THE FUTURE OF WORK Disruptions ahead and silver linings GREENER POWER GENERATION Converting waste heat into electricity CALLING FOR CONSERVATION PLANNING World War II military heritage sites in Hong Kong MAY 2021 VOLUME 22 NO.2
CONTENTS COVER STORY RESEARCH 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 The Future of Work Short-Term Pain, Long-Term Gain Robots Do Us Better Keeping Humans in the Loop Unmasking the Machine Workers of the World, Divided 02 04 06 08 10 12 PEOPLE KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE Global Thinker Acts Locally Engineer of Growth Human Rights Scholar Is New Dean of Law Hong Kong History in Pictures Stopping the Rot Early Copy This 40 42 44 34 36 38 TEACHING AND LEARNING Seeing the LITE Cutting-Edge Course for Future Surgeons 30 32 46 52 32 04 34 40 Lest We Forget Invention Turns Waste Heat into Electricity The Global Inequities of Urban Development How Green Is Seen Breakthrough in Fight against Liver Disease in Newborns Hollywood’s Cosy Ties with the US Military Leprosy Paradox Poetry in Motion BOOKS ARTS AND CULTURE Humans in the Wild Children of the Quake It Takes a Village True Colours Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman 46 48 50 52 54 18
THE FUTURE OF WORK The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only factor disrupting working lives. Automation and changes in worker-employee relationships are transforming labour across the world. HKU scholars have been considering the potential pros and cons of these changes. 02 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021 03 COVER STORY
The workplace disruptions caused by automation may ultimately improve our lives, suggests Professor Yuk-fai Fong of the HKU Business School. SHORT-TERM PAIN, LONG-TERM GAIN Professor Yuk-fai Fong is under no illusions about the challenges that automation presents to workers around the world. Robots, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are threatening jobs – indeed, in 2019 Oxford Economics predicted up to 20 million manufacturing jobs will be lost to robots by 2030. Last year, economist Daron Acemoglu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology showed that from 1990 to 2007 in the US, each additional robot in manufacturing replaced an average of 3.3 workers and the use of robots lowered wages by 0.4 per cent over the same period. “I agree that AI machine learning and increased automation will create short-term pain and some people’s jobs will be replaced,” Professor Fong said. “But as a society, I don’t think we should slow down that process. It’s about embracing it and finding ways to help those who are affected. Because even if we are in a grimmer scenario in which automation displaces more jobs than it creates, it may not be worse in the long run.” This is because the alternative would be for new technologies to mainly enhance our productivity, which would not necessarily improve our lives. “Think of our phones. They make us work longer hours so we’re never away from work. And because our time is more productive, the market operates in a way that our time gets utilised.” Displacement, on the other hand, would force workers and governments to adjust to new realities, such as fewer jobs for people and lower wages. For example, a large reduction in jobs could prompt governments to reduce the working week so there could be enough jobs to go around. That would have the additional benefit of improving work-life balance, he said. And while this would mean wages would drop, so would prices. Market equilibrium “As an economist, we want to look not only at the direct implications, but what we call the equilibrium. We believe the market will settle in a certain way and when it does, there are different adjustments that will be made,” he said. “We are still going to consume a mountain of commodities – keep that in mind. Machines and AI may compete for our jobs, but they do not compete for our products, they are not consumers. All these products produced at a massive scale would come down in price to a level that the market clears.” Inequality would be a concern because the small number of people who own new technologies would have first-mover advantage and likely become or maintain their positions as monopolists. But they could never consume everything that their technologies produce – products would still need to be affordable to the general populace. And while prices go down, free time would increase. People would have more time to seek out services provided by humans. “We don’t long to interact with machines, we long to interact with people,” he said. This optimistic picture depends, however, on individuals and governments being flexible and prepared. Governments should take responsibility for helping people transition to a more automated society, he said. Individuals should retrain if they see their field is becoming automated. Testing adaptability In any case, Professor Fong does not envision a jobless future: “Having a job by itself gives us a lot of fulfilment and satisfaction that we are contributing to society.” Because of that, he would rather governments provide retraining and time-limited unemployment benefits than a universal basic income. “I don’t want to paint an excessively rosy picture. What I would say is that in the long run, we will be in a better world and it will not just be a small number of people who are going to benefit. Most people will benefit. But I am mindful there could be short-term pain,” he said. More immediately, he has also taken note of the workplace changes that have arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is testing people’s capacity to adapt. Online meetings and classes have shown it is possible to achieve things remotely, but he cautions that the circumstances are unusual. “People already had prior relationships which has meant their online meetings can be productive. In three or four years, when there is a turnover of staff and new people are hired, how can you establish a productive relationship with a stranger?” Nonetheless, he foresees a future of ‘blended working’ where part of the week is spent working remotely and part is at the office. “The pandemic has been a long experiment. I feel it is impossible that there will be no permanent impact on work arrangements. It is not like SARS, which was limited in scale and only lasted a few months. This time it’s different. It just makes sense for us to retain some of the online component of work that has been improved upon, to save our time.” Machines and AI may compete for our jobs, but they do not compete for our products, they are not consumers. All these products produced at a massive scale would come down in price to a level that the market clears. PROFESSOR YUK-FAI FONG 05 COVER STORY 04 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
