FDCT increases budget for science project-funding

UM rector Wei Zhao

Four applied science-related projects, funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT), were presented yesterday, showcasing the works conducted by Macau universities and institutions.

During yesterday’s presentation, FDCT recalled that it received over 158 applications, with an overall requested sum of more than MOP335 million.

Although the institution continually sees an annual increase in its received applications, FDCT president of the Administration Committee of FDCT, Frederico Ma, said they have decreased the number of successful applicants.

“We try to decrease because for each application, we would like to increase the funding to have a higher rate of finishing the project,” he told the Times.

However Ma noted that there are plans to increase the budget for 2017 applications.

“This year we have a total budget of MOP220 million, about a 10 percent increase [compared to the past],” Ma indicated. 

FDCT is currently focusing on funding researches in Information Technology, engineering and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Yesterday, the University of Macau (UM), Civil Engineering Laboratory of Macau (LECM) Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) and Hou Kong Middle School presented their concluded projects.

UM rector Wei Zhao was the first to present, with the university’s project titled, “Theoretical foundations, design methodologies, and supporting technologies for cyber physical networking systems.”

The project, which UM called “WInternet,” is a technology and science base for internet of things (IoT).

IoT is a critical networking infrastructure for cyber-physical systems, as cited in the university’s Faculty of Science and Technology’s webpage.

“With IoT, physical objects should be seamlessly integrated into an internet-like networking system so that the physical objects and cyber-
agents can interact to each other in order to achieve mission-critical objectives,” the presentation indicated.

The four-year project, which was budgeted at around MOP4 million, claimed to be the first university to be able to develop a system that interconnects different IoTs to different places in the world, making them a global network.

“This technology has a lot of potential to be commercialized. Macau needs to diversify its industry, [so] we need to identify several fields in which we can develop technology to help Macau develop its own industry,” the rector explained to the Times.

Wei also revealed that the university is currently developing a national laboratory to develop mature technology, which he hoped would contribute to Macau and other regions.

When asked how the technology is currently being integrated in society, Wei noted that companies are approaching them to utilize their products in their firms.

“We are working for different companies,” he claimed. “We’ve been recognized  [favorably as] the very first academic journal of IoT published our article,” he concluded.

LECM, MUST and Hou Kong Middle School presented projects which amounted to MOP739,300, MOP2 million and MOP360,500 respectively. LV