Engineering Mechanics
Most myoelectric prosthetic hands have high dexterity but are heavy in weight due to the large number of built-in electric motors which also have limited battery lifetime. In addition they a…
Chemistry
In 2018, Super Typhoon Mangkhut left a trail of tree destructions in many Asian cities. Branches of stricken trees were later chopped, resulting in many untreated trees’ cross sections being…
Chemistry
Wearable devices are now very popular and are used widely in health monitoring and sports training. To address the problem of limited battery life of devices, self-powered energy harvesting…
Biomedical Engineering
We have a schoolmate who cannot control his right hand fingers and wrist because of a brain disease. With the physical limitations, he can just move his elbow. Neither 3D printed prosthetic…
Animal Sciences
Third Award
New Guinea flatworm (Platydemus manokwari), native to New Guinea, is extremely invasive. It has caused the extinction of native land snails on several Pacific islands, including Hawaii. Ther…
Systems Software
A Gray Code sequence is a set of 2^n binary numbers in which only one bit changes between two consecutive elements. This property helps in reduce errors in data transmission and is commonly…
Energy: Chemical
Counter electrodes (CE) in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) play the crucial role in facilitating the reduction of the electrolyte solution. Ordered Mesoporous Carbon (OMC) CEs’ low cost an…
Biochemistry
Dairy beverages contain a rich source of nutrients including vitamins, calcium which is essential for growth and disease prevention. Lactose intolerance hinders 65% of the world population f…
Engineering Mechanics
Many elderly and disabled people get around with the help of wheelchairs everyday. Manual wheelchairs are inconvenient when going up-hill and when used by the physical weak. On the other han…
Chemistry
Purpose: Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), a condition of characterized gradual loss of kidney function, lowers the glomerular filtration rate of its patient. As protein in urine is regarded as…
Materials Science
With the current demand of fast speed computers and related digital memory devices, alternatives to silicon-based materials are highly sought after for the building of the next generation of…
Animal Sciences
Fourth Award
One unique feature of Asian Weaver Ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), one species of Weaver Ants, is their capability of weaving leaf bags in trees. It has long been believed that those leaf bags…
Chemistry
Third Award
Problems caused by wood decay fungi have been a potential problem to the environment and society. Therefore, a novel drug delivery system, named “Tree Plaster”, has been developed to treat p…
Embedded Systems
Most deaf-mute people can communicate to each other and to specially trained people using sign languages. However these languages are not understood by many, besides sign languages are not u…
Translational Medical Science
For diabetes sufferers, a simple wound can lead to serious diabetic ulcers which may result in amputation. Most commercial dressings can only address the basic needs for diabetes and usually…
Energy: Chemical
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are solar cell devices that convert light energy to electrical energy. It makes use of a photoelectrochemical system similar to photosynthesis in plants. T…
Engineering Mechanics
Aircraft accidents are often caused by inadequate maintenance or unforeseeable structure failures due to loosen bolts and nuts on the aircraft. Although many different safety products availa…
Chemistry
Poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) plastic, also known as poly(methyl 2-methylpropenoate), has played an important role in the field of polymer science on grounds of its characteristic properti…
Energy: Chemical
With the rapid increase in the use of mobile electronic devices, the development of supercapacitors is in huge demand. These supercapacitors although have great performance advantages, they…
Embedded Systems
Panoramic photography has been around for over 100 years and is often used in photographing large crowd or spectacular scenery. However this technique requires special and expensive camera t…
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Third Award
Oil spillage in the sea is one of the most serious environmental disasters on our planet. Cleaning up oil spillages is a long and difficult process and if not carried out effectively irrever…
Fourth Award
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects an estimated seven to ten million people worldwide. During the past ten years, Genome-Wide Association Studie…
Elderly or people with chronic illnesses such as heart problems may suffer sudden onset of heart attack or stroke when alone in remote countryside or secluded places, making timely rescue di…
Biomedical Engineering
Over-sweating is a very common problem of many people especially during summer, while antiperspirant is a vital tool for people to alleviate this problem. However, using commercially availab…
There is currently an interest in developing supercapacitor along with the booming of mobile electronic devices. Despite offering key performance advantages, many capacitors pose significant…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Third Award
Superparamagnetic iron(II,III) oxide silver cysteine complex nanoparticles (SISCCN) is an innovative, economical and highly reusable invention. 1 g of SISCCN can adsorb 281.13 mg mercury(II)…
Nuts and bolts are used in tightening mechanical parts and structures from bridges to escalators. However, due to vibration and movement, nuts and bolts can become loose, resulting in seriou…
Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
Third Award
Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) employ expensive Ru-sensitizers, toxic organic solvents and rare Pt catalyst in converting solar energy to electricity. In order to solve these disadvantag…
Commercial kitchens often involve deep fry or stir fry cooking, especially in many of fast food restaurants around the world. The resulting exhaust fumes and odors produced from kitchens are…
Fourth Award
Biodegradable plastic is now one of the main substitutes for petroleum based plastics and is used widely for all kind of applications. As starch is often used as one of the ingredients of bi…