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 理大聯同美國馬里蘭大學(UMD)共同設立產品可靠性暨系統安全研發中心 CAiRS)揉合AI及創新技術提升產品安全及系統可靠性

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.  Ir. Prof. Winco Yung, Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of PolyU, is the Centre Director and Executive Director of CAiRS.

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.”

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.

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.

很多日常生活用品，都會因為電子或機械零件老化、軟件故障或環境因素等等，而出現可靠性和安全性問題，簡單的可能是電線短路，嚴重的卻可能導致嚴重的後果，例如機械過熱導致火警等。有見及此，香港理工大學 (理大) 及美國馬里蘭大學帕克分校 (UMD) 攜手合作設立研發實驗室 ─ 產品可靠性暨系統安全研發中心 (CAiRS)，匯聚全球頂尖科研人員，裝置了最先進的儀器設備，配合創新人工智能技術，以進行各項產品可靠性和系統安全研究，務求準確預測故障發生，防患於未然。理大工業及系統工程學系容錦泉教授為CAiRS 總監及執行董事。

香港理工大學常務及學務副校長黃永德教授表示: 「CAiRS擁有先進設備，頂尖科研人才，專注研發突破性的技術，研究範圍更廣泛應用於香港所有重視可靠性及系統安全的行業。」

CAiRS 早前獲選進駐由香港特區政府的旗艦項目「InnoHK創新香港研發平台」，並正就五個範疇展開研究，包括異常檢測與症狀監測、產品健康管理的創新診斷、剩餘使用期限預測、安全保障︰提升功能安全性，以及數據可靠性，共十五個項目。這些項目應用範圍非常廣泛，包括機械人、醫療器材、車輛、電訊、消費品、公共事業、運輸、微電子、電力裝置、傳感器、物聯網產品及其他與先進製造相關的範疇。CAiRS並已與二十八家本地知名企業簽定合作協議，共同研究提升產品和系統的可靠及安全。

理大一直因應業界及社會需要，進行跨學科研究，當中涉及工程，科學及前沿技術。CAiRS 匯集了理大工程學院及UMD超過二十位學者專家，加上UMD在產品可靠性的卓越研究基礎，及業界的支持，將就智慧城市及先進製造兩大方面作出貢獻。

[From PolyU Media Release]

Other media coverage:

• Ming Pao Daily News
• Hong Kong Economic Times
• Sing Tao Daily
• Hong Kong Economic Journal
• Headline Daily
• Ta Kung Pao
• Xinhua Finance Agency
• Sina Hong Kong
• Sina
• MediaOutReach