HKPC Wins the Most Awards in Hong Kong Attaining 38 Accolades at 2022 Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions with “SMART PATCH” Achieving the Highest Accolade of Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury

(Hong Kong, 29 March 2022) The Hong Kong Productivity Council proudly announced its outstanding research and development (R&D) feats have once again been recognised by the international innovation and technology (I&T) community, winning a record high of 38 awards at the 2022 Special Edition of the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, including 1 Gold Medal with Congratulations of Jury – the highest accolade, 6 Gold Medals, 19 Silver Medals and 12 Bronze Medals, winning most awards in Hong Kong. Over half of the commended R&D projects have been applied in practice or successfully commercialised and sold to different places locally or overseas, while others can help HKPC’s partners to further seize relevant business opportunities.

About 800 projects from 25 countries and regions participated in this year’s Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions. Despite fierce competition, the Hong Kong teams still secured five Gold Medals with Congratulations of Jury, with the HKPC-developed “SMART PATCH”, among the recipients of the top honour. Smart Patch– a virtual worker which can actively acquire jobs and report status, is a universal Industrial Internet of Things device compatible with 5G communication, used for collecting and visualising real-time production machine data and arranging and executing production orders autonomously based on the machine’s ability and readiness. It aims at providing intelligence to machines with minimal effort to achieve machine-to-machine capabilities which can reduce the risk of production stoppage due to system malfunctioning.

“SMART PATCH” technology has already been adopted by a number of HKPC customers and in the production lines of various industries, and will soon be applied to smart production lines built by HKPC for two local food manufacturers to assist the implementation of smart production in the local food manufacturing industry, significantly enhancing production capacity and international competitiveness, and re-invigorating the “Made in Hong Kong” label. While CK One Limited is specialised in sous vide and braised food production, Luen Tai Hong Kong Fresh Liquid Eggs Limited produces fresh liquid eggs. Using "SMART PATCH" technology, these two intelligent production lines can monitor the production process with real-time data, ensure product safety and traceability, reduce human errors, and effectively improve productivity and stability. Both projects have successfully applied for funding under the Re-industrialisation Funding Scheme of the Innovation and Technology Commission of the HKSAR Government and will commence production later this year.

Mr Willy Lin, Chairman of HKPC, said, “Despite this year's Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions being exceptionally competitive, the application R&D of HKPC still stood out, winning a record of 38 awards which is very encouraging. HKPC will continue its efforts to use more innovative R&D to promote the application of advanced technology in other industries to develop smart production, enhance competitiveness and create a sustainable corporate environment for enterprises in this smart era, and develop more practical and advanced technologies, to fully support the national 14th Five-Year Plan and the policies of the HKSAR government on the development of Hong Kong as an international I&T centre.”

Mr Mohamed Butt, Executive Director of HKPC, said, “Winning the most awards in Hong Kong at this world-class event is attributed to the dedicated research and unremitting efforts of HKPC’s world-class technology research team. Also, a big thank to our industry partners for their trust and support in our R&D and technology commercialisation capabilities. In addition to being recognised by the jury of world-class specialists, the successful application of innovative technologies to help businesses address technical and operational challenges and develop the appropriate practical solutions to strengthen the competitiveness of the industries, creating a smarter and sustainable future for the enterprises are the core values for attaining these international grade awards.”

The Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions is the largest global exhibition devoted exclusively to inventions. All the exhibited inventions have been evaluated by an international jury of specialists. Due to the global pandemic, the 2022 Exhibition was held in virtual format from 17 to 20 March, where inventors submitted their inventions to a panel of judges via a 3-minute video for evaluation. Details are available at its website (inventions-geneva.ch/en/home).

For more Information on all 38 HKPC’s winning inventions in the 2022 Special Edition of the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, please go to the annex.

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