FunSpark^TM Robot for Jubilant Day Care Centre

CIMDA recently had the honour of collaborating with the Jubilant Day Care Centre for the Elderly, a residential care home for seniors under the Hong Kong Children & Youth Services, where they employed our FunSpark^TM Robot at their centre for a three-week period between 23 September to 14 October. The centre is open to all elderly people from the neighbourhood in hopes of helping them find a sense of community within the senior class and to help combat feelings of isolation commonly seen with independent living or single elderly persons.

The FunSpark^TM Robot is implemented with our all-in-one FunSpark^TM system packed with different categories of applications, ranging from sports and health to entertainment. The health category includes our award-winning CIMDA Care system, a daily support system designed to benefit the elderly and their everyday life. During the trial, elderly residents had free access to the FunSpark^TM Robot at the centre’s common area and were invited to experience our system firsthand. It was encouraging to see so many seniors take an interest and actively use our system, where we have received much valuable feedback from them for our ongoing development.

We are highly grateful for this opportunity to work with the Jubilant Day Care Centre for the Elderly and anticipate more collaborative activities with them in the upcoming days.

Professor Coralia Cartis Delivers Talk on ‘Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Optimization Problems’

Invited by CIMDA, Professor Coralia Cartis from the University of Oxford, delivered a seminar at the Hong Kong Science Park on the topic of “Dimensionality Reduction Techniques for Optimization Problems” on 2 October. Her presentation covered modern applications of machine learning through the solution of huge-scale nonconvex optimization problems. She shared various dimensionality reduction techniques to allow for efficient projections to low dimensions, as well as other matrix theories and conic integral geometries. After the seminar, Professor Cartis had discussions with many people from the audience.

Professor Coralia Cartis is a Professor of Numerical Optimization at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College and the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science. Her interest and experience in the development and analysis of nonlinear optimization algorithms have demonstrated the diverse applications of optimization, from climate modeling to signal processing and machine learning.

We were pleased to have Professor Coralia Cartis share her insightful research with us at this seminar and eagerly look forward to her next visit to us at CIMDA.

CityU SDS PE, Wellness and Sports Expo 2024

The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) hosted an on-campus annual event, “CityU SDS PE, Wellness and Sports Expo 2024,” from 12-30 August. Themed “Digital Fitness to Enhance Health & Fitness,” the event was open to all students and teachers and especially offered an orientation workshop for newly admitted student-athletes as an introduction before the new school year. It also held a table tennis training program with CityU’s team members, providing mentorship to other interested youths to bring the CityU community together in a fun-filled experience.

CIMDA’s commercialization team formally introduced the FunSpark^TM system, our latest all-inclusive, one-stop platform for sports, health, and entertainment, at the kick-off ceremony. It was a delightful opportunity to share our innovative direction and design with all attending guests. We also exhibited our alternative FunSpark^TM Robot at our designated booth so that students and visitors alike could experience the system throughout the Expo period.

FunSpark^TM provides support for a variety of activities suitable for different age groups with its all-in-one design, and many guests have expressed great interest in our upcoming developments.

NovaX Global Investmatch Carnival 2024

Bringing together innovation and investment, start-up companies and investors gathered for this one-stop premier matching event with over 10,000 attendees, all experts and professionals passionate about the rapid growth and future developments of high technology. CIMDA showcased our FunSpark™ platform and PE systems at this two-day event between 28-29 August and had the pleasure of speaking with many potential investors and business leaders from both the local and foreign markets.

Engaging with so many industry professionals gave us an insightful look into the technology market not only through the eyes and experiences of our audience but also from the perspectives of other industries and their needs as business owners. Our conversations opened prospects for new developments and solutions on how we can tackle the ongoing challenges found in various industries, such as education, health, and elderly care in Hong Kong.

We hope to take the valuable experiences and connections we made at NovaX to bring more innovative solutions to Hong Kong and transform it into a city for its people.

China International Elderly Care and Health Industry Expo

CIMDA recently had the opportunity to participate in the China International Elderly Care and Health Industry Expo (EE Expo), a gerontech-focused event for three days from 23 to 25 August in Guangzhou. Professionals from various sides of the elderly care industry were invited to share their services, products, and technology solutions that seek to transform the existing elderly care system for the better and improve the ongoing concerns over the increasing aging population worldwide.

It was a pleasure to showcase and demonstrate our upgraded CIMDA Care system, which many elderly visitors responded positively to and expressed great enthusiasm for. Both local and international elderly associations also visited our booth. They were highly engaged in discussing future collaborations and business opportunities with us that could spark new growth in elderly care services.

In addition to our CIMDA Care system, we also presented our new FunSpark™ AR-based platform, which recognizes human motions and provides a comprehensive gaming experience for users of all ages. For the first time in Mainland China, we showed the possibilities of combining lifestyle, entertainment, and health into one platform and how it can bring new dimensions to the elderly care industry.

Golden Age Expo & Summit 2024

The Golden Age Expo & Summit (GAES) event has arrived yet again this year with CIMDA’s full participation showcasing our newly revamped elderly-care system, CIMDA Care. We were delighted to reveal its latest version with a completely brand-new interface specifically redesigned to appeal more to the elderly audience, which has now also been optimized for quick navigation and ease of use.

As our award-winning system, we have continuously worked on the supporting technologies behind it, particularly with our pose estimation technology that is the core of its incorporated Exercise function. Our pose estimation technology has been meticulously refined for precision and accuracy, making it even faster and smarter now at detecting faults and suggesting corrections in posture. Furthermore, we have for the first time at an event debuted our new all-in-one platform, FunSpark. This is an all-inclusive system with up to 50 apps ranging from entertainment to lifestyle, which aims to satisfy different people of all ages and abilities.

Many elderly guests were eager to try our system demos and were actively bringing their friends to our event booth to share the fun. We were pleased to see the system being effectively used by our intended audience and it has given us great motivation to bring our systems to them as soon as we can. Speaking with different industry professionals, we were able to connect with many people who shared the same goals and sentiments, and we already anticipate that we will have many more exciting and innovative collaborations leading up to the end of the year.

Invited presentation at 2024 China AI Gala TV programme

CIMDA members Professors Hong Yan and Ray Cheung Chak-chung were invited to take part in the 2024 China AI Gala television programme hosted by CCTV-1 of the China Media Group for the valuable opportunity to meet other tech experts and discuss the topic of AI influence in current digital trends.

The Gala gathered leading organizations dedicated to the research and development of AI technology and provided the perfect platform to have in-depth discussions on the latest cutting-edge technology and to share achievements and other significant innovation developments. Professors Yan and Cheung offered many of their insights on the changes and expectations in the digital market with the introduction of AI technology, as well as its successful application in many major sectors such as sports, education, and elderly care.

With such a large presence in modern society, our Centre has been closely following the ongoing developments of AI technology in both its business and social fronts, and it has undoubtedly been at the core of many of our latest innovative systems. The implementation of AI has greatly increased the quality of life for many people, with much potential in its ongoing growth and future commercialization prospects in many industries.

It was an honour to have been invited to the 2024 China AI Gala for the amazing opportunity to speak with other industry professionals, and we are pleased to know that much of our sharing can be brought to everyone across the screen. Click here to watch the full programme!

