Lingnan University’s debut at Silicon Valley International Invention Festival wins record 14 awards and becomes Hong Kong’s top winner
Lingnan University wins 14 awards at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2025. (From left: Ms Hao Kaixi, Master’s student of School of Interdisciplinary Studies; Mr Robin Chen, Manager (Technology Transfer and Business Development) of the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer (ORKT); Dr Benson Yeung, Associate Director (Technology Transfer and Business Development) of ORKT; Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies; President S. Joe Qin; Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research); Prof Paulina Wong Pui-yun, Head and Associate Professor (Presidential Early Career Scholar) of the Science Unit; Dr Nicole Lee Man-ying, Associate Programme Director of Office of Service-Learning and Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative; and Mr Jason Chu, Assistant Manager (Technology Transfer and Business Development) of ORKT)
Lingnan University wins 14 awards at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2025.
Lingnan University’s debut at Silicon Valley International Invention Festival wins record 14 awards and becomes Hong Kong’s top winner.
President Qin leads a team to the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival.
Lingnan University’s debut at Silicon Valley International Invention Festival wins record 14 awards and becomes Hong Kong’s top winner.
From left: Mr. D. C. Cheung, Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in San Francisco, HKSAR Government, Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research) of Lingnan University.
From left: Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning; Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research).
Prof Albert Ko (third from right), Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI), and his team pose with Prof Xin Yao (fourth from left), Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning.
From left: Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning; Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies.
From left: Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning; Prof Paulina Wong Pui-yun, Head and Associate Professor (Presidential Early Career Scholar) of the Science Unit.
Prof Pan Fei (third from right), Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, and his team pose with Prof Xin Yao (fourth from left), Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning.
Dr Zhi Shaohua (third from right), Senior Lecturer of the School of the Interdisciplinary Studies, and her team pose with Prof Xin Yao (third from left), Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning.
From left: Prof Xin Yao, Vice-President (Research and Innovation) and Tong Tin Sun Chair Professor of Machine Learning; Ms Chen Shumei, PhD student of the Division of Artificial Intelligence from the School of Data Science.
Lingnan University's science and innovation teams have achieved outstanding results at the 11th Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2025 (SVIIF) in their first-ever participation. All 13 participating projects, covering areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), smart manufacturing, and intelligent transportation, won awards, including 8 gold and 5 silver medals. One of the projects, the AI-based Fencing Training and Assessment System, led by Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), also received a special award ⸺ Prize of the International Federation of Inventors’ Association (IFIA), making Lingnan the Hong Kong higher education institution that won the highest number of total awards and gold medals at this year’s festival.
Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science of Lingnan University, who led the delegation to the Invention Festival, was delighted with the outstanding achievements of Lingnan University. He said, “The fact that Lingnan has won multiple awards in its first participation in the festival reflects the international recognition of our scholars’ high-quality research and demonstrates the University's strength in knowledge and technology transfer. This latest success builds on our world No.1 ranking in ‘SDG 4: Quality Education’ under the THE Impact Rankings, and follows our strong showing at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in April, where Lingnan captured five awards. These milestones affirm Lingnan’s growing competitiveness in research and innovation on the global stage. We are committed to becoming a leading liberal arts research university in the digital era, and will continue to fully support our researchers in their pursuit of scientific breakthroughs. Going forward, we will also actively promote industry-academia-research collaboration to maximise the University’s positive impact on society.”
The 13 inventions exhibited here were in smart manufacturing, intelligent transportation, software games, energy and environmental protection, and humanitarian technology, demonstrating conclusively Lingnan University’s strength in innovative scientific research, and its contributions to society.
