TechTalk

TechTalk – AI for Science: From Scientific Discoveries to Platform Engineering

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been revolutionizing numerous fields within science and engineering, giving rise to “AI for Science” – a new paradigm for both academia and industry. In this seminar, we will explore how AI algorithms and tools empower researchers to tackle intricate scientific challenges, strengthen collaboration, and expedite the discovery process. We will also envision the future of this field in the era of cloud-native infrastructures and large language models, emphasizing the crucial role of platform engineering in nurturing the growth and development of the entire scientific community. Lastly, we will provide examples to illustrate the potential appearance of such platforms and discuss the path towards their realization.

Young Scholar TechTalk – HOF2 – Interact with Device through Simple and Robust Hand-Over-Face Gesture

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Mobile devices have been like an extended part of ourselves, but can we really operate a mobile device just as naturally as how we control our fingers or body? We present HOF2, a novel input modality that uses simple gestures over your face to interact with your device. Unlike other gesture-based modalities, HOF2 is highly robust and can avoid false triggering caused by many unconscious gestures like scratching or wiping, while is still easy, comfortable and natural to use. Moreover, HOF2 is highly available and can be implemented on any mobile phone/tablet/computer with a single camera and without remote servers. In this TechTalk, we will present a live demo on iOS/iPadOS demonstrating the performance of HOF2 scheme in practice and explore some real-life use cases such as virtual conferencing, selfie, or TV controller. We believe there are far more possibilities waiting to be explored with this novel interaction scheme.

TechTalk – Learning Optimal Auctions from Data

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

The design of optimal auctions for revenue maximization is a central topic in Economics. Classical optimal auction theory assumes that bidders’ values are drawn from a known distribution. In reality, the source of such prior information is really past data. Cole and Roughgarden (2014) modeled past data as i.i.d. samples from the value distribution and asked: How many samples are sufficient/necessary to learn a near optimal auction? This TechTalk will introduce a unified theory that yields sample-efficient algorithms with optimal sample complexity for auctions with homogeneous goods, and state-of-the-art sample complexity for auctions with heterogeneous goods. Unlike conventional statistical learning theory which focuses on the complexity of hypothesis classes, our new theory relies on the simplicity of data distributions and a monotonicity property of these problems.

Young Scholar TechTalk – High-throughput Cell Mechanics Characterization with Microfluidics

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Cells can sense mechanical stimuli and convert them to biochemical signals for various specific cellular responses, such as stem cells differentiation, initiation of transcriptional programs, and cell migration. Cell mechanics focuses on the mechanical properties and behaviours of living cells and how cell mechanics relates to various cell functions. Currently, traditional cell mechanics measurement methods are cumbersome, low-throughput, and expensive to deploy. By exploiting microfluidic technology, Dr. Johnson Cui is investigating the cancer cell mechanics and developing an accurate, easy-to-use cell mechanics measurement platform for cell mechanics research and also for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics in the future.

TechTalk – Robotics and AI for Real-world Challenges

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Current AI cannot provide a complete solution for robotics, although AI is a useful tool for real-world challenges that cannot be solved by traditional methods. We will discuss how AI can be applied to solve real-world problems using robotic systems developed by our team so far. Inspired by a dance partner robot developed for the Aichi Expo in 2005, a co-worker robot “PaDY” was developed for the automotive assembly process. Intention estimation was a key to these collaborative robots. AI has also led to the development of robotic applications in manufacturing, such as computer vision for bin picking, grasp planning, robot motion planning, and assembly of textureless industrial parts using visual servoing. Recent advances in AI are making it possible to tackle the manipulation of soft materials. The JC STEM Lab of Robotics for Soft Materials funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust covers this new field.

