In Focus - Issue 35 (Spring 2023)

Students for their innovative O_Oley goggles. The O_O symbolizes the novel eyewear. The high-pro le international contest aims to inspire the next generation of design engineers in line with the creative outlook of competition founder and renowned industrial designer James Dyson. The team’s achievement has injected £ , (around HK$ , ) into the students’ research project, enabling them to patent the design and launch a start-up to take the invention forward. The project is led by Prof. David LAM and supervised by Dr. Stanley LEUNG (both Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering). Damage caused by glaucoma is a result of sustained build-up of internal eye pressure, known as intraocular pressure (IOP). While it is known that massage and hot towels relieve tired eyes, such applications are insu cient for relaxing intraocular tissues. The comfortable, curved-shell O_Oley goggles take this forward by allowing users’ eyes to undergo contactless thermal stretching. A shared goal to save people’s sight has led a team of mechanical engineering students to invent an award-winning device to help prevent the progression of a devastating eye condition Goggles seek to prevent glaucoma laucoma causes progressive loss of vision over time and is the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide. It is estimated that 8 million people globally su er from glaucoma, known as the “silent thief of sight” due to its capability to cause irreparable damage to the optic nerve before symptoms are detected. Yet preventive therapeutics are still in short supply. Now, four students from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have set out to change this through their creative invention: an easy-to-use wearable device suitable for those diagnosed with mild and pre-glaucoma, and with the potential to expand to all people who care about the health of their eyes. In September , the team comprising mechanical engineering students KWOK Kin-Nam, PhD Year (pictured, second le ), Minji SEO, PhD Year ( rst right), CHAN Kwun-Chung, BEng Year (second right), and LEUNG Yuen-Yin, BEng Year ( rst le ), took home the Hong Kong James Dyson Award G 10 IN FOCUS

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