CityU Research: Creative Media, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) Integrated Information Database · Module 04: Research This article focuses on CityU's interdisciplinary "computation + creativity" research: digital/media arts as represented by the School of Creative Media (SCM), and data science and artificial intelligence as represented by the Department of Data Science (formerly the School of Data Science, SDSC) and the Hong Kong Institute of AI for Science (HKAI-Sci). For materials/engineering, see materials-and-engineering-research.md; for an overview of institutes, see institutes-and-labs.md; the SCM building (Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre) is also covered in the campus module; for CityU's overall research positioning and quantitative output, see Research Overview.

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# 1. School of Creative Media (SCM): Asia's Pioneer in Creative Media

The School of Creative Media (SCM) is one of CityU's most iconic "soft power" flagships.

• Establishment and positioning: SCM was founded in 1998^※, making it the first institution of its kind in Asia for creative media higher education. Its mission is to cultivate interdisciplinary artists and creative media professionals, and to develop new ideas and technologies for the creative industries (per SCM School Overview^※).
• Interdisciplinary DNA: SCM students are trained across computer science, fine art, visual design, creative writing, cultural studies and digital technology — a laboratory at the intersection of "art × science × humanities".
• Career outcomes: According to SCM, over 90%^※ of its graduates now work in the creative industries as artists or professionals.

# 1.1 Research Areas

SCM's research spans multiple domains where digital media meets the boundaries of art, science and the humanities. According to the SCM research overview^※, its research areas include:

• New Media Art and Installation
• HCI and Computer Graphics
• Software Art, Machine Learning and AI
• Physical Computing and Fabrication
• Playable Media
• Sound Art, Animation
• Film, Video and Photography
• Social and Eco-engaged Art, Media and Cultural Studies

Researchers also work in augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) and immersive media, software art, computer animation, 3D printing, video installation and other practices.

# 1.2 Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre

SCM's physical flagship is the Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre — a nine-storey building designed by the internationally renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, opened in 2011^※. According to public information, the centre covers approximately 263,000 square feet and houses 2 sound stages, 5 screening rooms, a multi-purpose theatre, a television studio, recording studios, a virtual-reality immersive research laboratory, plus multiple computer laboratories and classrooms (per publicly available building information). The building itself has become the physical symbol of CityU's creative media research and teaching (architectural details are covered in the campus module).

Among SCM's notable alumni, director Wong Chun won the Best New Director award at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards for Mad World (2016) — his trajectory is a concrete illustration of the "art × science × humanities" training path (see 06-people/notable-alumni.md). CityU's wider alumni presence in culture and media appears in 06-people/alumni-in-culture-and-media.md, which includes both new-media artists from SCM and pop-culture figures from the business school or social-science backgrounds — a sign that SCM's talent pipeline into Hong Kong's creative industries is not an isolated case but part of an institutionalised chain.

It is worth noting that SCM's original positioning (1998) was a calculated risk: at the time, no "creative media" discipline existed in Hong Kong's higher education system, and most institutions kept film, design and computer science in separate faculties. By bringing these disparate fields under one roof, SCM was betting that interdisciplinarity would become the norm for the future creative industries — a judgement that, more than two decades later in the era of AR/VR and generative media art, looks distinctly farsighted.

# 1.3 Leadership Succession and Programme Development

Who leads SCM, and what courses it offers, is itself a miniature history of "how creative media took root in Hong Kong". According to the SCM official Milestones page^※, SCM has had six heads:

Two deans' careers deserve particular attention. Jeffrey Shaw is an internationally renowned figure in new-media art: he was the founding director of the Institute for Visual Media at ZKM in Germany (1991–2002), and after becoming SCM's dean in 2009 he brought his international new-media network to Hong Kong (per the Jeffrey Shaw Compendium biography^※). Current dean Espen Aarseth is one of the founders of game studies as a discipline — he coined the concept of "ergodic literature" in 1997, co-founded the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen in 2003 and directed it until 2024, when he moved to SCM as Chair Professor of Game Studies and Dean (per Espen Aarseth's SCM personal page^※). That a Hong Kong creative media school could recruit two pioneers of their respective fields as deans is itself evidence of the depth of SCM's international academic network.

On the programme side, SCM's degree structure has expanded steadily: 1999^※ saw the launch of the Bachelor of Arts in Creative Media (BACM); 2001 added the Master of Fine Arts (MFA); 2005 brought the Bachelor of Science in Creative Media (BScCM), jointly offered with the Department of Computer Science, and the first doctoral graduate; 2007 added the MA in Media Culture; 2012 introduced the Bachelor of Arts and Science (BAS) — described by SCM as Hong Kong's first "arts + science" degree programme; and 2015 restructured the master's programmes into the Master of Arts in Creative Media (MACM). This expansion from a single bachelor's degree to "arts + science" dual-track training is of a piece with the interdisciplinary positioning described in section 1.1.

# 1.4 Research Laboratories and the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM)

SCM's research capacity is grounded in several specialist laboratories and a University-level research centre:

• Studio for Narrative Spaces: a creative and research team uniting neuroscientists, roboticists, performers, designers and architects, exploring environmental narrative across four technological frameworks — smart homes, artificial intelligence, immersive media (VR) and robotics (per the Studio for Narrative Spaces official page^※).
• SoundLab: a high-spatial-resolution loudspeaker array laboratory established at CityU in early 2021, dedicated to spatial audio research (per the SoundLab official page^※).
• Retinal Optics Art Research Lab: investigates the application of "expanded" stereoscopic imaging in artistic practice, producing interactive installations, semi-CAVE immersive spaces, 360° stereoscopic digital animation and more (per the Retinal Optics Art Research Lab official page^※).

