August 10, 2015

MTR Hong Kong and SMART Infrastructure Facility harness social media to boost innovation and customer service

Geosocial intelligence technology to help MTR Hong Kong communicate and share information more efficiently.

Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation have commissioned the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong to investigate how social media chatter can be captured and used to boost innovation and customer service.

Collaborating with UOW’s Faculty of Business and using advanced geosocial techniques developed at SMART, researchers aim to enable MTR to develop a knowledge sharing platform that will capture, organise and act on information harvested from social networks.

This research project will assist the world-renowned rail service provider to develop strategies for harnessing information published by commuters on social networks such as Twitter, Weibo, WeChat and Facebook and utilise this information to boost innovation and customer service.

SMART, a respected partner and leader in the space of geosocial intelligence (GSI), will custom build a platform to suit MTR’s needs.

“Social media generates more data than we’ve ever seen before, yet it is still largely an untapped source of actionable information,” lead researcher and Director of the SMART Rail Logistics Lab Andrew McCusker said.

“Understanding how companies and the people within them learn and how knowledge is shared will allow companies to modernise their learning and information systems to be a better fit for today’s environment,” Mr McCusker added.

“Social media generates more data than we’ve ever seen before, yet it is still largely an untapped source of actionable information,” lead researcher and Director of the SMART Rail Logistics Lab Andrew McCusker said.

 

With a GSI system, MTR will be able to detect in real time the reactions or mood of its customers, allowing staff to better allocate tasks for immediate action, prioritise, review or respond to an issue.

“Social media is a fundamental part of today’s communication landscape and companies must modernise their methods of information gathering and communications if they are to tap into this valuable resource,” Mr McCusker said.

SMART is at the forefront of GSI research and development and is leading research into state-of-the-art data harvesting and analytics via social media platforms.

Professor Pascal Perez, Research Director at the Facility, said: “People around the world can now voice opinions, report on events, and connect with others, with an ease which was unthinkable in the pre Internet age. Critically, much of this information is underpinned by geographical content such as mobile device GPS coordinates, which enable the user to tie their message to a specific location on the Earth's surface.”

“It is this mass of chatter that MTR will be able to navigate and make sense of using the SMART GSI system.”

The project adds to UOWs growing presence in the Asia-Pacific Region and will be delivered in collaboration with the Centre for Communication and Public Opinion Survey at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Connected Intelligence Centre at the University of Technology Sydney.

Two SMART research entities are particularly relevant to this project:

• The Rail Logistics Laboratory (RLL), led by Andrew McCusker, which provides organisational and operational analyses to the rail industry and public transport agencies such as Sydney Trains, as well as advanced simulation solutions to clients, such as Transport NSW.
• The Geo-Social Intelligence Urban Resilience and Liveability (GI4URL), led by Associate Professor Rodney Clarke, offers state-of-the-art data harvesting and analytics via social media platforms.

Photo: CK Chan from MTR Corporation Limited and Professor Pascal Perez of SMART at UOW in Hong Kong with representatives of MTR Corporation and CUHK.

About the University of Wollongong:

The University of Wollongong (UOW) is globally ranked as one of Australia’s best modern universities and currently sits among the top two per cent of universities in the world.

UOW has built an international reputation for world-class research and exceptional teaching quality. It has a five-star status for its ‘educational experience’ and ‘graduate outcomes’.

About MTR Corporation:

MTR Corporation is regarded as one of the world’s leading railway operators for safety, reliability, customer service and cost efficiency. In its home base of Hong Kong, the Corporation operates nine commuter railway lines, a Light Rail network and a high-speed Airport Express link on which more than 5.4 million passenger trips are made on a normal weekday. Another 4.9 million passenger trips are made on the rail services it operates outside Hong Kong in the Mainland of China, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia.

In addition, the Corporation is involved in a range of railway construction projects as well as railway consultancy and contracting services around the world. Leveraging on its railway expertise, the Corporation is involved in the development of transit-related residential and commercial property projects, property management, shopping malls leasing and management, advertising media and telecommunication services. For more information about MTR Corporation, please visit http://www.mtr.com.hk.