A scholar at the School of Chinese in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) has received commendation for her app named ‘Newssary’.
The application is a free Chinese-English news glossary app developed and has been named one of the 2018 Top Ten Healthy Mobile Phone/Tablet Apps in the ‘2018 Healthy Mobile Phone / Tablet Apps Contest’.
This competition is organised by the Office for Film, Newspaper and Article Administration (OFNAA) of the HKSAR Government, and co-organised by the Education Bureau, the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association and the Radio Television Hong Kong.
Here, the app and its creator, along with all the other participants, are being encouraged to develop and use apps with healthy, practical and educational content.
The ten apps with the highest combined scores from public voting and the adjudication panel have been selected as the Healthy Mobile Phone / Tablet Apps of the year.
The award-winning app from HKU, ‘Newssary’, a combination of ‘news’ and ‘glossary’, builds on the extensive bilingual news and current affairs glossary of nearly 9,000 entries created by Dr Ng and her team as a central feature of her website ‘Resources for Interpreting’.
In addition to terms culled from current affairs, the glossary also includes buzzwords and slang. Since its launch in 2017, the app has been highly recommended by scholars, translators and interpreters, and is well-received in the community.
The bilingual glossary has become a vital resource for professionals such as bankers and lawyers, students and teachers, as well as members of the public who wish to improve their bilingual competence in Chinese and English.
HKU talent receiving recognition across many sectors
In June 2019, HKU made headlines first for establishing a Medical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Programme that employs AI as a new testing ground for more optimal and efficient clinical practice of eye diseases.
The Department of Diagnostic Radiology, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), announced that it’s Medical Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Programme (MAIL) will pilot an Artificial Intelligence (AI) healthcare research study through a series of innovative and prospective clinical AI trials.
In collaboration with a firm that provides state-of-the-art smart city tech, the lab will utilise its broad AI expertise and resources to design and execute the clinical trials, recruit patients, and perform data analysis.
The results will go towards clinical validation and evaluation of the broad clinical impact of the partnering firm’s optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Fundoscopy AI systems on patient workflow and decision making.
Both the AI OCT and Fundoscopy systems are screening and referral systems for eye diseases that employ AI trained on input from clinical experts, with each AI tool capturing important but different clinical information.
Later in June 2019, HKU scholars were commended again for the efficient nanofibrous membrane that they developed.
The team of scientists invented an efficient and highly permeable nanofibrous membrane that can effectively filter various contaminants in water, particularly heavy metals and bacteria, making it valuable in disaster relief in addition to everyday use.
The membrane can rapidly filter heavy metals such as lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd), and chromium (Cr) with larger than 99.9% efficiency while eliminating bacteria such as E. coli and B. subtilis. It is easily operated via a gravity-driven filtration process and can be reused after being rinsed in vinegar.
The invention won a Gold Medal at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva earlier this year. It already received the US and a Chinese patent with another US patent underway. Technology transfer, licensing and commercialisation is expected.
The material will be promising to be used in household water filter and portable water filtration bottle. The project is funded by the Innovation and Technology Fund from the Hong Kong Government’s Innovation and Technology Commission.
It is clear that HKU’s talent is derived from various academic sectors, each using technology in new and innovative ways be it MedTech, education or fintech via the aid of the HKSAR Government and guidance from key industry players.