InnoEx 2024

As one of Asia’s largest and most anticipated I&T events, the InnoEX 2024 expo makes another return this year to bring together the most influential innovators and technology leaders at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. CIMDA once again had the opportunity to showcase our cutting-edge innovations where we also exchanged insights on the latest technology trends with talented and ambitious entrepreneurs and business leaders.

We were excited to introduce the latest developments in our newly improved sports data analysis systems, Auto Runner Tracker for PE and Simultaneous Large Class Assessment for Sports Activities, as well as our elderly care system, CIMDA Care. Furthermore, we have been expanding our repertoire to include other AI technologies, such as object detection and counting, wireless sensing and indoor positioning.

With another successful year of InnoEX, we are honoured to have been a part of this meaningful event and look forward to collaborating with the many talented individuals we had the opportunity to meet.

“Talent Power Up” I&T Career Expo 2024

Organized by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), the annual Innovation and Technology Career Expo held on 8 March attracted a full house of attendees who came to connect with AI and tech experts and seek prospective opportunities with the 80+ leading tech companies in Science Park.

Talents of diversified profiles visited CIMDA’s booth highly curious about our ongoing projects and the innovative direction our company has been working towards. We were pleased to share our many developments and contributions with them, and many have shown great interest in the career openings we had to offer.

We are currently seeking new talents to join our high-calibre team as we tackle the upcoming trend of Generative AI and its transformative influence on the technology market and other related industries. Let’s bring forth a new wave of refreshing, innovative developments in Hong Kong and continue to inspire change through knowledge.

Invite Speech at HKFSCI Seminar for Elderly Care

Upon invitation from the Hong Kong Productivity Council, CIMDA recently participated as a guest speaker in a seminar for “Health and Elderly Care Market Development” organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Senior Citizen Industries (HKFSCI) on 5 March, where we gave a presentation on our elderly care system, CIMDA Care, and had the opportunity to share our experiences at various overseas gerontech-related exhibitions last year.

IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee spoke about the innovative concepts and technology development behind our system, giving much insight to the framework behind CIMDA Care. It was a pleasure to share with so many people our amazing experiences overseas last year, such as the 50th International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo and the China International Silver Industry Exhibition in Guangzhou, one of the largest gerontech-centric events in Mainland China.

There was much positivity from the audience following our presentation, and we garnered much interest from different industry experts and professionals from other academic circles, with whom we shared many meaningful discussions afterward. Our Centre will keep a close eye on the latest developments in the health and elderly care industries and hopes to seek more collaborations with other related organizations in the upcoming year.

Odyssey of the Mind Hong Kong Regional Tournament 2024

With the arrival of this year’s Odyssey of the Mind Hong Kong Regional Tournament 2024, CIMDA once again had the privilege of being invited as one of the judges for this internationally acclaimed event held at the Chinese YMCA College on 24 February.

During the tournament, students are split into 50 teams and encouraged to work together to solve 5 long-term problems that require a combination of STEAM knowledge and innovative creativity. Winning teams also have the opportunity to participate at the World Finals held in the US in May 2024 as representatives of Hong Kong, and we were pleased to witness the growing and massive potential demonstrated by the younger generation, and to be a part of this meaningful event dedicated to supporting these aspiring students.

Through a range of STEAM activities, the tournament gave students a chance to effectively utilize and display a range of problem-solving skills and creative ideas. Ms. Gloria Lee, our IT Business Development Manager who also participated as a judge last year was amazed by the incredible potential displayed once again. We are deeply honoured to be a supporting organization for this event and anticipate more future events that promote student development through STEAM education and innovative technology.

Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School Mini Marathon

The Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School hosted its mini marathon event on 7 February, and CIMDA was cordially invited to partake as a supporting guest organization. The mini marathon spanned a little over two hours in a roundtrip between their school campus to Po Hong Park and back, with over 400 students split into eight groups participating in the race.

With such a large number of students participating, we were able to take the opportunity to employ our Automatic Runner Tracking System in a real competitive situation to test it for its accuracy and feasibility beyond PE lessons. We were extremely delighted to see the satisfied responses from students and teachers alike, and the event wrapped up as a huge success.

Their principal, Mr. Chui Ka Yin, Jerry, has been extremely supportive and enthusiastic about our system, and we were honored to provide our system and services to his school during such an important event. Our team had an enjoyable time playing a supportive role at the mini marathon event and it was an eye-opening experience for all of us to see the hard work of students being supported alongside the fruit of our efforts. It reminded us of our roots in innovative technology, and we hope our inventions can continue to bring joy and support to people in need.

Career Fair 2024 at CityU

CIMDA was cordially invited by the City University of Hong Kong to participate in the Engineering & Science Career Fair 2024 on 30 January.

During the event, fresh graduates were amazed by our research products and innovations, and they were enthusiastic about the positions offered by our Centre. The opportunity to be a part of our team and utilize their skills and knowledge is highly appealing to the students. Many undergraduate students were also interested in our internship programme, which offers hands-on experience to turn their knowledge into practical solutions and applications. We are now looking for young talents with excellence to join our Centre as interns. Click here to know more about the details!

Jockey Club OLink Hub Opening Ceremony cum Carnival

Held at the Construction Industry Council-Zero Carbon Park in Kowloon Bay, the Hong Kong Society for the Aged (SAGE) hosted an opening ceremony cum carnival event for “OLink Hub”, their newly launched three-year project funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust Fund. There, we showcased CIMDA Care at one of the four major areas of the event. These areas included the Lecture Session, Exhibition x Workshop, E-Sports Battle, and finally, the Gerontech experience area where we exhibited.

“OLink Hub” aims to support the silver community by enhancing their knowledge, interest, and aptitude in technology with various online services and training courses that help them better adapt to the growing digitalization in society today. The event spread much positivity and awareness on the potential of technology within the elderly market where they included lectures on the latest health information, a fun workshop for simple handicrafts, as well as a fun brain-building game competition where many elderly attendees partook in. Overall, this event has established a welcoming environment for elderly people to take their first step into technology. CIMDA is proud to be a member of the "OLikn Hub" and have the opportunity to contribute to elderly care through advanced technologies. Our system, CIMDA Care, shares the same aspirations of using function and entertainment to support the daily lives of elderly people in both physical and mental health equally. We were elated to see the encouraging reactions from the public and hope to take this as motivation to improve our system and gradually bridge the gap between the silver community and technology.

Learning & Teaching Expo 2023

The Learning & Teaching Expo is a widely supported event in Hong Kong as one of its largest platforms for schools, education-related businesses, and government organizations to gather for the latest news and developments in learning resources and educational technology.

CIMDA showcased the Auto Runner Tracker for PE System and Large Class Sports Activity Assessment System, both of which are catered towards schools for the improvement of quality in PE lessons. Chinese YMCA College Acting Principal and Vice Principal, Ms. Yim Yin-heung and Mr. Tam Chi-chung, as well as PE teachers from various other schools invited student helpers to share their prior experience of having used both our systems during our workshops with visitors from the educational industry. They also demonstrated the Large Class Sports Activity Assessment System that was available as a demo at our booth on the day.

