The Faculty of Science and Faculty of Engineering of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) announced that they received HK$30 million from a Chinese consumer electronics company.
The funding will be used to support artificial intelligence research undertaken at the two parties’ Joint Research Centre for AI” over the next five years.
The HKU Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor and the CTO and President of the firm represented the two institutions at the signing ceremony for Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The current digital era, artificial intelligence (AI) re-positions and re-writes the meaning of digital hardware, creating infinite possibilities to shape human life.
The collaboration aims to synergise top-notched research and strength of enterprise, foster mutual exchange and translate research knowledge to creative and pioneering applications.
While more detailed terms of collaboration are under discussion, both parties agree to work on research areas of artificial intelligence based on the aforementioned framework.
This agreement echoes TCL’s mission to transform creativity into cutting-edge technology, it also demonstrates the determination of HKU to enhance its competitiveness in the global realm of research.
The HKU Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor stated that the collaboration can consolidate the leading position of HKU. He noted that as the development of artificial intelligence is becoming a global trend, HKU is pleased to have a partner who shares the same vision as us.
Together, the university is grasping every opportunity to explore the research and application aspects of artificial intelligence and in-depth learning, with a view to maintaining its leading position in Asia, as well as its competitiveness in the academic spectrum across the globe.
The Dean of HKU Science, noted that the firm has been supporting HKU Faculty in research projects and training of talents and experts since 2017, promoting research excellence and creating research atmosphere. He noted that it is exciting to collaborate and foster research on AI and create a win-win outcome for three parties.
The Associate Dean of HKU Engineering is also pleased to see the opportunities that this collaboration brings along. The innovative research centre can inject new power and novel thinking, turn creative ideas into wisdom, and pave avenue for more opportunities for artificial intelligence research in the future, the Professor added.
The Chairman and CEO of the partnering firm showed eminent support to this collaboration stating that the partnership would sharpen the firm’s technical competitiveness in semiconductor display and consumer electronics, further innovation in artificial intelligence and grooming of talents; establishing this joint research centre with HKU is indeed a paramount component of TCL’s strategies in artificial intelligence and Internet of Things (IoT), which fosters the technological transformation and product upgrading in TCL, creating a brand new industry ecology.
The firm has consistently held visions of respecting technology and emphasising basic research; in recent years there is consistent increase of investment in technological research and development, a joint laboratory in new display materials ‘HKU-TCL joint laboratory for New Printable OLED Materials and Technology’ has been set up with HKU last year, and this joint research centre will be a milestone of more intense collaboration with HKU, demonstrating a new mode of industry-academic collaboration, also providing a secured platform for knowledge transfer of scientific research.
It was also noted that such a collaboration is a remarkable one for Hong Kong-Greater Bay Area technological collaboration in artificial intelligence.
It is hoped that through this collaboration it will be possible to scale higher, alongside HKU, in a wide range of aspects such as basic scientific research, application innovation and talent grooming.
There will be many more collaborations with HKU in the future, facilitating the strategic development in artificial intelligence of the firm, it was noted.