CUHK
News Centre

As a biennial national competition, the Challenge Cup is known as the ‘Olympics’ in promoting innovation in social science, science and technology for university students in China. This year, the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association held the first Challenge Cup Hong Kong University Students Extra-curriculum Technology Contest in Hong Kong. The winning teams will represent Hong Kong at the National Challenge Cup Competition. Around 100 students from tertiary institutions in Hong Kong participated in the regional competition. Fourteen teams from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received the highest share of awards in the Contest, including the top prize, two first-class awards, four second-class awards, three third-class awards, five merit awards, as well as the outstanding organization award. 

The top prize winning project, Solution for One-step Sewage Treatment, is also the recipient of the first-class award in life science. The team consists of Loo Fong-chuen Jacky and Leung King-pong, PhD students, and Seak Chi-u, undergraduate student of the School of Life Sciences at CUHK. They modified the genome of a nitrogen-fixing bacterium to increase the efficiency of sewage treatment. The novel design could establish a one-step international standard for sewage treatment, increase the lifespan of existing sewage treatment plant and reduce valuable land used or footprint for future sewage treatment works.