Big Data

Researchers at NIMS have created Research Data Express (RDE) to automate data processing and create AI-ready datasets for materials research.

Large language models accelerate construction of materials property databases.

In order to understand Hong Kong citizens' views on the development of gerontechnology, Lingnan University recently held a public opinion survey. The results show that gerontechnology products related to healthcare and exercise are of the greatest interest to the public, although about 60 per cent of respondents find the cost of such products prohibitively high, which presents a barrier to purchase. At the same time, over 90 per cent hope that the government will increase support for elderly service organisations to adopt gerontechnology, and for research and development. This would stimulate growth and the silver economy, ultimately benefiting more older adults and caregivers.

Lingnan University is pleased to announce that Mr John Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR and Chancellor of Lingnan University, has re-appointed Mr Andrew Yao Cho-fai as Chairman of the Council and an ex-officio member of the Court for a further term of three years with effect from 1 January 2026.

A Filipino-led team of international researchers has developed a physics-based algorithm that could train AI to greatly improve weather forecasts.

A research group led by Associate Professor Islam MD Parvez and Professor Kenji Hato of the Graduate School of Agriculture at Ehime University has developed "Hort-YOLO," a real-time monitoring system for horticultural crops. This system is an advanced object detection network focused on accurate and context-aware analysis of crops, and simultaneously achieves a balance between annotation speed and scalability of supervised learning, making it practical for deployment in real-world environments.

A first of its kind, the report from Springer Nature, in partnership with Overton, draws on more than 12 million policy documents to uncover how academic research is influencing real-world policy tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Three distinguished scholars from Lingnan University have been named Highly Cited Researchers 2025 in the annual list compiled by leading global analytics company in academia and research Clarivate. The list is of exceptional researchers who have demonstrated significant and wide-ranging influence in their respective fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers reflecting their substantial contributions to advancing innovation and addressing global challenges.

Today, 1 November, Lingnan University held its Information Day “Your Future Begins Now” for undergraduate admissions, introducing a new flexible arrangement offering more tailored study pathways for Joint University Programmes Admissions System (JUPAS) applicants with diverse talents. The hybrid event featured over 70 interactive sessions with the latest information on programmes, admissions requirements, and study guidance, so as to familiarise secondary school students and parents with campus life. Highlights included AI-focused lectures presented by the Departments of Chinese, Philosophy, and Translation, and Lingnan scholars also demonstrated how artificial intelligence (AI) proposes innovative approaches on traditional Chinese culture, ethical decision-making, and language learning.

Researchers from SANKEN at The University of Osaka have successfully developed a groundbreaking “self-evolving” edge AI technology that enables real-time learning and forecasting capabilities directly within compact devices. This innovation, termed MicroAdapt, achieves unprecedented speed and accuracy. It processes data up to 100,000 times faster and achieves up to 60% higher accuracy compared to conventional state-of-the-art deep learning methods. This achievement represents a major advance toward next-generation real-time AI applications across manufacturing, automotive IoT, and medical wearables, addressing critical limitations of existing cloud-dependent AI.

The regulatory directions of Agentic AI systems and Open-Source AI have become hot topics globally. In light of this, Lingnan University and the University of Bologna in Italy co-hosted the 2nd International Workshop on Technologies for AI Governance (TAIG) from 25 to 26 October, as part of the 28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2025). The workshop brought together numerous world-leading experts, academics, and policymakers, aiming to enhance governance in areas such as AI risk assessment, accountability tracking, and safety assurance, and to foster cross-regional exchange on AI governance between Asia and Europe. The two-day event attracted over 150 academics and students.

The official plaque unveiling ceremony of Asia’s first UNU Hub on Humanitarian Innovation and Technology at Lingnan University (UNU Hub at Lingnan University) was held today (25 Oct), marking a new milestone in advancing international collaboration between Lingnan and the United Nations. The ceremony was officiated by Prof Tshilidzi Marwala, Rector of the United Nations University and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, together with Mr Ernest Chan, Vice-President (Administration) of Lingnan University.