The artist robot, which can quickly capture a person’s facial features and draw a portrait of them, has industrial potential in cleaning or polishing surfaces with complicated contours. Professor Xi Ning (first from right) and his research team. The robot is fitted with a camera and arm to assemble ballpoint pens and can do autonomous assembly without any human input. Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are changing in rapid and fundamental ways. Think back to AlphaGo, which was the first algorithmic program to defeat a human player of Go. That was barely six years ago, yet to Professor Xi Ning, Chair Professor of Robotics and Automation and Director of the Emerging Technologies Institute, it is almost old hat. Professor Xi arrived at HKU around the same time as AlphaGo’s achievement, having worked for two decades on robotics at Michigan State University where his findings were applied in industrial applications such as automotive manufacturing and nuclear waste clean-up. “Having a robot play Go is easy – it just has to make a decision, it doesn’t have to take action,” he said. “Getting a robot to take action is a much more difficult problem.” Professor Xi has applied himself to that challenge by combining robots, sensors such as cameras, and AI to develop multiple robotic tools that have a wide range of uses, such as scientific research, manufacturing, medicine, disinfection and even art creation. One promising line of investigation is nanorobotics. He and his team have developed a nano-scale robot hand that can interact with molecules. This interaction provides information about the molecules and enables scientists to manipulate them, for example by assembling molecules for drug discovery or conducting diagnostics. The system is already being applied in collaboration with Professor Pengtao Liu of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine to his groundbreaking work on stem cell differentiation (see HKU Bulletin, Vol.21, No.1). “The nanorobot can ‘feel’ the stem cell. We hope this will help identify or predict what potency the stem cell has so it can then be manipulated to differentiate in a specific way, for example, into a heart or other organ,” Professor Xi said. “Our nanorobot is the only one of its kind in the world and it will enable us to do very advanced innovations.” See and touch More life-sized inventions are also being produced by Professor Xi’s laboratory, such as a robot that can do autonomous assembly without any human input. The test robot is fitted with a camera and arm to assemble ballpoint pens. The robot is ‘smart’ enough to identify if there is a part available for assembly and if not, it will wait until one is available. A wearable robot, in the form of a brace or belt, has also been developed that can help elderly people stand up and walk. The robot automatically measures electrical signals that are sent to the muscles from the brain to signal muscle contraction, then gives them an extra boost. “When people get old, they can lose muscle mass and not have enough strength to stand up, so this could help them by generating additional strength for their muscles,”he said. Yet another system they developed can measure human tactile sense, which can be used to diagnose medical conditions, such as loss of balance in the elderly, and even detect cancerous tumours in dense breast tissue. Professor Xi notes that the robotics field is being driven forward not only by new technology, but new demands for application, such as COVID-19. His team have developed a disinfection robot that can bring a very highintensity ultraviolet light close to surfaces. The light is too potent for human cleaners to use but can kill viruses quickly and it is currently being tested in HKU’s libraries. In addition, following the reliance on online learning during the pandemic, they have just received funding to develop a ‘telelaboratory’ that would enable students to perform laboratory experiments from home through remote control of robots. Beyond ‘3D’ “In the past, robots were developed to do things humans did not want to do – the ‘3D’ jobs that are dirty, dull and dangerous. Robots have quite successfully replaced humans in these jobs. Over 90 per cent of car manufacturing processes are now done by robots,” he said. “But when you talk about the future, the key point is that robots can augment human capabilities – they can do something humans cannot do. I call it ‘ultra-robotics’. ” Professor Xi and his laboratory have been pushing at the ‘ultra’ envelope. They have developed an artist robot that can quickly capture a person’s facial features and draw a portrait of them. The technology has industrial potential, for instance in cleaning or polishing surfaces with complicated contours. And they are working what he calls a ‘biosyncretic’ robot that combines an infrared camera with the cell of a snake eye. “There is a lot of potential for humans. If a certain part of your body breaks down, you could replace it using an electrical-mechanical system,” he said, acknowledging some people may find this scary. “When you don’t understand things, you may feel scared. But once you understand, you can take advantage of it,” he said. When you talk about the future, the key point is that robots can augment human capabilities – they can do something humans cannot do. I call it ‘ultra-robotics’. PROFESSOR XI NING ROBOTS DO US BETTER The recent landings on Mars showed how robots can venture where no person has gone before. Professor Xi Ning’s laboratory is exploring that capability here on Earth. The disinfection robot can bring a very high-intensity ultraviolet light close to surfaces. 06 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021 07 COVER STORY
Robo-doctors are still the domain of science fiction. But researchers in engineering and medicine are developing human-controlled advanced technologies that will improve healthcare. The promise of robotics in healthcare is often equated with the development of self-driving cars. The latter technology has accelerated and these cars are now being tested on roads, although not without challenges. Could we one day have autonomous medical droids performing surgery, like those seen in the Star Wars movies? Not for a long time yet, caution researchers. Although robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are being applied in medicine, humans remain firmly in the picture. “Many people think AI will replace clinical duties, especially those of the radiologist who reviews and interprets medical images. But we can’t look forward to this any time soon,” said Dr Kwok Ka-wai of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who specialises in surgical robotics, AI and related systems. “Taking the driver out of a car is easy in comparison. Taking out a clinician is a lot more difficult.” That is because there are many more hurdles to overcome, says Dr Vince Vardhanabhuti of the Medical Faculty’s Department