CUHK Holds A Special Forum to Unveil New Strategic Partnerships in the Greater Bay Area
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) held a special forum on 28 October in a major celebration of its 15-year presence in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) and unveiled new strategic partnerships in the region’s emerging innovation and technology ecosystem.
A hybrid event with physical locations in Hong Kong as well as CUHK’s Shenzhen Research Institute, the Forum was attended by senior government leaders on both sides of the border, as well as representatives from industry and academia with an interest in developments in the GBA. CUHK Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Rocky S. Tuan said “The 14th Five-Year Plan calls for the development of the GBA into an international center of innovation and technology and a comprehensive national science hub that promotes innovation as a key element of cross border flows to strengthen the nexus between industry, academia and research as an enabler of development.”
The Forum saw the execution of 7 new agreements including those with both the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation and the Hong Kong Cyberport, which will see CUHK sharing its GBA expertise to help both innovation precincts land startups and incubate technology across the border. Additional agreements were signed with the Greater Bay Area University green energy, as well partnerships with the Qianhai, Nanshan, Futian and Luohu authorities which will have a strengthened CUHK presence across the GBA spanning innovation, entrepreneurship, business education and applied research. For more updates on the developments of CUHK in the Greater Bay Area, please refer to the website CUHK-GBA News Updates.
CUHK Joins the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance Annual Meeting and Presidents Forum
Professor Rocky Tuan, Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) participated in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance (GHMUA) Annual Meeting and Presidents Forum 2021 held on 22 November. The activities were held online and onsite at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) with the theme “Working Together To Start a New Journey”. More than 200 participants joined the event online and onsite. Alliance member universities and government officials across Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao exchanged views on the advancement of higher education in the three regions.
As the Vice-Chairperson of the Alliance, Professor Tuan participated in the Alliance Board Meeting and chaired the second session of the President Forum themed “Strengthening National Science and Technology Capabilities to Build an International Innovation Center in the Greater Bay Area”. Professor Tuan also shared the development of CUHK in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), “CUHK was a trailblazer in the GBA with the establishment of a range of bases for education, research and innovation. It will continue our commitment for impactful research collaborations and talent training with our GBA partners to strengthen the nexus between industry, academia and research.”
Initiated by CUHK, SYSU and the University of Macau, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance was established in November 2016 as a higher education platform which aspires to extend the current efforts of elite universities in promoting academic cooperation in the three regions. The partnership fosters collaboration in various areas including scientific research, student interflow, cultural and innovation exchange as well as policy study. There are now 41 alliance members including 25 universities from the Guangdong Province, 9 universities from Hong Kong, as well as 7 institutions from Macau.
CUHK Signs Agreement with Zhejiang Laboratory
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Zhejiang Laboratory concluded an agreement on 20 October to focus collaborations on intelligent perception, intelligent computing, intelligent networks, and intelligent systems. Prof. Rocky Tuan, Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, and Mr. Zhu Shi-Qiang, Director of Zhejiang Laboratory, signed the strategic collaboration agreement on behalf of both parties together with CUHK Pro-Vice Chancellors Prof. Chan Wai-Yee and Prof. Sham Mai-Har, and Dean of Engineering Prof. Martin Wong.
Zhejiang Laboratory is a research institute established jointly by the Zhejiang Provincial Government, Zhejiang University and Alibaba Group in 2017. It carries out researches on cutting-edge and fundamental topics, explores key technologies, develops core systems, and builds large-scale technology infrastructure and major research platforms.
CUHK and Sun Yat-sen University Convene the 14th Meeting of Steering Committee on Partnership Development
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) held the 14th meeting of Steering Committee on Partnership Development on 14 December. Co-chaired by Prof. Chan Wai-Yee, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK and Prof. Xiao Hai-Peng, Provost of SYSU, the meeting brought together more than 40 participants of both universities.
Representatives from collaborative teams reported the progress of joint projects in translational oncology, historical anthropology, biotechnology, gastroenterology, behavioral health, mathematics, development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, rehabilitation engineering, earth sciences and engineering, air pollution, economics and management, Chinese studies and academic links. The meeting reviewed the progress and further discussed to expand the scope of existing cooperation. Prof. Chan Wai-Yee remarked at the meeting that the concerted efforts of both universities have come to a fruitful outcome. He hoped the advantages brought by the collaboration would continue to grow and help in serving the needs for further development of the Greater Bay Area.
Since the establishment of partnership in 1981, CUHK has been in close partnership with SYSU in a wide range of collaborative projects including research collaboration and student exchange. Both universities joined hands with the University of Macau to initiate the establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance in November 2016, which aims to promote regional development in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area by consolidating resources of elite universities and nurturing talents.
CUHK Partners with Shanghai AI Laboratory, SenseTime and Shanghai Jiao Tong University to Unveil a New Paradigm of General Vision Model
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has forged a tripartite partnership with the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence (AI) Laboratory, AI unicorn SenseTime, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University and unveiled a new generation of general vision model “INTERN”, addressing the key obstacles to the development of general vision in AI, including generalization and data efficiency.
INTERN fully covers four key tasks in computer vision – classification, target detection, segmentation and depth estimation, while its versatility has been widely verified in 26 internationally representative downstream scenes including ImageNet.
CUHK always strives to advance the development of AI research and its applications. Based on the University’s world-leading research excellence, CUHK has identified its research priorities to focus on interdisciplinary research to reach the next level of excellence and breakthrough. Shanghai AI Laboratory is an advanced research institute focusing on AI research and application. It explores the future of AI by conducting original and forward-looking scientific research that makes fundamental contributions to basic theory as well as innovations in various technological fields. In September 2021, CUHK and the Shanghai AI Laboratory joined hands to establish the CUHK Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Research Institute to foster scientific research, to target cutting‑edge fields, and help Hong Kong develop into an international innovation and technology hub as laid down in the National 14th Five-year Plan.
CUHK Signs Agreement with Dongguan Municipal Government
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) signed an agreement with Dongguan Municipal Government on 9 December 2021 to participate in the development of a pilot zone of national science center in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), and strengthen the partnering relationship between university and local government in the region.
Mr. Liu Wei, Member of Dongguan Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Songshan Lake High-tech Development Zone, signed collaboration agreement with representatives of eight higher education institutes including CUHK online and onsite. The signing ceremony kicked-off the collaborations on providing services for GBA development via utilizing the advantages brought by the joint efforts of higher education institutes and local government, in order to develop a coherent service plan for research and knowledge transfer in Dongguan, which would become an innovative city for talents and entrepreneurs.
CUHK and Dongguan Municipal Government have started the Institute-Local Government Collaboration and it is hoped that with the research and innovation advantages, the collaboration regarding the Songshan Lake Science City will serve the major needs and strategic development of the country and the region to be supported by the establishment of a cross-border platform for knowledge transfer.