PUSHING SPORTS HEALTH TO ANOTHER LEVEL
Hong Kongers were enthralled by the spectacular performances of our city’s athletes during the Tokyo Olympic Games this past summer, and HKUST alum Kenny Oktavius was no different. An avid basketball fan, Kenny hates seeing his favorite NBA stars falling to injuries; unlike most of us though, he is doing something about preventing athletes from getting hurt.
Enter PointFit, the startup that Kenny co-founded which is developing a portable tracker that attaches to the skin. “Our sweat contains certain biomarkers that give off invaluable information about our muscles,” Kenny explains. Equipped with this tracker, athletes and trainers can dispense with needle-drawn blood tests and get quick readouts on the state of the sportsperson’s condition. Using Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) technology that was patented by HKUST Professor Ping Gao, PointFit’s tracker sends the user’s biomarker data to proprietary software that monitors and analyzes the athlete’s muscle health.
In 2021, PointFit was one of three Hong Kong startups who joined the international EPiC competition hosted by Hong Kong Science Park, beating out numerous competitors from around the world to win the Health Technology Award. They also won the Innovation Award of City I&T Grand Challenges 2021, and the Silver Award during the HKUST-Sino One-Million-Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2021, a fitting achievement for the alum who can truly call HKUST his second home: Kenny earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemistry and Biomolecular Engineering, recently completed his Master of Philosophy in Technology, Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and has embarked on a PhD in Advanced Materials as one of the recipients of HKSAR RGC PhD Fellowship (HKPFS) at the university this year.
Having secured agreements with the Hong Kong Sports Institute, local universities and PRC sports teams, Kenny and his revolutionary PointFit sports health tracker is set to transform how both elite and enthusiast athletes train and prepare with an eye on preventing injuries and optimizing their sporting performance. “Know your limits, and push them!” is the company motto, and thanks to PointFit, men and women alike can pursue their sporting endeavors to the edge without going over it.