工商学者於"Research Mingle"活动跨越学科界限 创新研究领域

“This is a very important event for us to exchange research ideas,” Professor Cheng Yuk Shing, Interim Dean of the HKBU School of Business, acknowledged the core value of our “Research Mingle” event series In his inspiring opening remarks on May 24, 2024. 

Professor Cheng highlighted the significance of joining hands with various disciplines to solve questions. Featuring their School’s long tradition of interdisciplinary research, he listed those associated with behavioural scientists, psychologists and data experts across marketing, management, economics, and more. “The research impact actually goes far beyond our discipline. I hope our research will continue to be boundless, to go beyond the scope of our discipline – This is exactly what this event helps us to do,” he said.

Dr Rocky Chen, Associate Professor of the Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems, instantly drew everyone’s attention with his research on humanoid service robots. “Whether you like it or not, they’re already there,” said Rocky, relating Artificial Intelligence (AI) robots to fields of music and arts, social sciences, Chinese medicine and specifically his field of expertise, business. The participating researchers were deeply engaged with his findings of how humanoid service robots influence consumer satisfaction and employee performance, including the bright and dark sides of serving consumers, implications and conclusions involving human autonomy and social relatedness.

Similar to Rocky’s thought of finding a mutual topic for attendees from various disciplines, our second distinguished speaker, Dr Chen Ting, Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research) of the Department of Accountancy, Economics and Finance, seamlessly took the floor and introduced her research about building an AI-empowered local history database. Everyone was impressed by her innovative database containing over 2,000 Chinese county gazetteers (a vital source for studying Chinese history in the past 1,000 years, summarising local cultures, administration, economies, etc). With Dr Chen’s demonstration of the database’s experimental model, its high accuracy and capability of showing the sources outshone the current common ChatGPT models and large language models (LLMs).

 
The attendees did not miss the chance to delve into the two talented speakers’ work and seek their further insights. During the fruitful Q&A session, the room was filled with dynamic discussions ranging from the variations, societal and commercial values and research directions of the speakers’ demonstrated work, and how they initiated their research journeys, to hot issues like the topic that a researcher should go for at different career stages. Time flew as the agenda was extensive, and many stayed behind for more in-depth individual talks and mingling, enjoying the gratifying moments over the beverages and refreshments served.

This event marked another success of interdisciplinary collaborations and the exchange of brilliant ideas, where new and existing connections sparked inspiration. The event was elevated by the insightful sharing of our exceptional speakers and our amiable event MC, Miss Grace Gao, a PhD student from the School. 

For more upcoming events of the “Research Mingle” series, please stay tuned to our event page. Discover more exciting research news, events and stories of our talented HKBU researchers on our LinkedIn page.