Gold Award-winning projects include Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), with the AI-based Fencing Training and Assessment System; Prof Paulina Wong Pui-yun, Head and Associate Professor (Presidential Early Career Scholar) of the Science Unit, with Smarter Traffic, Safer Roads: AIoT and Real-Time GeoAI Innovations for Urban Transport; Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, with The Intelligent Integrated Carbon Tracking Dogs and Carbon Removal Robots Deployment System; Prof Pan Fei, Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, with Buffered Whisper Transformer: A Real-time Speech Recognition System for Edge Devices via a Dynamic Audio Chunking Mechanism; Dr Zhi Shaohua, Senior Lecturer of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, with An AI Multi-modal and Multi-level Process and Cost Intelligent Analysis Tool for Intelligent Manufacturing, and Lightweight Network Hard Drive Developed for People with Disabilities; Prof Albert Ko, Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI), with CREW- Wheelchair Control System; and Prof Albert Ko and Mr Adrian Lo Chun-kwong, Product Design Lead of the Office of Service-Learning, with PureAura – the Portable Mini Energy-saving Air Purifier.
Silver Award-winning projects include Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science, with Systems and Methods for Dynamic Process Monitoring with Time Series Generative Principal Predictor Models; Prof Pan Fei, Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, with Give Choices Back to the User: Personalised Movie Recommendation Software with User-Selectable Algorithms and Dynamic Hybrid Optimisation, and Intelligent Comment Filtering: A Natural Language Processing-Based Method (NLP) for Negative Review Prediction; Dr Zhi Shaohua, Senior Lecturer of the School of the Interdisciplinary Studies, with Destiny Compass: AI-Powered Cross-Dimensional Love Matching Ecosystem — Where Ancient Wisdom Meets AI-Driven Soul Alignment; and the research team of the Office of Service-Learning, with Incuvia - Modular portable foldable affordable baby incubator.
The SVIIF is a festival that showcases the most advanced inventions from around the world annually to potential investors, companies, and industry leaders in the heart of Silicon Valley, a global centre of technological innovation. This year, more than 215 inventions by over 400 inventors from approximately 25 countries and regions were exhibited; its grand scale attracting worldwide attention.
List of winning projects and descriptions
Awards | Gold Medal, Prize of the International Federation of Inventors’ Association - IFIA |
Project Title | AI-based Fencing Training and Assessment System |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and J.K. Lee Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence |
Project Description | The system combines wearable IMUs (Inertial Measurement Units), high-speed cameras, and deep learning technology to collect data on fencers' movements and details, helping athletes to concentrate precisely on their weak points. It uses large-scale linguistic modelling (LLM) to generate personalised feedback, and provide specific recommendations for improvement and training programmes, which greatly enhance technical analysis and coaching. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | CREW- Wheelchair Control System |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Albert Ko, Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) |
Project Description | The system turns traditional manual pushing into a smooth power-assisted experience, thus reducing the burden on caregivers. Detecting the strength and direction of the caregiver's hands, it drives the wheelchair with assistive power, making it physically easier for the caregiver to push over complex terrain such as slopes, minimising the risk of injury, and making it a safer and more relaxing experience for both caregivers and wheelchair users. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | PureAura – the Portable Mini Energy-saving Air Purifier |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | · Prof Albert Ko, Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) · Mr Adrian Lo Chun-kwong, Product Design Lead of the Office of Service-Learning |
Project Description | PureAura is an innovative, pocket-sized air purifier that supports compact living, travelling, and even humanitarian aid spaces with its unique foldable design and user-friendly features. Field-tested to reduce indoor concentrations of fine suspended particles (PM2.5), the PureAura has proven effective in improving air quality. PureAura folds up for easy transport and storage, offers tool-less assembly, and the main unit does not need to be dismantled replace the filter. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | The Intelligent Integrated Carbon Tracking Dogs and Carbon Removal Robots Deployment System |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Project Description | The Intelligent Integrated Carbon Tracking Dogs and Carbon Removal Robots Deployment System uses highly sensitive gas sensors to continuously detect carbon dioxide concentrations in the environment, and autonomously locate and identify areas with a higher concentration. The Carbon Tracking Dogs and Carbon Removal Robots then work in tandem to scan the surroundings, using 3D laser radar technology to generate a very accurate 3D map, which autonomously calculates the best way to avoid obstacles and navigate safely to the target area. The system has high-efficiency solar panels for continuous power support for efficient and high-purity carbon capture. