A team of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed a coin-sized system that can read weak electrochemical signals, which can be used for personalised health monitoring and measurement of such conditions as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mental health. The discovery was featured on the cover of the Journal of Analytical Chemistry.
The PERfECT System – an acronym for Personalised Electronic Reader for Electrochemical Transistors – is the world’s smallest system of its kind, measuring 1.5 cm x 1.5 cm x 0.2 cm and weighing only 0.4 gramme. It is easily wearable, for instance, integrated with a smartwatch or as a patch, to allow for continuous monitoring of bio-signals such as glucose levels and antibody concentrations in blood and even sweat.
Dr Shiming Zhang of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, who leads the HKU WISE (wearable, intelligent and soft electronics) Research Group to develop the system stated that the team’s wearable system is extremely small, soft and imperceptible to wearers, and it can continuously monitor the body condition. These features mean it has the potential to revolutionise healthcare technology.
The technology marks a big step forward for organic electrochemical transistors, which are widely considered to be the next-generation sensing technology because of their water stability and high sensitivity at a low operating voltage (milli-volts) but which, until now, lacked a miniaturised wireless system to operate within.
The PERfECT wearable system occupies this niche with its ability to precisely characterise the overall performance of the electrochemical transistor, with a data sampling rate as high as 200 kilo-samples per second – a performance on par with bulky commercial equipment. But the price is only one-tenth of the commercial one.
It can also serve as a miniaturised electrochemical station for wearable devices and measure the outputs of other kinds of low-voltage transistors, such as electrolyte-gated field effect transistors and high-k dielectric-gated thin-film transistors.
The system could be applied immediately in multiple wearable systems that are based on low-voltage transistors. Dr Zhang’s group has formed a start-up company, SESIC, to make the technology accessible.
Dr Zhang, who has been working on wearable technologies for digital healthcare since 2013, stated that the develop the PERfECT system was developed as a result of the unique, interdisciplinary culture in the HKU WISE Research Group, which includes researchers from electrical engineering, applied chemistry, biomedical engineering, microelectronics and software engineering.
Dr Zhang also made it a point to recruit young, promising undergraduate and postgraduate students to the team.
The WISE students have won multiple awards for their creative innovations in wearable healthtech, including the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES) 2021-22 University Pitch Competition on Global Grand Challenges, which qualified them as one of only five teams from China for the International Student Competition of the 5th Global Grand Challenges Summit; The Materials Research Society (MRS) Best Presentation Award (2021 Fall); The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Project Competition Award (2021); and The InnoShow Awards (winning twice, 2021&2022).
Looking ahead, WISE will work to promote the transition from ‘hospital-centric’ to ‘human-centric’ healthcare by developing next-generation wearable, intelligent and soft electronics technologies – hence the name WISE, Professor Zhang said.
The research paper is published in Analytical Chemistry entitled “Pushing OECTs toward Wearable: Development of a Miniaturized Analytical Control Unit for Wireless Device Characterization”.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has launched CovidInArea, a privacy-preserving mobile-friendly app which integrates and visualizes open data. It includes a list of buildings visited by cases who have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus in the past 14 days (hereinafter referred to as “incident places”), from the Department of Health (DoH) of the HKSAR Government as an easily accessible heatmap, providing a free location-based tool for users to understand their risk due to proximity with the incident places.
Making use of big data mining and machine learning techniques, a team led by Prof. Gary CHAN Shueng-Han from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering has designed and developed the app, which consists of a real-time heatmap for browsing the locations of the incident places at a glance.
Unlike other existing platforms and apps which mostly require users to check the locations manually, CovidInArea runs the check automatically by providing real-time GPS support for mobile users. It is the first public COVID-19-related app available in both Google Play Store and Apple App Store developed by a university for city-wide use anywhere in Hong Kong.
The heatmap pinpoints incident places given by DoH, based on data updated continuously as per the government’s related daily information release. By zooming in and out on the heatmap, users can immediately gain a complete picture of the incident places, which are indicated by hues of different temperatures, hence able to make informed decisions in their daily routine, path planning and keep safe distancing.
