HKU Chemistry Innovations Highlighted at Geneva Inventions Exhibition

The Faculty of Science was among the contributors to the University’s record-breaking performance at the 51^st International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva (IEIG), held from March 11 to 15, 2026. At this year’s exhibition, HKU received 46 awards in total, its strongest result to date.

Among the projects recognised with Gold Medals and the Jury's Congratulations were two innovations involving researchers from the Department of Chemistry, reflecting HKU Chemistry’s strength in translating scientific research into practical, forward-looking solutions.

One of the recognised projects is “A portable device for non-invasive and rapid cancer detection using AI-powered optical sensing”. Led by Professor Chi-Ming CHE and Dr Wei LIU from the Laboratory for Synthetic Chemistry and Chemical Biology Limited, the invention enables rapid, non-invasive cancer risk assessment by detecting DNA damage levels in saliva. Using luminescent metal compounds and a miniature spectral sensor, the device can deliver results in about 10 minutes via a mobile app, without requiring professional medical expertise. The project points to a more convenient and accessible approach to routine cancer risk evaluation.

Also receiving a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury was “AA4Sci: AI-powered platform for energy materials innovation”, led by Professor Guanhua CHEN from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, in collaboration with Dr Jie LIU from the Hong Kong Quantum AI Lab. The platform combines a smart literature reader with Graph RAG technology to analyse and organise vast volumes of scientific research. Through specialised named-entity recognition, knowledge graphs, and intelligent large-language model agents capable of multi-step reasoning, it helps identify promising new materials and generate optimal synthesis pathways. By streamlining the process from literature review to discovery, AA4Sci offers a powerful new approach to accelerating research in energy materials.

One of the world’s leading exhibitions devoted exclusively to inventions and innovation, the Geneva event provides an international platform for presenting technological advances with real-world potential. HKU’s overall results underscore the breadth of innovation across the University, while these award-winning projects highlight the Faculty of Science’s contributions in chemistry, AI and applied scientific research.