Media

InnoCarnival 2018, organised by the Innovation and Technology Commission, will be held from November 3 to 11, 2018 at the Hong Kong Science Park under the theme "Innovate for a Smart Future".

This year, the University of Hong Kong features four cutting-edge technologies at the HKU pavillion.

Location: No. F09, 1/F., Phase 3, Hong Kong Science Park
Exhibition time:
Monday to Friday: 10am to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10am to 7pm

Four HKU projects showed at exhibition 
1. A Robotic Catheter System for MRI-guided Cardiac Electrophysiological Intervention
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques allow intra-operative monitoring of the ablation procedure during cardiovascular electrophysiology (EP). The project team presents an MR-safe robot for intra-cardiac EP intervention. The robot actuation features small hysteresis, effective force transmission and quick response. Experimental evaluation has verified its capability to precisely tele-manipulate a standard clinically used EP catheter. The slave part of the robot is made of non-metallic MR-safe materials, therefore can operate close to or inside the MRI scanner without adversely affecting the MR image quality.

2. NJ Toothbrush
NJ Toothbrush is the only toothbrush in the world targeting all dental surfaces including those niches often unreachable. The unique design of NJ Toothbrush overly targets all dental surfaces, in particular the inter-dental, retromolar and sub-gumline niches, so called the ‘dead-corners’ where the currently used toothbrushes may be difficult to clean up.

The NJ Toothbrush is developed using a precise computer-mapping of six types of purpose-built bristle-bundles that target all dental-gingival surfaces and niches. It can therefore maximize the effective control of plaque biofilms and resultant oral/periodontal inflammation along with regular professional oral healthcare. Moreover, the toothbrush is very user-friendly because of a purpose-built “rail track” approach to facilitate the correct action of tooth brushing, so as to promote optimal oral health.

3. Highly-Efficient Membranes & Products
Nanofibrous membranes are fabricated by nanoscale fibers, which endows them with stable pore size, high porosity and high surface area for rapid contaminants removal. In addition, the facile surface functionalisation can achieve combined high disinfection power and efficient great heavy metals removal.

Nanofibrous membranes and relevant products can treat unpurified water rapidly. Great water permeability enables nanofibrous membrane to treat water with short duration or small membrane area. Through the design of membrane packing, it can enhance the effective membrane filtration area to realise rapid water filtration. Composite nanofibrous membranes can simultaneously achieve highly-efficient removal of microorganisms, suspended solids and heavy metals. Highly-efficient composite nanofibrous membrane can be used in various scenarios, such as tap water filtration, household filtration kettle, outdoor sport bottle, and emergency portable water purification.

4. Screw Thread Adapted Specifically to the Biological Mechanisms of Human Bone
Bone screws are important medical devices for orthopedics and are used in almost all bone fracture operations. The present generation of bone screws with buttress thread become loosened too easily after surgical implantation, when the patient’s body weight is applied to a previously broken bone. Screw loosening is a very common form of bone screw fixation failure. Screw threads are particularly relevant to load concentrations that are formed when bone tissue is pushed against the side of the screw, which is very common in the applications. This invention on innovative, stress-reducing bone screw thread design will prevent the formation of areas of excessive load in the bone tissue around the screw.

InnoCarnival 2018 website: https://itm.gov.hk/en/activity-calendar/activityinnoc/

Media enquiry:
Communication and Public Affairs Office, HKU
Ms Melanie Wan (Tel: 2859 2600 / Email: melwkwan@hku.hk)

Technology Transfer Office, HKU
Ms Alice Ip (Tel: 22990177 / Email: alice@tto.hku.hk)