Along with that, we have introduced our 2 brand new mini game apps. ‘Bop Bop’ is a fun action game that uses pose estimation and facial recognition technology to capture both head movement and facial expressions. ‘Splashy’, our other game, combines music and hand gestures in an exciting rhythm game with three difficulty modes currently available. Both mini games were also offered as a trial on the day and were excitedly received by both students, teachers, and the general public.

Chinese YMCA College Sports Day

CIMDA had the incredible opportunity last week on 7 December to attend the annual Chinese YMCA College Sports Day event held at the Ma On Shan Sports Ground. Our sports assessment system, the AI Runner Tracking System, was utilized as a part of the grading criteria for their students’ performance during the 3km running event. This is the first time the school has invited a research centre to participate in such a large-scale event for their school, and CIMDA is honored to be the first one selected for this significant role.

Mr. Tam Chi-chung, Vice Principal of the Chinese YMCA College, has been a long-time collaborator in the development of our sports assessment systems. Their school has greatly supported this project particularly in its beta-testing stages, and we were extremely excited to see our system play such an important role at their annual sports day. Seeing the students’ enthusiastic responses gave us confidence in our innovative direction, and we were pleased to see that it contributed to the evaluation process for teachers.

We strongly believe our cooperation with CYMCA College will continue in the near future and we look forward to improving the quality of physical education in Hong Kong together.

InnoHK Summit 2023

As a member of the AIR@InnoHK Cluster, CIMDA was invited to participate and exhibit at the InnoHK Summit alongside other InnoHK Centres at the Hong Kong Science Park. The theme this year is ‘From Collaborative Research to Real World Impact’. This event served as a platform for many technology professionals to gather for an eventful line-up of panel discussions and presentations on insightful topics, such as AI and robotics, innovation and commercialization, biotechnology, and other technology-related topics.

Our Centre Director, Professor Hong Yan took part as one of the speakers together with our long-time overseas collaborator from the University of Oxford, Professor Terry Lyons, to give a presentation on the topic of AI and robotics. It was an honour to share our research discoveries and innovative developments in front of many technology experts and we were delighted by all the enthusiastic discussions that filled our booth.

We were pleased to see that many esteemed guests had visited our booth after the presentation, where we had the opportunity to connect over our common interests in pursuing advanced technology and innovations for the betterment of society.

HKSTP Recruitment Fairs

CIMDA was invited by HKSTP to participate in two career fairs held on November 16th and November 28th, respectively. The events were co-organized by the Hong Kong Top Talent Services Association (HKTTSA) with the aim of attracting top talents from the world's top 100 universities.

We are honored that our Programme Manager, Dr Gao Wei, was invited to give a sharing on behalf of CIMDA during the ceremony. He encouraged talents in mainland to work in Hong Kong where they can have access to numerous opportunities of high-technology research and development. Dr. Gao Wei highlighted the collaborative efforts between CIMDA and HKSTP in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship and emphasized the potential for career growth and professional development within the Hong Kong market. During the networking session, we received positive feedback from attendees expressing their interest in pursuing career opportunities with CIMDA.

The event held in late November, at CUHK-Shenzhen, specifically targeted young graduates in the mainland. They were passionate about the innovative projects undertaken by CIMDA and aspired to become future innovators and contribute to our research initiatives.

As a research centre, we are committed to nurturing talents and facilitating cross-border collaborations. We are excited to further strengthen our partnership with HKSTP, driving technological advancements and fostering a vibrant ecosystem of innovation in Hong Kong.

Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit 2023

CIMDA once again took part in the annual Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit (GIES) under the pavilion of HKSTP this year with our award-winning elderly care system, CIMDA Care.

As the largest gerontechnology event in Hong Kong, it has not only gained popularity among the elderly and their caregivers but has also attracted many government officials to visit, including Mr. Michael Wong Wai-lun (Deputy Financial Secretary), Ms. Bernadette Linn (Secretary for Development), Ms. Winnie Ho Wing-yin (Secretary for Housing), and Dr. Carmen NG (General Manager - Elderly Services for Hong Kong Housing Society), etc. They came to the event in hopes of educating themselves on the possibilities of virtual elderly care and technology in general. This granted us the valuable opportunity to converse with them directly and demonstrate our system to our target users face-to-face. Surrounding exhibitors and guests from other industries, many of whom were acquaintances from previous expositions and collaborations, also stopped by our booth to check out our innovations and share their insights with us.

Much to our delight, we noticed an increased interest in our CIMDA Care system this year, particularly with the exercise function. Our team has put much focus on increasing the accuracy of our exercise function this year to better detect mistakes in posture and consequently guide elderly people in their daily exercise routines with even more precision. We recently also showcased this system in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, China, and the collective response has shown us that there is high demand for more accessible gerontech innovations catered for daily use in the current market.

We hope to fulfil the demands of the people and seek to work on our system even further so that it can bring the elderly population and their caretakers a healthier and happier lifestyle.

China Hi-Tech Fair 2023

CIMDA recently participated in the China Hi-Tech Fair 2023 (CHTF 2023) held between 15 – 19 November at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in China, where we were also awarded the Excellent Product Award by the Hi-Tech Fair Organizing Committee. This expo is the largest technology exhibition in China, with a reputable international presence and a large number of participants every year. Many high-level technology companies are invited to showcase their innovations and products. CIMDA is honored to have exhibited alongside many top industry leaders with our gerontech system, CIMDA Care, and our physical assessment system, Large Class Sports Activity Assessment System.

As the most influential technology fair in China, CHTF 2023 attracts audiences from all over the world. It offers the perfect platform for technology experts and business professionals to share information and explore future potential collaborations. Our Centre Director, Prof. Hong Yan, and our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, attended the opening ceremony of the event to speak with and meet individuals that stood at the forefront of high technology, where we also shared many of our insights and innovations with them.

This opportunity gave us much inspiration for our future projects and allowed us to connect with many talented individuals and organizations with whom we shared a similar vision and passion for technology.

China International Silver Industry Exhibition

CIMDA was cordially invited by the Hong Kong Federation of Senior Citizen Industries (HKFSCI) and the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to partake in the China International Silver Industry Expo over the period of 17 – 19 November in Guangzhou, China. This gerontech-centric event aims to introduce technology solutions and products catered towards the elderly market as the demand for better elderly care services continues to increase along with the growing aging population.

We were honored to showcase our elderly care system, CIMDA Care, to many professionals in the silver industry and share many of our ideas and contributions with them on the importance and development of gerontechnology. As a combination of both function and entertainment, CIMDA Care not only benefits elderly users but also their caretakers, which we believe could greatly improve the quality of life for those living in a fast-paced environment such as Mainland China.

This event gave us the opportunity to engage with many influential individuals, such as those in healthcare services, health education, private medical sectors, and other business sectors looking to utilize or learn more about gerontechnology and its potential benefits. With the positive and encouraging feedback we received, we can see much potential for CIMDA Care’s application to various businesses and services in Mainland China. We will continue to improve our technology to better support the elderly population and their caretakers.

