He Tianrui from Math – A speech emotion recognition system which helps to strengthen artificial intelligence services
數學系的賀天睿 – 識別語音感情系統有助強化人工智能服務的研究

Going all out to race to the top

He Tianrui is one of the outstanding graduates of the Department of Mathematics. Except for majoring in Mathematics, he also chose to minor in Computer Science. He shared with us about the reason he chose to study Computer Science, ‘Mathematics is my own interest. I don’t regret although it is a difficult subject. For Computer Science, it is because it can apply the knowledge into the industry. The knowledge about artificial intelligence I learned from Computer Science could combine with Mathematics, that is also the trend today.’ When talking about the reason that he chose UM, he says, ‘When I was studying in high school in Fuzhou, our teacher once recommended UM to us. I was the only person kept in mind while other classmates were not listened.’ Today, he successfully becomes one of the excellent student of the Department of Mathematics. In regards of his impression towards, ‘UM is excellent in all aspects and it has many learning resources. I was able to join a 3 months exchange program to go to the University of California, Berkeley.’ he says. In addition, the teaching in UM is in English, Tianrui shared that his English level has improved a lot in the past 4 years, now he is able to watch English dramas without subtitles. The improvement of his English level makes him more confidence, even when he meet foreign teachers or go abroad for exchange program.

A speech emotion recognition system help to improve customer services

Tianrui’s final year project is about a speech emotion recognition system (SER system). Through the emotion of the speech, the speaker’s emotion (such as tone) are inputted into the model he designed. This speech emotion recognition system can be applied into a company’s customer service. If guests contact the customer service, the system can judge customer’s emotion. Whether the call is about complaint or thank you, the system can be transferred to the corresponding customer service staff. The idea of doing this topic is from his full time internship at Huawei. He saw many customers contact customer service for different questions. If they can rely on the recognition system to identify their needs, it will greatly improve working efficiency and customer satisfaction. Therefore, he believed that there are markets for this system and worth to be further investigated. The successful rate of the model designed by Tianrui is about 65%. Since he confronted many challenges in the whole research process, ‘this project not only improved his programming skills, but also developed his problem solving skills, he also learned how to adopt previous research results in his own research and wishes to continue to optimize the system in the future.’ he says.

Successfully accepted by numerous well-known universities 

Tianrui, who aims to continue his study journey, was successfully accepted by several well-known universities for his master degree application, including the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne. After being accepted by many prestigious universities, he wishes to thank his supervisor Prof. Liu Zhi. Except for guiding him to complete the project, Prof. Liu Zhi, who completed his Ph.D. degree in Hong Kong, have given him many valuable advices, which made him finally decided to go to Hong Kong. He also encouraged his underclassmen, ‘If they want to apply for a master degree then they need to study hard to increase GPA, and better equip themselves to improve the English level.’ Tianrui finally chose to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he also wishes to fulfil his immense potential in a new university and environment in the coming year.

全力以赴，力爭上游

賀天睿是本學年數學系優秀畢業生之一，向來積極學習的他除了主修數學外，更副修了計算機科學。天睿分享說:「數學是我自己的興趣所在，雖然難度比較大，但我並不後悔。至於修讀計算機科學則是因為可以把學到的知識套用到產業當中，而電腦、人工智能能夠與數學結合，也是未來的發展趨勢。」當初在福州讀中學時，聽到班上的老師推薦澳門大學，其他同學都沒有留意，只有賀同學仔細聆聽並謹記在心中，後來成功入讀澳大並修讀數學及計算機科學，最終以優秀畢業生身份畢業。談及對澳大的印象, 他說:「澳門綜合多方面都很優秀，學習的資源也很多，我大二暑假的時候，甚至還有機會去加州大學伯克利分校交流3個月。另外，澳大教學都是用英文的，所以四年來英語進步不少，看英文劇集都可以不用字幕。」語言能力的提升令天睿信心大增，即使到外國交流，面對外籍老師，語言方面也沒有問題。

語音感情識別系統，優化未來人工智能服務

天睿的畢業設計項目是有關語音感情識別系統(SER system)，透過說話內容，把對方的感情 (如聲調語氣或關鍵字) 輸入到自己設計的模型中，從而判斷對方的情緒。這個語音感情識別系統可以應用在企業的電話客服上，若客人打電話到客服來，系統就可以判斷對方的情緒，無論是有關投訴或致謝，都可以轉接到相應的客服人員。畢業設計項目的靈感來自於自己大四在華為實習時，當時天睿見到很多客人因為各種問題打電話到客服，若能依靠系統成功分辨並分流客人，將大大提升客人滿意度。因此，他認為有一定市場及條件去研究。這次設計的模型成功率約為65%，天睿說:「這次畢業設計項目的模型是要用代碼寫出來，而且當中牽涉到各種難點及錯誤需要深入分析，不但提升了自己寫代碼的能力，同時也提高了自己找出及解決問題的能力，也學習到如何把前人的研究成果用在自己的研究上，期望未來可以繼續優化這個系統。

獲多間名校取錄，成就未來科技人才

有志於繼續深造的天睿，成功獲多間知名大學取錄就讀研究生課程，包括香港大學、香港中文大學、香港科技大學、澳洲國立大學及墨爾本大學。獲多間名校取錄，他最想感謝自己的指導老師劉志。除了指導他畢業設計項目外，本身同樣在香港讀書的劉志老師給了他很多建設性的提議，也令天睿最終決定於香港繼續研究相關領域。他也勉勵自己的學弟學妹:「一定要好好學習，努力提高自己的GPA。若想申請讀研究生，在大二的時候就要好好裝備自己提升英語能力。」天睿期望在新的學校新的環境，能夠盡展潛能，為未來全力以赴。