Press Release

Mr Stephen Wong, Deputy Executive Director and Head of Public Policy led a research team of Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) to visit ASTRI on 5 January 2017. Dr Frank Tong, Chief Executive Officer and Dr Duncan Wong, Vice President, Financial Technologies of ASTRI warmly greeted the delegates and introduced them to ASTRI’s latest research and development endeavours. During the visit, ASTRI’s various R&D initiatives on Financial Technologies (FinTech) including Blockchain and touch-authentication were also showcased.

Mr Wong and the OHKF research team learned more about ASTRI’s technological innovations in FinTech and had a meaningful discussion on the future technology development in Hong Kong.

OHKF delegates witnessing a live demonstration from ASTRI R&D expert on touch-authentication technology

The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) was invited to participate in the Next Generation Network Seminar 2016 which was organised by the Future Network Department of Beijing Institute of Collaborative Innovation (BICI) on 22 December 2016 in Beijing, China. On the same occasion, ASTRI signed a collaborative Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on research and development (R&D) of next generation network technologies.

In the seminar, Dr Justin Chuang, Vice President, Next Generation Network of ASTRI shared the latest development of mobile communications with the participants. Industry leaders, experts, senior executives from renowned high-technology companies and scholars from universities in China were gathered together to discuss and exchange views on the development trends and prospects of next generation network and related technologies.

In addition, Dr Justin Chuang represented ASTRI to sign the MoU with BICI which further strengthens its collaboration to jointly carry out research and development (R&D) projects of next generation network technologies including the future network top layer design and overall architecture, core mechanism and key technologies of core network, wired access network, radio access network, terminals, and upper layer applications etc.

In 2015, ASTRI signed a MoU with BICI to establish FinTech Collaborative Innovation Centre focusing R&D on financial technology, big data and mobile software platform. With the signing of MoU on next generation network technologies with BICI, the strategic partnership between ASTRI and BICI will facilitate the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Dr Justin Chuang (left), Vice President, Next Generation Network of ASTRI, signs the MoU with Mr Li Chunan (right), Vice Executive Director of BICI on joint R&D of next generation network technologies

Next Generation Network Seminar 2016 (Photo source: BICI website)

ASTRI has successfully developed commercial-grade TD-LTE technologies for its customer to build the railway Communication-based Train Control (CBTC) signaling network system which is deployed at the recently opened Wuhan Metro Line 6, the first subway signaling system in China using the LTE technologies.

With ASTRI’s advanced communications technologies including TD-LTE small cell, core network/ Evolved Packet Core (EPC), and small cell management system, it can optimise the railway CBTC signaling network system design, support a high mobility in high speed and achieve low latency within 300ms round-trip-delay. Status and performance of the small cells can be monitored in real time. Compared to the traditional railway communication network via Wi-Fi, it can reduce signal interference and shorten the signal communication between the trains and control centre. ASTRI’s network solution has high reliability on handover and enhanced failure handling mechanisms during the train movement. These can enhance the safety, reliability and efficiency of subway line operation.

Being the largest R&D centre in Hong Kong, ASTRI strives to develop and commercialise leading-edge communications technologies and solutions for the industries and community. Since 2012, ASTRI has developed a series of TD-LTE technologies including LTE PHY design – small cell and macro cell, x86 based LTE core network and small cell management system and commecialised to its customers for product and solutions development. These product and solutions with ASTRI’s technologies have been successfully deployed in both public and private network including railway applications.

Wuhan Metro Line 6 in China

Jointly organised by the Bank of China Hong Kong (BOCHK) and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), the “Smart Investment Contest” facilitates contestants to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to formulate investment strategies. The simulated investment environment will help them familiarise with stock investment procedures and accumulate investment experiences in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets. Through this contest, the participants will gain investment knowledge and thus build a foundation for future real time investment.

