Student Startup Team "Thermal Plus" Awarded Seed Funds and Helped Make the Campus And Hong Kong Safer
The student startup team "Thermal Plus", led by Mr. FUNG Kwong Chiu (MPhil in TLE) and advised by Prof. Wai Ho MOW, has been awarded the HKSTP pre-incubation STEP fund and the HKUST Entrepreneurship Acceleration Fund. The other team members include six ECE students and one CSE student, Mr. ABDULLAH Murad (PhD in ECE), Mr. AU Kam Hei, Mr. CHAN Ka Lok, Mr. LAI Ka Wing, Miss TANG Hau Tung, Mr. KWOK Tsz Fung (all BEng in ECE '20) and Mr. CHIM Ho Yin (BSc in CSE). Since fever detection is an effective means to limit widespread local transmission of the COVID-19 epidemic, the team developed a cloud-based temperature sensing system using low-cost thermal and RGB image sensors and machine learning algorithms to meet Hong Kong's surging demand for automated body temperature screening stations. A cloud-based software platform has been built to facilitate the management of many stations installed in different locations and allow real-time analytics of privacy-preserving usage data, which may provide valuable information for effective crowd management and social distancing. To help make the campus safer, several cloud-based body temperature screening stations have been installed in four campus locations, including the China Garden Restaurant, the EC Office, the BASE and its outside lobby (near Lifts 29-30). The stations have about 200 usage records everyday.
The associated startup company, Intelligent Design Technology Limited, has successfully attracted an investment of HK$500,000 from an industrial partner, on top of the above two seed funds amounting to HK$115,000. Its temperature screening products have been widely used to make Hong Kong safer as well. Over 30 local organizations, including schools, churches and NGOs, are among its satisfied customers.
Related Links
- Company website
- HKSTP Science and Technology Entrepreneur Programme (STEP)
- HKUST Entrepreneurship Acceleration Fund
