uHoo bags Technology Excellence Award for IoT – Health Products & Services

The most advanced air-quality monitor in the market, uHoo promotes health and well-being through better indoor air.

Successful technological innovation towards health and wellbeing is honoured at the Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards (TEA). This awards programme recognises tech-savvy firms that contribute significantly to the economies where they do business, as well as inspire other enterprises and individuals to achieve more. In TEA’s inaugural year, the prize for the IoT – Health Products & Services category was given to uHoo, an air quality sensor and software system that promotes health and well-being through better indoor air.

uHoo monitors and analyses the quality of indoor air and provides important information to help users make their homes and workplaces healthier and safer. uHoo applies advanced analytics based on nine factors: temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (airborne chemicals), dust (PM 2.5), nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and air pressure in understanding the air you breathe. These factors have a direct effect on human health, sleep quality, mental clarity, productivity, occurrence of allergies and irritations, and the overall feeling of wellness (that is, a happier mood as well as absence of fatigue, headaches, and other pains). uHoo can assess whether your air is excellent, fair, or poor, and provide recommendations to improve your air and automatically control purifiers, dehumidifiers and other devices, or building systems to automate clean air in homes, offices, and buildings.

uHoo’s iOS and Android mobile applications can be used to monitor different rooms/locations, automatically switch on air purifiers, receive alerts and notifications, and share air-quality data with others. Enterprises also have access to a web dashboard in visualising air quality throughout their building and integrating uHoo directly into their building systems to reduce energy cost while simultaneously enhancing the health and well-being of their employees and/or tenants. uHoo is designed to look elegant in any space; it sits like a decor in your home or office. Being able to monitor nine air quality parameters in a compact glass-sized form, uHoo is more effective than similar products in the market.

According to the Port of Rotterdam “uHoo helped monitor [its] building and the knowledge uHoo provides gave [it] the capability to properly adjust the environment for the well-being of [its] tenants. Continuous measurement of the indoor air quality over a longer period has also provided the correct direction to improve the climate control system of the office building and a better financial control of the adjustments.”

uHoo is the brainchild of Dustin Jefferson S. Onghanseng and Brian Lin, who were MBA students at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2013. Both of them had respiratory health issues, so they thought of creating a product that would minimise the harmful effects of air pollutants on people. Their first prototype won a 24-hour hackathon, and they dropped their classes in 2014 to focus on uHoo. They eventually completed their degrees thereafter. uHoo has also won various awards, including IBM Global Entrepreneur, Get in the Ring Singapore Champion, Seedstars Hong Kong Champion, and Seedstars Global Runner-up.

The Technology Excellence Awards 2019, presented by Hong Kong Business, was held on February 27, 2019 at the Conrad Hong Kong.

This year's nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Bong Chan, Southern Region Leader, China TMT Industry, Deloitte China; Jason Yau, Partner, Technology and Management Consulting RSM Hong Kong; Douglas Kwan, Partner, Assurance and Advisory Services, ShineWing (HK) CPA Limited; John Poon, Head of Accounting and Outsourcing Solutions, Mazars Hong Kong; and Jonathan Chu, Partner, Stephenson Harwood.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be awarded as one of the technology companies with pioneering and ground-breaking IT products and solutions or companies from across different industries with the most innovative technology initiatives that made an impact on their business, please email Julie Anne Nunez ([email protected]).