Alibaba Technology Forum is an annual event organized by Alibaba Group to share their latest innovation and technology development. Initiated by Innovation and Technology Development Office (ITDO) and co-organized with Department of Computing (COMP) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the first Alibaba Technology Forum (ATF) in Hong Kong on Big Data and Cloud Computing Technologies was successfully held on 17 June 2016 at PolyU. Over 250 local students, researchers, and industry professionals attended the Forum. Keynote speaker, Dr Jingren Zhou, Vice President of Alibaba Group, presented an overview of Alibaba’s innovative Big Data Computing Platform, which consisted of a wide range of products and services enabling fast and efficient big data development, while three Alibaba technology leaders also shared with us innovations in elastic computing, machine learning and large-scale real-time computing, as well as their applications in different business sectors.
Prof. Alex Wai, Vice President (Research Development) of PolyU addressed at the Forum, “PolyU has been contributing significant impact to tackle the challenges from big data development, and our big data and cloud computing domains including big data analytics, human-centered computing, cyber security, inter-cloud security and cloud resource management which are indicated through our research outcome and strong industrial collaborations”. In order to provide a platform with advanced infrastructure that facilitates multidisciplinary research in big data, PolyU is establishing a University Central Facility in Big Data Analytics. Prof. Jiannong Cao, Head of COMP said, “The initiative will enable PolyU to take a leading role in developing framework and methodology with models, techniques and applications of big data processing and analytics.”
Technology seminar with demonstration showcasing PolyU’s research excellence was also arranged for Alibaba Group during their visit at PolyU.Various research teams from COMP , Department of Applied Mathematics (AMA) and Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics (LSGI) exchanged views for further collaboration with Alibaba Group in big data and cloud computing areas. ITDO will coordinate the follow-up collaborative research projects and visiting-scholar program with Alibaba Group accordingly.
