The programming team from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering won a bronze medal at the 43rd Annual World Finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) held in Porto, Portugal. The team consists of three undergraduate students: Yik Wai-Pan (Computer Science major), Ho Ngan-Hang (Computer Science minor, Mathematics major), and Poon Lik-Hang (Computer Science minor, Quantitative Finance major). This is the third time CUHK has won medals at the ICPC. 

Established in 1970, the ICPC (formerly named as ACM-ICPC) is the oldest, largest and most prestigious programming contest in the world. This contest is a multi-tier competition from local, national, and regional contests leading to the world finals. The competition attracts the best and brightest students from around the world every year. It fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programmes, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. This year over 52,000 contestants from over 3,200 universities from 110 countries took part in the competition, and only 135 teams advanced to compete in the world finals. The CUHK team ranked 12th and won a bronze medal in the world finals, defeating traditional prestigious teams from Stanford University, Princeton University, Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Peking University. 

Formed in the early 90’s, CUHK’s programming team has entered the ICPC world final 17 times, the first time being 1994. In 2000 they won a bronze and in 2012 a silver medal. Former, graduated team members are still contributing by passing on their experience, knowledge and techniques to serving members. Professor Chan Siu On, the team’s current coach and Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of CUHK, was in fact a key programming team member during his undergraduate studies at CUHK from 2002 to 2006. 

Prof. Chan said, “Students coming from different major programmes have to work as a team to solve the problems in the competition by making use of their programming, communications and problem solving skills. It is definitely a great experience for them to compete with top-tier college students. As a former member of the CUHK programming team, I am also very proud of the students’ achievement.” 

ICPC has become a platform for prestigious international IT enterprises to hire the most outstanding students. Many of the CUHK programming team members have been employed by global IT enterprises such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM while some received scholarships to pursue their master or PhD studies in prestigious graduate schools including UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Princeton University, University of Washington, University of Toronto, Brown University, University of Maryland, UCLA, and University of Southern California. The three team members this year, who are all final year students, have received job offers. Yik Wai-Pan and Ho Ngan-Hang have offers from Google, and Poon Lik-Hang will work for a hedge fund. 

About the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC)

Eleven Engineering projects have received two Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury, one Gold Medal, seven Silver Medals and the Prize of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation - Romania in the 47^th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. Here is a summary of the Faculty of Engineering’s award-winning projects:

Gold Medal (Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury)

Team members: Prof. YANG Shenghao and Prof. YEUNG Wai Ho Raymond, from the Institute of Network Coding

Project: BATS: Enabling the Nervous System of Smart Cities

BATS, a revolutionary network coding technology, has been adopted in the Hong Kong Government’s pilot deployment of smart lampposts that will commence in mid-2019. BATS can provide multi-hop wireless network connections for smart lampposts without laying optical fiber to every lamppost. Laying new optical fiber, even if feasible, will require much construction work and severely disturb traffic and pedestrians. On the other hand, BATS enjoys the advantages of a low operating cost and a higher level of network security and stability. It provides a city-friendly and economical solution for mass deployment of smart lampposts, and so it expedites the advent of smart cities and and improves people’s quality of life.

Team members: Prof. Philip Wai Yan CHIU, from the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Prof. Yeung YAM and Dr. Ka Chun LAU, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Project: Endoscopic Surgical Robot

This is a fully flexible endoscopic surgical robotic system for Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection of tumor and early cancer in the stomach and colon. The two flexible robotic arms can overcome limitations from the lack of maneuverability of the current tool (such as the size and strength of the arms) and perform challenging procedures to increase the safety and efficiency of surgery. The project enabled the performance of endoscopic surgery without incision and reduced pain and discomfort after surgery, leading to faster recovery of the patient. Multiple times pre-clinical trials showed that this invention reduces operation time by two thirds and it did not cause any perforation in any trials.

Gold Medal

Team member: Nezha (by Dr. Gabriel FUNG, from the Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering, with technology licensed by CUHK)

Project: Nezha – an AI-driven Checkbot for proof reading Chinese

Nezha is an AI-driven Chinese language Checkbot to help people proofread Chinese. It is built from a proprietary data algorithm using advanced natural language processing (NLP) technology. Its lexicon contains billions of Chinese vocabulary (more than 100GB). The name is taken from the God “Nezha” in the Chinese novel “Creation of the Gods” in terms of its power to identify various mistakes and to make appropriate corrections. Nezha conducts its work on the cloud. It is the first of its kind in the market with its advantages of high accuracy, fast analytic time and ease to use.

Silver Medal and Prize of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation – Romania

Team members: Prof. WONG Kam Fai, Dr. Gabriel FUNG, Mr. Bo LI and Mr. Felix LIU, from the Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering

Project: SAMUL – A Toolkit for Sentiment Analysis for Multilanguage Application

SAMUL is a multilingual sentiment analysis toolkit. Given a specific topic, SAMUL will search, analyse, organise and report the related information from the designated social media and websites using natural language processing (NLP) and big data analytic technology. The analysis by SAMUL includes extracting the credibility, content and mood of the author of a message. Currently, SAMUL can read Cantonese, Mandarin and English, but can be extended to other alphabetic languages. During 2014–2016, the research team surveyed six of its major clients and the accumulated revenue boost made by SAMUL was USD$25 million. SAMUL is protected by 5 patents (three accepted and two pending).