of Diagnostic Radiology, who uses big data and analytics in his research. Medical decisions are based on a wide variety of data – not just medical images but laboratory tests, pre-existing conditions, gender, age and a host of other factors. Plus, there is the liability factor. “Who is responsible when AI gets it wrong? At the very least, this is why doctors need to remain in the loop with overall responsibility until such times when people can fully trust AI. I think we are still a long way from that,” he said. “In the short term, I think it is more likely that AI and humans will work in collaboration – the AI will be used as a team member, a bit like in the multidisciplinary collaborative teams that we now see in medical practice.” To that end, the two scholars and their teams have been developing ways to use robotics and AI alongside humans to improve diagnosis and treatment. Robots in the machine Dr Kwok’s big breakthrough has been developing a robot that can operate within a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Tasks requiring dexterous movements can be carried out by the robotic arms even when channelled through an endoscope more than one-metre long. Dr Kwok Ka-wai’s Group for Interventional Robotic and Imaging Systems (IRIS) attending the 2019 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Macau. MRI-guided needle robot for percutaneous ablation of primary liver cancer. KEEPING HUMANS IN THE LOOP machine. The strong magnetic force means no ferromagnetic metals can be used, so his robot is made of plastic or MR-safe materials, and runs on hydraulic fluid. “We already have a lot of minimally invasive surgical tools like endoscopy and laparoscopy where a camera is mounted on a scope that goes inside the body to visualise the surgical site. Surgeons can then do procedures remotely by manipulating different instruments, like a puppet. “My work is to see if we can work with the MRI’s ability to see through the whole body to provide safer, more accurate and more effective positioning for clinical surgeries.” MRI-guided surgeries can already be done manually but are cumbersome – the surgeon checks the image, enters the MRI room, takes the patient out of the ‘donut’ for treatment, puts the patient back in, then checks the computerised image to see what should be done next. An MRI robot can be manipulated remotely to do the procedure, without needing to move the patient so many times and risk displacement. Dr Kwok’s robot is being developed for brain surgery. Pre-clinical tests have been performed on cadavers and while there are many hurdles to getting clinical approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, collaborations are underway with a potential industry partner. Another output from his laboratory is a tiny robot that can manoeuvre within an endoscope tunnel that is less than 2.8 millimetres wide, to perform procedures such as polyp dissection. This robot is easier to implement than the MRI robot. A spinoff company, Agilis, is making the robot available for clinical approval. Learning the boundaries Dr Vardhanabhuti has worked with Dr Kwok on the MRI robot project, as well as another project that uses AI to improve MRI imaging of suspected prostate cancer tumours, which reduces variability between the observations of different radiologists. Separately, he has also had success using AI to improve predictions of cancer patient-related outcomes based on imaging. As the end-user of advanced technologies, Dr Vardhanabhuti thinks there is potential to make his work more efficient and accurate but is cautious about over-selling it at this point. “I don’t think we know yet how best to work in conjunction with these technologies,” he said. “For imaging and diagnosis, AI could be seen as a second reader but even then, it can depend on how confident the person is in their diagnosis and whether they are swayed by the second reader.” As an example, he cites mammograms using computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD). The technology was widely adopted before clinical trials were conducted and when a proper trial was finally held, it found humans performed worse when they relied on CAD because they called too many false positives. “From a mass screening perspective, this is not a good result because it results in too many unnecessary biopsies and distresses the patients,” he said. In the short term, I think it is more likely that AI and humans will work in collaboration – the AI will be used as a team member, a bit like in the multidisciplinary collaborative teams that we now see in medical practice. DR VINCE VARDHANABHUTI 08 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021 09 COVER STORY
UNMASKING THE MACHINE The workplace and commercial environments are increasingly being populated by robots and digital assistants that have human features. But putting a face on them can sometimes backfire, warns Dr Sara Kim of the HKU Business School. When a South Korean call centre decided to bring robots into the workplace, they asked Dr Sara Kim to study their employees’ response. The firm had told workers they would not be replaced, but it wanted to better understand their insecurities and perceptions of these new ‘co-workers’. Dr Kim’s preliminary results offer lessons on how to integrate people and AI-powered technology. The key variable was people’s tendency to humanise their robot co-workers. Some were more likely to do this than others, and it made them feel more threatened by the technology. “Those who construe robots or digital agents to be more human-like tend to treat the robots like real people who can replace their job, whereas those who treat it like a machine are less likely to feel threatened,” she said. For managers, that signified the need to sidestep the urge to put a smiling, winking face on a digital assistant or robot in certain environments. “There is some backfiring effect when human-like features are adopted for technological assistants,” she said. “The workplace is one environment where that can happen, but I think it extends to competitive atmospheres in general. Once the robot is seen as a competitor, you better not impose humanlike eyes or mouth or head, or else it can evoke uncomfortable feelings like insecurity.” An exception that she found proves the rule: if the company culture is highly collaborative and evaluates teams rather than individuals for promotion, human-like features on a robot will not necessarily be harmful. “But if the environment is competitive, you better have a box shape,” she said. Thunder stolen The findings echo earlier work by Dr Kim on user responses to digital assistants in computer games and education software that either had no human features (such as simply a laptop image) or had human features (such as a laptop superimposed with eyes and a smile). The assistant gave instructions or hints on playing a