Big data is being generated by everything around us all the time and is now being used to address community issues as well as for business purposes. Big data analytics is the process of examining large data sets to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends, customer preferences and other useful information.

Academics are increasingly using analytics to look for these patterns, correlations and trends, and then applying the findings to a wide range of subjects. Air pollution is the latest societal problem in Hong Kong being targeted by The University of Hong Kong (HKU) using a big data approach.

Professor Victor O K Li is the Chair Professor of Information Engineering and the Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at HKU. Prior to joining HKU in September 1997, Professor Li was with the University of Southern California (USC) from 1981 to 1997, and was a Professor of Electrical Engineering and the Director of the USC Communication Sciences Institute.

Professor Li’s research is in the technologies and applications of information technology, including clean energy and environment, smart grid, social networks, wireless networks, and optimisation techniques. He
also set up an inter-disciplinary research platform on clean energy and the environment with Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

Most recently, he has been focusing on the application of big data and deep learning to societal problems such as air pollution. Professor Li and his team have designed a website that gives estimates of Hong Kong’s air
quality on a street-by-street basis by using proxy data including vehicle traffic, wind speed, humidity, and other variables. His team has also developed an app that will show personalised air quality health indices based on each user’s health conditions, and that suggests alternative routes so one can avoid areas of bad pollution within the HKSAR.

Professor Li chaired the Computer Communications Technical Committee of the IEEE Communications Society (1987-1989), and the Los Angeles Chapter of the IEEE Information Theory Group (1983-1985). He co-founded the International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks, and was Chair of its Steering Committee (1992-1997).

At HKU, he served as an Associate Dean of Engineering (2007-2012) and was Managing Director of Versitech Limited (1997-2004), the technology transfer and commercial arm of the University. He has also served as Co-Director of the Area of Excellence in Information Technology, funded by the HKSAR Government, and on the boards of Sunevison Holdings, China.com, and Accosys Ltd, an artificial intelligence start-up company co-founded by him.

Professor Li was appointed to the Central Policy Unit and the Hong Kong Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee. He has also served on a number of other government advisory committees, including the Innovation and Technology Fund (Electronics) Vetting Committee, the Engineering Panel of the Research Grants Council, and the Task Force for the Hong Kong Academic and Research Network Development Fund of the University Grants Committee.

Professor Li has delivered keynote speeches at many international conferences and has chaired various international workshops and conferences. He has received numerous awards, including the PRC Ministry of Education Changjiang Chair Professorship at Tsinghua University, the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Visiting Fellowship in Communications, the Outstanding Researcher Award of HKU, the Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award of HKU, the Croucher Foundation Senior Research Fellowship, and the Hong Kong Bronze Bauhinia Star.


Remark: Previously known as Cheng Yu-Tung Professorship in Sustainable Development