Global Markets
Home›Global Markets›Asia›ASTRI-Tied AI and materials projects start showing res…
ASTRI-Tied AI and materials projects start showing results after NAMI merger
ASTRI said its post-merger teams have combined AI and sensing research, including pressure detection and finer texture analysis, and it continues to fund work through industry partners.
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) says it has begun to see tangible outputs from its merger with the Nano and Advanced Materials Institute (NAMI), which was completed in April 2026.
At LEAP East, ASTRI leadership said the integration strengthened cross-disciplinary research by pairing ICT capabilities with materials expertise. ASTRI noted that researchers identified collaboration areas designed to improve the efficiency of discovery work that previously relied on conventional machine learning, citing robotics sensing as one example.
The institute said materials researchers developed piezoresistive materials to detect pressure, while the ICT team built optical sensing supported by AI to capture finer surface details. It added that combining the two approaches produced stronger results for systems needing both pressure detection and detailed texture analysis.
ASTRI also highlighted that it continues to require industry partners to contribute part of project funding to keep research aligned with commercial requirements. It pointed to an AI-enhanced firewall that was adapted from an IoT device trial with a government department, later packaged into a router format, and offered by a telecom company to SME clients, with discussions at the event including partners from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern markets.