Lingnan University and Shenzhen Das Intellitech Company Limited (Das Intellitech), a leading company specialising in the research and application of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today, 23 October. This collaboration will use artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and IoT technologies to advance smart building and low-carbon development initiatives. The two parties will establish a pre-eminent international research laboratory to promote academia-industry-research collaboration, green innovation, and the development of smart city solutions in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, particularly in sustainable carbon-neutral technologies.

A research team has broken down walls, or moved magnetic domain walls to be exact, in the field of spintronics. They uncovered a new mechanism that enables faster and more efficient movement of magnetic domain walls in spintronic materials. By harnessing dual spin torques in a cobalt–iridium–platinum multilayer structure, the team demonstrated a unique form of spin-driven motion. The findings could inform the design of next-generation, low-power spintronic memory devices.

Lingnan University has achieved another remarkable milestone in the 2025 edition of the World’s Top 2% Scientists list, published by Stanford University. This year, a total of 43 Lingnan scholars were named in the list, representing an increase of about 50 per cent compared with last year’s 29. Among them, 19 scholars were ranked among the global top 100 in their respective disciplines, underscoring the international recognition of Lingnan’s research excellence and its rising global impact.

Lingnan University held its Research and Knowledge Transfer Excellence Awards Presentation Ceremony 2025 yesterday, 17 September, honouring 55 faculty members for their outstanding contributions to academic research and knowledge transfer, advancing community well-being and societal progress during the past academic year. The awards included the Outstanding Researcher Award, the Early Career Researcher Award, and the Research & Knowledge Transfer Fund Award, recognising faculty members for their innovative scholarship and impactful initiatives that elevate Lingnan’s global research presence.

Lingnan University President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science, Prof S. Joe Qin, welcomed the 2025 Policy Address delivered by Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, highlighting a series of education-related policy initiatives as follows:

Timely information on a company's production activities is crucial for investors and policymakers, yet it remains scarce as financial reports and other broader economic indicators like the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) are only released periodically. This information lag makes it difficult to assess a company's operational health in real time. To address this challenge, Prof Zhao Xiaofeng, Associate Professor of the Department of Finance and Associate Director of Hong Kong Institute of Business Studies at Lingnan University, in collaboration with researchers from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, has developed a new economic indicator, which uses thermal infrared radiation data to monitor the production and operation of enterprises in real time, and accurately predicts changes in their future profitability in terms of sales growth. The findings were recently featured in the prestigious international finance journal “Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis”, and received support from the General Research Fund (GRF) of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) amounting to about HKD$400,000.

The School of Graduate Studies (GS) of Lingnan University in Hong Kong hosted the “Empower Your Future” Lingnan Postgraduate Orientation 2025 today, 28 August, welcoming about 3,600 new postgraduate students for the 2025/26 academic year, the highest number ever recorded. The cohort includes students from the Hong Kong SAR, Macau, Mainland China, Canada, France, Portugal, Switzerland, the US, Vanuatu, Ghana, and Cameroon enrolled in taught master’s, doctoral, and MPhil/PhD programmes.

On 19 August, World Humanitarian Day, Lingnan University announced the signing of an Agreement of Cooperation with the United Nations University (UNU) to establish the UNU Hub on Humanitarian Innovation and Technology at Lingnan University (UNU Hub at Lingnan University), making it the first higher education institution in Asia to set up a UNU Hub. The Hub is scheduled to open officially in October 2025 and will have an annual operating budget of over HK$8 million. Its Humanitarian Innovation and Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab) will spearhead research and design initiatives, education and training programmes, and international collaborations, and improve living conditions in developing countries and regions of the Global South by leveraging innovative and cutting-edge technologies. Scholarships will be awarded to encourage local youth to fulfil their ambitions through knowledge and innovation.

Lingnan University's science and innovation teams have achieved outstanding results at the 11th Silicon Valley International Invention Festival 2025 (SVIIF) in their first-ever participation. All 13 participating projects, covering areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), smart manufacturing, and intelligent transportation, won awards, including 8 gold and 5 silver medals. One of the projects, the AI-based Fencing Training and Assessment System, led by Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research), also received a special award ⸺ Prize of the International Federation of Inventors’ Association (IFIA), making Lingnan the Hong Kong higher education institution that won the highest number of total awards and gold medals at this year’s festival.

