Singaporean engineers listen to a presentation while visiting Merit Interactive Co in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. CHINA DAILY
On August 16, during the Green Low-Carbon Innovation Conference 2024, a 12-member delegation from the Institution of Engineers Singapore visited several cutting-edge technology sites in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, including Merit Interactive Co, Alibaba Group, Hangzhou West Railway Station and Zhejiang Lab.
Chan Ewe Jin, President of IES, who visited Hangzhou for the second time, noted that China has made rapid progress in the field of sustainable green technologies and has put great efforts into technological research.
He said: “I found it fascinating to see the many improvements that have been made here. There is a lot that can be shared with other parts of the world. While Zhejiang provides a great platform for international dialogue, Singapore has also made strides in green technology. However, we need to learn from China’s achievements, especially the advanced and streamlined innovations here. There are many aspects that we did not know before we came here.”
He was particularly impressed by Merit Interactive’s digital product DIGS and Tongyi, Alibaba’s language model, which sparked lively discussions among Singaporean engineers.
Merit Interactive is a leading data intelligence company that empowers industries with cutting-edge data technologies. Their product, the Data Intelligence Greenwave System, or DIGS, integrates dynamic data from traffic management departments, real-time road conditions, and internet traffic perception data.
By intelligently coordinating traffic signals, the system ensures that vehicles traveling at a set speed meet green lights at intersections, minimizing stops and improving traffic flow.
During the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, the city’s public security traffic police introduced the DIGS system to ensure the priority and smooth passage of vehicles.
This smart city management tool has been successfully implemented in several major provinces, including Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanxi. It has increased average traffic flow efficiency by a remarkable 20 percent and significantly reduced stopping frequency and stopping delays at intersections and red lights.
Daniel Tay, a Singaporean engineer, said: “While there are similar systems in place in Singapore to control traffic lights, today we saw something new at Merit Interactive. Their subsidiary Wintoo Technology offers intelligent road condition monitoring, inspection and maintenance solutions that are not available in Singapore.”
Alibaba’s Tongyi language model also made a strong impression. The model can transcribe and summarize audio and video files, distinguish between different speakers, and even create mind maps to quickly organize and visualize content.
The Singapore engineers were keen to know if these features would be available internationally and were pleased to learn that they were.
“The integration of AI into systems as we see it today feels like something out of a movie. It is a new and exciting development. The use of AI for traffic modeling based on big data is particularly promising for the transportation industry. Therefore, we need to share with my members the developments in other countries,” said Chan.
The visit of the Singaporean engineers to Hangzhou was part of the international exchange activities of the conference. In addition, the 96th session of the Executive Committee of the World Federation of Scientific Workers was held on the sidelines of the conference in Huzhou, where the initiative for green, low-carbon development was launched.
Elies Molins, co-president of the World Federation of Scientific Workers, stressed the importance of international cooperation, saying: “Due to different resources and stages of development, countries will have different timelines to achieve the targets for achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. International cooperation is crucial because individual efforts alone are not enough to address global challenges, while collaboration leads to more efficient problem solving. … We are in the same boat and we need to move in the same direction.”
