Over the past four decades, generations of researchers at the University of Macau (UM) have developed many innovative technologies and transformed them into products and services that can improve people’s lives, most notably in such fields as Chinese medical sciences, internet of things for smart cities, chip design, precision medicine, advanced materials, big data, and artificial intelligence.
Indeed, not only has technological innovation become ever more important to Macao in view of the pressing need to upgrade the city’s industrial structure, but it has also been elevated to the status of national strategy, as is reflected in President Xi Jinping’s explicit instructions for higher education institutions in Macao to ‘attain more achievements in scientific research’. As the only public comprehensive university in the city, UM actively carries out President Xi’s instructions and closely aligns itself with national development strategies and the Macao SAR government’s policies, in order to promote technology transfer and the diversification of Macao’s economy.
This issue of UMagazine focuses on the AI projects conducted by professors at UM, which began its AI education and research three decades ago. In recent years, we have strengthened our partnerships with universities and companies at home and abroad to develop new AI technologies, products, and services that will truly benefit everyone. We spotlight some of our most exciting projects, including a self-driving bus, unmanned marine vessels, industrial robots, and software for smart tourism and image forgery detection. These projects, which will find broad applications in Macao, prove our effort to support the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area’s transformation into a global technology and innovation hub.
In this issue, we also bring you stories about two important research areas: establishing quality standards for Chinese medicinal herbs for major pharmacopoeias and regional oceanology. Other stories not to be missed include interviews with Faculty of Social Sciences Dean Prof Richard Hu and Prof Wang Qingjie in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, as well as  two articles in the ‘Academic Research’ column, which discuss the impact of the COVID-19 on crime and its control, and the latest developments in Gothic scholarship at UM.
To read the articles in the latest issue of "UMagazine"