The MoU with PRISC will see the two carry out research in areas including smart city applications and infrastructure, internet of things technologies, big data and cloud computing in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.
PCCW Global and PRISC will work together to research areas such as the dissemination of information combined with predictive and big data analytics. This will involve the application of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and even blockchain, which PCCW Global has worked on in a number of other projects.
The partners said they intend to build a research and training centre in Hengqin to support the research projects and facilitate the next wave of smart city applications and technologies.
The collaboration project will be overseen by PRISC’s Dr. George Ho (Principal Investigator), together with Dr. Collin Wong and Dr. Jack Wu at the School of Decision Sciences. Wong signed the MoU document alongside PCCW Global’s SVP mobility product development and marketing, mobility and voice Craig Price (pictured).
In a related development, PCCW Global and the Administration Committee of Hengqin New District recently signed a collaborative agreement to explore the prospect of building and operating AI training facilities, as well as demonstration and operation centres, in Hengqin in the Greater Bay Area.
The aim of this second agreement is to capture opportunities brought by the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Greater Bay Area development, PCCW Global said.
Hengqin is located 34 sea miles from Hong Kong but is less than an hour’s travel from the city using the new bridge, which was opened by Chinese president Xi Jinping in October. This, PCCW Global said, means Hengqin offers “massive trade and business potential”.
The collaboration will see the two parties engage in in-depth cooperation in such areas as IoT, smart city development and AI. The telecoms firm, which is part of HKT, has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Hengqin New District to build and operate a next generation IoT smart city R&D services platform, international IoT operation platform.
PCCW Global’s network spans more than 3,000 cities and 150 countries. CEO Marc Halbfinger recently spoke to Capacity about PCCW Global's latest developments, including its work in Blockchain as part of the Global Leaders' Forum. The full interview can be found HERE
