Research center for machine translation, AI established at IPM

A research center for machine translation and artificial intelligence opened at the Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM, from the Portuguese acronym) last week, becoming the first mainland China “Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center” in Macau.

Officially called the “Engineering Research Center of Applied Technology on Machine Translation and Artificial Intelligence, Ministry of Education”, the center will be managed at a macro level by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Ao Ieong U, who was present at last week’s opening ceremony, declared that the establishment of the center would help to fill the gap in Sino-Portuguese machine translation in the academic field.

Ao Ieong looks forward to the center’s research development and output of higher-level application products in the future, providing technical support and language services for the country’s construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and the realization of language interoperability.

The Secretary said that the establishment of the center shows the Ministry of Education’s endorsement of IPM and also the great support of the country to Macau. Ao Ieong also said it was favorable to the city’s participation in building the Greater Bay Area into an international scientific center for innovation.

This center is the first of its kind in Macau. The mission of these centers is guided by the national medium and long-term educational and technological development plan, based on the basic research advantages of colleges and universities, to provide scientific and technological support for national strategic needs.

In principle, the center should be composed of fixed and mobile personnel, and have at least 50 permanent staff.

The director of the center should be publicly selected and appointed by IPM, which should report to the competent department and the Ministry of Education.

The technical committee should have no less than 11 members. Each technical committee’s term lasts five years and, in principle, the committee should not serve more than two terms. JZ