InnoCarnival 2023

The InnoCarnival 2023 (IC 2023) organized by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) of the HKSAR has come around with yet another inspiring theme this year; “Go Smart! Go Tech! Go Green!”. Held at the Hong Kong Science Park, 38 exhibition booths on-site, including those from local universities, research and development centres, government departments and other organisations. Under the booth of the City University of Hong Kong, CIMDA participated from 28 October to 5 November to showcase our latest and improved Large Class Sports Activity Assessment System. This system gamifies physical exercises to boost the motivation of students in PE lessons and also to increase teachers’ efficiency by automating the performance evaluation process.

This system was introduced as one of our two AI-based systems for physical education performance assessment when we participated in several expos across Hong Kong and mainland China. We also had the opportunity to demonstrate them at a local primary school in Shanghai, where both systems were enthusiastically received by students and teachers.

This 9-day event has gathered the attention of many public members, and we were able to directly converse with our potential users and collaborators and receive feedback from different perspectives. Furthermore, about 35 webinars were held during the IC 2023 period. Our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria LEE, was one of the webinar hosts covering our topic of "Building an Age-Friendly City for Elderly People with Technology" to introduce our recently developed Gerontech system, CIMDA Care. With a diverse range of views and opinions, our team feels ambitious and confident in the upcoming developments of our technology and anticipates the next opportunity to showcase our innovations again.

HKUST Career Mosaic 2023

CIMDA participated in the HKUST Career Mosaic on 13 October 2023.

Many students showed great enthusiasm for the opportunity to work at CIMDA and expressed great interest in the diverse research topics and projects that we are conducting. They were impressed with the prospect of being a future patent inventor and joining local and oversea competitions and awards on behalf of our Centre. Not only did final-year students show interest in seeking graduate jobs, but many junior students inquire about the details and possible opportunities for winter/summer internship. This passion was not limited to local students, but many non-local students were also enthusiastic for the opportunity to work at CIMDA, which embraces diversity.

It is delightful for us to meet and discuss with these students and we anticipate the engagement of more young talents joining our Centre to work on high-calibre and cutting-edge projects in the fields of mathematics, computer science and engineering, digital media, biology, and medicine.

50th International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan

From 27 to 29 September, CIMDA was cordially invited by the Hong Kong Federation of Senior Citizen Industries (HKFSCI) and the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) to attend the 50th International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition (H.C.R. 2023) held in Tokyo, Japan.

As one of the twenty representing companies of the Hong Kong Pavilion, we were pleased to display and introduce our latest gerontech innovation, CIMDA Care, in Japan, which is well known for its technology and innovative creativity. We had the opportunity to speak with many local exhibitors and visitors, and many people have given their enthusiastic support for our system and its upcoming developments and potential implementation overseas as well.

CIMDA was also invited to participate in the H.C.R. business matching event where IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, represented CIMDA to present and promote CIMDA Care to many local suppliers, investors, and other potential business partners. This experience connected us with professionals standing at the forefront of the gerontech industry in Japan. It gave us an insight into local elderly care services and the expectations of seniors and their caretakers living in Japan, greatly facilitating our development work.

The International Home Care and Rehabilitation Exhibition is the largest exhibition in Japan showcasing welfare equipment from all over the world.

Shanghai Visit: Gerontechnology and AI in Sports

CIMDA’s programmers and marketing experts recently visited Shanghai between 18 to 23 September to showcase and promote our two AI-based sports analysis systems and our gerontech innovation, CIMDA Care.

Our team were invited to exchange with Move Technology (Shanghai) Company Limited, where we toured their office and were introduced to the various technologies under their development. At the same time, we presented CIMDA’s cutting-edge innovations, where we had many meaningful exchanges and future collaborations under planning with Move Technology.

We were given the opportunity to exchange with the elderly care centre operated by the local government to observe the lifestyles of seniors and the variety of digital services they had access to. We were impressed by the efforts put into elderly care services there and saw high potential for CIMDA to contribute to this purposeful cause in the near future.

For our final stop, we showcased our two sports assessment systems at a local school for their students to try out. It was a valuable experience that let us hear feedback from an entirely new perspective and inspired many new ideas for further enhancements to our systems. The positive responses from both students and teachers motivated us and fortified our confidence for our expansion into the technology market in China.

1st Shenzhen International Smart Senior Care Industry Expo

CIMDA was invited to participate in the 1st Shenzhen International Smart Senior Care Industry Expo at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center (Futian) from September 17th to 19th, showcasing our elderly-assisting system, CIMDA Care.

CIMDA Care, as an all-in-one elderly care software, offers four major functions: Reminders, Exercise, Entertainment and Chat. It is designed for both use at home and in nursing homes. We aim to cater to the needs of the elderly and their caretakers and enhance their quality of life by providing support for exercise, entertainment, and other daily activities through AI-assisted technology.

The exposition, organized by the Shenzhen government, attracted participation from over 200 exhibitors worldwide, showcasing more than 1000 products and solutions in gerontechnology. We are honored to be among the exhibitors, allowing us to engage in discussions and knowledge exchange with industry experts and researchers.

We look forward to meeting more individuals with diverse backgrounds in future events worldwide, where we can share our innovative ideas and collaborate to explore solutions addressing the challenges posed by the ageing population.

Undergraduate Internship 2023

This summer, CIMDA hosted a group of interns from CityU, CUHK, HKU, and the University of Waterloo, offering them a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in their respective fields, including Engineering, Computer Science, and Digital Arts.

Throughout their internship, they explored 3D modeling, design, programming, and the utilization of artificial intelligence with guidance and support from our colleagues. They have gained practical experience in using industry-standard software tools such as Blender, Zbrush, and Vscode.

We are grateful for their commitment and dedicated contributions. It is delightful to witness the remarkable progress and achievements they have accomplished at our Centre. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Click HERE to see the sharing of some of the students.

Showcase and Speech at Golden Age Expo & Summit 2023

CIMDA participated in the 8th Golden Age Expo & Summit (GAES) held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 11th to 13th August to showcase our latest AI-based innovation in gerontechnology. It is an honour that our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, was invited to give a speech on "Building an Age-friendly City for Elderly People with Technology".

Her presentation emphasized the role of technology in creating age-friendly environments and addressing the unique needs of the elderly population with global and local examples and data. It also highlighted our Centre’s contributions to constructing an age-friendly society with our innovation, CIMDA Care, a one-stop elderly-assisting system that provides help for the daily lives of elderly people.

This is our second time participating in the GAES event and we were delighted to once again engage with the public and event attendees, not only as an exhibitor but also a guest speaker. By collecting feedback from the participants, we take these valuable insights into consideration when launching new projects in the future.

In addition to local exhibitions, we will be participating in various exhibitions abroad in the future. The ageing population is a global issue, and we hope to introduce our technology and insights to different stakeholders around the world. By working together, we can create age-friendly environments that cater to the needs of the people with different age range.

2nd Smart Ageing Award 2022

CIMDA was invited to partake in the 2nd Smart Ageing Award 2022 Award Ceremony and Gala Dinner hosted by the Golden Age Foundation on 12 August, where our participating team was awarded Bronze Prize for the Health Care & Well-Being category. Prof. Sam Kwong and Prof. Ray Cheung from CityU, both key members of our Centre, engaged in this event with our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, and other team members.

