UMeAir App
About Us
Vision //
The leading research platform on socially beneficial and ethical Artificial Intelligence
research and applications for advancing well-being and society. In partnership with Cambridge.
Mission //
Our mission is to provide a strategic and effective research exchange and dissemination platform
to enable scholars and students from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Cambridge
to collaborate in top quality AI-driven socially beneficial research that advances well-being
and society, to engage industry so research results are relevant, and to engage citizens and the
government to facilitate the implementation of socially beneficial data-driven policies to
benefit the public.
Cover News (Apr 2025):
AI for Social Good: HKU-AI WiSe Team Wins Gold and Silver Medals at Inventions Geneva 2025
The HKU-AI WiSe team, led by Prof. Victor OK Li and Prof. Jacqueline CK Lam from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), Faculty of Engineering, is honored to express our deepest gratitude to the Head of the EEE Department, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and HKU TEC for their invaluable support. Their backing enabled us to become the only team led by full-time HKU Engineering professors to win both gold and silver medals at Inventions Geneva 2025.
Click here to learn more about the Inventions Geneva 2025 event.
Our achievements include the DeepDrug project, awarded the Gold Medal in the Medical Track, and the UMeAir project, which earned the Silver Medal in the Protection of Environment/Recycling Track. These awards reflect our commitment to the mission of AI for Social Good. Our team’s innovations, developed with the expertise of AI researchers from the HKU EEE Department, stem from research projects bolstered by four consecutive US NAM HLCA awards and a competitive RGC-TRS award, in collaboration with Cambridge University and Tel Aviv University.
Cover News (Oct 2024):
HKU-AI WiSe Research Team Led by Prof. Victor O.K. Li and Prof. Jacqueline C.K. Lam Wins the US National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity Catalyst Award 2024
The competition is founded by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the United States and sponsored by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is a multiyear, multimillion-dollar international competition seeking breakthrough innovations to extend human health and function later in life.
Project Title: A Large Language Model (LLM)-driven Approach for Advancing Low-cost Timely Speech-based Late Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (LOAD) Prediction
Team Lead: Prof. Victor O.K. Li (PI, HKU-AI WiSe), Prof. Jacqueline C.K. Lam (Co-lead, HKU-AI WiSe), and Dr. Yang Han (AI, HKU-AI WiSe). This is the fourth time the team led by Victor and co-led by Jacqueline have won the 2024 US NAM HLCA award.
Team Members: Prof. Yam-leung Cheung (Linguistics, CUHK), Prof. James Rowe (Medical Science, Cambridge U), Dr. Jocelyn Downey (Biomedical Science, HKU), Prof. David Rubinzstein (Neuroscience, Cambridge U).
HKU Bulletin Cover Story (Nov 2023):
AI for Social Good: Novel artificial intelligence models have been developed by the HKU AI to Advance Well-being and Society Research Hub over the last decade, aiming to identify early-stage biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease for early diagnosis and treatment, and making real-time air pollution reports for different places in Hong Kong.
When Professor Victor Li On-kwok and Dr Jacqueline Lam Chi-kei of the Faculty of Engineering started working together more than a decade ago, their aim was simple: how can big data be harnessed for positive change in our societies? Professor Li brought information engineering expertise, Dr Lam urban planning. Their initial focus was on air pollution given its detrimental impacts on health and the environment and they began to work with various departments in the University of Cambridge.
Emerging from that work have been ongoing collaborations that now also cover AI in Medicine, as well as the HKU-Cambridge AI to Advance Well-being and Society and HKU-Cambridge AI for Neuro-disease research platforms.
Over the past three consecutive years, for instance, they have been awarded an exceptional three Healthy Longevity Catalyst Awards by the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM) for applying AI and big data to the challenge of early detection and treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
“Our aim has been to use AI- and data-driven research models and interdisciplinary approaches to improve people’s health and quality of life,” Professor Li said. “These models have become more powerful in recent years thanks to advancements in computational capacity and the availability of more big data.”