Artificial Intelligence

Lingnan University held its 2026/27 academic year New Student Orientation (NSO) and Official Welcome for undergraduate students at its Tuen Mun campus today (24 August).

Lingnan University announced the establishment of the innovation and entrepreneurship platform “LU Xcelerator (LUX)” and held its Opening Ceremony today, 21 August. LUX focuses on “AI + X” and the application of agentic AI in different industries, leveraging the unique strength of Lingnan University in data science and interdisciplinary studies. Benefitting from Lingnan’s location near the Northern Metropolis, LUX will spearhead an innovative mode of collaboration between “Government, Industry, Academia, Research, and Investment” in the Greater Bay Area. This new platform will assist our students and researchers in translating innovative research into market-ready applications with tangible commercial and social value.

Researchers from National Taiwan University and Taipei Veterans General Hospital developed an AI system that automatically measures spinal curvature from X-rays. The system remained accurate when tested on images from a different institution, showing potential for more consistent scoliosis assessment across hospitals.

Researchers from the University of Osaka and Diponegoro University developed an AI-powered navigation system for cyborg cockroaches. Using onboard sensors and a multilayer perceptron, the system recognizes flat ground, climbs, descents, and holes in real time, then adapts electrical stimulation accordingly. By supporting natural climbing while reducing unnecessary steering, the approach shortened obstacle-crossing and total navigation times, reduced travel distance and stimulation, and significantly improved efficient movement across complex terrain.

Lingnan University’s research teams have achieved exceptional success at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2026, with all 14 of their projects winning eight gold and six silver medals. One of the projects, the “GaitGPT: Evidence-Grounded AI for Bidirectional Clinical Gait Translation”, developed by a team led by Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science at Lingnan University and Prof Yu Lisha, Assistant Professor of Teaching of the Division of Artificial Intelligence of the School of Data Science, also received IFIA Best Invention Award issued by International Federation of Inventors' Associations and "Thailand Award for the Best International Invention and Innovation" issued by the National Research Council of Thailand, winning a total of 16 awards. This is the second consecutive year Lingnan has entered this international innovation event, and it is the Hong Kong SAR higher education institution with the greatest number of awards and gold medals.

A spokesperson for Lingnan University welcomed the results of the 2026 ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). Lingnan rose significantly from the 901st to 1,000th band globally last year to the 601st to 700th band this year, representing an advancement of 300 places and the biggest rise among Hong Kong SAR’s eight UGC-funded universities. The university has also risen to joint 6th place within this group. The encouraging improvement is consistent with Lingnan’s upward trend in other international university rankings in recent months, reflecting the phased results of the University’s continued strategic transformation in recent years and recognition from the international academic community.

Black hole "blast", Bacteria-detecting robot, A crab's tale, Sensors that remember, and Silk in cycling. Plus submission deadline for 2027 magazine. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Program combining mindfulness meditation and cognitive therapy substantially reduces gaming disorder symptoms and stress

Human retention of decision-making control can reduce fatigue and maintain task mastery

Success in reducing battery energy consumption by 88.7% compared to existing tech through fusion research of Drone + AI + FPGA

Prof Xie Haoran, Associate Dean of the School of Data Science, Professor and Person-in-Charge of the Division of Artificial Intelligence at Lingnan University, has been elected a new member of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering (HKAE) Young Member Section (YMS) in 2026. He becomes the second young scholar at Lingnan, following Prof Paulina Wong Pui-yun, Head and Associate Professor (Presidential Early Career Scholar) of the Division of Science, to receive this honour, which highlights Lingnan’s strengths in developing young talent with international impact and furthering high-level research.

AIMX Singapore 2026 Unites Three Flagship Platforms in a Landmark Convergence of Innovation, Technology and Industry

Japan-based Elix, Inc. and the University of Vienna, Austria announce the signing of a joint research agreement aimed at advancing drug discovery using AI technologies.

