The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology (AAPT) have signed an agreement to establish the “Joint Research Centre of Advanced Aerospace Propulsion Technology”. PolyU’s Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering (AAE) of PolyU will take the lead.

The partnership aims to set up a highly competitive scientific research force and technical cooperation team in the field of advanced aerospace propulsion technology via a long-term and in-depth strategic partnership, aimed at further contributing to the development of China’s aerospace technology.

The field of advanced aerospace propulsion technology has a promising future with broad application prospects. PolyU and AAPT are developing an ongoing complementary partnership to establish the “Joint Research Centre of Advanced Aerospace Propulsion Technology”.

The five-year cooperation plan comprises several joint research and development projects. In line with the global future development direction of aerospace propulsion technology, the projects will focus on the research and development of key technologies, and enhance the engineering research and production capabilities in the field.

The signing ceremony for the cooperation agreement was held on 4 July 2022. The document of cooperation was signed by the Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU and the Associate Dean of AAPT.

PolyU’s President stated the new collaboration will further support the development and modernisation of the Nation’s civil aerospace industry, manned spaceflight and space exploration.

Meanwhile, the Dean of AAPT stated that PolyU’s AAE has a world-leading research foundation, as well as design experience in aerospace and aeronautical propulsion technology. With PolyU’s comprehensive professional facilities and intelligence resources, the Joint Research Centre for Advanced Aerospace Propulsion Technology can become an influential platform for knowledge exchange. It will be of great benefit to the promotion of research and technological development in the field.

In addition to several joint research projects, this collaboration is also committed to cultivating a group of high-level interdisciplinary experts for future applications.

The Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU stated that the collaboration will enable academic exchange and resource sharing, and help researchers conduct various academic seminars more efficiently. Simultaneously, high-tech talents, like research doctoral students and visiting scholars, will be nurtured. The joint research team will additionally be involved in a wide range of joint research programmes to foster major projects.

The Associate Dean of AAPT the Joint Research Centre will drive the cooperation between PolyU and CASC. This longer-term and comprehensive partnership will serve and support the country’s major needs and implementation of its technology projects.

About PolyU’s Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering

The Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering (AAE) focuses on furthering the development of the field of aeronautical and aviation engineering by amalgamating the experts in the Faculty and the industry. The Department has a solid background in engaging in academic research, and industrial collaborations related to aeronautical and aerospace engineering. It is also well-known research in advanced technologies including supersonic combustion ramjet, liquid-propellant rocket engine and propellant combustion globally.

About the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology (AAPT)

The Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology (AAPT) is one of China’s core aerospace science and technology research units. Comprising 11 units, AAPT’s centres are all equipped with advanced facilities for innovation and research, production, and testing.

As the only research centre in China focusing on aerospace propulsion technology, its development and production of various propulsion systems have been supporting the Nation’s space exploration and aerospace technology modernization and development.

The Indian Railways, a statutory board of the Ministry of Railways, will deploy video surveillance systems (VSS) at 756 prominent railway stations across the country by 2023. RailTel has been appointed by the Ministry to complete installing the VSS, which comes equipped with high-resolution CCTV cameras with a footage storage capacity of more than a month.

CCTV cameras of stations and video feeds will be monitored at three levels for enhanced safety and security at these railways. The system consists of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled video analytics and facial recognition software, which could aid in detecting known criminals. It can trigger an alert when they enter the premises.

A Network Management System (NMS) will be used to monitor cameras, servers, UPS, and switches. All the data can be viewed from any web browser by authorised personnel. Four types of IP cameras- dome, bullet, pan tilt zoom, and ultra-HD (4K) will be deployed.

Authorities said they would fast-track appointing executing agencies. All the CCTV cameras will be networked on optical-fibre cable and the video feed of the CCTV cameras will be displayed at local RPF posts and centralised CCTV control rooms at divisional and zonal levels as well. The cameras will capture activity in waiting halls, reservation counters, parking areas, main entrances and exits, platforms, foot-over bridges, and booking offices, according to the Railway Ministry. Ashwini Vaishnav, the Railway Minister, was quoted as saying, “We need to rapidly absorb new technology in Railways, be it for rolling stock, construction, safety, cybersecurity, or in situations where there is a human interface”.

The application of technology in public transportation in India is increasing rapidly. Last year, the Kerala Rail Development Corporation (KRDC) signed a memorandum of understanding with a start-up incubated at the Indian Institute for Science (IISc) to use sensing technology to make its railways safer, especially on vulnerable terrains. The technology is based on optical light and works on the principle of wavelength shifts.

