The best of two artificial intelligence forms
Researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong have been looking at how to get the best from two different forms of artificial intelligence.
On one side are conventional expert computer systems which mimic human decision-making and solve problems using “if ...then” rules. They are capable of commonsense reasoning with everyday language. On the other side are neural networks which model human brain mechanisms and can identify and extract patterns and trends from sounds and other data sensed externally.
While expert systems are efficient at the symbolic representation of knowledge but are inefficient at automatic knowledge acquisition and learning, neural networks have a strong capacity to learn but symbol processing is more complex.
Researchers at CUHK have been developing a way of making both systems complement each other by combining them into a hybrid for use in solving real-life decision-making problems.
Examples of application are the decision-making support systems needed for computerised environment assessment and management as, for example, in water pollution management, and the system support needed for computerised medical diagnosis.

Principal Investigator,
Prof Yee Leung, Department of Geography,
email: yeeleung@cuhk.edu.hk
More technologies go into
general use
An increasing number of technologies developed at The Chinese University of Hong Kong are being successfully applied for general use.
An anti-crime identification system known as AICAMS which went on trial with Hong Kong police in 1997 has this year been adopted by all 52 police divisions.
The AICAMS anti-crime system’s identikit module
The computer-based system has three key components: a suspect look-alike tool which produces facial images from witness descriptions, an artificial intelligence system that produces deductions when details of a crime are compared with its database of previous cases, and a detailed crime map of Hong Kong where front line officers can see their surroundings on a computer screen together with data on the location and nature of high-risk crime areas.
Among other technologies from the university is the powerful Chinese search engine MoLi & ANSeRS® which has attracted licensees locally and internationally.
Another technology, already patented in the US, greatly increases the speed of DNA sequencing, an important process in life science
and medicine. A world-renowned US biotechnology company has already licensed the technology for commercial exploitation.