Hong Kong Stories - Inventors in Hong Kong：Invent with Love

Denis Huen Yin Fan, a Hong Kong inventor born in the 1980s, has had a passion for drawing comics, creating stories, and dismantling household appliances since childhood. Despite struggling with dyslexia and experiencing academic difficulties in an elite secondary school, he remained committed to exploring his inventions. His parents even traded their large house for a smaller one to support him in pursuing his dreams of inventing.

After witnessing his grandparents' struggle with stroke and mobility issues, Denis became passionate about helping the disadvantaged. In Form 6, he came across a news story about some poor Cambodians who collected and sold dismantled landmines for a living, resulted in losing their legs in explosions. This social injustice has inspired him to invent a mechanical prosthetic leg.

This invention earned him numerous scientific awards and inspired him to pursue a career in science. He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the Hong Kong Chinese University and went on to pursue master's degrees at both local and British universities. In 2015, he returned to Hong Kong and founded a startup company aimed at developing mechanical arms to address hand tremors in Parkinson's disease. However, the product could not be mass-produced due to limited market demand and high investment costs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he saw a shortage of masks in the grassroots community, so he shifted his focus to producing masks to alleviate the shortage.