The structural health monitoring system (SHMS) will monitor the civil engineering structures of the Kerala Rail’s Silverline project, under which the two ends of the state will be connected by a semi-high-speed rail corridor from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram. Using the Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG)-sensor-driven monitoring system, rail corporations can embed or attach sensors in rail structures, enabling both on-demand and continuous data, as well as 24/7 warning alerts for damage detection. The technology can also be customised for each structure and location. It will increase safety in settlement-prone and flood-prone locations and heavy rainfall areas.

This year, Tamil Nadu launched an AI-enabled panic button and CCTV surveillance project to make travel safer. The initiative will be implemented in phases, aiming to cover 2,500 buses in Chennai city. Under the first phase, 500 buses in the metro city have installed four panic buttons, an AI-enabled mobile network video recorder (MNVR), and three cameras each.

As reported on OpenGov Asia, the MNVR will be connected to a cloud-based control centre via a 4G GSM SIM card. In case of inconvenience, discomfort, or threat, passengers will be able to press the panic button and record the incident. At the same time, an alarm will go off at the control centre along with a video recording of the incident on the bus. The operator at the control centre will be able to monitor the situation and facilitate, in real-time, the next course of action. It will also help detect missing persons and identify criminals.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed smart textiles that snugly conform to the body and can sense the wearer’s posture and motions using a novel fabrication process. The researchers were able to greatly improve the precision of pressure sensors woven into multi-layered knit textiles tag 3DKnITS, by incorporating a special type of plastic yarn and slightly melting it with heat, a process known as thermoforming.

“With digital knitting, you have this freedom to design your own patterns and also integrate sensors within the structure itself, so it becomes seamless and comfortable, and you can develop it based on the shape of your body,” Irmandy Wicaksono, research assistant, MIT Media Lab and lead author.

They used this method to develop a “smart” shoe and mat and then developed a hardware and software system to measure and interpret data from pressure sensors in real-time. The machine-learning system accurately predicted motions and yoga poses performed by a person standing on the smart textile mat.

Their fabrication process, which makes use of digital knitting technology, allows for rapid prototyping and is easily scaled up for large-scale production. The technique has a wide range of potential applications, particularly in health care and rehabilitation. It could be used to make smart shoes that track a person’s gait as they learn to walk again after an injury, or socks that monitor pressure on a diabetic patient’s foot to prevent ulcers.

The researchers use a digital knitting machine to weave together layers of fabric with rows of standard and functional yarn, but because the yarn is soft and pliable, the layers change and squeeze as opposed to each other when the wearer moves. This causes noise and variability, making the pressure sensors much less accurate.

Moreover, the researchers decided to experiment with melting fibres and thermoforming in the smart textile fabrication process. Thermoforming effectively eliminates noise because it hardens the multilayer textile into a single layer by squeezing and melting the entire fabric together, improving accuracy.

This thermoforming also allows for the creation of 3D forms, such as a sock or shoe, that are precisely tailored to the user’s size and shape. Following the fabrication process, researchers required a system to process pressure sensor data accurately.

Researchers created a system that visualises pressure sensor data as a heat map, drawing inspiration from deep-learning methods for picture classification. A machine-learning model is trained to recognise the posture, position, or motion of the user based on the heat map image using the photographs that were provided as input.

After the model had been trained, it could identify seven yoga positions with 98.7 per cent accuracy and characterise the user’s behaviour on the smart mat (walking, jogging, doing push-ups, etc.) with 99.6% accuracy.

A form-fitting smart textile shoe with 96 pressure sensing spots dispersed across the full 3D textile was also made using a circular knitting machine. The shoe was designed to gauge the amount of force applied to various foot regions during a soccer ball kick.

Since precision is crucial in prosthetic applications, 3DKnITS’ great accuracy may be advantageous. Additionally, researchers are looking at new original uses.

After demonstrating the success of their fabrication technique, the researchers intend to refine the circuit and machine learning model. Currently, before the model can classify actions, it must be calibrated for everyone, which is a time-consuming process.

Eliminating the calibration step would make 3DKnITS more user-friendly. The researchers also intend to conduct tests on smart shoes outside of the lab to see how environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity affect sensor accuracy.

State-owned Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) is developing solutions and coordinating with socio-political organisations to digitise its subsidiaries. A resolution issued in February to implement digital transformation in the group determined the work as imperative to increasing productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness. It aims to digitise all businesses and units of the group by 2030.

Digitally transforming PetroVietnam will promote innovation and improve business performance and competitiveness. It will enhance its position in the oil and gas industry, contributing to building the country’s digital economy.