game or solving a math problem. “Practitioners assume that adopting these human forms can create friendly warm images that help people interact more smoothly with digital agents and robots and while that is often true, it isn’t always the case. That is the core of my research,” she said. With computer games, she found that human-like characters ruined players’ enjoyment of the game, possibly because they felt undermined. “A major reason why people play computer games is because they want to feel a kind of autonomy or ownership over the outcomes so they can feel good about themselves. That thunder seems to be a little stolen when human-like icons give hints,” she said. The findings were more complex with education software because they depended on the subject’s own beliefs about intelligence. Working with an educational and developmental psychologist, Dr Kim tested college students who believed either that intelligence was fixed from birth or that it depended on effort. Those who believed intelligence could not be changed were negatively impacted by human-like digital assistants. “They felt bad about themselves and that they must be dumb, so they were not motivated to do the next task and they performed worse on it,” she said. “Non-human assistants did not make participants feel they were being judged, so they were not necessarily reluctant to get help from them.” But sometimes human features are preferred Dr Kim hopes to replicate the findings about educational software with young children to determine what age they start to feel threatened by human-like figures. “Kids five or six years old might not have a problem with it,” she said. “I want to see when this belief starts to have an effect, although I don’t think it affects everyone.” People’s feelings about their technological helpers can also create internal conflict when it comes to performing workplace duties. In medical settings, for instance, other researchers have shown that staff may feel their job and even their sense of human identity is threatened, so they may be reluctant to use robots even if robots do a better job for patients, such as helping them out of bed. But Dr Kim is at pains to point out that there are instances when people prefer human-like characteristics on technology – for instance, patients may prefer human-like robots. And in another study she did, consumers derived more pleasure from products when they humanised them. “When you name your phone or your car, you tend to feel happiness from experiences with that product at a similar level to experiential products, which people usually prefer over material things,” she said. That also gives rise to complex feelings about replacement. “Other researchers have shown that when people treat their products more like a human, they are less likely to discard it. If you want to discard it, better to treat the product like a tool and don’t give it a name,” she said. Those who construe robots or digital agents to be more human-like tend to treat the robots like real people who can replace their job, whereas those who treat it like a machine are less likely to feel threatened. DR SARA KIM 11 COVER STORY 10 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
At a basic level the US and China are converging on this idea that labour is just about a contract, it’s not about anything collective, it’s certainly not about workers’ participation in enterprise decision-making. DR JEDIDIAH KRONCKE Automation and robots aside, the worker-employer relationship is changing across the world. Legal scholar Dr Jedidiah Kroncke has been looking at the surprising convergence between America and China in eroding workers’ collective rights. WORKERS OF THE WORLD, DIVIDED Employees of Telecom Verizon helped initiate a new wave of labour strikes in the United States after their 2016 bargaining victory. (Courtesy of LaborNotes) In the 1970s, democratic United States and authoritarian China began to witness trends in the regulation of workers’ collective rights that, today, have resulted in puzzling similarities. Both countries increasingly prioritised contractual arrangements between employers and individual workers, rather than collective rights and active participation in decisionmaking. In the United States, unions became progressively weakened while workers were granted a growing number of grounds to sue employers solely on an individual basis. In China, economic reforms shifted from the ideal that the workers and the State were a unified entity grounded in guaranteed employment, to that of a labour market that, like the US, commodifies and regulates labour through private contracting with individual remedies. To Dr Jedidiah Kroncke, a scholar of comparative labour law in the Faculty of Law, these developments present an unsettling paradox. “You would presume the workplace would be structurally different under liberal and authoritarian regimes,” he said. “But here are two different countries and political systems that are both increasingly moving towards a contractarian view of the workplace without any reference to liberal or social democratic norms. Labour relations are seen as just another economic transaction, like the exchange of most any other commodity. “Even though in some substantive sense working conditions are generally harsher in China, at a basic level the US and China are converging on this idea that labour is just about a contract, it’s not about anything collective, it’s certainly not about workers’ participation in enterprise decision-making.” That matters for several reasons, he said. At the societal level, one would expect a country’s political and economic systems to reflect similar values. “Normatively, political and economic citizenship should be coherently integrated and the workplace should be a key forum where such values are promoted,” he said. “If you really believe in democracy, it has to be lived in the workplace, which is the dominant social experience for most citizens beyond the family.” Undesirable outcomes At the individual level, people derive meaning and agency from work, much more than from the political arena. If they are disempowered in the workplace, it can lead to discontent. “Work traditionally grounds people’s sense of meaning and community. When you take that away, they become very susceptible to finding those things in other, often less socially constructive, places,” he said. This outcome is evident in the ongoing labour unrest in China and the rise of tribalism in the US and other countries where unions have been weakened, employment contract law has been on the rise, and governments have adopted the view that any form of worker empowerment promotes inefficiency. China on the surface may seem an exception because every company has workers’ councils or state-backed unions. “There’s a form of unionisation there, but it’s not to empower workers to participate. It’s