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Tuesday, 15th December 2009 (3784 views)

Researchers from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have won two gold medals at the Brussels Innova 2009 International Eureka Contest for their work in the field of nanotechnology.

The awards, which back the best new inventions from around the world, were given to scientists from the institution for their development of an economical production method for carbon nanotubes and the creation of a rapid testing technique for detecting food contamination.

Overall, some 450 inventions from over 30 countries and territories were entered in the contest this year.

A gold medal was given to Dr Shang Songmin, assistant professor at PolyU's Institute of Textiles and Clothing, who was the principal investigator for the carbon nanotubes work.

Dr Songmin used cheap and abundant polymer nanotubes as a precursor to creating multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which significantly reduced the cost of producing the materials on a large scale.

Elsewhere, assistant professor at PolyU's Department of Health Technology and Infomatics, Dr Yang Mo, was awarded a gold medal for heading up the creation of a portable, disposable membrane that uses nano-biosensing technology for testing food samples.

The membrane provides results on contamination in just 30 minutes and could be used by government inspection bodies, supermarkets, restaurants and food manufacturing firms.

Over 250,000 students have graduated from PolyU since it was first established as Hong Kong Polytechnic. The institution was granted granted full university status in 1994.

 

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