The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the era of Big Data have exposed a critical flaw in traditional computer hardware: the slow and energy-consuming data transfer between memory and processors, commonly known as the von Neumann bottleneck. Every day, when our devices process AI queries, they must move massive amounts of data back and forth, causing severe delays and battery drain.

To address this challenge, researchers at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have created a chip with a minimalist architecture that performs complex searches directly where the data is stored, fundamentally bypassing this bottleneck. The research team, led by Professor Can Li from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering and the Centre for Advanced Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits (CASIC), has developed a novel analogue content-addressable memory (CAM) utilising two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 flash memories.

A research team has developed porous sodium-alginate composite gel microspheres capable of capturing uranium(VI) from aqueous solutions with high capacity and selectivity. 

This collection features articles on Surface Treatment published in Smart Materials in Manufacturing. All articles are free to read and download.

This collection features articles on Alloy published in Smart Materials in Manufacturing. All articles are free to read and download.

The Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Link’s concrete structures are engineered to achieve a design service life of 120 years, necessitating a robust, science-based framework for long-term durability management. This paper systematically reviews data-driven and physics-informed modeling approaches; establishes a smart, self-cleaning, and self-predictive durability database; integrates validated, application-oriented durability models; develops a life-cycle cost-optimized planning methodology; and proposes performance-aligned maintenance strategies—thereby identifying critical technical and managerial challenges in sustaining structural durability over the whole service life.

Chemistry isn’t always known for its sustainable methodologies and simple execution, though the possibilities for finding more direct and efficient ways to synthesize products are limitless. Conventional methods for modifying drug intermediates with the addition of a carboxyl group (a functional group consisting of a carbon double-bonded to an oxygen molecule, with a single bond to a hydroxyl group, or -OH) using carbon dioxide (CO₂) in a process called carboxylation often are expensive, have poor stability and high activation energy costs. Alternatively, this study focuses on newer advances in the carboxylation of heteroaromatic compounds, which are organic molecules arranged in a ring format, making them very stable and necessary building blocks for many organic compounds. The advancements shown here use CO₂ as a raw material to develop a greener, highly selective and efficient way to add CO₂  to heteroaromatic compounds under mild conditions.