Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) recently announced that it has established six new interdisciplinary research laboratories that expand on the University’s existing research strengths.
The research laboratories will support HKBU’s Institutional Strategic Plan 2018-2028 and enable the University to produce world-class research in selected research clusters. They will also help HKBU make a positive impact on local and international communities.
The six interdisciplinary research laboratories include the Augmented Creativity Laboratory, Computational Medicine Laboratory, System Health Laboratory, Smart Society Laboratory, Data Economy Laboratory, and Ethical and Theoretical AI Laboratory.
With HKBU positioned as a research-led liberal arts institution, the University is well placed to develop and use its innovative new laboratories to address frontier research issues; apply advanced technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence; and deeply embrace the data-driven world.
Each research laboratory is envisaged as an interdisciplinary research intellectual interaction space where researchers and collaborators can develop and discover novel solutions that can drive cutting-edge research in focused areas.
The Vice-President of Research and Development at HKBU stated that with HKBU’s inspiring cross-faculty research structure, the laboratories will enable the university to radically break disciplinary boundaries and foster close engagement between the sciences, arts and social sciences. This development will enable researchers to make discoveries.
The six new interdisciplinary research laboratories and their key research themes are as follows:
- Augmented Creativity Laboratory:augmenting human creativity, artificial intelligence and human-machine collaboration, and public policies and strategies for the creative industries.
- Computational Medicine Laboratory:therapeutics and new drug discovery, driven by traditional Chinese medicine research.
- Data Economy Laboratory:new theories, business practices and technologies in today’s rapidly evolving web-based economic and financial context. In particular, the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, and data capitalisation as a new natural resource and business asset.
- Ethical and Theoretical AI Laboratory:basic theories of artificial intelligence, with a particular emphasis on machine and cognitive behaviour studies, as well as central issues in philosophy, ethics, AI verifiability, and AI interpretability.
- Smart Society Laboratory:society’s future organisational structure, operation, and development mode, in particular the intelligent social administration led by applications of big data technologies, and its unprecedented challenges and opportunities.
- System Health Laboratory:the behavioural and wellbeing mechanisms that underpin complex systems including life, the environment, human society, and web-based media.
HKBU has started the recruitment of top-tier research talent on a global scale to join the six new laboratories in the next three years.
By joining HKBU, they will be able to take forward their respective research projects and strengthen the University’s interdisciplinary research capabilities in its pursuit of becoming a world-renowned research-led liberal arts institution.
The university hopes researchers from around the world can join HKBU in any way possible to extend the knowledge frontiers across disciplines and help the institution put their collective minds together to address global challenges.
