Supply Chain Innovation in the Age of AI: HKIAS Mini Workshop Brings Leading Scholars to CityUHK

Professor David D. Yao, an HKIAS Senior Fellow and Chair Professor at Columbia University, visited City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) from 17 to 26 August 2026. His visit featured a series of engaging academic exchanges and high-level discussions across multiple disciplines.

During his visit, Professor Yao met with key university leaders, including Professor Kenneth Leung, Vice-President (Research) of CityUHK, Professor Danfeng Denver Li, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS), and Professor Jinfeng Xu of the Department of Biostatistics. Crucially, Professor Yao engaged in extensive academic discussions with CityUHK scholars, including Professor Lu Ye, Professor Pengfei Guo, Professor Zhankun Sun, and Professor Guangwu Liu from the Department of Decision Analytics and Operations; Professor Min Dai, Head of the Department of Economics and Finance; and Professor Houmin Yan, Chair Professor of Management Sciences. These discussions aimed to explore future collaborative opportunities, strengthen ties, and foster joint research initiatives in operations research and AI economy.

A key highlight of the visit was a “Mini Workshop on Supply Chain Innovation in the Age of AI” held on 19 August 2026. The workshop brought together leading scholars in operations research, supply chain management, and artificial intelligence to examine how AI is reshaping supply chain financing and decision-making. The workshop attracted over 160 registrations, with close to 100 attendees — a strong turnout of faculty members, researchers, and students.

The workshop was well attended by faculty members, researchers, and students.

The workshop opened with a compelling talk by Professor Zuojun Max Shen, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair Professor in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at The University of Hong Kong, and Founder and Chairman of OptiMax AI Limited, titled “Enactive Artificial Intelligence: A Decision-Centric Architecture for Complex Systems”. Professor Shen presented a framework for deploying AI in real-world enterprise and industrial operations, sharing two detailed industrial case studies from major e-commerce platforms and manufacturing systems. The Enactive AI framework presented at the workshop forms the technological foundation of OptiMax’s product suite.

Professor Zuojun Max Shen, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair Professor in Logistics and Supply Chain Management at The University of Hong Kong, presenting "Enactive Artificial Intelligence: A Decision-Centric Architecture for Complex Systems".

Professor Sean Zhou, Associate Dean (Research & Impact) at CUHK Business School, delivered a presentation titled “Optimal Sample Complexity of Distributionally Robust Direct Preference Optimization”, analysing the statistical cost of robustness when aligning language models from pairwise preference data.

Professor Sean Zhou, Associate Dean (Research & Impact) at CUHK Business School delivering “Optimal Sample Complexity of Distributionally Robust Direct Preference Optimization”.

In the second half, Professor Jiheng Zhang, Head and Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST, presented “AI for OR and OR for AI”, exploring the dynamic, two-way relationship between operations research and large language models (LLMs) — ranging from scheduling GPU inference workloads to using LLMs to automate optimization analysis.

Professor Jiheng Zhang, Head and Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics at HKUST, presenting “AI for OR and OR for AI”.

The workshop concluded with a talk by Professor David Yao on “Supply Chain Financing (SCF): Challenges and Opportunities for OR/OM in the AI Economy”, which highlighted the strategic challenges and opportunities for supply chain financing in vital sectors of the AI economy, including data centres, semiconductors, and energy.

Professor David D. Yao, HKIAS Senior Fellow, delivering the concluding talk on “Supply Chain Financing (SCF): Challenges and Opportunities for OR/OM in the AI Economy”.

The workshop closed with an engaging free discussion chaired by Professor Stephen Shum, Dean of the College of Business at CityUHK, followed by a tea reception where participants exchanged insights with speakers. The workshop provided an invaluable platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and students.

(From left) Professor Stephen Shum, Professor Jiheng Zhang, Professor Sean Zhou, Professor Zuojun Max Shen, and Professor David D. Yao at the Panel Discussion.