The Smart Ageing Award is given to innovative products and services that support the elderly community in achieving a better and improved quality of life. The Golden Age Foundation encourages organizations to explore the possibilities of gerontech innovations to help build our society into a friendlier and more sustainable one for our senior citizens and their caretakers and loved ones.

CIMDA Care, our awarding innovation, is an at-home elderly-assisting system with 4 functions: Reminder, Exercise, Entertainment, and Chat to support the elderly in their daily lives.

We hope that CIMDA Care can provide the necessary support to the elderly while introducing them to the potential benefits of gerontechnology. This also allows for more improvements to our system and can welcome new opportunities for collaboration with other organizations and industries in the future.

RTHK Live Interview to Introduce Our Innovations for Sports Data Analysis

CIMDA was invited by RTHK to showcase our AI-based technologies for sports data analysis on the live TV programme “Hong Kong United.” Our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, introduced our two AI-based technologies.

Our technologies, Sports Activity Assessment and AI Runner Track can transform traditional PE lessons into an immersive learning experience for students, greatly enhancing their morale and motivation. Additionally, both systems can provide accurate real-time evaluations of the students’ performance, which can assist teachers in assessment work and lighten their workload. Being affordable and easy-to-use, we hope more schools will be able to implement and benefit from our systems, and we look forward to bringing a revolutionary impact to physical education in Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong United" broadcasts on RTHK TV 32 and introduces the innovation and technology blueprint, start-ups, historical architecture, and more in Hong Kong. You can refer to the link for our interview clip.

Sharing Session on ‘Sports with AI Revolution in Large PE Classes’

CIMDA successfully held a sharing session on ‘Sports with AI Revolution in Large PE Classes’ at HKSTP showcasing our latest developed AI-based innovations designed to enhance the quality of physical education. The event was co-organized by HKSTP and supported by City University of Hong Kong, Chinese YMCA College, and My123D Technology Limited. Representatives from media also attended, and we were pleased to welcome over 70 principals and teachers, as well as participants from HKSTP tenant companies to join us on site and online.

We were honoured to have Prof. Shek Chan Hung, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, and Mr. Tam Chi Chung, Assistant Principal of Chinese YMCA College as our guests to share their insights on AI and sports technology in physical education respectively. Students from Chinese YMCA College also delivered a demonstration and shared their experiences on our systems.

The first innovation, Sports Activity Assessment, is a system that gamifies warm-up activities in physical education lessons, including skipping, star jump, high knee run, push-ups and sit-ups. Users only need to wear a lightweight ankleband to use the system, and its entertainment features aim to boost student morale and motivation, improving their overall physical performance.

Another innovation, AI Runner Track, is a runner assessment system that can instantly and accurately monitor performance to emulate a running race for a large group of runners. Users wear a tag on their vests, which is detected by cameras along a running track to capture running time and speed in real-time. The evaluations are immediate and automated, which helps teachers and students keep track of their progress and improve physical fitness.

Our innovations provide an effective and accessible approach to improving physical education by promoting better health outcomes for students and lightening the workload for teachers. Both innovations are affordable and easy-to-use, requiring only minimal equipment and set-up time. They can be used in schools and sports institutions with groups of 35 people or more.

If you are interested in our technologies or having an on-site experience day, please contact info@ innocimda.com with your preferred date and time.

Congratulations to CIMDA Members for Receiving Awards at International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2023

We are delighted to announce that CIMDA members have received several awards at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2023.

• KONG Chenqi, ZHENG Kexin, WANG Shiqi and LI Haoliang (CIMDA Member) received a Gold Medal for their invention “Echo-FAS: Acoustic-based Face AntiSpoofing.”

• KWONG Tak Wu Sam (CIMDA Member), WANG Shiqi, SUN Zhenhao, and WANG Meng, received a Sliver Medal for their invention “Learning-based Genome Codec.”

• WANG Zhe, XIE Min, and YAN Hong (CIMDA Members) received a Bronze Medal for their invention “Holistic AI-based Battery Health Tracker.”

Congratulations!

The International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva is an annual event that demonstrates inventions from around the world. Approximately 1000 inventions from worldwide are showcased and evaluated by the jury of specialist.

Showcase at InnoEX 2023

CIMDA actively participated in InnoEX 2023 from 12 to 15 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This event brought together industry leaders, technology experts, urban planners, and government officials from around the world to discuss and collaborate on building smarter and more sustainable cities.

The field of smart cities is rapidly evolving, and CIMDA’s innovative projects are keeping pace with the advancements. InnoEX provided an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our latest technologies to the public and connect with the industry. We were delighted to introduce our new AI-based solutions, namely the Sports Activity Assessment System, and the AI Runner Tracking System. These systems were designed to facilitate PE lessons in schools by providing accurate real-time evaluations of students’ performance. They can assess a large class of students simultaneously, thereby reducing the workload on teachers, and we gamify the exercises to make them fun. Many visitors expressed their interest in this stimulating way of teaching and learning. Our elderly-assisting system, CIMDA Care, was also displayed this time. Many visitors tried out the interactive demo and provided us with much positive feedback.

In addition to our individual show booth, we were glad to be invited by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) to exhibit our R&D projects at the ITC pavilion alongside other InnoHK research centres. We were able to learn about the technologies and applications of one another, and exchange ideas on the latest industry developments. Our Centre Director Professor Hong Yan attended the event and gave an introduction to our works on tensor computing, machine learning, multimedia and biomedical big data analysis, etc. during the media tour.

We look forward to seeing you at our next exhibition in August!

Congratulations to Professor Coralia Cartis for Being Elected EUROPT Fellow and SIAM Fellow

Congratulations to Professor Coralia Cartis for being awarded two prestigious honours ─ elected EUROPT Fellow and SIAM Fellow.

Prof. Cartis is Professor of Numerical Optimisation and Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics at the University of Oxford, as well as a key member of CIMDA. She has diverse research interests, including numerical optimization, algorithm development, analysis and implementation for various problem classes.

EUROPT is an organization that promote and facilitate communication links among European and other researchers who specialize in continuous optimization fields. Each year, it awards the EUROPT Fellowship to recognise talented researchers in continuous optimisation. Prof. Cartis has received an invitation to deliver a plenary speech as the EUROPT Fellowship Lecture at the EUROPT Workshop scheduled for 23 to 25 August 2023.

SIAM, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, is an international community that shares practical mathematical knowledge with other professionals, allowing them to apply mathematical theories to practical, industrial, or scientific tasks. The SIAM Fellowship is an award that honour　exceptional members for their contributions to the discipline.

More information about Prof. Cartis’ work can be found here.

Workshop on Latest AI-based Technology Innovations for PE Lessons Held Successfully

CIMDA organized a half-day workshop at the Chinese YMCA College to promote our latest AI-based technologies that can facilitate PE lessons in the primary and secondary school sector. We received encouraging responses, with representatives from the Education Bureau and nine teachers participating in the workshop

We introduced the following two systems in the workshop with student demonstration.

• Body Fitness is an easy-to-set-up and fun-to-use system that gamifies simple warm-up exercises in PE lessons by evaluating their performance based on accuracy and correctness of posture.

• AI Runner Track is a running-focused system that detects students as they run past two cameras and automatically provides an accurate evaluation on their running time and speed.