The Contest is a simulated investment exercise. The contestants will be assigned with a lump sum of virtual capital, they need to take reference to the real-time stock prices and conduct buy-sell activities on an interactive investment platform. The contest is divided into two groups: Individual Group and Intelligent Group. The participants of Intelligent Group will have the privilege to use the Smart Investment Program co-developed by ASTRI and t.Axiom. The Smart Investment Program has built-in value-added programming and calculations to offer users with recommended investment approach and help them design investment strategies.

Contestants will have a chance to win free spending credits of up to HKD23,000 in BOC Credit Card. Interested parties may register through http://agogo.astri.org/. Registration is on a first come, first served basis, ASTRI will email the successful applicants after the verification process. Registration period is from now on till 28 February 2017.

Act now! For more details, please refer to www.bochk.com.

Mr Maxim Chereshnev, Chairman of the Board, Russian Trade & Economic Development Council of Russia visited ASTRI on 21 December 2016. Dr Frank Tong, Chief Executive Officer and Dr Meikei Ieong extended a warm welcome and introduced ASTRI’s key R&D areas to him. After the meeting, Mr Chereshnev visited ASTRI Security Lab to learn the latest cybersecurity research, training, and intelligence sharing systems.

Mr Maxim Chereshnev (2nd from left), Chairman of the Board, Russian Trade & Economic Development Council, Russia visits ASTRI

18 delegates from TransUnion including Mr Samuel Ho, Chief Executive Officer visited ASTRI on 19 December 2016. Dr Frank Tong, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI extended a warm welcome to the delegates. The delegation had discussions on financial technologies and possible collaboration opportunities with Dr Duncan Wong, Vice President, Financial Technologies of ASTRI as well as a number of R&D experts from ASTRI. They viewed a number of FinTech demonstrations including Blockchain for property valuation, ASTRI Security Lab Cyber Intelligence (ASLintel), Chinese handwriting OCR, and big data analytics. In addition, they also visited Cyber Range Laboratory.

The Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) received the 2016 Hong Kong Awards for Industries (HKAI) in the Equipment and Machinery Design category. ASTRI won the award for its innovation system of ‘Cover Glass and Touch Panel Glass Automatic Defects Inspection System’, presented at the HKAI Awards Presentation Ceremony-cum-Gala Dinner held on 13 December 2016 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Jointly developed by ASTRI and Truly Opto-Electronics Ltd (TRULY), the ‘Cover Glass and Touch Panel Glass Automatic Defects Inspection System’ is an innovative intelligent inspection system, providing high-precision and high-efficiency inspection solution for glass surfaces based on machine vision technology. The system can significantly reduce workload and cost for component surface quality control, as well as the need to inspect product appearance in production lines. The system is particularly relevant for cover glass and touch panel glass in the mobile phone industry and other glass panel product industries.

Mr Wong Ming-yam, BBS, JP, Chairman of the Board of ASTRI, congratulated the institute’s R&D team and its collaborative partner TRULY saying, “Thanks to the efforts of the ASTRI and TRULY teams, we have attained another breakthrough in our R&D to develop intelligent technology solutions that are adopted by the industry. Intelligent Manufacturing is one of ASTRI’s strategic R&D areas. We will continue strive to develop cutting edge technologies and help Hong Kong progress towards the intelligent manufacturing era (i.e. Industry 4.0) and promote economic growth.”

The performance of ASTRI’s Glass Automatic Defects Inspection System is fast, stable and robust. Its fast defect density estimation technology enables reduction of 80% time spent for defect density estimation. Also, the deep learning-based machine learning algorithm in this system leads to a significant reduction of false ‘defect alerts’ by 95%. By using this system, the throughput rate of inspection of One Glass Solution (OGS) panel can be greatly reduced to six seconds per panel which is more than four times as fast as when the same function is carried out manually. Two of the technologies used in the systems, i.e. human eye bionic illumination technology and fast defect density estimation technology, were also patented.

