China, UK colleges to establish AI-driven design laboratory

HONG KONG－The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Britain's Royal College of Art recently signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an artificial intelligence design laboratory.

The laboratory will be the world's leading research facility to advance the integration of AI into the design of products and services.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, witnessed the signing of the memorandum by Philip C.H. Chan, interim president and provost of PolyU, and Paul Thompson, vice-chancellor of the RCA.

The laboratory will address industry demands for efficiency, automation and customizing products and services, and its research deliverables will support industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality and retail services.

The two institutions will carry out an empirical research in affective computing and social robots that could recognize and analyze human emotions. They will also innovate materials of the future that are extremely light, robust and able to detect human biometrics for fashion and wearables and create automatic systems for ergonomic design and human modeling.

Chan says the laboratory will bring together the strengths of both institutions to lead the world in this new design paradigm, contributing to the innovation and technology development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Thompson says the world will witness breakthroughs across design and technology at the turn of the fourth revolution.

The RCA has built its capacity to work across disciplines, combining its art and design research expertise with insights from science, technology and engineering.