Researchers from the University of Osaka and collaborating institutions developed an autonomous solid-state nanopore that combines sensing, memory, and signal generation in a single device. Unlike conventional nanopores, the sensor continually reshapes itself through chemical reactions, producing unique electrical signatures as molecules pass through, providing a basis for memory. The device successfully identified a variety of nucleotides and amino acids, providing a new platform for molecular sensing and future iontronic computing.

Ancient plant seeds provide important archaeological evidence for studying the evolution of human civilisation. Lingnan University and Shandong University have jointly developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) archaeological system dedicated to identifying ancient Chinese plant seeds. The system emulates the identification process of archaeobotanical experts and achieves a classification accuracy of over 90 per cent. The researchers point out that the identification of plant seeds excavated from archaeological sites has traditionally relied on experts examining each seed individually, a process that is both time-consuming and difficult to scale. The large, standardised database they have created helps improve research efficiency while advancing archaeobotanical research and the digitalisation of cultural heritage. The findings have been published in Heritage Science, an internationally recognised journal of cultural heritage and part of the Nature Portfolio.

Enables precise editing of both nuclear and mitochondrial genes while dramatically reducing off-target effects to ensure therapeutic safety

Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a new mathematical framework that helps identify optimization problems that can be solved efficiently using optical computing hardware. The approach allows complex, high-dimensional problems to be transformed into forms compatible with spatial photonic Ising machines and can also accelerate computation using fast Fourier transforms. These findings could broaden the applications of optical computing to areas such as logistics, data analysis, and infrastructure optimization.

A team of international scientists led by Dr. Patricia Angela R. Abu have developed an AI model that accurately predicts how effectively the heart pumps blood.

Contactless Short-Term Memory Control via Surface Acoustic Waves Demonstrates the Potential of Next-Generation Low-Power Neuromorphic Semiconductors

Discovering the materials needed for cleaner energy technologies has long been a slow process - but AI could change that. Researchers at Tohoku University have developed a closed-loop AI framework that continuously learns from experiments to identify promising energy materials faster and at lower cost. The approach could accelerate the development of next-generation batteries, hydrogen storage and other low-carbon technologies.

The battle against environmental degradation is complex. Green technologies can be both part of the solution and part of the problem, a recent study has revealed. Researchers from Tohoku University and the National Institute for Environmental Studies have utilized remote sensing and machine learning to reveal the impacts mining for minerals in green technologies has on biodiversity.

- DGIST and GIST achieve multi-site brain stimulation using a single ultrasound transducer and demonstrate improvements in neuropathic pain - Simultaneous stimulation of multiple brain regions through the skull using only an AI-designed ultrasound lens without the need for expensive and complex multichannel equipment - Published in Brain Stimulation, a leading international journal in the field of brain stimulation

AI learns from captains instead of calculations in Japan’s trickiest sea

• Proposing the right educational direction by analyzing the effects of using generative AI at each learning stage • Confirming a 'paradoxical result' where higher AI dependency increases subjective satisfaction but decreases objective test scores

Proactively predicts passengers' risky boarding behaviors with 97.58% accuracy using a single CCTV video frame

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly widely used in translation, questions have been raised over whether it could eventually replace professional interpreters. A joint study led by Lingnan University found that while AI can improve translation efficiency, it is still less capable than professional interpreters of adapting language to context and preserving rhetorical and communicative effects. The researchers conclude that human judgement and oversight remain essential, particularly in politically, diplomatically, and culturally sensitive settings. These findings have been published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, a Nature Portfolio journal.

- Solves 'Interference Phenomenon,' a Long-standing Obstacle in AI Model Merging

Researchers at SUTD show that AI can reliably identify behavioural cues in parent–child interactions, but interpreting what they mean remains a task for human experts.

SUTD researchers built an AI agent that individuals could train to voice their own end-of-life wishes, and asked what role such a system should responsibly play in rapidly ageing societies.

Prof Song Yongduan, Dean of the School of Data Science and Henry Y. W. Fong Chair Professor of Industrial Data Science at Lingnan University, attended the induction ceremony for International Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in Beijing on 9 July, where he officially received his member plaque. The professor is one of five scientists with Hong Kong affiliations among the recently elected International Members of the CAE.