Three world-class research centres have been established by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) in collaboration with renowned scholars from all around the world and research institutes under InnoHK, a vital initiative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to develop Hong Kong as a hub for global research collaboration.

These centres include the Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering (COCHE) under Health@InnoHK that focuses on healthcare-related technologies; the Centre for Intelligent Multidimensional Data Analysis (CIMDA); and the Laboratory for AI-Powered Financial Technologies (AIFT) under AIR@InnoHK that focuses on AI and robotics technologies.

The areas that these centres advocate match with the strategic focus of CityU’s recent research. “CityU is the first to introduce and implement the ‘One Health’ concept in Hong Kong. We also promote Digital Society and AI. I hope that these research centers will continue to lead the development of Hong Kong as a global scientific research cooperation centre,” said President Way Kuo of CityU.

COCHE is InnoHK's only laboratory centre focusing on health engineering, and works in collaboration with the University of Oxford and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Professor Zhang Yuanting, Chair Professor in Biomedical Engineering at CityU, is the COCHE Director.

The centre is developing flexible sensing, biomedical and molecular imaging, nano-biosensing, and AI in health with the focus on innovative wearables that collect key vital signs, including but not limited to continuous blood pressure and electrocardiogram signals on an unobtrusive and real-time basis. The collected data is transmitted for further analysis and integration with other biomarkers, paving the way for the early detection and diagnosis of possible acute cerebro-cardiovascular diseases.

CIMDA collaborates with leading researchers from several institutions and technology companies, including the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. Professor Yan Hong, Wong Chun Hong Professor of Data Engineering at CityU, is the Director.

While mathematics and data analysis constitute its primary focus, CIMDA develops important applications in audio, image, video and biomedical data analysis, computer animation and augmented reality; and investigating new mathematical models to extract and analyse hidden information in big data. The team works with industry in several areas, including imaging, digital entertainment, 3D visualisation, and Metaverse technology.

AIFT collaborates with Columbia University through this laboratory centre, with Professor Yan Houmin, Chair Professor of Management Sciences at CityU, serving as Director. The lab combines AI, big data and block chain technology with modern financial tools, aiming at thriving the advance of commercialisable research in the areas of retail lending, production and supply-chain financing, capital markets, institutional banking, and financial regulation.

The laboratory is expected to play a role in the increasingly digitalised financial world. For example, through AIFT’s analytics of overseas e-commerce, financial institutions can make informed loan offers to companies with different products. Another area AIFT investigates is China's onshore bond market, which is much bigger than the country's off-shore bond market issued in foreign currencies.

For more details about the centres:

Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering (COCHE): hkcoche.org

Centre for Intelligent Multidimensional Data Analysis (CIMDA): innocimda.com

Laboratory for AI-Powered Financial Technologies (AIFT): hkaift.com

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