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SCI & TECHSep 5Hong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying to give live lecture from spaceHong Kong’s first astronaut Lai Ka-ying and her two fellow Shenzhou-23 crew members will deliver a live lecture from space for students and teachers in the city and neighbouring Macau. Hong Kong authorities revealed on Saturday plans for live broadcasts of “Tiangong Class” to take place soon, without specifying the date and time. The activity, jointly organised by the Hong Kong and Macau governments and the China Manned Space Agency, includes an expert lecture, an in-orbit demonstration and a...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHSep 1Rain, internet outages hit first day of Hong Kong’s robot convenience storesHeavy rain and internet outages have marred the first day of operations for Hong Kong’s fully automated convenience stores, but visitors say they appreciate the new robot shop manager’s work. The “Galbot Stores”, operated by wheeled humanoid robots, opened two outdoor outlets in Hung Hom and Wan Chai and an indoor unit in Kai Tak on Tuesday, marking the city’s first fully automated retail roll-out. Shelves carry a mix of snacks and drinks, along with local souvenirs such as pineapple-bun and...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 31At your service: Hong Kong welcomes first humanoid robot-run convenience storesHong Kong’s first convenience stores operated by humanoid robots will open on Tuesday, with the Beijing-based company behind it planning to establish about 10 more outlets locally as it makes the city its first stop in “going overseas”. Following an opening ceremony on Monday, the first “Galbot stores” will open in Hung Hom, Kai Tak and Wan Chai the next day, marking the company’s first outlets outside mainland China. The embodied-intelligence robotics company launched its first store on the...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 30Reusable rocket milestone opens a door for Hong Kong’s space ambitionsOn the morning of August 19, LandSpace’s Zhuque-3 Y2 rocket lifted off from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area. After deploying its second stage and payload into orbit, the rocket’s first stage touched down softly at a recovery site in Gansu province using deployable landing legs. It was China’s first successful land-based recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster that had just completed an orbital mission – a feat previously achieved only by SpaceX. Just over a month earlier,...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 28Unmanned electric aircraft makes maiden flight in Hong KongAn unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft made its maiden demonstration flight in Hong Kong on Friday, as the city pushes to develop a low-altitude economy, with the government aiming to complete drafting relevant legislation by 2027. The flight marked a collaboration between mainland Chinese autonomous aerial vehicle firm EHang, local transport operator Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings and the city’s technology hub, Cyberport. The flight took place at Cyberport in Pok Fu...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 27Hong Kong to launch free AI courses with tech giants Google, Microsoft for SMEsFree courses coordinated by the Hong Kong government will leverage the expertise of tech giants such as Google and Microsoft to help boost the adoption of AI by businesses for content creation, data analysis and workflow efficiency. The Hong Kong Productivity Council on Thursday announced the launch of the programme targeting industries such as education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and logistics as part of the government’s HK$50 million (US$6.38 million) “AI for All”...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 27Hong Kong to expand AI use on 1823 platform to vet public inquiries by end of yearThe operator of the Hong Kong government’s 1823 platform will expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the year to transcribe, summarise and triage residents’ inquiries, freeing frontline staff to handle more complicated cases. The Digital Policy Office also said on Thursday that it would start exploring the application of agentic AI from the fourth quarter this year and study how it should be expanded to other departments “with a safe and controlled approach”. The government’s 1823...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 25Hong Kong to revamp senior secondary science and maths curriculum from 2029-30Hong Kong’s education authorities will revamp the senior secondary school science and extended maths curriculum by providing additional syllabus options from the 2029-30 academic year in a bid to attract more students and nurture talent in the field. The Education Bureau also said it had asked schools to actively encourage students interested in science and mathematics to take two or more science subjects to create a synergistic effect. The bureau said in a circular to schools on Monday that the...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 23Major tech firms to help upskill Hong Kong workers under ‘AI for All’: Paul ChanHong Kong will partner with major tech firms to launch an AI training programme for the working population in November, the city’s finance chief has said. In his Sunday blog, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said the HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) “AI for All” inclusive programme announced in February would feature more than 200 activities and was expected to benefit 50,000 people within two years. “The development and application of frontier technology will pose challenges to the job market....South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 22Hong Kong-built greenhouse gas tracker device ‘functioning well’ on space stationA greenhouse gas monitoring instrument developed by a university in Hong Kong is operating successfully aboard the Tiangong space station and is expected to contribute to sustainable development, the city’s technology minister has said. Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry Sun Dong also revealed more details in a blog post on Saturday about the life of the city’s first astronaut, Lai Ka-ying, who he said had a busy schedule at the space station. The Multi‑Spectral Imaging Carbon...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 22Electrochemist Liu Jiawei moves from Singapore to Hong Kong to start her own labFor materials scientist and chemist Liu Jiawei, moving to Hong Kong supported her pivot into launching her own research group. After a decade immersed in Singapore’s research ecosystem, Liu sought a transition that would keep her closer to family in mainland China while maintaining an international, high-standard research environment. Now establishing her laboratory at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), two years after her move, Liu said Hong Kong’s academic landscape operated on an...