CityU HKIAS Distinguished Lecture – Data-Driven Global Pandemic Management

 With Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS), CityU intends to broaden the scope of the courses delivered by its regular faculty.  HKIAS aims to contribute fundamental knowledge and innovative ideas to the frontiers of science, engineering and technology.  The HKIAS Distinguished Lecture named “Data-Driven Global Pandemic Management” was held on 30^th Sep 2020.  Since the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, little consolidated effort has been taken to deal with the pandemic worldwide.  Prof. Way Kuo (President, CityU) was the speaker to discuss expected losses from pandemic outbreaks and nuclear power plant accidents, together with environmental pollution.

Firstly, Prof. Way Kuo discussed confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world and fit into model about cumulative cases and deaths of COVID-19 since January 2020 and data from WHO.  The cumulative deaths increased linearly but he cumulative cases increased exponentially. 

PolyU Webinar Series (1) - Booting Re-industrialization

 The Institute for Entrepreneurship (IfE), PolyU organized a series of webinar in the theme “Booting Re-industrialization” so as to drive Hong Kong’s reindustrialization.  The first webinar entitled “Is re-industrialization ready to take off in Hong Kong?” was held on 30^th Sep 2020.  Dr. Bobby Liu (President of Hong Kong Young Industrialists Council & Poly-preneurs) was moderator of this webinar.

Dr. Sunny Chai, BBS (Chairman, HKSTP) was the first speaker and his topic entitled “The Innovation & Technology Ecosystem”.  In the beginning, Dr. Chai briefed government commitment to driving I&T development in 8 focus Areas and upto HK$100Billion. 

Dr. Sunny Chai, BBS (Chairman, HKSTP) was the first speaker and his topic entitled “The Innovation & Technology Ecosystem”.  In the beginning, Dr. Chai briefed government commitment to driving I&T development in 8 focus Areas and upto HK$100Billion. 

Then Dr. Chai briefed the current situation of Hong Kong Science Park including office and lab space, tech companies, R&D worker, startups, investment, etc.  Some key milestones in the past 18 years were mentions and the hub for global research collaboration through Health@InnoHK and AIR@InnoHK.

After that he introduced the development and transformation from IE 1.0 to IE 2.0.  It aimed through this new requirement to enhance the re-industrialization in Hong Kong.

Finally, Dr. Chai stated the re-industrialization future in Hong Kong included Innovation & Technology Ecosystems, Smart Manufacturing Ecosystem and Digitalized Industry Future. Lastly, he mentioned the 8 principles of re-industrialization including “Leading Local Output”, “Bring Investment”, “High Skill Employment”, “Product Technology”, “Advanced Process”, “R&D Elements”, “Local Consumption” and “Sustainability” that could be realized through Precision Manufacturing Centre (PMC), Data Technology Hub (DT Hub), Medical Accessory Resilience Supply (MARS) Manufacturing Centre, Microelectronics Centre (MEC) and Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMC) in HKSTP.

 

Dr. Daniel Yip (Chairman, FHKI) was the second speaker and his presentation named “The Next Normal of Hong Kong Industries”.  Firstly, Dr. Yip mentioned the background of existing environment such as COVID-19 pandemic, China-US Trade Disputes, External Trade and Dual Circulation.  

Then Dr. Daniel Yip introduced FHKI Strategy 4R and they were Respond, Reset, Revive and Reinvent. He said Hong Kong advantages were always here.  

And then he described 4R as follows:

Respond – to the next normal, China-US trade disputes and opportunities arising from dual-circulation.

Reset – “China+1” strategy for factory diversification and re-industrialization in Hong Kong.

Revive – E-commerce (local, China and overseas markets) and upgrading (automation, product & design)

Reinvent – Consider Market, Education and I&T.

Finally, Dr. Daniel Yip described the next normal of Hong Kong Industries in four steps including 1) Factory Diversification, 2) Exploring New Markets, 3) Developing Hi-Tech Products and 4) Local Productions.  Lastly, he introduced different government support in this four steps.

Prof. H.C. Man (Dean of Faculty of Engineering, PolyU) was the last speaker and his presentation title was “PolyU’s Role in R&D Advancement and Talent Development”. Prof. Man firstly discussed the 15 global challenges facing humanity by the Millennium Project (http://www.millennium-project.org/projects/challenges/)

Then he identified 15 technology industries of the future and asked us which of them were suitable for re-industrialization in Hong Kong.  And then he also mentioned such technologies were not come easily because of political reasons.  

