PolyU and University of Maryland from the US, jointly established the Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety (CAiRS) Combining AI and innovative technologies to improve product safety and system reliability

In our daily life, there are many reliability and safety issues. Electronics degrade due to complex electronics ageing, latent software faults, and the interactions between the two. Also, electronic system failures are inevitable because of the current methods to assess reliability and safety. These issues are very likely to lead to serious consequences.

In view of this, two universities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and the University of Maryland - College Park (UMD), have jointly established a research and development laboratory, namely the - Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety (CAiRS). The Centre gathers top researchers from all over the world, uses the most advanced equipment and leverages innovative artificial intelligence technology in order to conduct various product reliability and system safety research to accurately predict the occurrence of failures and prevent them from occurring.

CAiRS has been admitted as one of the research laboratories in the InnoHK Clusters, a major initiative of the HKSAR. CAiRS has carried out five research programmes to date. They are “Anomaly Detection and Syndromic Surveillances”, “Innovative Diagnostics for Health Management”, “Prognostics for Remaining Useful Life Assessment”, “Safety Assurance: Improve functional safety” and “Data Analytics Platform for Reliability” (Totally have 15 projects). The range of applications of the research is very wide, including robots, medical equipment, vehicles, telecommunications, consumer goods, public utilities, transportation, microelectronics, electrical installations, sensors, IoT products and other advanced manufacturing technology. Moreover, CAiRS has signed cooperation agreements with 28 well-known local companies to jointly conduct research and improve the reliability and safety of products and systems.

Prof. Wing-tak WONG, Deputy President and Provost of PolyU, said, “Harnessing its advanced equipment and, top-notch scientific research talents, CAiRS is dedicated to the research and development of breakthrough technologies. Their research solutions can be widely adopted by all industries in Hong Kong that value reliability and system safety. PolyU has been actively cooperating with world-renowned universities and establishing close partnerships with industry to benefit society through cutting-edge research. I believe that CAiRS can effectively translate scientific research results to real world solutions, creating positive impact for various industries as well as society.”

Ir. Prof. Winco YUNG, Centre Director and Executive Director, Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety (CAiRS) said, “CAiRS focuses on the use of artificial intelligence to develop new personalized management models. The application and results of the Centre’s research are very important to the development of smart cities. The scientific research team of CAiRS and I am delighted to use our expertise to collaborate with partners in different industries. CAiRS will build an international brand for the products and systems in Hong Kong, and contribute to the development of smart cities and advanced manufacturing.”

PolyU is committed to conducting state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research in response to the needs of industry and society. With over 20 specialists and scholars from the Faculty of Engineering of PolyU and UMD, UMD's excellent research foundation in product reliability, and strong support from industry, CAiRS will bring benefits and contributions to smart city development and advanced manufacturing.

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