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 21CUHK researchers perform Hong Kong’s first robot-assisted pelvic fracture surgeryA team of researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has conducted the city’s first robot-assisted pelvic fracture surgery in what promises to be a safer, less intrusive alternative to a procedure typically considered among the most challenging. CUHK’s faculty of medicine said on Friday that the novel orthopaedic robotic surgical system could turn a “new page” in trauma care amid a rising number of pelvic fracture cases among the city’s rapidly ageing population. Dr Ronald Wong...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 20Hong Kong drivers to renew vehicle licences in 1 day by year-end under AI systemHong Kong drivers will be able to renew their vehicle licences within one day by year-end, down from the current processing time of up to 10 working days, under new artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives aimed at streamlining transport services and traffic management. The “Easy Licence Application Approval” system, announced by the Transport Department on Thursday, will be launched by the end of this year. It will use large language models to automatically recognise, cross-check and verify...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 17Hong Kong halves environmental impact review times with AI in efficiency driveHong Kong authorities have slashed the time required for environmental impact assessments by up to half using artificial intelligence, with an official saying that AI adoption reduced wait times for some public services by up to 90 per cent. The first batch of 30 projects aimed at enhancing efficiency was announced on Monday. It involves 13 government departments, covering transport and food business licensing, leisure and sports facilities, environmental hygiene, complaint handling, and...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 17Hong Kong inventors win grand prix, 35 medals at Silicon Valley festivalHong Kong innovators have won the top prize, eight special awards and 35 medals at a major international invention competition in Silicon Valley, with a solar-powered fertiliser production system claiming the event’s highest honour. The city’s delegation secured 22 gold and 13 silver medals at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival (SVIIF), which concluded at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California on Sunday. Amonova’s regenerative, solar-powered air-to-fertiliser production...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 16Singapore Inc hopes AI access will stop finance high-flyers moving to Hong KongClose relations with both US and China mean the latest AI models are easily accessible in the city-stateFinancial Times
SCI & TECHAug 15Hong Kong’s biodiversity ‘richer than we know’ but many species lack protectionHong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile and insect species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable local species. The call by the city’s conservationists to formulate a “red list” – a long-awaited measure since 2014 – coincided with National Ecology Day on Saturday. Gary Ades, head of fauna conservation at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 133 mainland Chinese scholars honoured as Future Science Prize returns to Hong KongThree mainland Chinese scientists have won this year’s Future Science Prize, China’s first privately funded award recognising scientific achievement, for breakthroughs in molecular mechanisms, porous materials and arithmetic geometry. The event, being held in Hong Kong for a fourth consecutive year, underscores the city’s growing role as an international hub for scientific development, according to the organiser and Hong Kong’s Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Sun Dong. “The...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 12Tech innovator uses AI to rebuild David Webb’s Hong Kong databaseA tech entrepreneur has pledged to rebuild a free database created over nearly three decades by the late Hong Kong corporate governance activist David Webb, bringing it ‘into the modern era” with the help of AI. Keith Li King-wah, co-founder and principal trainer of Allytic AI, announced on his Facebook page on Wednesday that he would rebuild Webb-site’s database of 27 years with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Webb, who died aged 60 from metastatic prostate cancer in January this year,...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 1072% of Hong Kong professionals use AI weekly, double the global average: surveyMore than 70 per cent of Hong Kong working professionals use artificial intelligence (AI) tools on a daily or weekly basis, more than double the global average, but junior staff also harbour deeper anxiety over job security amid its growing adoption, a survey has found. The study conducted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) surveyed 3,722 working professionals in the city between March and April this year, with more than 60 per cent of them aged between 30 and...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 8How a Hong Kong charity is using AI to help migrant workers tackle exploitationOverwhelmed by a high volume of inquiries, a 17-member Hong Kong charity offering pro bono help to migrant workers has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to scale up its operations. David Bishop, co-founder and director of local non-governmental organisation Migrasia, described the systemic abuse in global labour migration as a “climate change-level issue”, as ageing populations across major economies worsen labour shortages. Likening the organisation’s AI chatbot, PoBot, to a centralised...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 6Coded for glamour and glory, AI make-up arm steals the show in Hong Kong hackathonImagine a woman sitting at her vanity as a robotic arm reaches across the table, picks up her lipstick, and applies it to her lips while running through her morning schedule. Meet Iron Bestie, a personalised make-up assistant that just snatched top honours at what organisers billed as Hong Kong’s first physical artificial intelligence hackathon, beating more than 160 global competitors in an intense 48-hour hardware-meets-software sprint this week. Powered by vision-language models and voice...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 5Hong Kong tests thermal drones to catch illegal smoking at construction sitesHong Kong labour authorities have begun testing an infrared thermal-imaging drone to detect heat sources and illegal smoking at construction sites, with plans to add artificial intelligence (AI) to identify offenders. Since the total construction site smoking ban took effect on July 17, about 1,400 have been inspected as of Tuesday, according to Wan Chi-ping, assistant commissioner for labour. Authorities issued 39 fixed-penalty notices and 11 improvement notices to contractors, while two cases...South China Morning Post
SCI & TECHAug 2Patrolling robot damaged after falling down staircase at Hong Kong airportHong Kong authorities are investigating an accident in which a patrolling robot fell down a staircase at the arrival hall of the Hong Kong International Airport and broke into pieces. The Airport Authority Hong Kong told the South China Morning Post on Sunday that the robot had tumbled down a staircase in Terminal One during a test run on Saturday, resulting in partial damage to the robot. It said no injuries were reported in the incident. Viral pictures circulating online showed a...South China Morning Post