Digital transformation requires huge changes in business culture. The group will have to reshape business and development strategies, reposition the supply chain, reconnect with customers across the digital business platform, and restructure to accommodate the new business platform. Maintaining network safety and security is also crucial to developing, managing, exploiting, protecting, and effectively using digital databases.

According to the group, digital transformation poses challenges to PetroVietnam’s existing business model but also creates new drivers for growth. The governance of the digital ecosystem “PVNDigiEcoSystem” requires the company to upskill employees to achieve the long-term goals of improving production and business efficiency and providing better customer care.

Despite difficulties in the first half of this year, PetroVietnam managed to increase its production, contributing to ensuring national energy security. It pumped 5.48 million tonnes of crude oil in the period, surpassing the set target by 23%. Meanwhile, gasoline production exceeded 14% of the plan, fertiliser production exceeded 8% of the plan, and the production and supply of gas, electricity and other energy products were also high. The group’s revenue in the period was estimated at VN 468.3 trillion (US$ 20 billion), up 55% year-on-year and double the goal set for six months.

The group has undertaken a series of measures to maintain output and stable operation, including the application of IT. PetroVietnam has concentrated its resources to accelerate the progress of investment projects and obtained positive results. In the second half of this year, PetroVietnam will continue updating, evaluating, and forecasting the macro-economic situation to develop operation plans, solve difficulties, and actively find solutions to maintain the output, ensuring it is not lower than in 2021.

Strengthening e-governance is a big part of the country’s national digital transformation plans. This requires implementing tech-based solutions in all government ministries and departments to reform operations. For example, in June, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) announced it had created the necessary legal framework for the authentication of electronic contracts (e-contracts) in the country. It said it would grant operating licences to authenticators.

Online authentication significantly benefits the business sector, specifically in terms of costs. Traditional contracts involve paper and printing and transfer costs. The paperless method could save around VND 30,000-VND 80,000 (US$ 1.3-US $3.5) on each contract. In contrast to traditional contracts, which cannot be authorised in the absence of signers, e-contracts can be signed anytime and anywhere, adding flexibility to the contract-making process and saving time. Third parties, including banks and the authorities, can rely on the authenticated electronic versions of a contract to validate its origin, cutting time off the verification process and curbing forged documents. E-contracts will also allow firms to manage, store, and look up contract-related data easily and securely.

Researchers at Curtin University have developed a new technology for the rapid cleaning and re-use of drilling fluids, pushing for more efficient and environmentally-friendly mineral exploration. The technology was designed to support next-generation drilling technology, the reformulated fluids are hydrocarbon-free, reducing the risk of environmental harm to exploration sites.

Supported by the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA) and the Deep Exploration Technology CRC, Dr Masood Mostofi and his research team at the Western Australian School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering (WASM: MECE) at Curtin University developed the new technology as part of their ongoing research toward automating fluid monitoring and handling in the drilling industry.

Drillers that bury and explore deep beneath the surface for mineral deposits require specialised fluids that lubricate and cool the active drill head, and that won’t leak away through cracks and porous rocks around the drill site.

Dr Mostofi stated that the new Coiled Tubing drilling technology being developed for mineral exploration needs much higher volumes of these special fluids than conventional drilling. The team has developed a system that can meet these fluid needs in remote locations where geologists might explore new mineral deposits, and reduces the risk of releasing fluids that might affect the local environment.

The team’s reformulated drilling fluid eliminates the use of hydrocarbons, and they have developed a new method for both keeping boreholes stable and rapidly separating rock chips and solid materials from the fluid as it returns to the surface.

Working together with partner technologies being developed by a collaborating tech company, this method will help deliver continuous samples of the rock material a drill is cutting through up to 1000m below the ground while allowing the drilling fluid to be efficiently cleaned and recycled.

In releasing the research report, the CEO of MRIWA stated that research helps move the exploration industry towards safer, greener and cheaper drilling, adding that by supporting these improvements in drilling technology, the Western Australian government is helping our exploration industry develop the tools it needs to succeed.

The smart mining market was valued at US$ 9.27 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach US$ 28.05 billion by 2027. The market is expected to record a CAGR of 20.62% from 2022 to 2027. Mining involves many processes, including resource allocation management of equipment, such as mining trucks, excavators, drills, conveyor belts, transportation and logistics, and more. To ensure that everything runs efficiently and finishes faster, these complex processes require a system to simplify and automate them.

One of the most valuable assets is data; automated drills, trucks, shovels, conveyors, trains, and ships produce vast amounts of valuable data daily. By combining this data with smart analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation, various vendors can make their businesses safer and more productive.