Both systems can assess up to 35 students simultaneously for teacher’s marking reference, boosting the productivity of both students and teachers by engaging in a new and refreshing learning experience.

CIMDA members are delighted to see teachers speaking so enthusiastically about our technologies and to know their constructive advice as potential users for us to improve our systems further. We look forward to collaborating with more schools, impacting PE lessons, and contributing to the society with our latest innovation.

CIMDA is grateful to the Chinese YMCA College for providing the venue for the workshop and the opportunity to test our technology with the active participation of their students.

If you are interested in having an on-site experience day, please contact info@innocimda.com with your preferred date and time.

CIMDA Supported the Odyssey of the Mind Hong Kong Regional Tournament 2023

It is our honour to be a supporting organization of the Odyssey of the Mind Hong Kong Regional Tournament 2023, an esteemed educational event that originated in the United States. Our IT Business Development Manager, Ms. Gloria Lee, was also invited to be one of the judges of the event. Our Commercialisation Officer, Ms. Vanus Mo, participated in the event as well.

At the competition, more than 50 teams from different schools showcased their STEAM knowledge and creativity by competing in 5 Long-term Problems. The event provided an excellent opportunity for students to foster their knowledge and skills in STEAM and innovation, and the winning teams had the chance to represent Hong Kong at the World Finals to be held in the United States. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to broaden their horizons and gain international exposure.

As a centre devoted to AI and big data research, CIMDA is committed to supporting STEAM education in schools. We believe that our innovations can benefit society and support the development of different education sectors. We are proud to have been a part of this event and look forward to supporting more initiatives that promote STEAM education in the future.

Career Fair 2023 at CityU

CIMDA participated in the Career Fair at the City University of Hong Kong.

We were glad that not only were final-year students interested in our full-time positions, but many junior students also asked about the details of the summer internship. Students were also particularly enthusiastic about having chances to be inventors for patents and representing the Centre to join competitions and awards locally and overseas. They were also excited to have research exchanges with our Oxford collaborators to discuss mathematical and engineering challenges arising from multi-dimensional big data.

We look forward to having more young talents to join our Centre and work on cutting-edge R&D projects in mathematics, computer science and engineering, digital media, biology and medicine!

Congratulations to Professor Sam Kwong for Being Selected as a Highly Cited Researcher and Receiving Science Award from the China Society of Image and Graphics in 2022

Congratulations to Professor Sam Kwong for two good news items! He has recently been selected as a Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field by Calrivate. Also, a project led by him and his postdoctoral fellow, Prof. Yuan Hui from Shandong University, has received a Science Award from the China Society of Image and Graphics in 2022.

As the Chair Professor of Computer Science at CityU and a key member of CIMDA, Prof. Kwong has a prolific research record. He has co-authored three research books, eight book chapters and over 300 technical papers while also serving as the associate editor of leading IEEE transaction journals, including IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, and IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. According to Calrivate, Prof. Kwong has an H-index of 53 and his publications have been cited 13,019 times with 10,139 articles citing his works over the last decade.

The Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Researchers are selected for their exceptional performance in one or more of 21 fields or across several fields.

Meanwhile, the Science Award of China Society of Image and Graphics aims to promote scientific and technological innovation and industrial development in the field of image and graphics technology.

Professor Terry Lyons Delivers a Public Lecture on Signatures of Streams

Professor Terry Lyons gave a public lecture on “Signatures of Streams” on 2 November 2022 at the University of Oxford. This lecture, targeting high school students, parents and teachers, shared how developing multimodal streams can have an award-winning impact on methodology in health care, finance and computer technology.

The open lecture is also available on YouTube, attracting several thousand views within seven days of its release, and we are glad to see Prof. Terry Lyons's sharing successfully reaches a wider community.

You may visit Here to learn more about Prof. Lyons's open lecture.

Terry Lyons is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of St Anne's College and a key member of our Centre.

Showcase at Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit 2022

CIMDA participated in Hong Kong’s largest gerontechnology public education event, the Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit (GIES), held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre during 2 to 5 November. This event drew together stakeholders to engage in dialogue and collaboration for border adoption of gerontechnology.

CIMDA Care, our all-in-one elderly-assisting system, was showcased in the event, and many social welfare practitioners, elderly people, caretakers as well as the public tried it out and expressed interest in our technologies. We were glad for this opportunity to communicate with different users and organizations and to understand their needs more. The Centre Director Professor Hong Yan attended the event to exchange ideas for elderly care services and products with various industry experts too.

It was our honour that representatives from the event organizer, Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), also visited our booth and learnt about our R&D areas.

We look forward to demonstrating our technologies and interacting with more users next time!

Exhibit at ICT Expo 2022

Held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, CIMDA participated in the HKTDC International ICT Expo 2022 from 13-16 October (Thursday to Sunday) to showcase our latest innovations to the public and we had the chance to partake in meaningful discussions with industry professionals and potential users in this inspiring one-stop technology event.

Following our last exhibit, we were able to present AI based pose estimation technology with the addition of a real-time interactive screen this time, allowing guests to have firsthand experience with the technology and better understanding of the concept behind our innovations. Our elderly-assisting system CIMDA Care was also presented with a fully interactive demo where guests were welcome to try out its main functions in person and enjoy the application as a potential user.

We introduced two new products at the expo: Virtual Character Editor for customize avatars, and Virtual Reporter, an application that tracks and projects expression and lip movements onto virtual characters to enhance entertainment value for news broadcasting. Along with our existing technologies, these innovations have sparked interest in potential business partners for future collaboration opportunities and garnered much positive feedback from other guests as well.

The Centre Director Professor Hong Yan also personally attended the expo to meet and speak with fellow researchers and various collaboration partners who were also present at the venue, engaging in an enthusiastic and insightful exchange of knowledge and ideas.

Stay tuned for our next exhibition in November.

Showcase at World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2022 – Hong Kong Branch

CIMDA participated in the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2022 – Hong Kong Branch held at the Hong Kong Science Park on 1 September. Many scientists, scholars, investors, and government officials gathered to discuss cutting-edge topics at this world-class AI event, and it was a pleasure to be invited to showcase our innovations at the interactive exhibition zone alongside other industry professionals.

We were delighted to introduce our AI and data analysis applications including Tensor Computing, Face Image Analysis, Sports Video Analysis, Digital Entertainment, and Biomedical Data Analysis to other researchers and AI companies. Centre Director Professor Hong Yan was present at the event and met with many top-notch professionals from all over the world to exchange experience and thoughts on the latest AI developments. We were able to explore possible collaboration opportunities through these fruitful discussions and inspire one another with our passion and ideas for technology.

We hope to share our technology and innovative ideas with many more people in the coming events!

Knowledge Exchange with Tertiary Students 2022

This summer, ten interns from CityU, UST and VTC joined CIMDA to turn their school knowledge into actual, hands-on experience by supporting and contributing to our Centre from a multitude of angles.

During the internship, they explored machine learning, motion capture, real-time video analysis, and 3D modelling applications with the support and guides provided by our researchers and programmers.

We are also glad to receive another young talent, Sean, who was admitted by CityU's intelligent manufacturing engineering programme at the young age of only 13. He visits our Centre regularly to expand his knowledge and experience in practical programming and to have research exchange with our colleagues.

