07 IN FOCUS Prof. Gary Chan with his Dementia’s Secret Angel app and Bluetooth tag in its portable card format. App helps to nd dementia wanderers In a socially impactful development, Prof. Gary CHAN, Computer Science and Engineering, and his research team have devised a novel mobile app that is helping to nd missing dementia patients in Hong Kong through crowdsourcing and Bluetooth positioning technology. Prof. Chan, who was responsible for developing the original StayHomeSafe geo-fencing technology for COVID- home quarantine enforcement in the city in , created and launched the Dementia’s Secret Angel app, together with a low-cost iBeacon tag carried by people with dementia, through the Jockey Club Caring Communities for Dementia Campaign (JC CCDC) later the same year. The School of Engineering technology assists family members and caregivers to e ciently search for dementia patients when they are lost. In a survey conducted for JC CCDC, co-organized by the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing and St. James’ Settlement, around % of 6 caregivers/relatives said that their patients had got lost at some point and almost 8 % of these respondents were worried it would happen again. The app is currently serving more than , people with dementia and has been downloaded over , times so far. The Bluetooth tag is similar in size to a HK$ coin and can last for more than one year without charging. For ease of use, it has also been designed as a card that can be tted into a wallet and a handle that can be attached to a walking stick. Members of the public and companies can also lend a hand to help to search for dementia wanderers. The public can download the power-conserving, privacy-preserving app to become secret “Angels”, and anonymously share location data through their smartphones when the Bluetooth signal of a wanderer is detected in their neighborhood. Corporations can install Bluetooth signal detectors called “Angel boxes”. The technology’s cloud-based program is then able to use the GPS signals from the Angels or Angel boxes to search for wanderers. In January , KMB installed Angel boxes at ve main bus terminals to extend the technology’s reach. Study suggests T cells remain e ective against Omicron A joint study conducted by School of Engineering researchers and the University of Melbourne has found that T cells, one of the body’s key defenses against COVID- , are expected to be e ective in mounting an immune response against the Omicron variant. This is despite Omicron’s higher number of mutations than other variants. T cells generated by vaccinations and COVID- infections have been shown to be critical in limiting progression to severe disease by eliminating virus-infected cells and helping with other immune system functions. In the study, the team, which specializes in computational biology/immunology, analyzed over , fragments of SARS-CoV- ’s viral proteins – called epitopes – that T cells have been shown to recognize in recovered COVID- patients or a er vaccination. The researchers found only % of the epitopes showed mutations associated with the Omicron variant. Furthermore, these mutations did not necessarily mean the virus would evade the body’s T cells. The research was published in Viruses in January by then postdoctoral fellow Dr. Syed Faraz AHMED, Prof. Ahmed Abdul QUADEER, both Electronic and Computer Engineering and HKUST PhD graduates, and Prof. Matthew MCKAY, University of Melbourne and previously at HKUST. The work was also featured in multiple local and international news outlets. Despite being a preliminary study, the team believes the data suggests that T cell responses induced upon COVID- infection and vaccination will continue to o er protection against Omicron. Consistent conclusions were reported later by numerous experimental and clinical studies.
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