To promote equality in education and allow aspiring creators to learn about film production without physical equipment, a team from the Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries at Lingnan University has spent two years developing CineSim, the world’s first cinematography simulation education software. CineSim enables hands-on filmmaking skills to be learnt easily using computer simulation and eliminating the need for professional studios and camera equipment. The project was supported by a subsidy of approximately HKD $800,000 from the University Grants Council (UGC), and is now freely available to all Lingnan staff and students. The team will market the software to secondary schools and the film production industry to encourage Hong Kong’s creative talents. In mid-June, the full version of CineSim was officially launched on Steam, one of the world’s largest digital game distribution platforms for PC gaming, a significant move into the international market.

Lingnan University, in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE), launched Digital Universities Asia 2025 on 8 July at its Tuen Mun campus. Held over two days, 8-9 July, the summit was themed “Powering social innovation with digital transformation”, and brought together more than 300 leading scholars, industry leaders, and policy experts from over 90 universities and 140 organisations worldwide. Participants looked at how emerging technologies, and particularly artificial intelligence (AI), can transform teaching and learning, and promote sustainability and social progress.

Researchers have explored how artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping scientists identify catalysts for methane pyrolysis, a reaction that produces hydrogen without emitting carbon dioxide.

Lingnan University in Hong Kong welcomes the Audit Report by the Quality Assurance Council (QAC) of the University Grants Committee (UGC) today, 27 June. The Audit Panel praises Lingnan’s robust governance and quality management systems for managing academic standards and academic quality, and commends their proactive approach to digital innovation as reflected in the Strategic Plan since the appointment of the President, Prof S. Joe Qin. A typical example of this is the School of Data Science (SDS), which opened in May 2024 to develop teaching and research in related areas.

- The simulator optimizes the distribution of computational and network resources in autonomous vehicles, increasing the feasibility of real-time accident prevention. - Based on DVFS optimization and dynamic off-loading between the vehicle, VEC, and cloud, it reduces energy consumption and latency simultaneously. It can also be used for various digital twin services. - Research results were published in IEEE Communications Magazine, the world’s leading journal in the field of communications.

To further expand collaboration with top-tier Mainland universities, a delegation led by the members of the Council and senior management of Lingnan University visited Beijing from 27 to 29 May for meetings with the Ministry of Education and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and also visited Tsinghua University and Peking University to foster new partnerships in higher education.

With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increasing environmental challenges, global catastrophic risks have gone beyond traditional natural disasters to raise controversial ethical issues. In view of this, the Hong Kong Catastrophic Risk Centre (HKCRC) of Lingnan University has introduced a new, free, online bilingual self-learning course on Ethics and Global Catastrophic Risks, taught by international authorities in philosophy and ethics. Designed to help people understand and cope with the complex landscape of global disaster risks through eight modules, the new programme, launched in late February this year, incorporates in-depth, real-life examples in AI, the environment, and the sciences, and has already attracted more than 8,000 participants from Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, South Asia, the US, and Europe. It is now open to the public at no charge.

The world is paying attention to the impact of the trade war on various industries, and Lingnan University recently published a report titled "Data-Driven Job Search: Big Data Series Report on Hong Kong's Employment Market", analysing the employment risks and potential challenges in Hong Kong's labour market. This study used Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to examine more than 140,000 job advertisements in Hong Kong, suggesting that over 40 per cent of job vacancies are in traditional service sectors such as import-export, wholesale and retail, which are vulnerable to external environmental factors. While the strong trend of gig work in the retail industry accounts for approximately 20 per cent of positions, there is little demand for advanced technologies like AI, with less than two per cent of vacancies requiring such skills. The research team proposes that the government should assist workers in traditional service industries with their transitions, and provide targeted cross-industry skills training to improve employment competitiveness in the context of the present trade war economy.

To further strengthen Lingnan University’s global academic network, Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science of Lingnan University; Prof Bradley R. Barnes, Interim Associate Vice-President (Global Affairs) cum Director of Global Education; and Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, visited several well-known universities in the UK respectively. The itinerary in early April, included Imperial College London, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the University of Sheffield, Queen Mary University of London, the University of York, the University of Surrey, Brunel University of London, the University of Kent and the University of Westminster. Several meetings took place with fruitful discussions, surrounding academic collaboration with these potential international partners.