After that Prof. Man pointed out the characteristics of R&D included expensive investment and high risk.  So that university research could help industry R&D to reduce initial investment both in human resources and expensive equipment.  He also briefed the Technology Readiness Levels that PolyU ITDO could assist to fill the gap in technology readiness. 

Lastly, Prof. Man introduced different research, department and collaboration project between PolyU and industry so as to train talent and human capitals to industry.  

Q&A Session:

Dr. Sunny Chai said reindustrialization was no shortcut but the mask production line under COVID-19 demonstrated that our infrastructure changed could be agile such as clean room restructure.  However, AMC and DT Hub was different concept for long term transformation.

Dr. Daniel Yip said Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) manufacturers were small enterprise in Hong Kong.  The high-tech research of TCM was in Macau but quality and brand of TCM were benefit in Hong Kong because of our advanced testing and certification industry.  Dr. Sunny Chai added we could assist them to achieve GMP through light house projects.

Prof. Man said Hong Kong would like to be IP trading hub and we also need technology flagship corporations so as to adopt PhD students.

At the end, Dr. Sunny Chai said there was no short cut path but HKSTP as a platform provided good infrastructure for R&D.

 

Reference:

Re-industrialisation Funding Scheme (RFS) - https://www.itf.gov.hk/en/funding-programmes/facilitating-technology/rfs/index.html

HKSTP AMC - https://amc.hkstp.org/

FHKI - https://www.industryhk.org/en/

20200810: HKPC Webinar - Introduction of Re-industrialisation Funding Scheme - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2020/08/hkpc-webinar-introduction-of-re.html

20191028: CityU Seminar on Hong Kong Reindustrialization - Textiles and Clothing Industry Case (香港再工業化的前景：以香港紡織及服裝工業為例) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2019/10/cityu-seminar-on-hong-kong.html

20190327: CMATCL & HKSTP Meeting for reindustrialization - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2019/03/matcl-hkstp-meeting-for.html

20180213: FHKI Seminar on Bay Area Soar by Innovation and Industrial Upgrading Opportunities (大灣創新騰飛, 工業升級良機) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2018/02/fhki-seminar-on-bay-area-soar-by.html

 

HKSQ & HKQAA Promotion Seminar on Feasibility Study on the Quality Start-up Development in HKSTP

HKSQ & HKQAA arranged the promotion seminar for the Trade and Industry Department (TID) Funded project named “Feasibility Study on the Quality of Hong Kong Start-up Development for Supporting the Sustainable Business Growth” on 29^th Sep 2020 in HKSTP. Since COVID-19 pandemic, we performed both on-site and online seminar in this time. Group photo with guests was taken at the end of seminar.

(Left: Leo (beNovelty), Mr. Kevin Ho (HKTDC), I (HKSQ), Mr. Patrick Fan (CEO, beNovelty), Mr. Adams Wong (HKQAA) and Ms. Brenda Ling (HKQAA))

I (Chairman, HKSQ) was the first speaker to give welcoming address. In the beginning, I introduced the background and mission of Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ).

Then I briefed the story of project concept through assisting startups to achieve accreditation and certification when I served in Science Park.  So that I understand startup needs when faced to market.  That’s why we applied TID SME funding for enhancing startup quality management. 

After that I mentioned our effort to discuss with different stakeholders before submission of funding application proposal. Finally, we got most stakeholders support and awarded TID SME Funding.  

Mr. Adams Wong (Senior Business Manager, HKQAA) was the second speaker and he briefed the details of the TID project.

And then he mentioned some startup research from other countries and regions were performed and then described the process to achieve the SME Development Fund (SDF). Now the funding was renamed to Trade and Industrial Organization Support Fund (TSF).

After that Adams briefed the six key activities in the project and they are “Promotion Seminar”, “Startup Research Survey”, “Practical Guidebook for Startup”, “Sharing Seminars”, “10 Workshops” and “Dissemination”. Because of COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule of the project was extended the period to Nov 2021.

The 5th World Summit of Chinese Quality (Online)

The 5^th World Summit of Chinese Quality (全球華人品質峰會) was organized by Macau Quality Management Association (MQMA) and pre-World Alliance for Chinese Quality (pre-WACQ - 全球華人品質聯盟(籌)) on 25^th Sep 2020. The theme was “Ingenious Quality, Innovative Service” (匠心品質、創新服務). Because of COVID-19 pandemic, the summit was held online in Macau for half day and invited different experts from Macau, Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore to share their quality and innovation topics.  The guests and participants group photo was prepared after the meeting and showed below.

