| This device consists of a photoresistor-led gate sensor setup that detects if a pellet has left the barrel of an airsoft marker. The sensor is connected to a microcontroller that then keeps count of the remaining ammunition by decrementing a number every time the sensor is tripped. In addition to the sensor, a display is also connected to the microcontroller to indicate to the user the number of remaining pellets in magazine. |
| The Design-Build-Fly (DBF) competition is an international aircraft model design competition for university students providing real-world aircraft design experience for students by allowing them to validate their aeronautical theory. This competition, which is held once a year in either Wichita, Kansas or Tucson, Arizona in the US, is hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics(AIAA), Cessna Aircraft Company, and Raytheon Missile Systems. All participants are required to design, build, and demonstrate the flight capabilities of an unmanned, electric powered, radio controlled aircraft model, aiming to meet certain tasks. The importance is to strike a good balance between flight performance, mission achievement and manufacturing feasibility. The rules are completely revamped every year to promote innovativeness and peer competitiveness. |
| Making use of machine learning and image processing, this team built a mobile phone app to make Chinese Medicine diagnosis and achieve the following user experience change. In this system, patients input a selfie of their faces and tongues, with their self-observed symptoms as well as their recent dieting and resting habits inputted to the system. They will receive professional diagnosis and recommended treatment, such as medicine consumption, resting schedule, and diet adjustment. They can choose either to purchase the suggested medicine online or through their local drugstore. For rural patients, the no longer need to consume expensive yet inefficient rural medicine services from one single channel and can avoid frequent medical frauds as well. For urban patients, they save time from diagnosing milder symptoms in their overcrowded hospitals; instead, they can simply receive an accurate diagnosis at office or at home as well as get medicine through efficient delivery. Also, they can use the app as a source of second opinion apart from real doctors. For doctors, given the over-demanded medical system in China, doctors’ interest will not be harmed by the app. Rather they can use the app as a fast-track basis for their further diagnosis, thus minimizing the potential human error in the process and make their workload lighter and service better. |
| In this competition, each team needed to design four cars with different driving mechanisms and power sources, such as electrical, pneumatics, spring potential ad chemical reaction. In order to trigger one by one, there was a systematic mechanism to activate each one and stop it. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) is an independent professional association and learned society headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that represents mechanical engineers and the engineering profession. The competition was hosted by the IMECHE division. |
| The project, based on the ideas “Legged Robots that Balance” by Marc Raibert. The book thoroughly described the making of the machine, including its structure, and the algorithm to keep it balanced. While Raibert’s algorithm was applied directly, the structural design will differ from the book. The three main components of the project were the quick and reliable pivot, extension, and retraction of the leg relative to the body to a given position. The second phase of the project involved creating a hopper that could truly hop and balance in a plane with all three degrees of freedom. The second and main goal is to create a one-legged hopper that can balance in 3D instead of just one plane. It also used motors for leg pivot actuation and pneumatics for thrust action of the leg. |
With broader and broader application of the internet, people could save their time significantly, and a most recent development is IoT, the Internet of Things, is an outstanding methodology to tackle time-consuming problems. In the campus of HKUST, hall residents need to repetitively check the occupancy of a laundry machine at peak hours. Considering this situation, this team purposed an IoT solution to track the laundry machine vibration status with sensor connected to a Raspberry pie, analyze the data, conduct internal judgement to determine the occupancy status and upload to a webpage with real-time updates. They have constructed a prototype and won the golden award of President’s Cup. Flaws do exist, though the judgement can hardly guarantee a precise result and the product needs manual adjustment before usage. As a result, for one semester, the team worked to upgrade the product and install them in one UST Hall and put to use. The first improvement is the sensor, electrical current sensor and 3 dimensional acceleration sensor, in lieu of vibration sensor. The second is self-learning algorithm what can adjust the judgement condition automatically. With these improvements, hopefully, the product can actually be installed and contribute to the residents’ quality of life.
The project provided an experiential learning in robotics technologies through student-initiated designing and manufacturing of a practical powered wheelchair for an athlete with disability and active participation in an international coopetition, namely Cybathlon 2016. A team of five students was formed to represent HKUST in this competition. They designed, prototyped, and manufactured an innovative powered wheelchair which was capable of overcoming different daily challenges such as traveling on uneven roads, climbing up slopes and stairs, etc. The final produce was entered into the powered wheelchair race in October 2016 in Switzerland, where this team achieved 2nd place. See more at https://www.ust.hk/news/recognition/hkust-wins-silver-cybathlon-worlds-first-olympics-bionic-athletes