The third edition of EmTech Hong Kong, co-organised by MIT Technology Review and Koelnmesse, ended on a high note after two days of stimulating and insightful discussions on the latest breakthroughs in science and technology. Held from 26 to 27 June at Hong Kong Cyberport, EmTech Hong Kong was attended by close to 400 like-minded individuals from 18 countries and regions. This year’s line-up of speakers included some of the brightest minds in the areas of Smart City Management, Machine Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, Genomics, MedTech, Fintech and Cybersecurity.

“Cyberport is honoured to co-host the global conference EmTech Hong Kong which sheds light on how emerging technologies will redefine the way we live and conduct business, and thus reshape our future.

In the past two days, we have had the privilege of welcoming an ensemble of speakers to examine the trends and applications of various emerging technologies, such as AI and Big Data, Fintech, Smart City and Living and so on, which are all the key technology clusters that Cyberport is fostering. As the digital technology hub in Hong Kong supporting the development of over 1,000 start-ups and established corporations from across the globe, Cyberport shoulders the mission to drive forward Hong Kong’s digital transformation.

It is indeed encouraging to see the diversity of speakers and themes of the Conference. Hearing from renowned innovators, technology leaders, policymakers, scientists, entrepreneurs and researchers from around the world will definitely promote knowledge sharing, bring about business opportunities and empower our companies accelerate their growth and expand their footprint beyond Hong Kong,”

said Dr Lee George Lam (pictured), Chairman, Hong Kong Cyberport and Host Partner of EmTech Hong Kong.

This year’s edition of EmTech Hong Kong saw renowned speakers such as Xuedong Huang, Technical Fellow and Chief Speech Scientist, Microsoft; Hyunkuk Lim, CEO, Hankook Mirae Technology; Wu Ji, Director, Tsinghua-iFlyTek Joint Lab; Juan L. Aparicio Ojea, Head of Research Group – Advanced Manufacturing Automation, Siemens; Hao Xu, Head of Research China, Qualcomm; and Emi Yoshikawa, Director, Joint Venture Partnership, Ripple.

This year’s conference featured an insightful session on big data and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by Bian Zhaoxiang, Associate Vice-President (Chinese Medicine Development), Hong Kong Baptist University. His presentation touched on how classic wisdoms of TCM can strengthen healthcare strategies in modern society, and how the combination of artificial intelligence and big data of clinical practices in TCM provides a unique resource for drug discovery.

Yi Wang, CEO and Cofounder, Liulishuo (AKA LingoChamp), spoke about how his company self-developed the world’s first AI English teacher, leveraging the most advanced technologies and theories in AI and linguistic learning, to address the problems in the global education industry and adapt to the trends in education transformation.

EmTech Hong Kong 2018 also featured a presentation on smart clothes by Yuji Ohgi, Professor at the Sports Dynamic and Informatics Lab of Keio University. Another presentation by Catalin Voss, Founder, Autism Glass Project, Stanford University School of Medicine, discussed the use of machine learning on Google Glass to provide children with autism an AI-based wearable learning aid that helps them recognise facial expressions to indicate how the people they interact with feel.

Other speakers included Zhang Lin, Competitive Swimmer and China’s First Swimming World Champion; Adrian David Cheok, Chair Professor of Pervasive Computing at City, University of London, and Alvin Hung, CEO and Founder of Vyond.

Vivienne Ming, Cofounder and Managing Partner, Socos Labs and one of the EmTech Hong Kong speakers said,

“I think that there was a wonderful diversity of speakers that really covered the gamut of substantive approaches to education and retraining. I also got to see a little of the other sessions and I really loved the agriculture one.

These journeys towards the possible are powerful and incredibly worthwhile, and it will be incredibly valuable to reconcile these concepts with an expectation of the unknown and preparation for the future.”

Various sessions on machine learning and artificial intelligence were featured as well, including a session on Field Robotics in Agriculture, by Salah Sukkarieh, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney, who discussed the use of field robotics in supporting the needs of an increasing world population in a sustainable manner. Other sessions included a presentation on AI and education by Robert Hsiung, Managing Director, Udacity China. His presentation, Future of Education in an AI World, covered the way Udacity is revolutionising education in a world where technology is advancing at a meteoric pace.

The organisers would like to thank key sponsors and partners of EmTech Hong Kong this year, including Host Partner: Hong Kong Cyberport; Innovation Partners: Hong Kong Baptist University and The University of Hong Kong; Disruptive Technology Partners: Kyuker and AiQ Smart Clothing; Silver Sponsor: Find Solution AI and Strategic Partner: The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and CUHK Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services.