Ms. Huang Ruochen (黃若辰小姐, 澳門青年領導力學會常務理事) was MC of the summit and introduced the schedule and guests.

In the beginning, Prof. Lin Chang (Chairman, Macau Quality Management Association (MQMA)) (林暢教授- 澳門品質管理協會會長) gave opening speech.  Firstly, Prof. Lin introduced the summit of WACQ.  He expected we would meet in Macau again in near future after pandemic period.

Mr. Jia fuxing (Chairman, CAQ) (賈福興先生- 中國質量協會會長) gave welcoming speech and he reviewed we all met in Beijing for the 40 years anniversary of CAQ in the last year.  Mr. Jia said we met the new challenges in the world including COVID-19 and we needed to enhance quality of product and service to overcome this difficult period.

Mr. GE Tan (Chairman, SQI) (陳敬賢先生- 新加坡質量學院主席) gave welcoming speech.  He appreciated MQMA to arrange this online summit under this difficult situation.  Innovation of product and service was very important he added.

Then Dr. Lotto Lai (Chairman, HKSQ) (黎劍虹博士 - 香港質量學會會長) gave welcoming speech and his topic named “Reinterpreting "Chinese Quality" with Chinese Culture” (以中華文化重新演繹「華人質量」).  Firstly, he introduced HKSQ and role of WACQ.

And then he said total change of behavior of people after pandemic. He analyzed that the nature of customer need was vanity based on philosophy. That explained personalized and customized products are the spiritual driving force of quality.

Finally, he tried to reinterpreting "Chinese Quality" with Chinese Culture as follows:

a)      Continuous Quality Revolution

b)      Cluster Work

c)      Cooperative Win-Win

d)     Sustainable Quality for Next Generation

Lastly, he concluded that products and services become a must for the pursuit of a better life. (把產品及服務變成追求美好生活的必須品)

Prof. Ching-Chow Yang (Chairman, CSQ) (楊錦洲教授 - 中華臺北品質學會理事長) gave welcome speech and he expected Chinese Quality to be the mainstream. 

Then Prof. Yang invited Prof. Li lili (李麗麗教授 - 文化藝術界總會會長) to sing a song for celebrating the summit to perform successfully.  Prof. Li appreciated WACQ to integrate between quality management and Chinese culture.

CityU SDSC Seminar - Big Data, Deep Learning, and Federated Learning Research at Baidu

The CityU Online Seminar named “Big Data, Deep Learning, and Federated Learning Research at Baidu” was organized by The School of Data Science (SDSC) and The Hong Kong Institute for Data Science (HKIDS) and was held on 17^th Sep 2020.  This talk invited Prof. Dejing Dou (Head of Big Data Lab (BDL) and Business Intelligence Lab (BIL) at Baidu Research) to share “Open and Inclusive” and Baidu AutoDL which used deep learning to design and train deep learning models, including Neural Architecture Search, transfer learning, and interpretability of deep learning.

Prof. Dou said Big Data and AI would become the “engines” of our times! Then he briefed Big Data’s 3V that is Volume, Velocity (Speed) and Variety (Complexity).  

And then Prof. Dou introduced Big Data Lab at Baidu Research which was founded in collaboration with UN in 2014. Their research areas included Neural Architecture Search (NAS), Transfer Learning, Interpretability of DNN and Federated Learning.  He also said AI applications would be industrialized, standardized, modularized and automated.  

Because of current limitations in Deep Learning (DL), Prof. Dou expected the future DL would be follows:

      -          Scalable, automated and customized design
-          Ubiquitously deployed on low-cost and heterogeneous computing hardware ends
-          Self-organizing, self-adaptive, self-evolving; reduced dependence on data
-          Enhanced interpretability; robust

And then he briefed three key techniques in AutoDL and they were Self-design Architectures, Self-adaptive to Tasks and Self-adjusting to Environments.

IAQ Zoom Exco Meeting regarding Support Transition

Since ASQ had new arrangement, IAQ held an exco meeting online to discuss the support transition on 15^th Sep 2020.

