with Mr. Fred Zhang (ASQ China)

We appreciated Mr. John Fowler (ASQ Global Managing Director) who introduced Mr. Fred Zhang (General Manager, ASQ China) by email on 18 Aug 2014. So we have a chance to arrange a dinner meeting with Mr. Fred Zhang on 19 Sep 2014. The meeting aims to share information and cooperation between Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and ASQ-China in near future. We have also invited Prof. Kwok Tsui (Chair Professor and Head of SEEM Dept., CityU and Fellow of ASQ) to join us. There are only Five ASQ Fellows in Hong Kong and three of them (Prof. Kwok Tsui, Dr. KS Chin and Dr. Aaron Tong) joined our dinner tonight.

(Left: Dr. Aaron Tong, Dr. KS Chin, Prof. Kwok Tsui, Mr. Fred Zhang, Dr. Albert Tsang, Ms. Angela Wong, Ms. Minda Chiang, Dr. Lotto Lai and Mr. Simon Tong)

Ms. Angela Wong (Vice Chairman, HKSQ) presented our 25th anniversary year book to Mr. Fred Zhang.

Then we discussed the future cooperation issues. Mr. Fred Zhang said ASQ representative would attend Huawei Global Quality Forum as keynote speaker to introduce ASQ recent research “Culture of Quality” on 30th Oct at Huawei HQ Shenzhen, China. He suggested ASQ representative could stay one more day in Hong Kong on 1st Nov (Saturday) for 3 hour seminar and sharing. We all agreed and would support this arrangement once ASQ confirmed the speaker. Moreover, I also introduced Mr. Simon Tong (Coop member, HKSQ) to Fred and briefed his Innovation methodology training based on Mr. Darrell Mann. It could introduce to ASQ China. Moreover, Fred encouraged us to exchange more expert and different high level training to matching National Quality direction.

Prof. Kwok Tsui also took a photo with Mr. Fred Zhang for memory.

I remember that Dr. K.S. Chin and I had lunch with Mr. John Fowler to exchange idea for enhancing our cooperation and contribution to quality society on 28 Mar 2011. HKSQ is ASQ’s World Partner and always supports each other on promoting quality.

Reference:
20110328: Lunch with Mr. John Fowler (ASQ Global) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/03/lunch-with-mr-john-fowler-asq-global.html
HKSQ – http://www.hksq.org/
ASQ – http://asq.org/index.aspx
ASQ China – http://www.asq.com.cn/

Dialogue with CityU President

"A Dialogue with the President" on CityU campus in the evening of 17 September (Wednesday) co-hosted by the Alumni Relations Office and the Convocation which aims to keep our alumni community abreast of the University development. Professor Way Kuo, CityU President and University Distinguished Professor, shared with you the recent achievements and developments of the University. On this special occasion, participants joined together to take part in the soft opening of the newly established Alumni Function Room.

Group photo of President, Professors and Convocation members

Mr. Joseph Tsoi (Vice-Chairman, Standing Committee of Convocation, CityU) represented alumni to ask some questions to Prof. Way Kuo including student exchanging program, university ranking, online free course named MOOC, and School of Veterinary Medicine, etc.

President told us several stories to answer those questions such as MIT’s research of internet, USA only 50% graduation rate, etc.

During discussion the School of Veterinary Medicine, President told us a story about receiving a donation when he under clinical inspection. It could be found in Way Kuo Blog - http://wikisites.cityu.edu.hk/sites/president/default.aspx. He encouraged us that no one could look us down after establishment of Vet School.

Q&A Session
I asked a question how to enhance the entrepreneurship training in CityU so as to increase innovation and commercialization in CityU. President said they were working on this direction and encouraged students to apply patent in their distinction project.

One of questions was about teaching language such as EMBA in Chinese. President told us Tsinghua University also used Chinese for their EMBA. He said language was important for communication but the most important was content/message. Once your country strong, everybody would use your language. He told another story about Taguchi training. No one (participant in USA) knew what his said (in Japanese) but everyone followed his method. He also joked that many people said Hong Kong student they didn’t speak in English. It was same as USA’s student. Why? It was because they didn’t communicate with each other! President’s colleague added EMBA was a platform. President another colleague answered how to enhance personal development. He replied that he would challenge student who didn’t take risk that was also answer my question about entrepreneurship. He also mentioned the mentorship and internship program for solving this program.

I took a photo with my teacher Prof. Paul Lam.

Dr. TW Liu and I represented EngD Society to support CityU’s activities. We also discussed President gave a keynote speech in the 1st China Quality Conference in Beijing on 15 Sep 2014.

Reference:
Alumni Relations Office - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/aro/main/
Convocation - http://convocation.cityu.edu.hk/home/index.php
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/
CityU President delivers keynote address at inaugural China Quality Conference - http://wikisites.cityu.edu.hk/sites/newscentre/en/Pages/201409161600.aspx