Professor Liu Jinguo from the Center for Space Automation Technologies and Systems at Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has received approval of application for the Joint Research Fund for Hong Kong, Macao and Overseas Chinese Scholars, under the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC). In collaboration with Professor Li Yangmin from University of Macau (UM), the research project “Study of Parallel Active Vibration Damping Mechanism Applicable to Experimental Device for Crystal Growth in Space and Its Control Methods” will receive the amount of 200,000 RMB (about 31,293 USD) from the NNSFC.

The joint research fund aims to courage Hong Kong, Macao and overseas Chinese scholars under the age of fifty to cooperate with their counterparts in mainland China to carry out quality research projects. By doing so, they can fully tap into the scientific and technological strengths of Hong Kong, Macao and overseas regions and encourage excellent scholars to serve mainland China. Once approved, scholars will receive 200,000 RMB in the first two years. Another 1,200,000 RMB (about 187,755 USD) will be allocated in the next four years, depending on the research results in the previous two years.

The experts on the review panel deem the project “Study of Parallel Active Vibration Damping Mechanism Applicable to Experimental Device for Crystal Growth in Space and Its Control Methods” as having achieved innovative breakthroughs, and having major research and practical value. It is of high significance for manned spacecraft projects in China, and has international influence.

Earlier, the paper entitled “Enumeration of the Non-isomorphic Configurations for a Reconfigurable Modular Robot with Square-cubic-cell Modules ”, coauthored by Liu Jinguo and Li Yangmin, was awarded the first prize in the category of natural science papers at the Liaoning Academic Achievements Awards in Natural Science 2011. Li also serves as the Senior Visiting Research Fellow (SVRF) of SIA.