Above the faculty laboratories, CityU operates a University-level platform, the Centre for Applied Computing and Interactive Media (ACIM), led by Richard Allen. ACIM focuses on the intersection of computational science and engineering, data visualisation, digital humanities, new media technology and creative art, and is equipped with a motion-capture studio, a black box fabrication laboratory and the Gallery 360 exhibition space (per the ACIM official page^※). ACIM sits alongside the State Key Laboratories and HKIAS in CityU's portfolio of "University-level interdisciplinary research institutes"; a full list is in Institutes and Laboratories.

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# 2. School of Data Science (SDSC) and Operations/Decision Science

The School of Data Science (SDSC) was CityU's strategic move into the "data-driven economy".

• Establishment: SDSC was founded in July 2018^※, a strategic response to the wave of data science and artificial intelligence. The academic structure has since been adjusted (the Department of Data Science evolved from SDSC).
• Focus: Data science and artificial intelligence, with courses and research covering core areas such as machine learning; CityU also has strength in quantitative fields including operations research, management science, decision science and business analytics (distributed across the data science, business and engineering faculties).

# 2.1 Evolution: From SDSC to the Department of Data Science

After SDSC was founded in July 2018, the academic structure was subsequently adjusted, and it now operates as the Department of Data Science (DS), positioned as "a world class, leading school of excellence in data science education and research" (per the About DS official page^※). The department's offices are on the 16th floor of the Lau Ming Wai Academic Building.

# 2.2 Programme Structure

The Department of Data Science offers a full pipeline from bachelor's to doctoral level, per the Programmes official page^※:

Notably, the MSAIFS (MSc in Artificial Intelligence for Sciences) title closely mirrors the "Hong Kong Institute of AI for Science (HKAI-Sci)" discussed in section 3 — the department's programme design and HKAI-Sci's "AI for Science" positioning resonate internally, a concrete example of CityU weaving its "data science teaching" and "AI-driven scientific research" strands together.

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# 3. Hong Kong Institute of AI for Science (HKAI-Sci): AI for Science

In recent years CityU has elevated artificial intelligence to a University-level flagship. The Hong Kong Institute of AI for Science (HKAI-Sci) was established on 21 October 2024^※, co-founded by CityU with academic and industry partners, positioned as an international hub for AI-driven scientific discovery (AI for Science) (per the CityUHK press release (2024-10-22)^※).

HKAI-Sci consolidates CityU's cross-disciplinary AI research ("AI + discipline", spanning materials, chemistry, life sciences and more) under a single external-facing platform. Together with SCM's "software art / machine learning" and the Department of Data Science's "data science", it forms one of three pillars of AI research at the University. The institute's establishment also runs in parallel with the intensive push for innovation and knowledge-transfer under the fifth president, Freddy Boey (see 06-people/fifth-president-freddy-boey.md).

# 3.1 Leadership and Academic/Industry Partners

HKAI-Sci's Director-Designate is Professor Ma Wei-ying. At the inauguration ceremony, CityU signed memoranda of understanding with several academic and industrial institutions. According to an SCMP feature^※ and the CityUHK press release^※, partners include Peng Cheng Laboratory (led by Professor Gao Wen), the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI), the University of Oxford, and industry partners such as SPDB International, Surrich International and Trio AI. HKAI-Sci is positioned to bring together experts in computer science, data science, statistics and bioinformatics, working with industry, government and academia to incubate deep-tech start-ups (per the CityUHK press release^※).

# 3.2 Recent Developments (2025–2026)

Within less than two years of its founding, HKAI-Sci already has several verifiable milestones:

• Ma Wei-ying elevated to "CityU Chief of AI": According to public reports, in addition to serving as HKAI-Sci's director, Ma was subsequently appointed Chief of AI of CityUHK, overseeing the University's citywide AI development strategy.
• MoU with Alibaba Cloud (2025-10-13): CityU signed an MoU with Alibaba Cloud^※ to advance AI education and innovation; Alibaba Cloud plans to offer internship opportunities to CityU students and provide hands-on experience through cross-regional exchanges and competitions — a line of industry-academia cooperation that also resonates with CityU's patent/entrepreneurship ecosystem (Patent Output and Start-up Ecosystem).
• Co-hosting the first International Summit of AI for Science (2026-01-12): CityU co-hosted the first International Summit of AI for Science^※, setting the tone in Hong Kong for "AI-driven scientific innovation" — a landmark step in HKAI-Sci's evolution from "inauguration" to "sustained international academic programming".

These developments coincide with CityU's top ranking in Hong Kong in the Times Higher Education 2026 Interdisciplinary Science Rankings. The two are distinct metrics and cannot be directly cross-corroborated, but both point to the same narrative: over the past two years, CityU has been upgrading "artificial intelligence" from a research direction within individual schools to strategic infrastructure spanning the entire University (for overall quantitative output, see Research Overview, Platforms, Patents/Start-ups and Life Sciences).

Viewed side by side, SCM, the Department of Data Science and HKAI-Sci reveal a clear timeline in CityU's "computation + creativity" strategy: in 1998, SCM staked out the emerging discipline of "creative media"; in 2018, SDSC rode the wave of the data-driven economy; in 2024, HKAI-Sci elevated AI to infrastructure serving every discipline. These three dates correspond to three distinct technological waves in Hong Kong higher education — digital media, big data and generative AI — and CityU has been present at almost every one. That in itself is the "small but sharp, quick to seize new niches" institutional strategy made concrete in the computing and creative domains.

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