Applied R & D - Department of Computer Science - City University of Hong Kong

The Department of Computer Science has been a leading provider of software and IT-related applied R&D services to industries in Hong Kong as well as in the Asia-Pacific region. This website highlights some of our recent projects. Besides those projects, we have been active in the following application areas:

Some of our projects are highlighted below:

Medical Imaging

Contact: Prof Horace Ip

The Computer-Assisted Simulation System for Orthognathic Surgery (CASSOS) is a low-cost PC-based planning system that puts advanced surgical planning capabilities within reach of surgeons working in clinics and small hospitals without sacrificing the quality of the surgical planning process. It provides a range of facilities such as: digitizing x-ray and color portraits; digital cephalometric tracing; automatically cephalometric analysis; surgical planning to estimate the surgical movement of bone segments; soft-tissue-change prediction before surgery; cephalometric re-analysis after prediction to estimate surgery successful rate; and comparison of predicted with actual post-operative results.

Internet and Multimedia

Contact: Prof Horace Ip

AIMtech is the Centre for Innovative Applications of Internet and Multimedia Technologies. It aims to establish itself as a centre of excellence for innovative applications of multimedia information and Internet related technologies. CityMerchant is one of its projects that provides an innovative multimedia document and workflow management system for the local garment industry and developed jointly with the Clothing Industry Training Authority (CITA). CityMerchant has been operating in an industrial environment since 998 and now has several hundred users.

Image and Video Compression

Contact: Prof Isaac Chan

We have created an image and video compression system that is better than the best commercially available JPEG2000 compression system in the world. Our competitive advantage is high compression efficiency; robust and consistent compression efficiency over a variety of image types and sizes; lower memory requirement; practical encoding complexity; faster decoding complexity for code once and multiple decoding applications relevant to content providers. Our work in image and video compression has resulted in licensing agreements with a top-tier semiconductor vendor in Santa Clara and a local conglomerate broadband provider.

Web-based eLearning

Contact: Dr LF Kwok

The Web-based Interactive Learning Environment (WILE) is a highly interactive e-learning environment for Mathematics and other difficult subjects; supports animation and provides a dynamic learning environment for students. WILE was developed together with highly experienced schoolteachers to support teaching and genuine learning in the Internet age.

School Administrative System

Contact: Dr LF Kwok

SPM-Net consists of a suite of Web-based services for student learning and performance assessment with multimedia information that supports monitoring over prolonged periods. This allows schools to provide continuous uninterrupted assessment from primary all the way to secondary education. SPM-Net was originally implemented for Pui Ching Primary and Middle Schools and is now being deployed in many more other schools around Hong Kong.

Internet Security - Certification Authority

Contact: Mr CH Lee

This project provides a pilot Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the City University. This included setting up a campus Certification Authority (CA) and associated systems, and procedures for issuing digital certificates to students, staff and servers. Digital certificates are used as basis for authentication, data encryption and digital signature. We also developed and installed PKI-based e-mail and applications, as well as plug-ins and procedures to ensure the interoperability of e-mail applications. We provided tools to protect web pages and e-mails and enabled a more secure Intranet.

CRM and Data Mining

Contact: Dr SL Hung

The aim of the customer relationship management (CRM) project is to improve marketing, customers maintaining for telephone companies. The system allows telcos to locate more potential customers and increase market share; increase cross-selling and sale profit from existing customer base; lower operating and marketing cost; accurately identify customers' dissatisfaction for customer retention; automatic tailoring service for individual customer; and lower charges for individual customers.

Replicate XML Databases

Contact: Dr Joseph Fong

The need for interoperability and data transmission through Internet makes XML a dominant standard. Though much work has been done on translating relational data into XML document and vice versa, there is no method for massive data transmission while maintaining data semantics. Thus, people have to prepare different queries for different database models. As a result, we have created a software tool that automatically converts existing data to XML format while maintaining data semantics. This greatly improves data exchange over Internet. Our tool also ensures replicated data are in sync after update.

Logistic Scheduling

Contact: Dr Andy Chun

Using advanced optimization and operations research (OR) techniques, CityU has helped numerous logistics-related companies in HK optimize their operations; ensuring their fleet and personnel are operating at the utmost efficiency and agility; responding to any change that may occur. Our scheduling software received an international "Innovative Applications of AI Award" in 1999 from the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) for an airport stand/bay allocation system it built for the Airport Authority that automatically schedules parking stands/bays for aircraft based on a set of complex constraints, rules and parameters. [more info...]

HR Scheduling/Rostering

Contact: Dr Andy Chun

CityU is probably the only provider of advanced human resource (HR) scheduling/rostering systems in HK. It received international recognition when the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) awarded CityU with an "Innovative Applications of AI Award" in 2000 for the AI nurse rostering engine it built for the Hospital Authority. Our rostering software automatically assigns shifts and job assignments using advanced AI constraint-based technology that results in highly productive and efficient operations. [more info...]

University Systems

Contact: Dr Andy Chun

The CS department has also developed several mission-critical Web-based university administrative applications for the City University itself. These highly scalable systems are constantly used by over a thousand academic and administrative staff members each day. The systems include course management, program management, consultancy management, and graduate student management with online application and admissions, student progress assessment, and sophisticated workflow management. [more info...]

Introduction