"The Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in partnership with the Vision and Beauty Team at Alibaba and The Textile Institute, UK is organising the first-of-its-kind academic conference titled ‘Artificial Intelligence on Fashion and Textile Conference 2018’ from July 4 to 8, 2018. The four-day conference is exploring the integration of fashion and textile supply chain and artificial intelligence (AI). Over 250 researchers, engineers, practitioners and IT professionals from the AI and fashion fields are participating."

The Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in partnership with the Vision and Beauty Team at Alibaba and The Textile Institute, UK is organising the first-of-its-kind academic conference titled ‘Artificial Intelligence on Fashion and Textile Conference 2018’ from July 4 to 8, 2018. The four-day conference is exploring the integration of fashion and textile supply chain and artificial intelligence (AI). Over 250 researchers, engineers, practitioners and IT professionals from the AI and fashion fields are participating.

The conference was inaugurated by Bernard Chan, Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, HKSAR Government; Dr Lam Tai-fai, Deputy Chairman of PolyU Council; Professor Timothy W. Tong, President of PolyU who delivered the welcome address; and Mr Zhuang Zhuo-ran, Vice President of Alibaba Group. PolyU President, Professor Timothy W Tong, in his welcoming address said the universities in Hong Kong have world-leading research and developing capabilities which is helping them to perform well in AI technology and related fields. Other speakers who will share their insight and research findings include Professor Zowie Broach, Head of Fashion of Royal College of Art; Mr MengleiJia, Senior Technical Expert,Taobao Technology Business Unit of Alibaba Group; Ms Kim Wong, Professor of Practice, ITC, PolyU; and Professor Dacheng Tao, Professor of Computer Science, School of Information Technologies, The University of Sydney.

To solve the imminent issues on the application of AI in the fashion ad textile supply chain, ITC and Alibaba are also organising a global competition called “FashionAI Global Challenge 2018”. More than 6,000 researchers and engineers forming over 5000 teams from 42 countries participated to compete for a prize pool of RMB1.34 million. The selected 10 best teams are now present in Hong Kong and will present their solutions at PolyU tomorrow (5 July).

Concurrently, a Fashion AI Concept Store is being held at PolyU campus from July 4 to July 7 to demonstrate the integration of AI and fashion retail. The store integrates novel and intelligent technology to provide the ultimate shopping experience to customers and to improve sales and customers services at the same time.