Singaporean engineers listen to a presentation while visiting Merit Interactive Co in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. CHINA DAILY

On Aug 16, during the 2024 Green Low-Carbon Innovation Conference, a delegation of 12 members 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 was visiting Hangzhou for the second time, observed that China has made rapid advancements in sustainable green technology and has put a lot of effort in technological research.

He said: "I found it fascinating to see the many improvements made here. There is a lot that can be shared with other parts of the world. While Zhejiang provides a great platform for international dialogues, Singapore, too, has been advancing in green technology. However, we must learn from what China has achieved, especially the advanced and optimized innovations here. There are many aspects that we don't know before coming here."

He was particularly impressed by Merit Interactive's digital product, DIGS, and Alibaba's language model, Tongyi, which sparked lively discussions among the 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 the 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 encounter green lights at intersections, minimizing stops and improving traffic flow.

During the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, the city's public security traffic police adopted 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 notably increased the average traffic flow efficiency by a remarkable 20 percent, significantly reducing the stop rate and stop delay at intersections and red lights.

Daniel Tay, a Singaporean engineer, said: "While Singapore similarly has systems that control the timing of traffic lights, today at Merit Interactive, we saw something new. Their subsidiary, Wintoo Technology, offers intelligent monitoring, inspection and maintenance solutions for road conditions, which we don't have in Singapore."

Alibaba's language model, Tongyi, also left 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 the content.

The Singaporean engineers were eager to know if these features were available internationally and pleased to learn that they were.

"Integrating AI into systems, as we see today, feels like something out of a movie. It's a new and exciting development. Using AI for traffic modeling, powered by big data, is particularly promising for the transportation industry. So we have to share the development other countries have with my members," Chan said.

The visit of the Singapore engineers to Hangzhou was part of the international exchange activities of the conference. Additionally, the 96th Executive Committee Meeting of the World Federation of Scientific Workers was held in Huzhou on the sidelines of the conference where the Green Low-Carbon Development Initiative was launched.

Emphasizing the importance of international cooperation, Elies Molins, co-president of the World Federation of Scientific Workers, said: "Due to varying resources and developmental stages, countries will have different timelines for achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. International cooperation is essential, as individual efforts alone are inadequate to tackle global challenges, while collaboration leads to more efficient problem-solving. ... We are in the same boat and have to go in the same direction."