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Rising to the challenge

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At one of the booths at InnoCarnival 2010, organised this month by the Innovation and Technology Commission, Lydia Leung Lap-wai was busy helping a group of enthusiastic elderly visitors measure the level of oxygen in their blood, using a palm-size, portable device designed by her team at the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (Astri).

As a manager at Astri, which was set up by the government in 2000 to promote applied research, Leung leads a team of seven engineers in developing health-care electronic products. 'Our goal is to produce small, convenient and affordable medical devices,' she says.

Tell us about your career

I studied electronic engineering for my undergraduate, master's and PhD degrees at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). After completing my master's in 2000, I joined a start-up firm, focusing on the research and development (R&D) of wireless audio systems. I was there for a year and a half before moving on to do a PhD. When I was doing post-doctoral research at HKUST, a few professors suggested I talked to my current boss [about Astri]. I found the idea of commercialising research results very promising. I joined Astri in 2005, developing [miniaturisation] packaging technology for wireless and radio frequency items. I switched to health-care electronics about 18 months ago.

What sparked your interest in electronic engineering?

As a secondary school student majoring in the science stream, I had two career choices - I either became a doctor or an engineer. I didn't like dissecting bodies, so the choice was obvious. But it was after attending a summer camp when I was in Form Six that I decided to specialise in electronic engineering. I had to build an automatic control system from scratch, and was fascinated by the process of creating something out of nothing.

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