User privacy is ensured in CovidInArea, which requires no user registration and collects no personal information beyond GPS location. All computations are carried out with results presented locally on the user’s phone, while the GPS location, once consumed, is immediately discarded without storage at any time.
In addition, with GPS on, users are enabled to easily visualise in a chart – over several days – the number of incidents placed in their proximity in real-time. Taking into consideration the distance, users’ dwell time, and number of places of incidence in proximity, the app also indicates the overall proximity risk using a colour radar chart:
Prof. Gary Chan stated that because the number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong has remained high as of late, the app provides a timely and user-friendly reference on incident places to help citizens stay vigilant of their surroundings and take precautions if necessary to proactively reduce the infection risk while commuting.
He added that with CovidInArea, users can take appropriate actions to plan daily routes, manage their health, and keep a safe distance from the incident places. The professor also thanked the government for opening up the data for public use to fight against COVID-19 together.
Prof. Gary CHAN Shueng-Han is an expert in the development of novel and precise sensing and positioning technologies for smart applications. The government has worked alongside him to develop a geofencing technology applied in the StayHomeSafe app to enforce local home quarantine orders. He has also innovated a privacy-preserving mobile app that senses registered Bluetooth signals to efficiently search for missing dementia patients in the city. His indoor navigation technology has also been deployed in many malls and venues.
Traders at Ha Long 1 and Ha Long 2 markets in the Quang Ninh province are now able to go cashless using digital payment services under a 4.0 market model. State-run enterprise Viettel Quang Ninh is the supplier of non-cash payment services in the two markets.
All small traders in the markets will make digital payments through Viettel Money, a digital payment platform. Payments can be made via phone numbers, QR codes, or bank transfers. Fees for electricity, water, and environmental sanitation can also be paid with a Viettel Money account.
According to an official, to achieve the government’s target to have electronic payment rates reach 50% by 2025, digital payments must become part of daily life in both urban and rural areas. Viettel Quang Ninh has readied technology and human resources to coordinate with Hạ Long city’s authorities to deploy cashless applications.
In April this year, Ha Long city issued a plan to develop non-cash payment methods for the 2022-2025 period, under which the city aims to have 90% of citizens 15 years and older own transaction accounts and have non-cash payments in e-commerce reach 50%. The average growth in the volume and value of non-cash payment transactions is expected to expand by 20-25% per year, while 100% of the tuition fees of educational institutions and schools in Ha Long should be paid through cashless methods.
Ha Long city’s public administration centre has guided and supported citizens in making payment transactions on the National Public Service Portal. By July, over 1,400 citizens had paid taxes and other fees through the system, with a total amount of over US$ 727,400, accounting for 84% of total transactions.
Quang Ninh authorities are promoting comprehensive digital transformation, especially in administrative reform, hoping to attract investment into the locality. Since June, digitisation and data extraction platforms have been piloted at the provincial public administration service centre and in the sectors of justice; labour, invalids, and society; education and training; health care; and information and communication.
Over 9,300 enterprises in the region have registered to use e-invoices. Quang Ninh has so far provided 1,712 Level-4 online public services out of the 1,832 administrative procedures. The rate of administrative procedure documents received and processed online via the online public service portal reached 62%. Up to 1,180 online public services at levels 3-4 of the locality have been synchronised on the national public service portal.
Local authorities are developing modern and synchronous infrastructure facilities and enhancing regional linkages to promote economic growth. As of early June 2022, the province’s non-budget investment attraction reached over US $1.6 billion. Last year, Quang Ninh topped Vietnam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) and the Satisfaction Index of Public Administration Services (SIPAS). It also ranked second in the public administration reform (PAR) Index. The locality posted an estimated growth rate of 10.66% in the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the first six months of this year, which is 2.64 percentage points higher than the rate in the same period of 2021. Quang Ninh collected over US $1.17 billion for the state budget, an increase of 18% year-on-year.
Cloud adoption, software modernisation, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity, according to Lily Zeleke, Acting Deputy Chief Information Officer for Information Enterprise, Department of Défense, are crucial to all Defence Department missions.
“Our ability to deliver information at resilience and speed, as well as [delivering] secure information to our people, is paramount to staying ahead of adversaries,” says Lily.
