Chinese smartphone giant Oppo, PolyU to launch joint AI research centre in Hong Kong

Oppo pledged US$4.2 million in funding over the next five years to deepen collaboration with PolyU on AI imaging technology

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Oppo and PolyU are expanding the scale of co-training in artificial intelligence for PhD and postdoctoral researchers in Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 10:00pm, 4 Nov 2024Updated: 11:46pm, 4 Nov 2024

Chinese smartphone giant Oppo and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University have renewed a collaborative framework agreement, which involves the launch of a joint innovation research centre for artificial intelligence (AI) imaging technology in the city.

Oppo last Friday pledged no less than 30 million yuan (US$4.2 million) in funding over the next five years to deepen collaborative efforts with PolyU on AI imaging technology, as well as for expanding the scale of co-training for PhD and postdoctoral researchers.

“The research centre’s primary goal is to [nurture] talent,” Zhang Lei, chair professor of computer vision and image analysis at PolyU’s department of computing, recently told the South China Morning Post.

The new centre – scaling up from a joint innovation lab set up two years ago – is expected to be operating by January next year. It aims to recruit around 25 doctoral researchers and several postdoctoral candidates over a five-year period.

Their focus will cover computer vision, an area Zhang has been involved in over the past two decades, and extend to the broader research in generative AI (GenAI) technology.

PolyU professor Zhang Lei serves as the head of the joint artificial intelligence research facility launched by Oppo and the university. Photo: Handout

GenAI refers to algorithms, such as ChatGPT, that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.