Students shine at national science Olympics
CUHK students performed outstandingly winning the Top Prize for the first time at the 17th ‘Challenge Cup’ National College Students’ Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Contest (Challenge Cup). CUHK was the only Hong Kong university to win both the Top and First Prizes. In addition, it bagged one second-class award and two third-class awards, making it top among local universities in the number of prizes received.
Organised biennially by multiple national ministries, including the committee of the Communist Youth League of China, China Association for Science and Technology, and Ministry of Education, the Challenge Cup is famed as the Olympics of promoting science, technology and innovation among university students in China. Nearly 22,000 projects from 2,500 higher educational institutions across the nation participated in this year’s competition.
The Top and First Prize projects include:
Top Prize
Miniaturised Robotic Steerable Surgical Drill for Confined-Space Bone Work
Yan Wang, Hongbin Lin, and Xuchen Wang, PhD students from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, supervised by Prof. Samuel Au, developed a miniaturised steerable surgical drill for bone work in a confined space. It reduces intraoperative damage to patients, shortens hospitalisation and recovery times, and lowers the risk of complications. The surgical robotic system works in a human-robot shared control mode, allowing surgeons to move the surgical tools by dragging the robot arm under the guidance of the robot safely and precisely. Cadaver studies showed that the proposed devices have the potential to minimise intraoperative tissue damage in many confined-space surgical procedures.
Recipients of Top Prize: Prof. Samuel Au (left), Hongbin Lin (right), Xuchen Wang (top on screen) and Yan Wang (bottom on screen)
First Prize
Development of a Novel Neutrophil-based Anticancer Immunotherapy: S3KO-TAN
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death because cancer cells are so highly versatile that they easily develop drug resistance to conventional therapy. Host immunity plays a vital role against blood cancer, but less than 30% of lung cancer patients show a distinctive response to the latest immunotherapy. In response, PhD students Jeff Chung and Max Chan from the Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, supervised by Prof. Patrick Tang, have successfully developed a novel anticancer immunotherapy S3KO-TAN in which they genetically engineer the most abundant immune cell type in our blood–neutrophils. The research team hopes to translate S3KO-TAN into an effective and safe anticancer immunotherapy in the future.
Recipients of First Prize: (From left) Prof. Patrick Tang, Jeff Chung and Max Chan
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