Global AI Challenge for Building E&M Facilities – Technical Conference
World’s First and Largest of its Kind

The application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in electrical and mechanical (E&M) management for buildings is crucial on the pathway toward a smart city. It involves a multitude of innovation and technology (I&T) applications, of which advancement would be achieved through ongoing apprehension of international technological trends. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has been keeping abreast of the I&T development and actively promoting the digitisation of E&M systems. We also build strong partnership with client departments, and help increase energy efficiency and service quality of their systems by enriching and enhancing our services with the application of AI and other new technologies.

We recognise that to popularise the application of AI for the coming up of the E&M 2.0 era, it is essential to reform the practice of the industry. Application of technology in the industry is a process that requires the participation of all stakeholders. In the light of this, we organised the first Global AI Challenge for Building E&M Facilities jointly with the Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, with the Innovation and Technology Bureau and the Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs of the China Association for Science and Technology as advisors, and 13 government department and local and international organisations as co-organisers. The programme is the world’s first and largest AI event for building E&M facilities, comprised of a series of activities such as a competition, a global conference and a workshop. The event is aimed at facilitating I&T exchanges, providing further insights into global progress on smart buildings and attracting more talents to develop related fields.

In the Global AI Challenge for Building E&M Facilities – Technical Conference successfully held on 12 October this year, leaders and experts shared their views on related building E&M issues. The officiating guests included the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Educational, Scientific and Technological Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Mr. Ye Shuiqiu; the Deputy Director General, the China Association for Science and Technology Office of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs, Mr. Wang Qinglin; the Secretary and Standing Vice-Chairman of the Party Group of Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, Mr. Zheng Qingshun; the Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Mr. Alfred Sit; and the Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, Mr. Pang Yiu-hung.

A total of 25 eminent speakers, including representatives from Microsoft Corporation, IBM, Tencent Technology Company Limited, Huawei Technologies Company Limited, as well as experts from the I&T, building engineering and E&M sectors and academia, shared knowledge and practical experience of their fields. The conference was well received, attracting over 200 practitioners to the on-site conference and 2 300 online attendees, including researchers, students, start-ups and corporate representatives from around the world.

Topics ranging from smart E&M solutions for buildings, smart building data management, big data analysis for buildings, building energy efficiency resulting from smart solutions, quality zero-carbon environment to smart city, building life cycle, building semantics, building equipment loads and more were discussed. The conference will enhance building E&M development and management in a safer, more reliable and energy-efficient manner, and promote the AI applications in building E&M services. The sharing sessions can be viewed on the event’s website at: https://globalaichallenge.com/en/conference.

With its tremendous benefits in terms of energy efficiency, economic value and sustainability management, AI solution is set to become a powerful driving force in the building E&M sector.

Please visit the website: https://globalaichallenge.com/en/gallery to watch the video and explore the sharing session and gallery to learn more about the conference.

Enhancing Hiking Safety with Government-Wide Internet of Things Network

In some remote countryside areas, the lack of mobile network coverage poses potential dangers to hikers and increases the difficulty in search and rescue operations in case of accidents. In the light of this, the EMSD launched a trial scheme under the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong 2.0. With the combined use of global positioning and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, the EMSD studied the technical feasibility of leveraging the Government-Wide Internet of Things Network (GWIN) to track the locations of hikers in remote areas.

Verifying Technical Feasibility in Supporting the CAS Orienteering Competition

On 24 October, the Civil Aid Service (CAS) Cadet Corps held the Orienteering Competition 2021 at CAS Yuen Tun Camp. In view of the poor mobile network coverage in the area concerned, the EMSD provided a hiker safety system to enhance safety by tracking participants’ locations during the event. At the same time, the technologies used could also be tested and evaluated. Since the GWIN coverage was needed for the designated competition area, the EMSD worked closely with the Civil Aid Service prior to the event, to familiarise with the landscape of the venue so as to find suitable set-up locations for the GWIN mobile gateways to ensure smooth operation of the system. The project team also pre-tested the system thoroughly by completing the designated routes with the smart watch devices to be provided to the participants, in order to ensure the GWIN coverage for the area.

Over 80 hiker safety smart watch devices with location tracking, SOS and geo-fencing functions were provided by the EMSD for the participating teams and CAS staff. In case of emergency, participants may send out SOS signals with the device. Upon receipt of the signals on the system management platform, the on-site EMSD supporting centre would notify the CAS of the device location to provide necessary assistance. The geo-fencing function of the device would notify the CAS for necessary follow-up actions if any device was found to be deviated from the activity zone. During the event, the EMSD supporting centre successfully retrieved real-time locations of the participating teams that did not reach the finishing point within the designated time via the system management platform.

Diversified GWIN Applications

The GWIN can be widely adopted in different areas, e.g. enhancing the operation and maintenance of E&M equipment in buildings, public facility management, flood monitoring, etc. As for the hiking safety trial scheme, the EMSD will continue to study the related applications, such as the use of mobile applications with the smart devices, and the test on location tracking using the GWIN-on-drone (a drone carrying a lightweight GWIN gateway), in order to enhance safety of mountain activities more effectively.