to keep a lid on labour unrest,” which is regarded as a threat to stability, he said. Another point of convergence has been attempts to address this issue by allowing workers to hold shares in companies, though this is also not all that it seems. In the US, special trusts have been promoted to hold shares for workers, but the nature of this ownership ultimately gives workers little control over how the company is run. In China, Huawei is a parallel example where most of the company’s shares are held by the state-backed union, but without leading to any real governance input and with the original owner (technically a minority owner) retaining large governance powers. “In both situations, worker participation in governance is not seen as valuable or desirable,” he said. No easy responses Dr Kroncke said the convergence perspective may help explain why economic globalisation spearheaded by the US has been so readily adopted by authoritarian regimes, and why economic opening has not led to greater democratisation in China. Most relations between the US and China are conducted not through diplomatic or cultural exchange but corporations, and American corporations are internally authoritarian, not democratic. The reception to these observations has often not been warm, he said. People in both China and the US believe their legal systems are exceptional and resist comparison. But Dr Kroncke, who also trained as an anthropologist, believes comparison provides the larger picture of labour rights around the world. “These are really conversations about first principles – about what is a good life,” he said. Responses to this troubling convergence are still being formulated. Ideas like universal basic income and job guarantees are increasingly being discussed to address labour commodification, as well as automation and rising inequality. Alternative labour institutions that give workers more say in the workplace have also been suggested, although he cautions against the disabling effect of utopian ideas about worker participation. “A lot of people in the 20th century got used to the idea of progress, that things would keep getting better. Unfortunately, from an anthropological perspective, human history is cyclical,” he said. “We’re going through a period where we can’t ignore that things haven’t worked out for everyone.” Chinese workers at Walmart holding wildcat strike. (Courtesy of LaborNotes) 13 COVER STORY 12 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
A research team have spent over two decades locating and studying military relics left fromWorld War II and are now campaigning for the government to conserve these historically significant structures. LEST WE FORGET The team also made another important discovery recently when they drained a cistern at the site and found a water storage chamber at its bottom, which Dr Davies worked out could supply water for a 200-strong garrison for almost a month. The discovery was observed in a joint visit by a correspondent from Japanese news bureau Nikkei Asia who had covered the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Hong Kong in December 2011. Since the PBs were positioned in good tactical locations, the team speculate that the Luk Keng fortifications were built either to battle an anticipated Allied landing (which was planned to occur at Mirs Bay in 1946), or possibly to deter the guerilla forces of the East River Column, formally under the command of the National Revolutionary Army, who harassed the Japanese Army throughout its occupation. Raid on guerilla headquarters Team thought leans towards the latter, partly because they have linked the building of the site to a report of a battle in Luk Keng on March 3, 1942, where Japanese soldiers and Kempeitai (Japanese military police) made a successful raid on the Column’s guerilla political commissar’s headquarters at Nam Chung, located just below the western side of the knoll, killing 11 senior cadres and capturing four more. “Luk Keng’s all-round defensive system, readily visible in analysis of fields of fire from the pillboxes and its implicit tactical linkage with the systems on the north side of Starling Inlet around Sha Tau Kok, argues the possibility of a defended location in a counter-insurgency context,” said Professor Lai. He anticipates further and better research by historians. The team are now keen for the structures to be recognised and protected properly as a heritage site. Dr Davies said: “Luk Keng is one of five major clusters of Japanese fortifications in the northeastern New Territories, and it has an important place in Hong Kong’s story and should be preserved. Given that this site was a Japanese military base, it serves to remind us of the clash between nationalistic militarism and local resistance against brutal rule in Hong Kong.” Professor Lai’s first association with WWII fortifications, goes back to his childhood and walks round war relics with his dad, who was here during the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. Professor Lai graduated from HKU in 1981, became a town planner in government then returned to HKU in 1989 as a teacher and has been identifying and recording WWII fortifications since 2000. “In government, I gained the experience of using survey plans and aerial photos to do better field research and came into touch with the pioneering work on heritage buildings by Hong Kong volunteer veteran the late Dr Solomon Bard.” Professor Lai and Professor Ho also run a Common Core course, begun in 2012 and called ‘Property Rights, Built Heritage and Sustainable Development in Hong Kong’, which takes students on field trips to military heritage sites, initiating them in the use of maps and aerial photos, heritage identification and conservation. Luk Keng is an important link in these studies and conservation is a key issue. “We want to ensure its important place in Hong Kong’s history is recognised. At present, the site is open access and unmanaged, though owned by government,” said Professor Lai. “Plant growth, particularly roots, and landslides will soon destroy all the pillboxes. Visitors could also ruin them through carelessness.” His proposals include building a system of slightly elevated walkways around the PBs and along the trench; adding proper walking trails to follow old but now overgrown village paths; and an interpretation room to be built downhill. “In short, it requires authentic and proper conservation planning and environmentally-sensitive development that preserves the integrity of the site with safe access, and a small local museum,” he said. More than 200 military relics fromWorldWar II (WWII) are scattered around Hong Kong, including gun batteries, pillboxes (PBs), the air raid tunnels now housing the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence at Shau Kei Wan, as well as fortifications along the Gin Drinker’s Line (GDL), at Devil’s Peak and in many other places. Most were left by the British, but one of the most intriguing relics, located near Luk Keng in the northeastern NewTerritories, was constructed by the Japanese during their occupation of Hong Kong from December 1941 to 1945. “The Luk Keng cluster comprises at least 14 PBs, built of reinforced concrete, connected by a 400-metre trench system on the crest of a knoll,” said Professor Lawrence Lai from the Department of Real Estate and Construction of the Faculty of Architecture, who led the team. “Seven of the pillboxes are bigger and there are six smaller satellite pillboxes, capable of holding just one soldier.” The team behind the Luk Keng research have worked alongside Professor Lai frequently over the past 10 years. Members include Professor Daniel C Ho, Honorary Professor Dr Stephen N G Davies, both from the Faculty of Architecture, as well as local military expert Mr Y K Tan and local historian Mr Tim Ko, both of whom Professor Lai met through the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. The study has included researching the military heritage on Devil’s Peak and Bokhara Batteries, as well as PBs along the GDL and on Hong Kong Island. “Through all these projects I have hoped to set a foundational standard for local heritage and conservation studies on military sites,” said Professor Lai. “The type of military structure we see at Luk Keng is rare in Hong Kong,” said Professor Ho. “It is a comprehensive system of installations. No archival material has been found to suggest they existed pre-war as colonial defences, so it seems most likely they were constructed by the Japanese during their occupation.” Historian Mr Ko has found clues to support this theory: “From the recollections of villagers nearby it can be established that pillboxes and observation posts were built during the period of the Japanese occupation and some local inhabitants were pressed into labour building the constructions.” Luk Keng’s allround defensive system, readily visible in analysis of fields of fire from the pillboxes and its implicit tactical linkage with the systems on the north side of Starling Inlet around Sha Tau Kok, argues the possibility of a defended location in a counterinsurgency context. PROFESSOR LAWRENCE LAI On a 120m knoll with a levelled summit, near Luk Keng, stand some seven pillboxes connected by a system of communication trenches with, further downhill, at least six smaller satellite pillboxes that each can only accommodate one soldier. Pillbox PB6, looking over to the southwestern side of the knoll. Pillbox PB7, which is believed to have been used by the Japanese army as the site’s command post. 15 RESEARCH 14 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
Dr Tony Feng Shien-Ping has devised an effective, costefficient and greener way to recover low-temperature waste heat, even body heat, and use it to generate power. INVENTION TURNS WASTE HEAT INTO ELECTRICITY Industry partners The findings have been reported in Nature Communications and received numerous awards, including being named best business start-up in the Institution of Chemical Engineers Global Awards 2020 and being highly commended at the same event for energy saving. Dr Feng and his team also have a start-up and are working with partners to further test and commercialise the DTCC. The start-up is called High Performance Solution and its key technology is a paste containing the chemicals that regulate the DTCC. Their first industrial partnership was with Techskill (Asia) Ltd (Hong Kong) to recover waste heat from an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system and use that to generate electricity. Testing got underway in 2020 but was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, it has shown promising results to date. Another partnership is Brilliant Optronics in Taiwan, where the manufacturing site of High Performance Solution is based and where Dr Feng hails from. Here, they are working on an electro-chromatic window that changes colour or darkens under summer sunlight to keep out the heat. The window needs electricity to function, which the DTCC could provide by converting heat from sunshine (making it different from a solar cell that uses light for power generation). Tests are being carried out in Kaohsiung this year. Skin power Tests are also underway to see whether the DTCC can recover body heat, in collaboration with EcoFlow, a company started by a former Research Associate of Dr Feng’s. Human skin temperature is about 32 degrees Celsius (a bit cooler than our inner body temperature) and Dr Feng reckons this should be enough to power low-power sensors. “We want to do this because if someone needs a health monitor attached to their skin, the next person probably won’t want to use it so it has to be thrown away. It also needs a battery which is environmentally unfriendly. So we are working on a smart patch that combines the cell and sensors to provide a greener solution,” he said. Early this year, the HKSAR Government’s Electrical and Mechanical Services Department also brought in the start-up to test the DTCC’s reliability in converting heat to electricity under different weather conditions. The test is being carried out on the Department’s green roof and will run for one year. High Performance Solution is led by Dr Feng’s former student and HKU PhD graduate, Dr Vivian Huang, and he continues to work closely with her and her team. “I spend a certain amount of time in this company because it is related to my research. It makes me excited to see how academic research can have real-world applications,” he said. More than 60 per cent of the electricity generated by power plants and industrial processes is lost as waste heat, and more than half of that is low-grade heat that is difficult to recover. Dr Tony Feng Shien-Ping of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has broken through these barriers with a new approach to capturing this heat. Until now, semi-conductors have been the main tool for waste heat recovery, but they are not effective when temperatures drop below 100 degrees Celsius. Semi-conductors generate electricity based on the temperature differences – or fixed thermal gradient – between the heat source to which they are attached and the outside environment. Dr Feng’s approach is to come at the problem from a different angle. Rather than the thermal gradient, he has tapped into the thermal cycle of heating and cooling using a direct thermal charging cell (DTCC). He and his team apply chemicals to the DTCC that capture the heat and can also restart the heating process when the device cools down, making it self-regenerating. Most importantly, their approach works at temperatures as low as 30 degrees Celsius. “Other researchers have studied electrochemical heat converters, but they don’t have this self-regeneration function so their converters might only be able to be used once or need external electricity input,” he said. The advantages and applications of this approach are manifold. Not only can it recover low-grade heat for power generation, it can also be done using thinner, lighter devices than semi-conductors. One slim cell is all that is needed to regulate the thermal cycle, with graphic oxide applied on one side, a conductive polymer on the other and saltwater in the middle. “Our cell is environmentally friendly because it is degradable and disposable, unlike a lithium battery. It is also much cheaper,” Dr Feng said. The direct thermal charging cell can harness body heat to power wearable electronic devices or medical devices for monitoring body health conditions. Dr Tony Feng (second from left) and his research team. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of the HKSAR Government brought in the start-up to test the reliability of the direct thermal charging cell in converting heat to electricity under different weather conditions. Our cell is environmentally friendly because it is degradable and disposable, unlike a lithium battery. It is also much cheaper. DR TONY FENG SHIENPING 17 RESEARCH 16 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
based on the increase in their built-up area (BUA), population growth and increased greening, such as new parks, green spaces and green roofs. This information was combined and compared with the cities’ economic status in World Bank rankings, to reveal trends showing strong links between the different variables. Cities in upper-middle income countries experienced the greatest expansion in their BUAs – 61 such cities expanded by more than 50 square kilometres from 2001 to 2018, compared to 21 lower-middle income cities, 17 high income cities and six low income ones. Upper-middle income cities also showed significant greening, meaning the greening happened during the study period (total vegetation including pre-2001 planting was instead labelled ‘greenness’). Some 325 cities saw significant greening in more than 10 per cent of BUAs and nearly one-third of those were in China. Overall, greening in Chinese cities increased by 32 per cent. Professor Chen explained that many high income places were already quite green to begin with or were in challenging environments, such as the semi-arid conditions around Los Angeles. But in low income cities, the story was different. In Africa, not one city scored highly on greening even though some of them have favourable climates for vegetation growth. “In places like Lagos, their greening decreased dramatically. It’s like bare soil there – they have removed many trees. But somewhere like New York City, although it did not have much greening from 2001 to 2018, its greenness is already quite good. In the Pearl River Delta, total greenness is not as good as New York, but it is steadily increasing and I believe it will increase further,” he said. “The relationship between green space and higher incomes is very clear. People want to live in a good environment. When the economy does well, they can spend money on proper green spaces.” Population challenge Population expansion is another important variable. Some 86 cities in high income countries and 59 cities in upper-middle income ones had negative population growth during the study period, although overall their cities expanded by an average of 100,000 and 300,000 people per city, respectively. Lowermiddle income and lower income cities, however, saw much larger growth, expanding by an average of 500,000 people per city. “At the same time, the lower-middle income and lower income cities were substantially lagging behind in BUA expansion and infrastructure development, resulting in serious urban problems such as slums and crowding,” Professor Chen said. The first study to compare urban development, urban greening and population growth in large cities around the world shows how low income cities are lagging behind. THE GLOBAL INEQUITIES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT The growth in population also meant even fewer people benefitted from whatever greening measures were carried out in low and lower-middle income cities compared with those in wealthier cities, to the detriment of both people and the environment. “Significant greening can help neutralise carbon emissions and mitigate the impact of global climate change in urban areas. A better understanding of the uneven urbanisation in developing countries can give them scientific references for managing urban areas and striking a balance between urbanisation, population growth and environmental changes,” he said. In 1889, Nature magazine carried an article that described China as a treeless country. To Professor Chen Ji of the Department of Civil Engineering, who was corresponding author of a recent groundbreaking study on urban development, the description was revealing of the conditions necessary for people to enjoy pleasant urban surroundings. “Why was it treeless? Because in urban areas, people didn’t have enough resources to develop their environment. Like Lagos in Nigeria today, there is no money for greening, just for building a simple house to live in,” he said. Professor Chen has shown where those conditions exist in the present day in the first global survey to link urban expansion, population growth and greening in large cities. While other studies have addressed individual components, none has provided such a comprehensive picture. The study was published in Nature Communications last October and singled out under its Editors’ Highlights section. “One of our findings is that cities in the lowest income countries face a serious problem with population growth and have an urban expansion path that is below that growth. The population is growing too fast,” he said. “Another big issue is that their urban environment is getting even worse. We hope the study will provide some warning signals to those cities to have more governance over their urbanisation.” The study was based on a rich dataset from 841 cities during 2001–2018. A former PhD student of Professor Chen’s and first author of the study, Dr Sun Liqun, had developed a method to rapidly analyse several terabytes of data from publicly available US satellite data to track development. They also used a vegetation index they had previously applied to analyse the impact of ice storms in southern China and the Wenzhou earthquake in Sichuan, which both occurred in 2008. Income and greenness linked The 841 cities each had areas larger than 100 square kilometres by 2018 and were analysed One of our findings is that cities in the lowest income countries face a serious problem with population growth and have an urban expansion path that is below that growth. The population is growing too fast. PROFESSOR CHEN JI Greening built-up areas in Pearl River Delta (left) and Yangtze River Delta (right) city clusters. The greening in Lagos decreased dramatically after many trees were removed. 19 RESEARCH 18 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021