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | Buffered Whisper Transformer: A Real-time Speech Recognition System for Edge Devices via a Dynamic Audio Chunking Mechanism |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Pan Fei, Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Zhou Yechuan, Zhang Junhao and Tan Yuchen, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | This is a real-time speech recognition system for edge devices based on dynamic audio segmentation, which can be used for conference recordings and real-time translation. The system first records audio in real time through a PyAudio library and sets a buffer to receive the recorded audio. Then the complete audio in the buffer is transmitted to the speech recognition model at fixed intervals by asynchronous processing, using a non-streaming model, Whisper, to recognise the transmitted audio, and convert it into text. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | Smarter Traffic, Safer Roads: AIoT and Real-Time GeoAI Innovations for Urban Transport |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Paulina Wong Pui-yun, Head and Associate Professor (Presidential Early Career Scholar) of the Science Unit, Associate Director of the LEO Dr David P. Chan Institute of Data Science |
Project Description | This invention has been designed to solve the problem of road congestion in Hong Kong and improve safety. Its core focus is on an all-in-one, precise solution that combines AIoT hardware, software platforms, and a GeoAI model to process, analyse, and forecast real-time traffic data and conditions. The Traffic Congestion Index (TCI) and the Traffic Accident Risk Index (TARI) are the key outputs of this intelligent system, providing valuable, near real-time information to drivers and fleet managers to help them make the best choice of route and driving behaviour, thereby improving safety and relieving traffic congestion. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | An AI Multi-modal and Multi-level Process and Cost Intelligent Analysis Tool for Intelligent Manufacturing |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Dr Zhi Shaohua, Senior Lecturer of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Dai Jinyao and Liu Weitao, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | The IntelliAnalyzer is a multimodal and multi-level industrial decision-making engine, which automatically analyses design schemes through natural language processing, image recognition, and knowledge reasoning. It identifies key process features automatically by the multimodal analysis of graphic and text design drafts, recommends the best design and production routes, dynamically calculates production costs, generates process optimisation plans and cost risk warnings, and accumulates business experience to form transferable knowledge assets. This project focuses on the pain points of design-production-cost collaboration in the manufacturing industry, providing SaaS services to help enterprises reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve intelligent transformation to cope with marketisation. It solves problems that traditional analysis methods cannot handle, such as complex designs and dynamic bear market demands, covering high-end manufacturing such as furniture and medical equipment. |
Awards | Gold Medal |
Project Title | Lightweight Network Hard Drive Developed for People with Disabilities |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Dr Zhi Shaohua, Senior Lecturer of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Zhang Zhen, Huang Zewen, Cai Jiaqi, Wang He and Yu Yitong, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | The system uses lightweight architecture and personalised expansion as its core, challenging three major contradictions: the mismatch between users' massive storage needs and the capacity of traditional devices, loss of storage efficiency caused by mixed functions, and usage barriers arising from complex operations for special groups. A centralised + P2P hybrid architecture, compatible with older operating systems and low-configuration devices is adopted, which has no complex animation designs, reduces hardware usage, and improves running speed. Its lightweight core functions support on-demand plugins and extensions, minimising local resource consumption for basic functions, and enabling flexible adjustment implemented by third-party plugins. The system integrates three major accessible modules, providing eye control and expression recognition for people with limb disabilities, virtual keyboards, and voice assistants for those with visual impairments or limited mobility, and simplifying UI design to lower learning costs. It also fills the gap in dedicated storage for people with disabilities, requires no additional hardware investment, has low maintenance costs, supports stable operation in all scenarios, and achieves zero-threshold access and network-ready usage. |
Awards | Silver Medal |
Project Title | Incuvia - Modular portable foldable affordable baby incubator |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | · Prof Albert Ko, Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) · Mr Adrian Lo Chun-kwong, Product Design Lead of the Office of Service-Learning · Mr Martin Cheung Chun-hei, Project Engineer of the Office of Service-Learning · Dr Nicole Lee Man-ying, Associate Programme Director of the Office of Service-Learning and the Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative · Mr Edward Lam Chi-yin, Senior Design Engineer of the Office of Service-Learning |
