In response to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s call for building a smarter city in the Smart City Blueprint, Lingnan University (LU) and Smart City Consortium (SCC) held the “Smart city: How Big Data Reinvent Hong Kong Future” Conference in late January 2019 to gather together corporations and the public for a better understanding of the various issues related to big data and the future direction of Hong Kong’s development as a smart city.
The Conference invited senior management from public utilities, infrastructure and innovative technology industries to share their views about the future of big data and a wide range of technological applications. Conference participants were able to exchange the latest knowledge and applications on big data in promoting the future development of Hong Kong. The topics covered include big data and medical applications, digitalised transportation, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud systems and electronic commerce.
One of the preconditions for building a smart city is the opening up of data. Dr. Winnie Tang, JP, the Founder and Honorary President of SCC said, “One direction for future research is how to bring data aggregation to the next level. At the moment, due to the restrictions of the Telecommunications Ordinance, telecommunication operators cannot open up their data. However, as long as the relevant laws are in place, the opening up of data will make technological applications more readily available to the public.”
In the near future, LU will also utilise the resources obtained from the Chief Executive’s Community Project to research the use of gerontechnology in the community as a response to the country’s 13th Five-Year Plan and the Chief Executive’s Policy Agenda. Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho, the Vice President, said, “Lingnan University has been cultivating smart city talents in Hong Kong through its course offerings and other initiatives. For example, we have launched a Smart Campus “LU Mobile” App and introduced a new undergraduate programme in Data Science in response to the social demands.”
With the nearly $20 million grant from the Chief Executive’s Community Project, LU would promote a range of community research and development projects, such as “Social Innovation and Socialpreneurs: Smart Ageing with Gerontechnology” which is to assist the development of gerontechnology and help young people start their own businesses throughout the 18 districts in Hong Kong. Professor Mok Ka-ho said, “Lingnan University, as a liberal arts university, is working with different institutions to encourage students to develop start-up projects that can serve the society.” By utilising cloud technology, sharing economy and e-commerce innovations, nowadays the risk of starting businesses can be much reduced. In this regard, LU hopes to promote collaborations between social enterprises to create a new community ecology and improve the sustainability of our smart city.
Through this Conference, Lingnan has established a platform for the government, industrial, academic and research sectors to come together and expand their networks so as to better achieve the goals of knowledge transfer.
Source: Lingnan University