Architecture
Mr Jason Carlow led the Faculty of Architecture’s involvement in creating eight installations for ArtAlive@Park 2010 and ArtAlive@Park 2012. Both students and staff explored new ideas about architecture, fabrication and public space. Their installations served as highly accessible public art and design works, and demonstrated alternative ideas about public space and architecture to government officials. The success of the 2010 project inspired the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to remodel the ArtAlive@Park programme based on HKU’s projects and to involve other local university architecture programmes.
Arts
Language and communication in genetic counselling is the focus of work by Dr Olga Zayts in the School of English, who has looked at counselling for prenatal (Down’s Syndrome), postnatal (G6PD deficiency) and adolescent and adult (Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome) conditions. The achievements by Dr Zayts and her team in developing healthcare communication practice and resources are recognised by the Consortium on Clinical Genetics and Genomic Medicine, which has a five-year plan to enhance diagnostic and counselling services to clients in Hong Kong.
Business and Economics
Dr Michael Chau Chiu-lung applied his expertise in data analysis and data mining to help the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) detect patterns in blood donations of the past, and identify where it could boost donations. On Dr Chau’s recommendations, the BTS opened a donation centre in Yuen Long in 2011 which attracted more than 400 donations per week, mostly from people living in the district. This project has enhanced a vital service in public healthcare.
Dentistry
A project to promote oral health in preschool children has addressed an unmet need: children receive free dental care services once they enter school aged six, but not before. The project, led by Dr Yang Yanqi, educated parents and kindergarten staff about breaking bad habits and establishing good oral hygiene and offered dental services to children. Antenatal and postnatal women were also targeted with information on baby oral health education. The hope is to prevent problems before they arise.
Education
Best teaching practice is being promoted to schools through a DVD project that demonstrates innovative and engaging teaching methods. The DVD is produced under the School-University Partnerships programme led by Dr Tammy Kwan Yim-lin and features authentic lessons by student-teachers. Schools have said it has been a useful resource for staff development for both novice and experienced staff. The project illustrates how student- teachers can be an important bridge between schools and tertiary institutions, and promote the professional development of teachers.
Engineering
Dr Chow Kam-pui has worked for 10 years with the police force and the Customs and Excise Department to develop technologies to fight cyberspace crime in Hong Kong. During that time he and his team have developed three systems – Lineament I, which deals with suspected infringement of intellectual property rights over the internet; Lineament II, which uses cybercriminal profiling and artificial intelligence to detect potential auction fraud; and Lineament III, which analyses suspected criminal intent in the cyberlocker. Each of them has won praise from government departments for enhancing cyber safety.
Law
The Human Rights Portal developed by Professor Simon Young Ngai-man and his team in the Centre for Comparative and Public Law has filled the need for a user-friendly website providing information on human rights in Asia, and focussing on the research done by HKU and others in this field. The website (http://www.law.hku.hk/hrportal/ ) is a unique and easily accessible source of information for government and policy-making institutes, NGOs and academics, as well as for members of the public interested in human rights issues.
Medicine
Advances in the treatment of blood cancers and diseases are being made all the time, but keeping up with the latest can be difficult for hard-working doctors. To solve this problem, Professor Kwong Yok-lam and his team set up the Haematology Protocol, using online technology to disseminate information on the latest research in medical management and treatments for these diseases. The first such unified protocol in Hong Kong, the multimedia offering includes a website, handbook, iPhone application and newsletter and since its launch has been regularly accessed by medical practitioners as well as patients around the world.
Science
Hong Kong is known as the Pearl of the Orient, but Dr Jason Pun Chun-shing of the Department of Physics feels that in terms of light pollution, the city may be shining a little too brightly. He set up the Hong Kong Night Sky Monitoring Network in 2010 to measure the brightness of our night skies, and discovered that Hong Kong’s urban skies are 33 times brighter than rural skies on average. Dr Pun is discussing the findings with professional bodies and the Government to come up with possible mitigating measures to combat this pollution.
Social Sciences
Dr Uwe Steinhoff’s writings on the ethics of war, terrorism and torture have challenged conventional opinion and double standards, stimulated discussion beyond the confines of academia, and contributed to a less biased understanding of these controversial issues. His work considers the circumstances, if ever, when war, terrorism and torture may be justified. Apart from being discussed in the public arena, his work has also been cited and included in the curricula of military training institutes.