Project Description | Incuvia is a portable, collapsible, modular incubator with AI technology that analyses data from multiple temperature sensors to provide accurate temperature monitoring, significantly reducing errors and ensuring the incubator maintains the exact temperature level set by healthcare professionals, creating a safe and controlled environment for preterm babies. In addition, through AI modelling, the incubator is able to adjust power consumption, prioritising core functions such as the heating system, which improves battery life in areas with an unstable power supply. The technology also supports unstable voltage inputs, and can be integrated with solar charging to adapt to energy conditions in remote areas. |
Awards | Silver Medal |
Project Title | Give Choices Back to the User: Personalised Movie Recommendation Software with User-Selectable Algorithms and Dynamic Hybrid Optimisation |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Pan Fei, Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Hao Kaixi and Shi Xiaomeng, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | The system allows a choice of three different recommendation modes based on users’ preferences. It combines the strengths of content-based and collaborative filtering to provide personalised recommendations that adjust dynamically and allow flexible switching based on changes in the user's interests. A customised movie list is immediately generated by combining the user's personal information and past behaviours, and displays a tailored list of recommendations, which are always aligned with the user's current needs and preferences. The list is scalable, and suitable for integration across various industry platforms. The system then allows users to comment on the recommendations list, records the feedback, and adjusts and optimises the algorithm to ensure that the recommendations suit the user. |
Awards | Silver Medal |
Project Title | Intelligent Comment Filtering: A Natural Language Processing-Based Method (NLP) for Negative Review Prediction |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof Pan Fei, Assistant Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Liu Zefeng, Song Haili, Ma Xiao, Zhu Chenchu and Huang Mindi, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | This project is a multi-model, fusion-based, intelligent detection method and storage medium for inappropriate speech, which aims to solve the problem of insufficient accuracy in existing content auditing systems when facing complex web texts. The technique forms a target classifier by integrating three types of machine learning models: logistic regression, the linear support vector machine, and XGBoost, and adopting a cross-validation mechanism to screen the optimal model combination, thus solving the problem of data imbalance by applying a dual indicator evaluation system of the reconciled mean (F1) and the area under the curve (AUC). The input comments are first subjected to TF-IDF feature vectorisation, and then the predictions of multiple models are combined by soft voting (probability weighting) or hard voting (label voting) strategies, so the final output labels seven identification conclusions, such as normal, poisonous, or obscene. This greatly improves the precision of detection in complex text and undesirable speech in social media while reducing the false positive rate. |
Awards | Silver medal |
Project Title | Systems and Methods for Dynamic Process Monitoring with Time Series Generative Principal Predictor Models |
Awarded Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science |
Winning Lingnan Students | Ms Chen Shumei, PhD student of the Division of Artificial Intelligence from the School of Data Science |
Project description | The system standardises multi-dimensional time-series data collected from industrial equipment and processes, including parameters such as temperature, pressure and flow rate. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is then applied to focus the large range of data and retain key information, which is used to quickly identify anomalies and trigger an alarm system. This technology is able to identify potential hazardous situations in advance, thus effectively enhancing the factory's ability to respond to various emergencies. |
Awards | Silver Medal |
Project Title | Destiny Compass: AI-Powered Cross-Dimensional Love Matching Ecosystem — Where Ancient Wisdom Meets AI-Driven Soul Alignment |
Winning Lingnan Faculty and Staff | Dr Zhi Shaohua, Senior Lecturer of the School of the Interdisciplinary Studies |
Winning Lingnan Students | Feng Cheng, Zhang Yunchao, Lu Zixiao, Xu Shiteng and Ling Rongchen, taught postgraduate students of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies’ 2024 cohort |
Project Description | The system is a clever combination of modern psychology, classic Chinese culture and fortune-telling, and cutting-edge AI technology. First it builds a three-dimensional data system of modern psychology, traditional numerology, and behavioural labelling, which overcomes the limitations of standard platforms that rely on basic information such as age and occupation for matching, and provides more in-depth and personalised services. After collecting sufficient user information, the system quantifies it to form a unified data format to be analysed and processed by three innovative modules - the Multi-dimensional Data Quantification System, the Cross-domain Feature Fusion Engine, and the AI-driven Intelligent Interaction System - to optimise the matching algorithm and enhance accuracy. |