We appreciate all their dedicated contributions, and it has been delightful for us to see the progress and achievements they have made at our Centre. These students all carry the potential to become the social pillars of STEM and we wish them all the best in the future.

Click HERE to see the sharing of some of the students.

Showcase at Golden Age Expo & Summit 2022

CIMDA participated in the 7th Golden Age Expo & Summit 2022 (GAES) held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre over 5-7 August (Fri–Sun), where entrepreneurs and renowned organizations alike gather to exhibit their latest technology and innovative solutions catered to the ageing industry.

We were excited to have been able to introduce our AI-based Pose Estimation Technology along with our new Elderly-assisting System, CIMDA Care in an open-event. CIMDA Care is an assistance program designed to bring function and entertainment together for elderlies, providing reminders, exercise guidance, media entertainment and an AI-based chat function in an all-in-one platform.

Due to its versatile and compact design, it has garnered the interests of not only the general public or elderlies in need, but also professionals within the field who are seeking cooperation with research and IT professionals to provide them with the technological means currently necessary in the market for elderly care.

The Centre Director Professor Hong Yan attended on the first day and was able to share some thoughts and insights on his innovations with many industry professionals in person.

We encountered many of our close partners and friends during the event, and it has also given CIMDA the opportunity to meet many new research centres and companies who share the same goals and are seeking future collaborations.

We look forward to sharing even more of our innovations in our next exhibit!

Presentation of Sports Data Analysis during Zoom Webinar with Education Bureau

The Education Bureau held an online Zoom webinar today on The Integration of PE and STEM Education where over 200 teachers, researchers and other education alumni participated and shared insights on the implementation of AI into sports education to assist both students and related teaching staff.

Professor Hong Yan, the Centre Director, gave an in-depth presentation on AI-based Runner Identification Technology and Entertainment Systems, where through the combination of sports science, AI and entertainment, we can enhance and encourage students’ performances and help alleviate workload for teachers. The system utilizes machine-learning, bib number recognition and pose estimation to accurately identify students apart to give them individual assessments for their performance, as well as personalized suggestions for practice and training. This not only aids our younger generation in their development by providing instant feedback for improvement and motivation, but also reduces extra work for teachers as the entire process is fast and automatic.

Together with Dr. Victor Lau, the Associate Director of the Knowledge Transfer Office of City University of Hong Kong and Mr. Tam Chi-Chung of the Chinese YMCA College, they have also discussed the use of “Smart Track” and “Heart Rate Monitoring System” to boost efficiency in conducting aerobic exercises during PE classes, and how to make the overall learning experience more fulfilling and worthwhile for students and teachers altogether.

Attendees of the seminar have shown deep interest and brought up questions towards the end where we had the chance to elaborate further and discuss the possibilities of potential collaborations with other institutions and industries who may also benefit from our technology. It was both a valuable sharing and learning experience for all participants and we look forward to participating in more events in the near future.

Congratulations to Professor Min Xie for Being Elected as a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

We are delighted to announce that Professor Min Xie, our programme leader and board member, has been elected as a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA).

As the Chair Professor of the Department of Advanced Design and Systems Engineering, and the School of Data Science at CityU, Professor Xie has carried out extensive research in reliability, quality control, industrial statistics, and systems engineering. He has published over 300 journal papers and co-authored ten books. There have been over 60 PhD students under his supervision, and they hold various positions and contribute to academia, industry, and financial institutions. In 2006, Professor Xie was elected IEEE Fellow for his contribution to systems and software reliability.

The title of EASA member is a recognition of Professor Xie for his distinctive achievements and contributions to science and society. “I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Sweden. I feel blissful to be recognized by a European academy,” expressed Professor Xie.

European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) is under the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)'s umbrella. This big umbrella builds a global network of over 140 national and regional member academies of science, engineering and medicine, while EASA runs as a non-profit learned society of scientists and artists founded in Salzburg, Austria, in 1990. Being one of the high-level and recognized academies, EASA serves as a transnational and interdisciplinary network to connect about 2000 elected members worldwide, including 34 Nobel Prize laureates.

Meeting Hi-tech Professionals at the Federation of Hong Kong Industries

Right before Christmas Eve, Professor Hong Yan, Ms Gloria Lee and Ms Carol Ng from CIMDA were invited and attended a meeting with the experts and leaders from Hong Kong’s AI and Robotics industries at the Federation of Hong Kong Industries’ office (FHKI) on 23 December.

The meeting was hosted by the AI and Robotics Alliance of Hong Kong (AIRAHK), a committee set up under the Innovation and Technology Development Committee (ITDC) of FHKI. Aiming to create synergy among the AI and Robotics community in the city and bring together the stakeholders, the meeting has successfully linked up research centres from the AIR@InnoHK Clusters to discuss and explore the commercialization opportunities FHKI can bring.

In the meeting, CIMDA met up with the local peer AI and Robotics research centres and companies to share and exchange experiences running hi-tech businesses in Hong Kong. We look forward to participating in more of these activities with the industry players in the coming year to further enhance and develop the AI and hi-tech industries in Hong Kong!

Congratulations to Professor Hong Yan for Being Elected Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors

We are proud and delighted to share with you a piece of excellent news that Professor Hong Yan, our Centre Director, has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow 2021.

Professor Yan and his research team have inventions across interdisciplinary areas. The real-world application of their creations also received tremendous attention with awards and licenses. For example, Professor Yan's real-time lip-synchronization and facial animation system won the Best Mobile Entertainment Software Award in Hong Kong. The system has also been licensed to multiple telecommunications companies for multimedia message services for local and overseas markets.

Being elected NAI Fellow is a recognition of Professor Yan as a genuinely prolific academic innovator who has made a tangible impact on society's quality of life, economic development, and welfare with his outstanding inventions.

"It is a great honour for my research group. It will encourage us to achieve new heights in our interdisciplinary R&D work." – Professor Hong Yan.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a U.S. based member organization composed of international universities, governmental institutes and NGO research centres. The status of elected NAI fellows represents the highest professional distinction, and it will only be accorded to academic inventors.

You may visit HERE to learn more about this marvellous news about Professor Yan.

Awarded in ACM Multimedia Grand Challenge 2021

Congratulations to Xinqi Fan, Ali Shahid, and Hong Yan for winning the Second Place in the Facial Micro-Expression Generation Task during the ACM Multimedia 2021 - Multimedia Grand Challenge!

The team has successfully found an effective method to capture subtle changes in facial expressions by learning landmarks in a self-supervised manner and generating dense motion between reference and desired images. Their winning paper, Facial Micro-Expression Generation based on Deep Motion Re-targeting and Transfer Learning, demonstrates how to solve the lack of training data and apply deep transfer learning by borrowing knowledge from macro-expression generation. The team has also received good results on several facial expression datasets.

ACM is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society which delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. ACM Multimedia has been the worldwide premier conference and a key world event where professionals display their scientific achievement and innovative industrial products.

You may visit the link HERE for watching the team's presentation video of their paper.

Recruitment Talk for HKUST Students

CIMDA is recruiting!