CityU & FHKI Virtual Industrial Day

The College of Engineering and the Federation of Hong Kong Industries (FHKI) organized “Virtual Industrial Day” and held on 11^th Sep 2020.  It aims to drive forth research collaboration between industry and university to develop advanced and innovative technologies, create career opportunities for the budding engineers and nurture cross-disciplinary professionals. In the beginning, Prof. Way Kuo (President, CityU) gave welcome speech. He raised the change behavior for COVID-19 that he post name badge on right shoulder side that suited for eye position meeting people. 

Then Dr. Daniel Yip (Chairman, FHKI) gave an opening speech. 

And then Prof. Tei-Wei Kuo (Dean, College of Engineering, CityU) gave an opening speech. He said in near future we would be very closed to industry.

After that it was souvenir presentation session.

The first session named “Emerging Industries and Opportunities” and the panelists were Mr. Anthony Lam (CEO and Vice Chairman, Golden Resources Development International Ltd.), Mr. Simon Cheung (Project Development Director, China Dyamics New Energy Technology Co. Ltd.) and Mr. Roy Lim (Vice President, Tung Hing Automation Investment Ltd.)

Guests were shared their experience and learning attitudes on different fields.  One of common thinking was to learn as much as possible during undergraduates.  Anthony advised students must find the job they like so that they had commitment and would do it well at the end. Simon said Hong Kong as your stage and showed your talent.  Finally, Roy said upto 90% you learnt from school was not use in your job. Please continuous learning after graduated. 

The second session named “Get your Startup off the ground” and the panelists were Ms. Tricia Chong (Director, KTO, CityU) and Mr. Bryant Chan (Vice Chairman, Hong Kong Startup Council). Prof. Henry Chung (EE, CityU) was moderator for the first topic entitled “University & Industry support for startups”. In the beginning, Ms. Tricia Chong introduced the KTO roles and her Singapore experience.

Then Mr. Bryant Chan briefed the background of Hong Kong Startup Council and presented the topic named “How local industry encourages entrepreneurship”. 

Bryant mentioned re-industrialization in Hong Kong including facilities, funding, training and i4.0.

Then he briefed the Hong Kong Startup Council and STARS Programme (S-Synergies, T-Training, A-Acceleration, R-Relations and S-Spotlight).

Finally, Bryant introduced FHKI Education Committee that aimed to strengthen the communication between education and industry.  Their vision is to establish ecosystem of Hong Kong Industry.

HKU Webinar - Winning on Kaggle: Becoming a better Data Scientist

The HKU Webinar named “Winning on Kaggle: Becoming a better Data Scientist” was organized by AI Lab and MEICOM and held on 10^th Sep 2020.  Prof. Qingchen Wang (HKU Business School) was the guest speaker.  In the beginning, Mr. Alan Chow (Founder, AI Lab) briefed that AI Lab focused AI, Blockchain and Cybersecurity, etc.

Firstly, Prof. Qingchen Wang introduced four goals of today’s talk including introduction of Kaggle competition, their framework and tips for this competition and demonstrated some real competition cases.

Kaggle competition had started since 2010 and focused on forecasting, image recognition, sentiment prediction, stock prediction, product search, predictive maintenance, etc.  Then Prof. Wang said “Kaggle is a grind, but you learn and gain in real life from it.  Kaggle will definitely make you a great data scientist.”

However, some people said “Why Kaggle will not make you a great data scientist” because of mainly focusing about prediction.  Some claims were missing the link to return on investment (ROI) analysis. And then Prof. Wang advised to be an excellent data scientist that everything else is a matter of experience. 

After that Prof. Wang briefed what would learned from Kaggle such as data science is rigor, understanding your model, 80/20 rule of data science, the power of team work, determination and grit is most important, etc.

Then Kaggle details inform was briefed and benefits were stated.

Finally, Prof. Wang suggested students that data science is their career, think of everything you done now as an investment for next 20-30 years. Kaggle could learn something out of scope in university.

At the end, Prof. Wang encouraged student to get start in five steps.

1.          Understanding the prediction problem.

2.          Understanding the data

3.          Read the discussion forums

4.          Start with a public notebook

5.          Develop your own solution.

Reference:

Prof. Qingchen Wang - https://www.fbe.hku.hk/people/academic/qingchen-wang

MEICOM - https://www.ecom-icom.hku.hk/GradnAlumni/MEICOM

Kaggle - https://www.kaggle.com/