Artificial Intelligence

The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore has awarded the tender for the development of the next generation national supercomputer system plus upgrades to the national storage and research network infrastructure. The new system is expected to provide up to 10 Petaflops (10 PFLOPS) of computing capacity and is eight times more powerful than the current supercomputer. The new supercomputer is the first in a series of systems that will form the backbone of the nation’s future supercomputing resources which will support research in areas like climate change, biomedical science and smart nation activities.

In the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a novel optical “micro-comb” chip developed by a physicist from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has played a pivotal role in building the fastest optical neural network processor. An international research team has recently demonstrated the world’s fastest and most powerful optical neural network processor, which is capable of operating at faster than 10 trillion operations per second. When applied to handwritten digital recognition, a common benchmark in AI, it achieved an accuracy of nearly 90%. It represents an enormous leap forward for neural networks and neuromorphic processing.

With the aim of promoting knowledge transfer, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) hosted the Award-Winning Innovations Salon (AWIS) to showcase its award-winning projects recognised in international invention and innovation competitions in 2020. During the past year, the University won 22 international awards.

New approach to detect and recover from sophisticated cyberattacks in real time

Cleaning and disinfecting public spaces have become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Lingnan University (LU)’s development of a successful free sanitisation service for over 1,000 subdivided flats by a mobile UV-C germicidal system last year, LU has achieved another breakthrough by constructing a smart Autonomous UV-C Disinfection Robot to provide thorough and efficient UV disinfection for large indoor establishments. While the whole disinfection process is automatic, it is far more effective and five times faster than manual disinfection with 1:99 diluted bleach.

The SupercomputingAsia 2021 (SCA21) conference reflects this spirit of collaboration with a number of initiatives. These include the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will create a new link between Singapore entities and Finland’s CSC-IT Centre for Science, the launch of the inaugural HPC Centre Leaders Forum, and the first EU-ASEAN-Japan Symposium.

A joint research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a new soft tactile sensor with skin-comparable characteristics. A robotic gripper with the sensor mounted at the fingertip could accomplish challenging tasks such as stably grasping fragile objects and threading a needle. Their research provided new insight into tactile sensor design and could contribute to various applications in the robotics field, such as smart prosthetics and human-robot interaction.

Fujitsu, Tohoku University, and Tokyo University have unveiled a new AI model that can accurately predict tsunami flooding in coastal areas within seconds. The new technology, which harnessed the power of the world’s fastest supercomputer Fugaku, will bolster authorities ability to effectively direct evacuation orders.

A brain-inspired computing architecture speeds up complex data processing by running its algorithms inside its memory, significantly saving time and energy.

A joint research team co-led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has developed a novel computational tool that can reconstruct and visualise three-dimensional (3D) shapes and temporal changes of cells, speeding up the analysing process from hundreds of hours by hand to a few hours by computer. Revolutionising the way biologists analyse image data, this tool can advance further studies in developmental and cell biology, such as the growth of cancer cells.

An AI might soon help stroke survivors get the right treatment by detecting a patient’s post-stroke depression type, a frequently seen neuropsychiatric manifestation after a stroke that could impair functional recovery.

A joint research led by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has built an ultralow-power consumption artificial visual system to mimic the human brain, which successfully performed data-intensive cognitive tasks. Their experiment results could provide a promising device system for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

To better prepare prospective teachers with digital and technological skills, The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) and Microsoft Hong Kong have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which covers different areas of collaboration, including:

New collaboration between Japan’s RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS), Research Organization for Information Science and Technology (RIST) and National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore, will allow Singapore scientists to directly tap on Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer to do ground breaking research, enhance educational activities and develop talent in high performance computing (HPC).

The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) has received a donation of HK$5 million from the Li Ka Shing Foundation in support of the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology to cultivate artificial intelligence (AI) literacy and develop e-learning materials in Mathematics.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has been selected as the recipient of a large-scale Social Science Korea (SSK) project of the National Research Foundation of Korea.

A research team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has developed a deep learning-based AI system that can provide design recommendations regarding the best layouts through the assessment of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) of the mobile application.

Scientists devise a 2D-material–based stacked structure with applications in reducing computing power consumption

Thirty Teams Across the Asia Pacific Region Participated in the Six-Month Competition that Trains Student Teams to Practice and Produce Solutions using HPC and AI Platforms.

South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), in partnership with Class 101, expands quality online lectures.

A design team, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) honored with 2020 iF Design Awards in the communication design category.

A group of students, affiliated with South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) has created a map to help track the spread of the COVID-19 in Ulsan region.

Separate partnership with National Supercomputing Centre to enable Singapore Polytechnic’s staff and students to develop AI innovations for local industries

ITE to leverage the power of high performance computing (HPC) for use in applied AI projects, workshops and training, and HPC-related student competitions in ITE-NSCC Singapore collaboration.

Researchers trained an AI to assess post-disaster building damage just by looking at aerial images of the aftermath.

Conference will see leading regional thought leaders, policymakers, C-suite officers, senior and middle level hospital and healthcare, e-health, clinical operations, medical and nursing professionals convene to explore new ways to innovate and collaborate.

A research team from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has developed a new Gene Expression Embedding frameworK (GEEK), which uses artificial intelligence technologies in machine learning and natural language processing to study the regulation of gene expression. In contrast to previous works that focused on one or a few regulatory mechanisms at a time, this new framework can study the joint effects of many mechanisms simultaneously. A research article describing this new study has been published in the renowned international science journal Nature Machine Intelligence. The framework may help study the causes of cancers and treatment methods.

Forty-five of the world’s most influential leaders and innovators participated in EmTech Asia. They discussed how emerging technologies will influence industries related to artificial intelligence, robotics, sustainability, healthcare, immersive media, and more.

IBM teams up with UN SDSN Youth Philippines to deliver a highly trained artificial intelligence chatbot on COVID-19.

A unique artificial intelligence approach is sifting through samples to find undiscovered fundamental particles that might clarify unexplainable physical phenomena.