School of Engineering (SENG) members have achieved outstanding results in the 7th Annual HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition, with five out of six winning teams included SENG students or alumni. The competition was held in five cities this year and attracted over 900 teams comprising students, startups and professionals, more than doubled over a year ago.

The competition was first extended from Hong Kong to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Macau last year. Prof Gary Chan, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center, said it is encouraging to see the competition, originally an initiative to nurture entrepreneurs at HKUST, to have grown into a regional contest that helps cultivate entrepreneurial spirits and promote exchange of ideas across the border. “We have witnessed not only an increase in scale, but also rising quality of the submitted proposals and depth of market traction,” said Prof Chan. “We are particularly excited to see a record-high industrial sponsorship to the event this year.”

The increase in industrial support has allowed the cash awards for the first runner-up and second runner-up, which used to worth HK$150,000 and HK$100,000 respectively, to be upgraded to two GF Securities Awards each with a value of HK$200,000. The value of the top President Award remains at HK$300,000. These three winning teams will further compete with contingents from the other four cities in the Grand Final at the HKUST Fok Ying Tung Research Institute in Nansha, Guangzhou, on August 18.

Maxus Tech, who won both the President Award and the Elevator Pitch Award, developed a device that could turn any smooth surface such as wall, table or glass into a touch-screen control panel. Their invention allows users to control electronic devices such as laptops or tablets from a distance, by simply using hand gestures. The team is made up of three HKUST alumni, including Qingqi Mou and Yang Yu from Electronic and Computer Engineering, and a School of Science alumnus.

Clare.AI and Light Innovation Technology Ltd (LIT) were the two teams who won the GF Securities Awards. Clare.AI has developed a white-label chatbot which helps banking and financial institutes to handle simple enquiries from their clients through online chat-box communication, while LIT crafted a sophisticated 5-dimensional live cell imaging technology which allows shooting of the most sensitive specimen without causing them any damage for a much longer period.

The 5-member Clare.AI team includes Computer Science and Engineering alumni Ken Chi Kwong Yeung and Connie Hong Ni Koo, Nawras Abureehan, MSc student in Big Data Technology, a Business School alumna and University of Southern California alumnus.

In addition to GF Securities Award, LIT also received Innovation Award. The team is made up of two School of Science alumni.

The Exhibition Award went to InnoWat, which offers wastewater treatment plants a one-stop solution, from design consultancy to specialized equipment installation. The 4-member team consists of postgraduates Weiqi Xue and Qian Zeng, PhD graduate Dr Tianwei Hao, all from Civil and Environmental Engineering, as well as a Business School alumna.

Two Student Team Awards went to P-sense and Xavier, both engineering student teams. P-sense provides indoor people tracking technology to help mall owners and shop owners manage their facilities with insights and analytics. The team consists of Wing Lun Mar, MPhil student in Technology Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and Jiajie Tan, PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering. Xavier developed a fully integrated brain controlled wheelchair operating with a non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG). The team is made up of three undergraduates, including Ahmed Ben Ayed and Jainam Mehta from Electronic and Computer Engineering, and Saif Ahmed from Dual Degree Program in Technology and Management.

To learn more about the HKUST 2017 One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition, please visit: http://onemilliondollar.ust.hk/