The Four-Points Innovation Laboratory
The Four-Points Innovation Laboratory (FPIL) under the Institute of Statistics and Computational Intelligence (ISCI) was set up in September 2007 by Prof. Fang Kai Tai. The research team of FPIL was staffed by high-caliber professionals including Prof. Fang Kai Tai, a world-renowned statistician who specializes in experimental design, multivariate analysis and data mining.
Prof. Fang was giving an introduction to the FPIL.
The FPIL strives to build the best data collecting and data analysis center in China, which will provide high-profiled prompt market research and data colleting service to target customers in the Pan Pearl River Delta and the whole country. The services provided by FPIL include customer surveys, experimental design, data mining, consultancy and training on statistics. Prof. Fang hoped that while providing high quality service to the community, the FPIL could offers more opportunities for students to gain real-work experience.
The First Collaboration with Famous Enterprise in Zhuhai
In mid-September and early October, the FPIL had their first collaboration program with a famous Zhuhai enterprise, the Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port Administration Group Co. Led by Dr. Peng Xiaoling and Dr. Zhang Zhanrong, a total of six Teaching Assistants and 60 UIC students from the Statistics Program and Elective Statistics Course carried out a tourism survey in Zhuhai. The survey collected opinions from local residents regarding the Zhuhai tourism industry and as well measured the customer satisfaction to the service provided by branch companies of the Jiuzhou Port Group.
Dr. Peng Xiaoling was delivering the survey report.
On Nov. 1, executives from the Jiuzhou Port Group attended the project report meeting at UIC. Mr. Mo Nenglin, Chairman of the JIuzhou Port Group commented that the survey was conducted carefully and professionally. He believed that the data collected was helpful to the Jiuzhou Port Group in various aspects. They were expecting to have further collaboration with the FPIL.
Development and Future Collaboration
The FPIL is planning to have more collaboration projects with enterprises and institutions in future. Recently they are preparing for a cooperative survey on the real estate market in Zhuhai with the municipal government, hoping to reveal the current market development and provide substantial evidences for market forecast.
The FPIL also works on improving its hardware facilities. A computer-assisted telephone interviewing system cost more than RMB 100 thousand Yuan will be ready for use at the end of December 2007. It is perceptible that the improvement in facility will improve the performance of the FPIL in future research projects.
Students worked for the survey
The FPIL is a practice of the Four-Points Education concept. It is a platform for UIC to serve the community with its expertise, and at the same time, to create more study and practice opportunities for UIC students.
A Brief Biography of Prof. Fang Kai Tai
Professor Fang was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province in 1940. He is a reputable statistician. He was elected as life Fellow by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) at 1992 and American Statistical (ASA) at 2001 as well as elective member of International Statistical Institute (ISI) at 1985. Professor Fang visited Yale University and Stanford University for two years and was invited as a Guest Professor in Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and a Visiting Professor in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an Associate Director of the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Academia Sinica, Beijing from 1984 to 1992. He had been Chair Professor of Department of Mathematics, Hong Kong Baptist University from 1993 to January 2006, Director of Statistics research and Consultancy Centre from 1992 to 2005 and Head of the department from 2002 to 2005. His research interests are in statistics, more specific, in experimental design, multivariate analysis and data mining. He published 18 books, more than 240 referred papers. He was the co-inventor of the uniform experimental design, which is used by engineers to expedite product development. He has discovered new methods for inference in multivariate data. In recent years he has collaborated with biologists and chemists to enhance our understanding of Chinese medicine. Professor Fang will play his leadership in statistics teaching and research of UIC.
Student Journalist：Chen Liujun
Editor：Cheryl Chen/ Christy Zhao
Media and Communication Center