Big data, driven by the growing progress of information and communication technology, holds promise as a technology with the potential to restructure the entire mining landscape. Despite several attempts to apply big data in the mining sector, fundamental problems of big data massive data management (BDM) in the mining sector persist.

According to the World Economic Forum, digital transformation initiatives in the mining sector are anticipated to generate over US$320 billion of industry value over the next decade.

To reuse chicken farming waste, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) together with the Leong Hup Singapore Pte Ltd have jointly developed procedures. One of the important breakthroughs is replacing synthetic polymers, which are derived from petroleum oil and whose manufacturing, usage, and disposal create greenhouse gas emissions, with egg trays made of chicken feather keratin.

“The project has clearly demonstrated that feathers can no longer be viewed as a waste product. Instead, they should be seen as a source of valuable raw materials and an essential component to the circular economy, in which raw materials, components and products lose their value as little as possible,” says Professor William Chen, Director of NTU’s Food Science and Technology Programme, co-lead of the industry collaboration.

He added that using chicken feather fibres in composite materials is a new source of materials that are cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and recyclable. Meanwhile, repurposing poultry blood to cultivate cell-based chicken meat could be a step toward reducing the food industry’s carbon footprint.

Every year, billions of kilogrammes of unwanted chicken feathers are discarded by poultry processing plants. This by-product is typically buried in landfills or incinerated, both of which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

Because the material made from chicken feathers is more durable and flexible than those made from synthetic polymers derived from petroleum oil, the newly discovered method would be a greener alternative.

Another breakthrough was the successful conversion of biological waste such as blood and bones, into an alternative and cost-effective culture medium that could be used to cultivate cell-based meat. Poultry blood and by-products of animal and food processing are high in organic matter and contain high concentrations of growth factors and other nutrients. Because organic waste from poultry processing contains amino acids, vitamins, glucose, inorganic salts, and growth factors, it is ideal for cell culture mediums used to cultivate cell-based meats.

The NTU scientists were also successful in extracting those nutrients and developing a solution capable of growing animal cells for lab-grown meat. Recent studies have also shown that serum derived from poultry blood and biological matter has the potential to replace foetal bovine serum as a medium for cultivating cell-based meat because it contains comparable concentrations of growth factors and other nutrients.

Singapore’s food security goals may include alternative proteins

Meanwhile, the Singapore Food Story R&D Programme has been funding research projects in sustainable urban food production, future foods, and food safety science and innovation since 2021.

According to Dr Andrew Wan, Principal Investigator at the Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (SIFBI), this grant will encourage researchers, technology providers, and potential adopters to collaborate on innovative solutions for the alternative protein industries.

Scientists at A*STAR’s SIFBI, in collaboration with other research institutions, are developing new animal-free cell-growing technologies that could eventually lower the cost of cultivated meat. Texturisation methods are being used by food process engineers to transform proteins from alternative sources into fibrous products with a meat-like appearance and mouthfeel.

Efforts are being made to quantify and thus improve the digestibility, nutritional, and sensorial properties of proteins. All of this is done with the goal of matching, if not exceeding, the properties of what we call meat.

Singapore has made significant progress, particularly in the cultivation of meat. After becoming the world’s first country to grant regulatory approval to a cultivated meat product, Good Meat, it would now house the largest facility in Asia to produce the same. Earlier this month, Good Meat held a ground-breaking ceremony for its S$61 million R&D and manufacturing facility at Bedok Food City.

The Philippines’ Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will continue its focus on budget reform and the advancement of the nation’s public finance management’s digitalisation – part of this is the procurement service that is being assessed and streamlined and expected to protect the integrity of the procurement development by ensuring sufficient oversight and tougher controls.

“We’ve made headway with our Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS), but there is so much more we can do to further strengthen our integrated financial management information system or the IFMIS,” says Amenah Pangandaman, DBM Secretary.

She continued by saying that the DBM would implement and institutionalise these techniques across the whole system of government to increase productivity, increase transparency, and stop fraud.

Most of the allocation was provided to the social services sector in which funding for health-related programmes such as the operation of the Universal Health Care Act, obtaining of the COVID-19 vaccine, and requirement of personal protective equipment, among many others, will be prioritised.

To ensure educational continuity during this crisis, the execution of the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education and the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan programmes will be given top priority.

The government’s sustained commitment to investing in public infrastructure to encourage economic growth is indicated by the fact that the economic services sector continues to be a budget priority. To support the efforts of the various departments for the new normal, funding support will be given for information and communications technology expenditures to upgrade the nation’s broadband and wi-fi infrastructures as well as establish e-platforms and online systems.