TechTalk – IoT and Machine Learning for Smart Water Auditing

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is the combination of Artificial intelligence (AI) with the Internet of things (IoT) to enable autonomous decision-making, data analytics, and system optimization. AIoT for smart cities allows the collection of enormous sensor data for a better understanding of the environment, human behaviors, and city operations, which leads to more efficient resource management and promotes a sustainable and healthier society. The Smart Water Auditing project aims to use IoT and machine learning to provide insights into how water is being used in the households of Hong Kong to reduce the consumption of water and raise awareness of people’s water consumption habits. Our talk will present our design workflow, IoT infrastructures, machine learning algorithms, and experimentation for water end-use disaggregation in Hong Kong.

Young Scholar TechTalk – Learning to Control and Coordinate Hybrid Traffic Through Robot Vehicles at Complex and Unsignalized Intersections

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Intersections are essential road infrastructures for traffic in modern metropolises; however, they can also be the bottleneck of traffic flows due to traffic incidents or the absence of traffic coordination mechanisms such as traffic lights. Thus, various control and coordination mechanisms that are beyond traditional control methods have been proposed to improve the efficiency of intersection traffic. Amongst these methods, the control of foreseeable hybrid traffic that consists of human-driven vehicles (HVs) and robot vehicles (RVs) has recently emerged. We propose a decentralized reinforcement learning approach for the control and coordination of hybrid traffic at real-world, complex intersections–a topic that has not been previously explored. Comprehensive experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of our approach. We show that using 5% RVs, we can prevent congestion formation inside the intersection under the actual traffic demand of 700 vehicles per hour. When there exist more than 50% RVs in traffic, our method starts to outperform traffic signals on the average waiting time of all vehicles at the intersection.

Young Scholar TechTalk – Blowing Bubbles in Membranes for More Efficient Freshwater Production

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Global scarcity and contamination of freshwater pose a significant threat to sustainable development. To address this crisis, reverse osmosis (RO) technology has been playing a pivotal role in desalination and water reuse for freshwater production. The effectiveness of the RO membrane filtration is highly dependent on its surface functional rejection layer. My research focuses on shaping this rejection layer to be a voids-bearing structure, resembling blowing bubbles within the layer. This technique will result in a thinner rejection layer with a larger surface area, favoring water transport. On this basis, shaping branch bubbles to resemble a tree or coral can potentially achieve an exponential increase in water filtration efficiency, resulting in faster production of freshwater with significantly lower energy consumption.

Young Scholar TechTalk – Understanding Rainfall-induced Slope Failures from an Integrated Perspective

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events and magnifies the threat of rainfall-induced slope failure. The consequences of these failures can be dramatic and devastating if flow slides are triggered. While considerable efforts have been made in the past decades to understand the failure mechanisms and develop techniques to mitigate the hazards, the complexity of interplays of various factors causes it to remain an area of uncertainty and difficulty in geotechnical engineering. This talk will briefly review and discuss the main factors affecting rainfall-induced slope failures from a perspective integrating the geotechnical, hydrological, and climatological aspects. The two deadly landslides in Sau Mau Ping, Hong Kong, in June 1972 and August 1976, which caused 165 casualties, are revisited. We raise an intriguing question that has long been overlooked: why were the slopes able to withstand the 1972 rainfall but failed in the 1976 rainfall event, given that the rainfall intensity of the latter event was only half of the former. We explore the roles of geological and hydrological settings and the rainfall characteristics to look into the causes and mechanisms of these failures. Implications of the new findings for practice will also be discussed.

TechTalk – Soils by Design: A Reality, Not A Pipe Dream

Innovation Wing Two, TechTalk / By

Soils are vital for several sectors of the economy: transportation, energy, water, food security, historical heritage. Soils deteriorate over time, in response to cyclic processes (seasonal effects) and extreme events (from heatwaves to heavy rainfall). Mitigation is frequently based on intrusive and heavy engineering solutions. In this Tech Talk, Dr. Sérgio Lourenço will focus on how soil properties can be controlled or tuned as needed. Recent advances which borrow on ideas from allied fields, will be presented, from bioengineering to surfaces and interfaces. The potential of adaptable, sensing and self-healing soils as the way forward, will be discussed.