Welcome to Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI)!
SCRI was officially approved by the University in April 2020, based on the achievement of the Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics, launched at the University, in March 2018.
SCRI aims to develop cutting-edge smart city technologies, together with the means whereby the appropriate developed technologies can be transferred to industry and hence, provide and demonstrate smart city solutions. To achieve the goals, SCRI is to be designed as an open platform, and include scholars and their interdisciplinary research, and also the general public, so as to involve all in appropriate SCRI activities and thereby achieve successful smart city development.
The Smart City area, together with those of Aerospace and Aviation Engineering, Drug Development and Health Science, AI, Big Data and Fintech, Sustainable Infrastructure and Environment, Humanities, and Advanced Materials, are the PolyU’s key areas of research excellence.
SCRI strives for making breakthroughs in the development of urban informatics and smart cities at three levels, namely: principles and theories of contemporary fast-changing cities; core enabling technologies such as geospatial artificial intelligence, high-definition mapping, artificial intelligence and the internet of things (AIoT), digital twins, and distributed machine learning; and applications in urban design and planning, transport, public services, finance, environment, and improvement of urban resilience.
The PolyU is intended to be used as a living testbed for SCRI, and the technologies developed in SCRI will be further used in Hong Kong, and then Great Bay Area and eventually worldwide.
Currently, 6 research directions have been identified in SCRI:
SCRI welcomes research collaborations from research institutes, industry sectors and government departments. The newly developed cutting edge technologies and solutions developed in SCRI will provide the important elements, necessary, to build Hong Kong as a global smart city.
Prof. John W Z Shi
Director, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