The proposed FY 2021 budget will also give high priority to government initiatives that help increase the productivity of the agriculture and fishing industries, hasten the recovery of micro small medium enterprises, and boost local industries’ e-competitiveness to aid communities in coping and thriving in these trying times. Programmes that support the digitalisation of the government and economy, as well as the upskilling, retraining, and retooling of people, will also be given priority.

U.N Acknowledges Philippine Initiatives on Digital Transformation

In its most recent two studies titled “Industry 4.0 for Inclusive Development” and “Science, Technology, and Innovation for Sustainable Urban Development in a Post-Pandemic World,” the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recognised the Philippines’ efforts in science, technology, and innovation (STI).

The study mentioned that the Philippine government implements a “small enterprise technology upgrading programme to encourage and assist SMEs to adopt technological innovations to improve operations and boost productivity and competitiveness,” referring to the DOST’s Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Programme (SETUP).

According to the study, science, technology, and innovative solutions can help to address the most pressing urban sustainability issues, particularly those related to energy, circularity, water, mobility, economic prosperity and financial stability, and housing. The DOST’s submission to the CSTD secretariat reflects the country’s use of STI to address such societal issues.

UNCTAD incorporated the Department’s contribution that the government of the Philippines has developed the Local Traffic Simulator (LOCALSIM), a microscopic traffic simulation software designed to be used by road and traffic engineers as a decision support system for traffic management.

The DOST also included one of the country’s circularity challenges, specifically unsustainable urban production and consumption patterns, in its contributions. According to the UNCTAD publication, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in mixed waste, a suspension of recycling activities, and a lack of proper waste collector gear, including personal protective equipment.

The DOST’s membership in the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) of the United Nations is until 2024. DOST aims to fulfil its commitments as a member of the Commission by continuously participating actively in the initiatives of CSTD and UNCTAD.

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) together with the International Energy Agency (IEA) have introduced innovative solutions and applications for efficient smart grid-interactive buildings and energy systems during the recently held “Regional Training Programme on Efficient Grid-Interactive Buildings.”

“We are delighted to continue our partnership with the IEA on training programmes for policymakers and industry professionals to support the region’s clean energy transitions. This year, we have brought together many experts and professionals to share their knowledge on smart digital technologies for energy-efficient buildings which would help reduce energy consumption in the region,” says Jonathan Goh, Director, External Relations Department, EMA.

The built environment provides 25 per cent of ASEAN’s overall energy consumption, according to the IEA. Most of this consumption—more than 40 per cent—is satisfied by electricity produced from fossil fuels. The built environment, which includes buildings as well as the utility and transportation networks that connect them, has a huge potential to reduce energy usage by utilising digital technology to become smarter and more interactive.

Energy systems can automatically reduce and reroute peak electricity demand thanks to devices like smart metres, sensors, and artificial intelligence. This improves the grid’s capacity to adapt quickly to variations in supply and demand.

Along with saving energy and cutting CO2 emissions, energy efficiency also improves people’s lives, health, productivity, and well-being. It also creates jobs, boosts energy security, and raises discretionary incomes, to name a few.

The training programme, on the other hand, included more than 40 experts from organisations around the world who supported the programme through presentations, breakout sessions, virtual networking, and discussions. These experts included ASEAN-based organisations like the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore.

The recent Singapore International Energy Agency Regional Training Programme on Efficient Grid-Interactive Buildings drew more than 180 participants from 33 nations.

Policymakers, business experts, and representatives from academia, non-governmental organisations, and civil society gathered to discuss how smart digital technology may be used to make buildings more energy-efficient. Through interaction with the power grid, energy-intensive buildings might become low-carbon prosumers capable of producing, consuming, storing, selling, and buying energy.

Furthermore, the Singapore-IEA Regional Training Hub initiative’s sixth activity is the Efficient Grid-Interactive Buildings programme. When Singapore joined the IEA as an Association Country in 2016, the Singapore-IEA Regional Training Hub was established. More than a thousand individuals from more than 30 countries have received training at the Singapore-IEA Training Hub since 2017.

The initiative marks an important turning point in the development of a network of urban practitioners, researchers, and energy experts to support knowledge sharing and operational capacities in clean energy transitions.

To discuss the connections between energy security and energy transitions, Singapore and the IEA will co-host the Singapore-IEA Ministerial Roundtable on Energy Security in a Low-Carbon World in October of this year. The 15th Singapore International Energy Week will include this event.

Meanwhile, EMA implemented several measures to improve Singapore’s energy security and resilience. As a result, Singapore’s overall gas supplies have been kept adequate throughout the current global energy crisis. These actions consist of:

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