The HKAI aims to recognise the outstanding achievements of Hong Kong enterprises in pursuit of high technology and high value-added activities, and to commend excellence in various aspects of their performance. Among the seven categories, the equipment and machinery design category was organised by the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong with the objective to encourage the upgrading of the design of equipment and machineries in Hong Kong to enhance competitiveness, and to recognise to outstanding products.

Mr Wong Ming-yam (left), BBS, JP, Chairman of the Board of ASTRI represents ASTRI and TRULY to receive the HKAI: Equipment and Machinery Design Award

ASTRI’s Senior management and R&D team at the HKAI 2016 event

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) jointly launched the Fintech Career Accelerator Scheme (“FCAS”) today (16 December) to nurture talents to meet the growing needs of fintech in Hong Kong. FCAS is supported by 11 banks and nine universities¹. It aims to provide practical internship for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in developing their careers in the fintech industry.

The launching ceremony of FCAS took place today at the HKMA and was jointly hosted by Mr Norman TL Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA, and Mr Ming-Yam Wong, Chairman of ASTRI. Officiating guests included senior executives of 11 banks and presidents or senior staff members of nine universities. As the first fintech internship scheme led by a regulatory authority and a research institute, banks and universities have joined force in developing talents for the fintech industry. Through training and cultivating talents, FCAS helps prepare the right workforce for the banking sector, provide an internship scheme to students that combines both academic theory and practice, and build bridges between academia and the industry to make university curricula more relevant to the needs of their future employers. FCAS aims to nurture the fintech ecosystem with talents in order to sustain its developments, ensuring Hong Kong’s competitiveness as an international finance centre.

In his remarks, Mr Chan said “Soft power is core to the development of an international financial centre, and having talents is the key. We must nurture sufficient local talents in the long term to ensure that the development of the fintech ecosystem is sustainable. The FCAS is a win-win initiative as it gives students the opportunities to gain practical experience with their knowledge, while allowing banks to source and identify talents for future employment.”

Dr Franklin Tong, Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI, said in his remarks “We can foresee strong demand for fintech talents and solutions especially given Hong Kong’s global positioning as one of the top financial hubs, and also the meteoric growth of fintech in Mainland China. The FCAS is a collective effort amongst the HKMA, ASTRI, the participating banks and universities to nurture fintech talents – embracing the latest global trends and developments in fintech.”

Successful candidates will engage in a comprehensive internship with exposure to bank’s fintech projects, as well as regulatory briefings and technical trainings provided by the HKMA and ASTRI respectively. Details of FCAS are:

• Number of openings: about 70 openings are offered by 11 participating banks
• Types of fintech projects offered by banks: cybersecurity, distributed ledger technology, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, biometric authentication, mobile app development etc.
• Internship period: Starting from the summer of 2017 – for six months or one year
• Disciplines: Undergraduates or postgraduates in Engineering, Computer Science, Science, Business and Finance, and Law
• Selection process: Application opens tomorrow (17 December) and closes on 4 February 2017 and results will be announced by participating banks around the end of April after selection interviews

An Information Day has been scheduled on 21 January 2017 for students to obtain further information from the HKMA, ASTRI and the participating banks. Details of FCAS will be available at www.fcas.hk from tomorrow (17 December).

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Applied Science and Technology Research Institute
16 December 2016

¹ Participating banks: Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Communications Hong Kong Branch,  The Bank of East Asia, BNP Paribas Hong Kong, Citibank (Hong Kong), DBS Bank (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, ICBC (Asia), Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) and Wing Lung Bank. (in alphabetical order)

Participating universities: City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Lingnan University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Open University of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong. (in alphabetical order)

The Chief Executive of the HKMA Mr. Norman TL Chan gives welcoming remarks at the launching ceremony.

The Chief Executive Officer of ASTRI Dr. Franklin Tong speaks at the launching ceremony.

The Chief Executive of the HKMA Mr. Norman TL Chan, Mr Ming-Yam Wong, Chairman of ASTRI, senior executives of 11 banks and presidents or senior staff members of nine universities officiate at the launch of the Fintech Career Accelerator Scheme.