Kam-Fai Wong or William Wong Kam-fai, MH (Chinese: 黃錦輝; born 1960) is a Chinese computer scientist who a professor of engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a fellow at the Association of Computation Linguistics, and politician. He is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for Election Committee constituency, associate dean (external affairs) of the faculty of engineering of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Hong Kong member of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).[1]
Education
Wong earned a Bachelor of Science and PhD from the University of Edinburgh.[2]
Career
Wong worked as a researcher at Unisys, the Erlangen Center for Interface Research and Catalysis, and Heriot-Watt University. Wong is a professor in the department of engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he is also the director of the Center of Innovation and Technology. Wong is the also the chief architect of IPOC, a bilingual search engine. He is a co-editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Computer Processing of Languages.[3]
He is a Fellow of the Association of Computational Linguistics and professor at the department of systems engineering and engineering management of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.[4]
He was awarded the Medal of Honour (MH) by the Hong Kong government in 2011 for his contribution in IT development in Hong Kong.[5]
Wong was elected to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong through Election Committee constituency in the 18 December 2022 by-election with 983 votes.[6]
In addition to his roles at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Wong is a Distinguished Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and has served as a visiting professor at Peking University's School of Information Science and Technology and as an adjunct professor at Northeastern University. He is one of the few experts in Chinese language processing in the Chinese academic community and has contributed significantly to the field by training computers to process Chinese information using neural network methods applied to large-scale corpora. His research expertise also includes database systems, and he has served as the founding editor-in-chief of the ACM Transactions on Asian Language Information Processing and as a member of the editorial boards of international academic journals such as Computer Processing of Oriental Languages and Computational Linguistics and Chinese Computer Processing. He has published over 260 papers in various international journals, conferences, and books.
Professor Wong is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a Fellow of the ACL, the British Computer Society (BCS), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). He has received numerous accolades, including being honored as a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers in 2020. Apart from his academic endeavors, Professor Wong is actively involved in information technology and social work. He established the China Digital Divide Solution Charity Fund in Hong Kong and founded Wisers Information Limited, the first electronic news information processing company in Hong Kong. He has also served as the Honorary Chairman of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation. Currently, he is a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the Hong Kong Region, the Chairman of the Information Technology Committee of the Scout Association of Hong Kong, an Executive Director of the Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao Greater Bay Area Cooperation Promotion Association, an Executive Committee Member of the Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, an International Advisor of the Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology, and a former member of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
In terms of academic interests, Professor Wong's research focuses on databases and Chinese language information processing. He is internationally renowned for his contributions to the field of natural language processing (NLP) and is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Fellow of the ACL, the BCS, the IET, and the HKIE. He has been invited to attend numerous academic conferences to share his expertise on the application of artificial intelligence in natural language processing. Professor Wong is also actively engaged in social work and currently serves as a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in the Hong Kong Region.
Professor Wong Kam-fai is a prominent figure in Hong Kong, holding several important positions in various organizations. He is a member of the 13th and 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the 7th Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Vice-Chairman and Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Alliance, Director of the Hong Kong Financial Dispute Resolution Centre, Vice President of the Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association, Chairman of the Information Technology Committee of the Scout Association of Hong Kong, Executive Director of the Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao Greater Bay Area Cooperation Promotion Association, Executive Committee Member of the Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, International Advisor of the Guangzhou Association for Science and Technology, and a former member of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Professor Wong is also involved in various other roles and organizations. He serves as a Director of the Hong Kong Financial Dispute Resolution Centre, Chairman of the High School IT Innovation Laboratory Program Evaluation Committee, Chairman of the Information Technology Committee of the Scout Association of Hong Kong, Vice Chairman of the Creative Smart Program Evaluation Committee, member of the eBRAM (Online International Mediation) Information Technology Advisory Committee of One Belt One Road, member of the Hong Kong Radio Advisory Committee, member of the Information and Communication Technology Development Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Society for the Aged, member of the Consumer Council of Hong Kong, non-official member of the Digital Information Technology Strategy Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, member of the Hong Kong International Airport Technology Consultative Committee, Director of the Hong Kong Foundation for the University of Edinburgh Limited, Director of Kowloon Watch Company Limited, Director of Information Network Research Limited, Vice Chairman of the CLP Power Customer Liaison Group, School Manager of Lam Tai Fai College, member of the Evaluation Committee of the Professional Services Advancement Support Scheme, member of the Innovation and Technology Fund Assessment Committee, member of the Technology Development Executive Committee of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Advisor of the Unity Hong Kong Fund, Executive Director of the Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao Cooperation Promotion Association, and member of the Expert Review Panel of the Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre.
