integrated smart device xed to construction workers’ safety helmets to provide real-time health and safety monitoring and site management. The France-HKUST Innovation Hub was launched in to incubate ideas and opportunities, and foster HKUST research and development partnerships in science, technology and education with French institutions and companies. The contest was co-organized with the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau and Orange Group. November brought the France-HKUST Innovation Hub’s rst public event when the nal of the Innovation Contest CSRtech took place at the University campus. Eight teams sought to introduce their novel technologies and concepts to advance corporate social responsibility (CSR) in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Participants included start-up entrepreneurs, school and university students, with team members hailing from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and India. Two winners were eventually chosen, including a HKUST engineering and business student team. The HKUST proposal centered on a mental health monitoring system to help companies take preventative measures to assist employees under stress. The other winning concept, by Hong Kong start-up BeeInventor, involved an 06 IN FOCUS In the News Robotics and AI roll ahead Hi-tech tonic for corporate social responsibility Innovation Contest 4CSRtech: fostering business practices in line with sustainable development. Internally, HKUST has set up the Center for Arti cial Intelligence Research to spearhead holistic cross-disciplinary research in scienti c, technological, social, business and education aspects of the eld. The center, established in September, is the rst of its kind at a university in Hong Kong. Earlier in August, the University hosted the prestigious Xiangshan Science Conference, established by the State Science and Technology Commission (now Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The two-day gathering focused on the theme of neuromorphic computing and arti cial intelligence, drawing leading scholars from Hong Kong, Macau and Mainland China. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Mrs. Carrie LAM Cheng Yuet-Ngor and Deputy Directors of the Liaison O ce of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR Mr. CHEN Dong and Dr. TAN Tieniu o ciated at the conference’s closing ceremony and witnessed the launch of the Hong Kong Society of Arti cial Intelligence and Robotics. The new group seeks to promote in-depth collaboration between industry, academia and the research sector and nurture an AI ecosystem in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Robotics and arti cial intelligence research and human resources in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area were given a signi cant boost over the summer and fall with a series of forward-looking HKUST developments and activities. A HK million donation from Guangdong Bright Dream Robotics, a subsidiary of Country Garden Holdings Company Limited, will support a professorship and scholarship program and other initiatives at the University in line with the company’s vision to extend technology innovation and talents to build a “Robot Valley” in the Greater Bay Area. HKUST is connecting up its expertise through a new center and other collaborations.
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