Trials conducted with the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong have shown that the robot can carry out a minimally invasive brain surgery called endoscopic third ventriculostomy and pineal biopsy, used to treat tumours in the centre of the brain.
CAIR is now working on fine-tuning the robotic system to comply with regulations, and is hoping to start clinical trials some time next year after receiving approval from the city’s Hospital Authority, Liu said.
CAIR, funded by Beijing’s state-run CAS and Hong Kong’s InnoHK initiative, was established as part of the central government’s plan to develop the southern semi-autonomous city into an innovation and technology hub, according to Liu.
The centre has benefited from Hong Kong’s universities, which produce a lot of “very talented young researchers”, Liu said. But the city is missing experienced engineers who understand how to design electronics and write professional software, so CAIR is looking to relocate mainland engineers to Hong Kong, he added.
CAIR also faces challenges in AI computing power, because it “cannot fully rely on Nvidia’s AI server” after the US tightened chip export rules to cover the most advanced chips used to train AI models, according to Liu. The centre is now trying to mitigate the risk by working with Huawei Technologies to see if the Chinese tech giant’s AI computing server can be used in CAIR’s research. But Huawei’s product is “relatively new” compared with Nvidia’s, he said.
“In the near future, I think we will face some challenges on that if we try to compete with international players in this field,” Liu said. “But I think in the long run, eventually Chinese companies will catch up.”