Professor Wong completed his Bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom in 1987. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked in the United Kingdom and Germany in the late 1980s and 1990s, spending a total of sixteen years there. He worked at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Unisys Corporation, and the European Computer-Industry Research Centre (ECRC) in Germany. In 1991, he obtained the Chartered Engineer (CEng) qualification. After returning to Hong Kong from Germany in 1993, Professor Wong began his research work in Chinese language databases and artificial intelligence. During the 1990s, Hong Kong's universities began to emphasize research, and professors were encouraged to engage in both teaching and research. Professor Wong was invited by the then Vice-Chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Charles K. Kao, to join the newly established Faculty of Engineering and lead the research project on "Chinese Language Databases." This project later became the foundation for the technology applied by Wisers Information Limited. The research conducted by Professor Wong enabled the digitization and easier searchability of Chinese newspaper articles, which significantly facilitated information retrieval. The task of teaching computers to learn Chinese and build databases was challenging due to the lack of word segmentation in the Chinese language. Unlike English, where words are separated by spaces, Chinese words are not segmented. For example, the phrase "香港人口多" can be interpreted as "Hong Kong has a large population," but it can also be interpreted as "Hong Kong people are very 'mouthy.'"
Professor Wong Kam-fai collaborated with newspapers, providing a large amount of text for artificial intelligence (AI) to undergo continuous deep learning. He also enlisted the help of linguists to annotate the data and teach the AI how to analyze articles. The research project was completed in 1997, and the participating students recognized its market potential. They decided to start a company to commercialize the technology, and Professor Wong became their technology advisor, negotiating with The Chinese University of Hong Kong to obtain knowledge copyrights.
However, they encountered a major obstacle as only two newspapers agreed to cooperate while others refused. Professor Wong devised a strategy using copyright issues. At that time, there were many media companies that provided newspaper clipping services to clients, including government departments. These companies would purchase a single copy of a newspaper and then make multiple copies, which violated copyright laws. They raised concerns about copyright infringement, which led the government to seek their assistance in rectifying the problem. This ultimately resulted in the collapse of all the clipping companies except for their own, creating a space for the development of their company, Wisers Information Limited.
Wisers acted as an electronic newsstand, authorized by newspapers to sell their content. Professor Wong served as a technology advisor at Wisers, working at their office in Wan Chai every Friday. After two years, he stepped back and allowed the young entrepreneurs to take charge, stating, "I still prefer doing research and teaching."
In 2017, The Chinese University of Hong Kong launched the first university program in Hong Kong focused on entrepreneurship and innovation. Professor Wong's business experience, knowledge, and network greatly contributed to the program. The idea for this course originated ten years prior when professors from the Faculty of Engineering and the Business School realized that engineering students possessed technical skills but lacked business knowledge, while business students had entrepreneurial knowledge but lacked practical experience. They proposed a collaboration where engineering projects would be presented to business students, who would then form teams and participate in entrepreneurship competitions. Winning teams would receive incubation support to explore the possibility of turning their projects into viable businesses.
Years later, they had a sudden realization: Why should business initiatives only arise from engineering or scientific students? Couldn't students from humanities and social sciences also start businesses? Professor Wong believed that everyone had entrepreneurial potential as long as they had creativity. This led them to develop a minor program to identify and nurture entrepreneurial talents.
In recent years, Professor Wong's research has focused on natural language processing, aiming to utilize AI technology to analyze and understand textual information. One of his primary research interests has been the identification of fake news. Inspired by instances of false news influencing the U.S. presidential elections a few years ago, he embarked on research projects related to detecting the truthfulness of information. For example, he is currently studying the development of an innovative lie-detection algorithm using natural language processing techniques. However, instead of relying on traditional methods like voice tone, heartbeat, or facial expressions used in law enforcement, he employs language analysis. For instance, when having a conversation, the AI can analyze the reliability of the words you use. When someone is being untruthful, their choice of vocabulary tends to be more elusive, and the AI can indicate different colors based on the reliability, thereby assessing the person's credibility.
Professor Wong described this technology as applicable in election scenarios, whether it's analyzing articles or speeches.
Honors
Professor Wong was awarded the Honorary Medal by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in 2011, in recognition of his contributions to the development of the information technology industry in Hong Kong.
From 2013 to 2023, Professor Wong received the "Outstanding Project Researcher Certificate" from the Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Bureau's Virtual University Campus, as well as the "Long Service Medal of Honor" from the Hong Kong Scout Association, which is the highest achievement award for adult members of the association.
In March 2023, Professor Wong and his team were awarded the First Prize of the "Qian Weizhang Chinese Information Processing Science and Technology Award" by the Chinese Information Processing Society of China for the year 2022. The "Qian Weizhang Chinese Information Processing Science and Technology Award" is the highest scientific and technological award in the field of Chinese information processing, presented to researchers who have made significant innovations and breakthroughs in the field. The award recognizes the recipients' overall technical level and key technical economic indicators, which must reach the leading domestic and international advanced levels, and their significant contributions to advancing the technology of the national Chinese information processing industry, creating significant economic or social benefits. The award is evaluated and presented by the Qian Weizhang Chinese Information Processing Science and Technology Award Evaluation Office of the Chinese Information Processing Society of China.
