The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) recently opened the University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics (UBDA), with the aim of fostering cross-disciplinary research collaborations in PolyU, establishing strong partnerships with industries on big data analytics applications, and promoting big data education in Hong Kong.
At the opening ceremony of UBDA, PolyU’s President Professor Timothy W. Tong said, “As a university which moves with the times and caters for the needs of society, PolyU thus pulled together our expertise in computing, applied mathematics and information technology to establish UBDA. We hope we can bring together not only colleagues from different disciplines, but also external partners in different sectors, to do some joint research.”
UBDA will be managed by experts from the Department of Computing, the Department of Applied Mathematics, and representatives from other disciplines and will focus on three major research areas: smart city and smart Internet of Things (IoT), finance, and healthcare. It will provide consultancy service and technical support the PolyU research community and industry partners, assisting them to develop solutions to research problems and application challenges by capitalizing on the use of models, algorithms and platforms for big data analytics and processing.
The University has also established the Consortium for Innovation in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, which will serve as an open platform for industries and organizations to collaborate with PolyU on research domains of big data analytics and artificial intelligence, aiming to solve challenging problems and develop advanced applications.
The Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Dr David Chung, said, “With the set-up of this new university research facility in big data analytics, I believe that the researchers in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University will be able to use the facility for carrying out more forward-looking research projects that will benefit the society and supporting a vibrant big data innovation ecosystem in Hong Kong.”