The funding of these technologies within the allocated budget, she continued, is a compromise between cost-effectiveness and mission effectiveness. “Zero trust is a key aspect in the success of the transition to the cloud.”
The DOD has a vast amount of data, and zero trust is about protecting it at all levels and granting the right people access to the data they need for mission success at the correct security levels.
As outlined in the DOD’s 2022 Software Modernisation Strategy, all the services and the department are currently trying to consolidate, streamline, and deploy information enterprise modernization.
Meanwhile, 50 states have joined an anti-robocall litigation task force to investigate the telecommunications firms who are mostly held accountable for introducing foreign robocalls into the US, according to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
The sole objective of this cross-partisan, national Task Force is to reduce illegal robocalls as 16 states, including Connecticut, make up the Executive Committee overseeing this task force.
Although gateway providers have a duty to verify that foreign traffic entering the American phone network is lawful, they are not doing enough to prevent robocall traffic.
The Task Force will concentrate on the telecom sector to lessen the number of robocalls that Connecticut residents receive and to aid the businesses that are operating within the law.
Over 33 million scam robocalls are placed on Americans every day, according to the National Consumer Law Centre and Electronic Privacy Information Centre. Among the various frauds targeting customers, especially some of the most vulnerable populations, are Social Security Administration fraud against the elderly.
The Task Force’s main goal is to close the companies that make money off this illegal scam traffic and won’t take any other action to reduce the number of scam calls. Attorney General Tong provides the following advice for avoiding con artists and telemarketers:
The first is to be cautious of callers who expressly request that you make a gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency payment. The second is to be wary of telephone calls that have already been recorded from phoney government entities. In most cases, the Social Security Administration doesn’t call people.
Similarly, do not supply any personal information and quickly end the call if you suspect fraud; and support Connecticut’s investigations by filing a complaint about robocalls.
Furthermore, according to the Attorney General, to avoid receiving spam messages, customers should report fraudulent texts to their wireless service providers and refrain from replying to texts that seem shady or are sent from an unknown number.
In addition, he cautioned against providing sensitive personal or financial information and against clicking links in dubious texts.
In addition, he advised calling a company that sends a text message to confirm the connection using a legitimate number, stressing that con artists may use their fake numbers to appear in a search engine. It was suggested to utilise something other than a search engine to authenticate the phone number.
In a significant win for global research training, Australian and French academic ties are set grow stronger following the announcement of the Australia France Network of Doctoral Excellence (AUFRANDE). The € 15.7 million (AU$ 22.8 million) network will be led by RMIT’s European hub in Barcelona and involve thirty-seven universities across France and Australia.
Co-funded by the European Commission, in collaboration with RMIT and partners, the five-year project will employ sixty-four early career doctoral researchers, with a focus on generating industry-relevant research. The researchers will be mentored by experienced supervisors from academia and industry and receive training and support including annual workshops and group events.
In a speech at the Australian Embassy in Paris, the RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President stated that AUFRANDE was set to spark a new generation of high performing early-stage researchers. Australian and French research ecosystems are being connected at scale in a way never done before.
This is only possible because of the unique positioning of RMIT’s European hub, able to serve as a bridge between the two countries through its detailed knowledge of how research funding works in both regions.
Australia’s Ambassador to France stated that establishing the network marked a significant collaboration between the two nations.
An AUFRANDE partner, the Director of Research at École Centrale de Lyon welcomed this opportunity to intensify and diversify research collaborations, with an expected significant impact on several acute scientific and technological issues. He noted that from photonics and nanotechnology to acoustics and energetics, young researchers will find exciting AUFRANDE PhD positions in Centrale Lyon laboratories.
The award of AUFRANDE unites RMIT Europe’s expertise in leading large scale multi-partner international PhD programs, following the award of REDI last year, which links RMIT with twenty-four partners in ten countries. The new network will also establish a significant number of co-supervision agreements between French and Australian partners, laying the groundwork for continued high levels of collaboration well beyond the project’s end.
Researchers will be employed at French academic institutions and spend up to one year on secondment at an Australian university. They will receive both French and Australian doctoral degrees upon successful completion of their research.