The winning project of Professor Huang is "Research and Industrialization of Multilingual Social Media Analysis Technology for the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao." The project focuses on the construction needs of the Greater Bay Area, targeting large-scale social media platforms, with a particular emphasis on the characteristics of multilingualism in the Greater Bay Area. The project addresses the needs of social public affairs management, financial legal risk assessment and monitoring, e-commerce, and other areas, focusing on key issues related to multilingual natural language processing technology and its applications.
Due to Professor Huang's outstanding contributions in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP), his promotion of Asian NLP research, and his efforts in popularizing science in Hong Kong, he was selected as the recipient of the St. Francis Technological and Humanistic Award (2024), Language Award. The award aims to recognize individuals or organizations who have made outstanding contributions in the intersection of technology and humanities.
In 2023, the "Updated Scientific Scopes Author Database with Standardized Citation Indicators" compiled by Stanford University was released in early October. The Chinese University of Hong Kong had 210 scholars selected for the list of the top 2% of scientists worldwide in 2023, and Professor Huang was among them.
Published Books
In 2008, Professor Wong published "The Information Mind of the e-Society." This book is a collection of Professor Huang's column articles published in newspapers and addresses various issues related to information technology in the areas of society, policy, and culture. It analyzes the impact of information technology on business society, technology talent training, information security, the business environment, and critiques the science and technology policies in Hong Kong.
In 2016, Professor Wong published "Soft Power in Innovation and Technology: Competition and Cultural Thinking in Hong Kong's New Era." In this book, Professor Huang presents insightful views on the positive impact of innovative technology on Hong Kong's economic growth and social development. The first part of the book discusses several innovative technology areas in which Hong Kong has advantages, including "big data," "smart cities," "Internet of Things," "financial technology," and how Hong Kong can develop its innovative technology industry in alignment with the national technology planning. The second part explores the impact of innovative technology on society, helping readers understand the potential issues it may bring, such as network security, privacy, and education policies, to prepare for the future digital "new normal."
In 2018, Professor Wong contributed to the writing of the book "Introduction to Chinese Natural Language Processing," providing an introduction to the related technologies.
Work
Professor Wong frequently shares his perspectives in newspapers, hoping to provide citizens with a different viewpoint on various matters. During the 1st session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in 2023, Professor Huang proposed five personal suggestions, including the collaboration on innovation and technology in the Hetian District, zero-carbon energy, the establishment of a national park jointly by Shenzhen and Hong Kong, enhancing training and employment assistance for people with disabilities, and the formulation of the 9+2 Inter-city Cooperation Index for the Greater Bay Area.
Professor Wong stated that the Hetian District, as a collaborative platform for scientific and technological innovation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, possesses the engine for China's technological development and the advantage of Hong Kong as an international free port. In order to better utilize the unique cooperative platform of the Hetian District, he proposed the establishment of an institution jointly by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Shenzhen Municipal Government, and the Hong Kong SAR Government. This institution would serve as the common development entity for both sides of the Hetian District and facilitate unified planning, construction, operation, and management through trilateral collaboration.
Regarding land use in the Hetian District, Professor Wong highlighted that both the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Shenzhen Municipal Government have their own ideas, which need to be decided by the central government. He mentioned that Hong Kong's blueprint for innovation and technology aligns with national development goals, and Hong Kong should identify its own advantages and specific framework based on these goals. The national goals include areas such as biomedicine, artificial intelligence, big data analysis, and new energy.
He further discussed Hong Kong's positioning in innovative scientific research, dividing it into three levels: scientific research, technology transfer, and commercialization. He emphasized the integration of research outcomes with funding through commercialization. With Hong Kong's robust financial and legal systems, he suggested positioning Hong Kong between scientific research and finance.
Professor Wong also proposed the establishment of a national park in the Dapeng Bay or Yinztong area through joint efforts of Shenzhen and Hong Kong. He pointed out that Dapeng Bay and Yinztong have unique ecological value, with existing coastal parks and geoparks. He suggested transforming the ecological zone into the first national park encompassing the special administrative region's ecosystem, and promoting the establishment of key conservation laboratories through joint efforts. He mentioned that the University of Hong Kong has been involved in various marine conservation efforts, which can be synergized with national ecosystem conservation work. He recommended promoting ecotourism development within the area, including implementing group tours within the national coastal park, potentially without the need for entry and exit permits.
Regarding cooperation between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, Professor Huang proposed formulating the "9+2 Inter-city Cooperation Index" as a tool to measure the effectiveness of inter-city cooperation. This index would encompass six basic principles and seven development areas, covering aspects such as trade and investment, regional supply chains, infrastructure connectivity, financial integration, social and institutional connections, technological innovation, and people's mobility. Professor Wong suggested that the 9+2 cities should provide cooperation indices and progress reports to the central government annually, enabling the central government to understand the progress of cooperation.
References
External links
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