INNOVATIONS
CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project: Building a Conducive Ecosystem in AI Education for Future Generations
Innovations & Impacts
With the development of “smart city,” artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly integrated into our daily life. Six major smart areas – smart mobility, smart living, smart environment, smart people, smart government and smart economy – are outlined in the Smart City Blueprint for Hong Kong (Blueprint 2.0). To nurture talents of next generations and stimulate their interest and exploration in innovation and technology, the government has been actively promoting STEM education in recent years.
Funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project brings together the strong expertise of Faculties of Engineering and Education from CUHK. Led by Professor YAM Yeung (Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering), Professor Helen MENG (Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management) and Professor CHAI Ching Sing (Department of Curriculum and Instruction), the project aims to create a new AI curriculum, a sustainable AI education model, with relevant supporting infrastructure to establish a conducive ecosystem in AI education for Hong Kong’s secondary schools.
Partnered with six selected local pioneering schools, the project team has co-created and published the “Artificial Intelligence Curriculum for Junior Secondary Students in Hong Kong - Teaching and Learning Pack” that puts equal emphasis on theory and practice, after several rounds of writing, pilot-teaching, feedback and refinement. In addition to hardware and software support, the project has also offered a wide array of activities such as professional training for teachers with sharing sessions, public education activities like online training camps and exhibitions. The project has planted the seed to nurture talents of next generations who are enpowered to develop and advance AI technologies and applications for a better world.
From Research to Market
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RESEARCH
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SOCIAL IMPACT & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT[copy]
The research team has assembled numerous distinguished researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education. CUHK Faculty of Engineering has a long history of excellence in education, research and development of AI technologies; while Faculty of Education has been a leading centre for training educators, as well as research in innovative pedagogies to meet the needs of a rapidly changing society.
During phase 1 (2019-2022), the project has achieved collaborations with 63 participating schools, and undertaken the development and implementation of a novel and comprehensive AI curriculum for junior secondary level. The project is now extending to another four years for phase 2 (2022-2026) with a view to mainstreaming AI education and establishing a sustainable AI learning and teaching ecosystem for more local secondary schools. For their efforts in promoting AI education, the project team won the Gold Award for Smart People (Smart Education and Learning) in the ICT Awards 2021.