Advocating Life First Campaign to Jointly Promote Site Safety

The EMSD strives to continuously promote safety at sites and encourage contractors to adopt the best practices of occupational safety and health. This year, the contractors responded actively to the call of the EMSD to participate in the Life First 2021 Campaign organised by the Construction Industry Council (CIC). The campaign aims at raising safety awareness among workers at all levels in the construction industry for different construction processes, such as working at height and confined spaces, conducting electrical works, fire safety, etc., thereby further reducing the accidents.

After several months of preparation and co-ordination by the EMSD and the contractors, the multi-day activity kick-started on 15 October. The first activity held at the site of Tai Po Sewage Treatment Works was well received. Colleagues from the EMSD and staff from the Drainage Services Department also participated in the activity to promote work safety. On that day, representatives of the EMSD shared knowledge of occupational safety with the repair and maintenance crew of the on-site contractors, and disseminated the message on the importance of staying alert. The activity helped the contractors and their staff refresh their memory and knowledge, and reminded them to be mindful of the potential occupational risks at work. An on-site inspection was also conducted by the representatives of the management team of the EMSD to examine the relevant safety measures.

Sharing Gerontechnology and Leveraging I&T Outcomes

Jointly hosted by the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Gerontech and Innovation Expo cum Summit was successfully held in November 2021. The EMSD continued to actively participate in and support the event. This year, three I&T solutions, namely smart toilet bowl cleaning robot, cleaning and disinfection robot, and automated delivery robot were displayed at the EMSD’s exhibition booth. Not only could the application of robots help reduce the workload of carers for elderly homes and the risk of virus transmission, but it also frees up manpower and enables the carers to focus on the elderly, as well as bringing convenience to the daily life of the elderly. While promoting the I&T development, the EMSD also plays an important role in providing technical advices on relevant gerontechnology to further explore more possibilities on such areas.

A Success Story of BACnet International: The iBMS of the EMSD

Since 2019, the EMSD has been progressively installing the integrated Building Management System (iBMS) for the E&M facilities of various government departments, which enables the integration of different E&M and building services systems into a unified application platform. In order to manage the relevant databases and conduct data analysis more effectively, the EMSD adopted a non-proprietary standard communication protocol BACnet, a communication protocol for building automation and control networks. We established the iBMS which enables real-time communication between building management systems of different vendors through a Virtual Private Network configuration. Besides, database connection can also be established between the iBMS and the Regional Digital Control Centre at the EMSD Headquarters for automatic exchange of data and expansion of AI applications.

The online platform of the iBMS enables the existing systems to conduct big data analyses more reliably and efficiently, while improving the structure of building data. The project makes full use of the advantages of BACnet communication protocol and has become one of the success stories of BACnet International. The success story of the EMSD can be viewed at the webpage:https://www.bacnetinternational.net/success/stories.php?sid=175

Making Multifarious Endeavours Together and Attaining Remarkable Achievements with Numerous Awards

Over the years, the EMSD spares no efforts in continuously allocating resources to talent training, smart technology development, quality enhancement of E&M projects, etc., achieving excellent results recognised by various sectors in the community. In 2021, the EMSD has continued its success and won a number of awards recently, demonstrating its diversified contribution to the E&M industry. These awards have empowered our colleagues with great encouragement and confidence while at the same time motivated our teams to continue delivering quality services together despite challenges.

Talent training is a vital for the sustainable development of the industry. Actively organising different training programmes and courses, the EMSD was honoured with the Silver Award for Excellence in Training and Development 2021 for its innovative Technician Training Scheme, as well as four special awards, including Excellence in Career Development, Excellence in Future Talent Development, Excellence in Future Skills Development and HR Professionals’ Favourite Campaign, by the Hong Kong Management Association.

The EMSD’s commitment to developing E&M technologies is not only conducive to economic development, but also beneficial to different communities. The EMSD team has come up with a creative proposal to facilitate the elderly’s travel by expanding the function of our self-developed Smart Lift Monitoring System which was used for monitoring lift operations, to share lift services information with the elderly via mobile phone applications. This project was also awarded the Innovation Award at the City I&T Grand Challenge.

The EMSD has been actively adopting new technologies and promoting digital transformation to enhance productivity, quality and safety, so as to create maximum value for the public and our client departments and motivate the E&M industry towards digitalisation. The EMSD won the Gold Award at the CIC Construction Digitalisation Award 2021 in the category of Organisation (Client) for these initiatives, which was a huge encouragement and support to our team.

The West Kowloon Government Offices, a joint project developed by the EMSD and the Architectural Services Department, adopts a wide range of construction methods such as Building Information Modelling technology, MiMEP (MultiTrade integrated approach for Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing works), etc., as well as the application of the Building Semantic Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytic technology, so as to optimise building energy efficiency. The project was the winner of the CIBSE Hong Kong Awards 2021: Project of the Year Award - Public Use Building presented by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).

The first Regional Digital Control Centre at the EMSD Headquarters handles over 600 000 pieces of data sent from individual buildings daily with the application of big data analytics and AI. With the application of AI platform, the big data can be summarised into a unified building management model to effectively enhance the operational efficiency and energy efficiency performance of E&M equipment. The project also received the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2021: Smart Business (Big Data and Open Data Applications) Gold Award.