Other Australian partners include UNSW Sydney, The University of Tasmania, Macquarie University and The University of Sydney. The first group of PhD candidates will be recruited from a worldwide hiring campaign expected to begin in early 2023.
Relations between Australia and France are positive and friendly with the bilateral relationship being underpinned by strong and enduring historical links. There has been consular and diplomatic engagement since 1842, and cooperation in both the First World War and the Second World War.
The Joint Statement of Enhanced Strategic Partnership between Australia and France, signed on 3 March 2017, was developed to enable both countries to strengthen engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. The statement promotes two-way visits and cooperation in the following priority areas: political; defence; security and intelligence; economic; energy and resources; transport and infrastructure; education, science, technology, and culture; innovation; shared memory of the First World War; environmental and climate issues; international development; and consular and crisis management. Regular communication between Australian and French ministers and senior officials recently has helped advance the implementation of partnership objectives.
The impact of sea waves on the speed and performance of ocean-going vessels, as well as their fuel consumption, contributes to maritime greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, assessing this effect has proven challenging.
With this, researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) led by Dr Liu Shukui, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NTU Singapore, and Professor Apostolos Papanikolaou of NTUA have developed a new method that can more accurately and easily estimate this wave effect, allowing ship operators, among other things, to account for it when planning shipping routes.
On the other hand, the maritime industry is also in the process of updating an existing International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) requirement using the new method as part of a larger revision.
According to the researchers’ estimates, the new method has the potential to reduce a ship’s fuel consumption and GHG emissions by 5 per cent to 10 per cent. Depending on the ship’s design and shipping operations, this reduction could be even greater.
Tag as the SHOPERA-NTUA-NTU-MARIC (SNNM) method has been accepted by some international organisations as the recommended system for analysing a ship’s speed and power performance.
The method has also been incorporated into the official International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standards for determining the minimum propulsion power and aims to cut shipping-related greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050.
In addition, the SNNM method is an improved method for the correction of added wave resistance to be used worldwide, particularly for the confirmation of a ship’s Energy Efficient Design Index (EEDI) – an initiative that strives to foster innovation and technical improvement of the components that influence the fuel efficiency of ships.
Moreover, the existing software tools calculate the extra resistance from waves based on the design of a ship’s hull, whereas the new method estimates it using eight parameters. These include the length and breadth of a vessel, as well as its loading state.
This means that ship operators can accurately predict this additional resistance even in the absence of specific knowledge about the hull design. Such hull information is typically confidential and difficult to get.
To construct the method, researchers compiled a database of the additional resistance encountered by ships of various sizes and shapes. From more than 5,000 experimental data points, they determined the most significant characteristics that define the added resistance from waves.
Independent validation tests conducted by a specialist committee demonstrated that the new approach accurately predicts the wave resistance encountered by ships. Thus, the researchers are currently collaborating with industry partners to implement the novel method.
If implemented appropriately and to a large extent, the SNNM approach represents a significant step forward that has the potential to assist the worldwide shipping sector in accomplishing this objective.
Its scientific originality and significance have been demonstrated by the adoption or recommended in related documents from some international organisations.
Predicting ship performance in a seaway with accuracy and efficiency is crucial for successful ship operations. The ability to anticipate the achievable speed and power consumption in each sea state are vital for ship design review, weather routing, sea margin prediction, and logistics planning, and for that reason, the overall resistance in waves is a crucial parameter.
To boost India’s 5G ecosystem and achieve several objectives laid out in the Aatmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India) and Make in India missions, the government recently announced it would allow stakeholders to use an indigenous 5G test bed for free for the next six months (till January 2023).
Stakeholders include recognised start-ups and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). For a nominal fee, it is also available to 5G service providers, equipment manufacturers, and players from the industry, academia, R&D institutions, and government bodies. According to a press release, the Department of Telecommunications has urged stakeholders to utilise the 5G test bed and expertise to test and facilitate the speedy development and deployment of their products in the network. Interested parties can apply through the official government web portal.
DoT approved the financial grant to set up the multi-institute collaborative project in March 2018 with a total cost of US$ 28 million. The eight collaborating institutes in the project are the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Madras, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, and Kanpur, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), and the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) at IIT-Madras.