Silver Prize

Team member: Prof. Cheng Chun Hung, former Professor, from the Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering; Director of Research and Technology Development, Logistics and Supply Chain Multitech R&D Centre

Project: Smart Traffic Light System on Dam Section of Tai Tam Road

The smart traffic lights system has solved the long-standing traffic deadlock and traffic jam at Tai Tam Road (Dam Section) in one go. It can detect vehicle types and dimensions, analyse the traffic flow and traffic queue length data, and then calculate the most effective green signal time according to the real-time traffic condition.

Team members: Prof. TONG Kai Yu Raymond, Mr. HEUNG Ho Lam and Mr. TANG Zhi Qiang, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Prof. LI Zheng, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine

Project: 3D-printed soft robotic hand

Stroke, the leading cause of disability, has drawn more attention in view of the aging population. A personalised multi-functional soft robotic hand has been developed for daily recovery training purposes, allowing patients to reintegrate into society after the training. The feature of the soft robotic hand is the patented design of the Soft-Elastic Composite Actuator (SECA) which assists stroke patients in performing effective finger flexion and extension. Compared with the conventional metallic robotic hand, the soft robotic hand can assist patients in performing more hand function tasks to aid their daily lives; for example, gripping a pen and wringing a towel.

Team members: Prof. LIAO Wei Hsin, Mr. ZHONG Chunhao and Mr. ZHAO Xuan, from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Prof. QIN Ling and Dr. LAW Sheung Wai, from the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine

Project: Robotic Exoskeleton for Motion Assistance

 The project was developed to help paralysed patients stand up and walk. Hip and knee joints were equipped with powerful actuators. A magneto-rheological (MR) series elastic actuator was designed for the exoskeleton which can generate large controllable braking torque while consuming little energy. A lightweight “cable-spring” mechanism was utilised to solve foot-drop problem, which can improve the safety level for the user. Novel MR actuators can improve energy efficiency by 53%, and extend the working time of batteries by up to 112%. The system of exoskeleton and crutches is equipped with multiple sensors, combined with an intelligent controller, to provide safe and effective motion assistance to the user.

Team members: Prof. Charlie C.L. WANG, Dr. Yunbo ZHANG, Dr. Tsz Ho KWOK and Mr. Mark Hoi SHEUNG, from the Department of Mechanical & Automation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Project: Shape-driven Design and Manufacturing Technology for Industry 4.0

The project leverages on core technology driven by shape and optimised production design to provide advanced and intelligent C2M manufacturing solutions and data to wearable product manufacturers in order to achieve Industry 4.0. The project helps reduce the manufacturing time from 2-3 weeks to 2-3 days. It is suitable for the ultra-personalised 3D wetsuit, tailored suits, shoes and functional underwear with improved fit and comfort. The auto intelligent design can be transferred to fit different individuals. It also has the new optimised surface flattening technology.

Team members: Prof. WU Ke Li, Dr. MENG Huan, Mr. WEI Dacheng and Mr. HUNG Winghung, from the Department of Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Project: An Intelligent Robot System for Adaptive tuning of 5G Microwave Filters

With the fast pace of mobile communication system development, the quantity for microwave filters is increased unprecedentedly. The complicated and slow manual tuning process as well as the shortage of experienced filter tuning technicians are two major obstacles that lead to low production capacity. This invention, which employs the analytic circuit model extraction theory originally developed in CUHK and the adaptive optimisers, can automatically tune filters with the speed that is multiple fold faster than manual tuning process. Additionally, the system provides a one-stop solution for big data analytics and quality inspection in the filter tuning process. Its unique capability in compensating for the hysteresis effect in tightening filter tuning screws allows the system to meet various challenging specifications. Another unique feature is its ability to diagnose the defects in the assembling process of production and to provide remedy instructions. The system has been used in the production lines for 5G base stations in a large scale.  

Team members: Prof. Tien-Tsin WONG and Dr. Wuyao SHEN, from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Project:  Binocular Single Vision on Entertainment and Medical Applications

Human eyes are capable of fusing two displaced images, even those with differences in details, contrast and luminance, up to a certain limit. This phenomenon is binocular single vision, based on which the team developed the world’s first Binocular Video Tone Mapping (BVTM) framework. Additionally, an AI-based self-learning mechanism has been invented and embedded within the framework, performing critical functions including automatic parameter adjustment and outcome optimisation. As for applications, the  BVTM framework can be adopted in the Hollywood 3D film-making industry by generating videos whose quality, vividness, realism and other attributes are beyond what is currently possible. In ophthalmologic examinations, the technology can be applied to Amblyopia (Lazy Eye) treatment.
 

Team members: Prof. Cheng Chun Hung, former Professor, from the Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering and Director of Research and Technology Development, Logistics and Supply Chain Multitech R&D Centre; Mr. Tim Chan and Dr. Dorbin Ng, from the Department of Systems Engineering & Engineering Management, Faculty of Engineering

Project: Smart Landslide Detection System

Mountainous terrain covers 60% of the land area of Hong Kong, and landslides may happen under conditions of continuous rainfall. If early signs of debris flow are not detected, it might cause casualties and losses. A smart landslide detection system is developed to monitor real-time terrain conditions and transmit wireless data to the mobile devices of duty staff, using low-cost and low-energy sensing devices.

A team of MAE students has won the Best Design Award in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Design Competition 2019 (Hong Kong). Under the supervision of Dr. Li Yiyang and Mr. Yu Siuning, they designed a robot for the pick-and-place race.

The ASME competition was hosted by the ASME Hong Kong Section at the University of Hong Kong on 31 March 2019. The theme is to design and build a single remotely controlled robot, which can collect as many balls as possible, and place them in a collection area within a limited time.