Professor Hong Yan gave an online recruitment talk on ZOOM to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology students from different schools, including Engineering, Science, Business and Management Studies and more.

In the talk, Professor Yan introduced the R&D focus of our Centre and shared the prospects of our business projects with the application of advanced AI technologies and Data Science developed by our Centre's members.

There are a lot of exciting studies and projects happening here in our friendly office at the Hong Kong Science Park, and more to come for sure!

We will hold another online recruitment talk to the City University of Hong Kong students on 29th October 2021. Details will be available on CityU's website soon.

You may also click on the poster on the left to learn more about the details of the vacancies.

We look forward to seeing you then, ciao!

Professor Yan Delivers a Talk on Co-Clustering in the Oxford DataSig Seminar Series

Professor Hong Yan gave a presentation on “Co-clustering Analysis of Multidimensional Big Data” in the Oxford DataSig Seminar Series. Co-clustering is a method of unsupervised machine learning. It can extract and analyse coherent patterns in large multidimensional data arrays. Professor Yan’s group has developed tensor and hyperplane-based models for co-clustering. They are granted a US patent and have published numerous papers in leading research journals.

In the seminar, Professor Yan explained co-clustering theories and computer algorithms and demonstrated their applications to genomic data analysis, protein structure prediction, drug therapeutic effect assessment, cell imaging, and facial expression recognition.

At the end of the seminar, Professor Yan and Professor Lyons announced that there would be more joint seminars between Oxford and CIMDA to encourage collaborations. Students will have the chance to take the stage and present their academic findings to the audience from around the globe.

If you missed the online seminar, you could visit the link here to see its record and presentation slides.

The DataSıg programme is organized by world-class scholars from leading universities and research institutions, such as Oxford University, The Alan Turing Institute and UCL. “It is looking at further developing fundamental, signature-based mathematical tools and introducing them to contexts where it is possible to achieve significant outcomes.” DataSıg holds online seminar series discussing topics of data science.

Undergraduate Internship 2021

This summer, we are delighted to have nine talented undergraduate students from the CityU to join us as our interns. They are all specialized in different subjects with their backgrounds from the College of Science, College of Engineering, and School of Creative Media.

The two-month programme provides the interns with opportunities to explore motion capture, machine learning, computer vision, Smart City, WebGL, OpenGL, Vulkan, and other technology research through practical work and training. We appreciate their contributions to our Centre.

We can also see that the interns have gained hands-on experience by applying their school knowledge to their daily duties at the actual workplace with our Centre's supervision. We hope that they will equip themselves with a clear vision of what to expect in reality after graduation or be more prepared for future studies.

We wish them all the best in the future.

Click HERE to see the sharings of some of our interns.

Welcome Professor Liqun Qi

Professor Liqun Qi from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University will visit our Centre for two weeks.

Professor Qi, a highly cited and renowned mathematician, has published more than 360 research papers in international journals. He established the superlinear and quadratic convergence theory of the Semismooth Newton Method. He also plays a principal role in the development of reformulation methods in optimization. In 2005, Professor Qi pioneered the research on eigenvalues for higher order tensors, which now has applications in biomedical engineering, statistical data analysis, machine learning, spectral hypergraph theory, solid mechanics, quantum physics, etc. He has more than 120 papers on tensors, published in international journals. His book Tensor Analysis: Spectral Theory and Special Tensors was published in April 2017 by SIAM; another book of his Tensor Eigenvalues and Their Applications was published in 2018 by Springer.

Professor Qi will collaborate with CIMDA researchers on tensor computing and quaternion optimization and their applications to signal and image processing and computer animation.

New Research Projects

Congratulations to the following Centre members, who are successful with their applications for General Research Funding from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council:

Dr Yanni Sun, “Strain-level Composition Analysis for RNA Viruses”

Professor Min Xie, “New Approaches for Reliability Analysis of Industrial Systems Subject to Multivariate Degradation”

Professor Hong Yan, “Matching Large Feature Sets based on Hypergraph Models and Structurally Adaptive CUR Decompositions of Compatibility Tensors”

Dr Yixuan Yuan, “From Source-available to Source-free Unsupervised Prototypical Domain Adaptation for Lesion Segmentation”

Professor Moshe Zukerman, “Scalable Optimized Design of Multi-layered Network Slicing and Virtual Network Embedding Under Long Range Dependent Traffic and Flexi-grid Optical Transmission with Adaptive Modulation”

Inno² Grand Opening cum Welcoming Party

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks held the Inno² Grand Opening cum Welcoming Party with its new tenants of large research centres.

Professor Hong Yan, CIMDA’s Director, and Ms. Carol Ng, Senior Administrative Officer, were invited for their participation. They were pleased to meet leading researchers, venture capitalists, business leaders, and government office representatives. It was a perfect opportunity for us to connect with them and share our passion and views about cutting-edge R&D activities, industry collaboration, knowledge transfer, and hi-technology businesses.

CIMDA’s Office Warming Party

Our office has recently moved to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks. On 17 June, we held an office warming party with all the Centre members. The party kicked started with our Centre Director Professor Hong Yan’s toast, in which we marked our vision and mission together for the future of CIMDA. Professor Yan thanked all colleagues for their contributions during the renovation period, which made it possible for us to work in a beautiful new office with spectacular outside views through the windows.

Professor Yan told the attendees that “this is only our first party at the Centre, but I’m already thinking of planning a future much bigger party when we have a spin-off company listed in the stock market.” It drew much cheer and enthusiasm for all the Centre members.

Professor Sam Kwong Wins a Major Award on Video Coding Technology

Congratulations to Professor Sam Kwong for winning a major award from the Ministry of Education on his research work on “High-efficiency Computing Theory and Method for Video Coding”.

Video coding is a technology to reduce the amount of data for video storage and transmission and it has many applications in computer, communications, and internet systems. Professor Kwong and his collaborators have developed an advanced video coding method that can provide a large data compression ratio and a high video quality.

More information about this award can be found on:

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/media/press-release/2021/06/06/two-outstanding-research-projects-clinch-major-ministry-education-awards

Invited Speech on AI by Professor Hong Yan to Gifted Students

Professor Hong Yan delivered an invited speech on “Artificial Intelligence: History, Current Status, and Future Opportunities and Challenges” to over 100 gifted high school students. He provided a review of the historical development of AI-related technologies, including reasoning, optimization, expert systems, multi-layer perceptrons and deep learning, and their applications to natural language processing, speech and image pattern recognition, computer vision, and decision making. Professor Yan shared his experience learning LISP and solving the blocks world problem from his student’s time. Besides, he also presented his groups’ current work on object tracking and recognition, co-clustering, tensor computing, cell imaging, and analysis of lung cancer drug resistance.

Professor Yan pointed out that current methods in AI, especially for deep learning, can be used to solve a wide range of real-world problems. However, there are also many challenges ahead. He showed an interesting example of recognizing the number “8” with different shapes and styles. It is infeasible to collect enough training samples for all these variations using the current data fitting-based classifier design methodologies. He encouraged students to gain knowledge in related areas, such as mathematics, computer science, psychology, and neuroscience, have a good understanding of basic principles, not to shy away from complex problems, go beyond existing technologies, and develop radically new ones.