Numerous studies have reported the mental health benefits of contact with green landscapes. However, the mechanistic and neural bases of why such landscapes drive positive mental health outcomes have remained poorly understood until now. “This study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to enable us to understand the mechanisms and effects in a more accurate and theoretically valid way,” said Dr Bin Jiang, Associate Professor in Landscape Architecture. “By scanning the brain, we can observe that different brain parts make different levels of neural responses to the green landscapes. This study is opening a ‘black box’ that cannot be opened before.” In 2016, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Chair Professor Chris Webster set up a strategic research cooperation with the Head of Department of Psychology and Chair Professor Tatia MC Lee, May Professor in Neuropsychology, and her State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. With their support and guidance, Dr Jiang had the opportunity to work with Dr Dorita Chang from the Department of Psychology to investigate the problem. First, the research team developed the plan together based on visual materials collected by Dr Jiang in the US. Then Dr Chang designed and ran a random assignment fMRI experiment, asking participants to view one of three types of 3D image inside the fMRI device. Each type of image contains similar single-house community streets with a low (0–2.5 per cent), medium (31–40 per cent), or high (61–70 per cent) level of tree canopy density measured at eye-level. Brain activities were measured while the participant was viewing the images. In addition, the investigators conducted a photograph survey study of images in the laboratory as a supportive portion of the study. A collaborative research study spanning architecture, psychology and neuroscience answers the question: what happens in the brain when people view urban green landscapes? HOW GREEN IS SEEN The results indicated that viewing green landscapes that vary in terms of green-space density sparks corresponding changes in the activity of the human ventral posterior cingulate cortex in the brain that is correlated to behavioural stress-related responses. “The study also shows that cingulate responses are engaged early in the processing cascade, influencing attentional and executive regions in a predominantly feedforward manner,” said Dr Chang. “Our data suggest a key role for this region in regulating (nature) dose-dependent changes in stress responses, potentially through its extensive connections to the prefrontal and hippocampal regions which in turn project towards the neuroendocrine system.” Strong argument Dr Jiang said: “In past decades, the government and society have gradually realised the health benefits of urban green landscapes. However, findings reported by previous studies were often criticised as ‘indirect’, ‘inaccurate’, or even ‘soft’. The neuroimage technology and methods can largely address those shortcomings, making a much stronger argument that the urban green landscape is critical for promoting public health and well-being.” Understanding the impact of greenness on human health and well-being is an initial but fundamentally important step. In future studies the team intend to measure the impact of green landscape in a more detailed and comprehensive way. “The same challenges exist for researching other types of built environmental features in the city, such as street façade, ground surface, and building density,”said Dr Jiang. “This line of research is pioneering and vital for society.” He is also leading a laboratory called ‘Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health’ at the Faculty. The laboratory, which again is characterised by strong international and interdisciplinary cooperation, examines the impact of multiple characteristics of the urban environment, especially urban landscapes, on social justice, public health, and well-being. Dr Jiang said: “We have finished several influential research projects in the past three years, including: how different types of green landscapes and land uses influence citizens’ perceived safety; how the factory environment of Foxconn influences assembly line workers’ mental health and suicide behaviour; how different types of freeway landscapes influence drivers’mental states and driving performance; how the quality of the residential and nearby urban environment is associated with 13-year suicide rates of residents living in 151 public housing communities in Hong Kong; and how ratios of different types of green spaces at the county level are associated with the racial disparity in SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in the US.” According to Dr Jiang and the rest of the team involved, the implications for modern architecture of the fMRI study are very important. “This study provides concrete evidence that urban green landscapes are not just pleasant ‘visual candy’ but can efficiently improve public health and well-being, and therefore I think the government and society should regard urban green landscapes as critical and low-cost ‘preventive medicine’. “Compared to spending a tremendous amount of money and other resources on building a few ‘iconic’ and ‘high-end’ buildings and places, it would be more beneficial to the Sample stimuli from the three density levels tested in the fMRI. Stimuli were stereoscopic, and presented in the magnet using a prism setup. Images of streetscapes with low (top, average tree cover density is 1.7 per cent), moderate (middle), and high (bottom) tree cover density within single-house communities. public to provide many more ‘ordinary’ green landscapes, such as neighbourhood parks and pocket gardens, in cities.” Finally, Dr Jiang added a note for fellow architects: “I would humbly suggest that designers reduce reliance on anecdotal evidence and subjective perceptions. If we want to make society and government fully realise the significant positive or negative impacts of urban environments on public health and well-being, searching for scientific evidence from empirical studies to support our arguments is critical.” This study provides concrete evidence that urban green landscapes are not just pleasant ‘visual candy’ but can efficiently improve public health and well-being, and therefore I think the government and society should regard urban green landscapes as critical and low-cost ‘preventive medicine’. DR BIN JIANG Learn more about the Virtual Reality Lab of Urban Environments and Human Health 20 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin | May 2021 21 RESEARCH
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