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HKUST 2012-13 Annual Report
25
POWERING INNOVATION,
GENERATING CHANGE
HKUST’s applied research and knowledge
transfer culture is propelling development
through putting novel ideas to work
Streaming Cloud Success
A next-generation streaming cloud for large-
scale high bitrate applications over the global
internet has been developed by Prof Gary
Chan (Computer Science and Engineering). The
“Streamphony” cloud makes use of innovative
technologies to provide high-quality content to
viewers, and has been acclaimed by both content
and service providers. Its high-quality multimedia
broadcasting also offers cost savings of 70% on
bandwidth and 30% on hardware.
Biodevice Breakthroughs
An interdisciplinary team led by Dr John Kwok
(Biomedical Engineering), Prof David Lam and
Prof Matthew Yuen (Mechanical Engineering)
has developed bio-devices for the treatment of
endoluminal diseases. The team has developed
devices for advanced clot retrieval and focal
dissolution to treat ischemic stroke. The
researchers have further developed breakthrough
devices made of bioabsorbable materials, which
not only treat but help the body to restore the
treated blood vessels. The bioabsorbability of the
device also enables it to disappear, allowing the
shrinkage and natural healing of aneurysms to
proceed without interference.
Absorbing Development
Profs Ping Sheng, Zhiyu Yang and Che Ting Chan
(Physics) have developed a novel metamaterial
that can absorb sound energy. The thin and light
metamaterial is made of elastic membranes with
specially designed rigid platelets, and is particularly
effective against sound frequencies between 100–
1,000 Hz. Potential uses include panels or walls to
reduce noise in aircraft cabins and buildings.
Understanding Viruses
A multidisciplinary research team is undertaking
an experimental and computational immunology
project. The team includes Profs Matthew McKay
(Electronic and Computer Engineering), I-Ming
Hsing (Biomedical Engineering and Chemical
and Biomolecular Engineering) and Xuhui
Huang (Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering),
working together with researchers from MIT and
Massachusetts General Hospital. The project seeks
to develop new computational methodologies
for better understanding and predicting the
evolutionary behavior of infectious viruses, with
exciting preliminary results for the Hepatitis C virus.
Learning about Risk
An Interdisciplinary Programs Office collaboration
with Marvel Digital Limited has designed a
scenario-based system to teach investors about
financial risk management. The project adopted
ontology and intelligent rules to dynamically
create different financial risk management
scenarios to assist learners. An ontology database
stores the relevant concepts and rules.