The 5G test bed is available at five locations. The Integrated Test Bed is at CEWiT and other test beds are at IIT-Delhi, IIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Kanpur, and IISc. CEWiT also offers end-to-end test beds with various testing services for RAN and PHY levels as well as other test equipment. IIT-Hyderabad has facilities for gNB Testing, UE testing, end-to-end interoperability testing, and NB-IoT testing. IISc hosts the V2X and 5G open-source testbed. IIT-Kanpur hosts the base-band test bed and IIT-Delhi hosts the NB-IoT and VLC test bed.
The end-to-end test bed is compliant with the global 3GPP and ORAN standards. The indigenous 5G test beds allow Indian academia and industry research teams to validate their products, prototypes, and algorithms and demonstrate various services. It provides complete access for research teams to work on novel concepts/ideas that hold potential for standardisation in India and on a global scale.
It offers the facilities of 5G networks to experiment and demonstrate applications and use cases that are important to India specifically, like rural broadband, smart city applications, and intelligent transport system (ITS). The government believes it will help Indian operators understand the working of 5G technologies and plan their future networks.
The development of the test bed is a key milestone step for India’s becoming self-reliant in 5G technology. The test bed is cost efficient and reduces design time, enabling Indian 5G products to compete in the global market more quickly. The test bed has also led to the development of many 5G technologies/IPs that are available for technology transfer to industry players, facilitating the smooth and speedy deployment of 5G services in India.
The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (HC3) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an advisory for the healthcare industry regarding the risks posed by using the Internet of Things (IoT) gadgets and urging it to be proactive in addressing such security dangers.
In particular, the HC3 supplied a listing of the maximum commonplace IoT assaults and pointers for minimising dangers hindering IoT devices, which consist of:
The HC3 also cited the importance of IoT security. Any internet-connected gadget is susceptible to hacking, and the IoT is no exception. A breach of these devices could result in catastrophic consequences, including tampering with traffic lights, disabling home security systems and harm to human life.
Since these devices might gather data, including personally identifying information, it is crucial to protect these systems. The ultimate objective is to protect the entire system, however, there are steps that may be taken to help achieve this, including securely storing, processing, and transferring data; maintaining the device’s security; and updating the device to lessen its vulnerabilities.
With the installation of IoT technology in an organisation, users also increase the attack surface upon which they can become a target for malicious activities. A flat network is one that contains IoT, IT devices, and operational technology (OT) in the same network.
Once attackers get initial access, they can execute the lateral movement and infiltrate more sensitive systems; this is the primary vulnerability. Network segmentation is an effective method for reducing the attack surface and preventing the compromising of entire systems.
The purpose of network segmentation in cyber security is to prevent the transmission of malware to other OT and applications. In network segmentation, the network is divided into several subnetworks or zones, which can minimise congestion and limit failures. This isolates the IoT devices from other IT equipment in use. Without segmentation, organisations run a greater risk of being hacked.
Some of the common IoT attacks are Privilege Escalation wherein an attacker can exploit bugs, unpatched vulnerabilities, design flaws, or even operating systems in an IoT device to obtain unauthorised access.
There is also a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) Attack. This is a type of attack where the attacker can intercept information being sent between two parties and can also be used to steal or alter data.
The term Eavesdropping is when an attacker intercepts, deletes or modifies data that is transmitted between devices. This attack relies on unsecured network communications, while the Brute-Force Attacks aim to gain access to the IoT devices that are left unchanged with factory-set passwords.
Similarly, in Firmware Hijacking attackers can take advantage of this environment by adding fake updates or drivers to download malicious software.
Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack is when infected with botnet malware, IoT devices can be used to perform large-scale cyber-attacks. On the other hand, the Physical Tampering Attack is when the attacker could gain initial access from physically insecure IoT devices to install malware.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Ukrainian State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) to increase collaboration on common cybersecurity goals.
The MOC strengthens CISA’s current connection with the Ukrainian government in the areas of statistics exchanges and sharing of high-quality practises on cyber incidents, technical exchanges on the security of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity education, and cooperative athletic activities.
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