The Hong Kong Innovation and Technology industry is growing rapidly. In fact, Hong Kong technology startups are not only successful in Hong Kong, but also in the Mainland. The computer vision and deep learning startup company SenseTime (商湯), which is located in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, is the first "Unicorn" company (i.e. a startup company that was founded less than ten years but now valued at over $1 billion) in the Park. Mainland China constitutes a large portion of SenseTime's market. For example, one of the most popular Chinese photo beautifying apps utilises technologies from SenseTime to improve its functionality. 

Apart from large-scale "unicorn" companies in Hong Kong absorbing huge injections of funds from investors, some small and medium scale Hong Kong startups have also been doing very well.  For example, ZhenRobotics (真機智能) is a  company founded by a post '80's Hong Kong resident in Zhongguancun, Beijing in 2016, and is the first startup company in Mainland China to provide delivery robots. Currently, they are promoting their services in several universities in Mainland China, delivering students' express packages under five kilograms to different locations using wheel driven robots.  We believe that ZhenRobotics has huge potential in the marketplace, should they consider cooperation with other companies to broaden their business.   The following is a suggestion: 

Self-service stores, such as self-service noodles restaurants (無人面館) in Shanghai, have drawn lots of attention recently. ZhenRobotics may consider collaborating with similar stores to provide delivery services. Thus, in Business to Customer (B2C) operation, customers would be able to enjoy the service by using an app to place orders. They can then sit back at home and await the Zhenrobots to deliver their goods to them. Moreover, in the Business to Business (B2B) operations front, the delivery robots may also play an important role. For example, stores may use sensors to automatically track existing stocks. Whenever there is a shortage, the stores would order replenishments from the suppliers and have the robots deliver the ordered goods. Theoretically, the whole logistics system could be fully automated without the need for human intervention.

The self-service stores in Mainland China could also work with another Hong Kong startup company, namely EV Power (香港電動能源). This company was founded in 2010, and is now the largest electric vehicle charging service provider in Hong Kong. EV Power, which already has over 2 million RMB investment, has constructed and managed over 1,600 charging stations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. The aforesaid self-service stores could install private charging stations for their delivery robots.  

With the arrangement mentioned above, the business processes of the self-service stores would be completely automated. The stores in the future could truly realise unmanned operation, in which business processes could be carried out without any salespersons, cargo checkers, order clerks, deliverymen, etc. 

Noticeably, the founders of SenseTime Group (商湯), ZhenRobotics (真機智能), and EV Power (香港電動能源) are all from the Faculty of Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Respectively, they are Prof. TANG Xiaoou (湯曉鷗), a world-renowned scientist working on computer vision and artificial intelligence, Mr. Met Hing-lung LI (李興龍), a CUHK alumnus, and Mr. CHAN Chun Hung (陳振雄) together with  Mr. TSANG Wai Wa (曾偉華), also CUHK alumni. We hope to see more successful Hong Kong technology startups and believe that they will have huge business potential under the National Belt and Road Initiative.

About this issue: This issue specialises in the latest research works of our Faculty in Artificial Intelligence. In the Research Column, we present some highlights of an AI Forum addressing   the needs of industrial and commercial sectors which led to the technology startups. There are also two articles. One describes the work of Prof. HENG Pheng Ann (CSE) work on smart image analysis for lung and breast cancers. The other article presents Prof. Darwin LAU's (MAE) work on intelligent robots for the arts and architecture sectors.

K. F. WONG
Editor
Associate Dean (External Affairs)
Faculty of Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong