Impact Projects 2015-16
Teacher training and development of an international Community of Practice on HKU e-Learning technologies and pedagogies
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Wilton Fok
( Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering )
Telephone: 2857-8490
Email:
wtfok@eee.hku.hk
Project Objectives:
- To provide the necessary training for teachers to learn more about the latest technology of e-learning
- To promote the best practices and develop a Community of Practice (CoP) for teachers to exchange their technical and pedagogical experience on e-learning
- To collect and publish the best practices in HK, mainland and overseas
Project Description:
The e-Learning Development Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Electronic has been developing a set of technologies for e-learning such as Learning Management System, e-textbook platform and Mobile Devices Management since 2011. We knowledge exchanged our technologies with schools and book publishers in HK and mainland and overseas and some of them had adopted our technology as their e-learning solution.
According to the policy document on IT for Education Strategy 4, the Education Bureau target to support 900 schools in Hong Kong to deploy e-Learning. A demand on professional development for local teachers to equip with the right e-Learning skill is important.
The proposed KE Impact project aims to provide the necessary training for teachers to learn more about the latest technology of e-learning, promote the best practices and develop a Community of Practice (CoP) so that teachers can knowledge exchange their technical and pedagogical experience on e-learning with other teachers in HK, mainland and overseas.
Some HKU students will be hired to help in this project. They will help to organize teacher development training. This project could also create internship opportunities for our students to learn how demonstrate e-learning practice to teachers.
After collecting the best practice cases, we will also publish a booklet to share the best practices in the education sectors. In the past, we only published case studies in HK and mainland. In this project, we will also collect the best practice of using the HKU e-Learning technology in some overseas schools and universities, such as Harvard University and schools in Taiwan and Singapore…etc.
Target Deliverables in 2015/16:
- Not less than 5 professional training workshop for local teachers, to be conducted in HKU and Education Bureau
- 1000 copies of booklets for sharing the best practices
- Publish all deliverables, the booklet and the best practice on-line
- A video on Youtube and the lab web-site to demonstrate the best practices
Kids can code
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Chui Chun Kit
( Department of Computer Science )
Telephone: 2857-8452
Email:
ckchui@cs.hku.hk
Project Objectives:
- To exchange and share our pedagogy and practices on programming education with primary and secondary school teachers.
- To promote programming education and to train students in computational and logical thinking, algorithm design and implementation, as well as the techniques for analyzing big data.
- To organize programming challenges for students to learn and enjoy the fun aspects of computer programming.
Project Description:
The proposed project aims to develop a platform to exchange and share our pedagogy and practices on programming education with primary and secondary school teachers, and to organize activities for students to learn and enjoy the fun aspects of computer programming.
Target Deliverables in 2015/16:
- The online platform – the platform will keep running after the end of the project so that the materials will continue to serve teachers and students who are interested in computer programming education.
- A programming competition for around 150 secondary school students.
- The top two contestants will represent Hong Kong to compete in the Canadian Computing Olympiad (CCO) in Canada. They will be interviewed afterwards and their sharing will be made publicly accessible through the platform or other media channels.
Principal Investigator:
Prof. Francis C.M. Lau
( Department of Computer Science )
Telephone: 2859-2170
Email:
fcmlau@cs.hku.hk
Project Objectives:
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is one of the main focuses in 21st century education according to the 2015 Policy Address. Enhancing the young generations’ interest and creativity in STEM is of utmost importance, and HKU Engineering can play a key role. Programming is an important skill we can transfer to the next generation. It can develop students’ ability to problem solving, and allow them to turn their innovative ideas into practical and valuable outputs.
The objectives of the project include:
- To foster within the target students’ and the public a strong interest in programming and its engineering application;
- To engage participants in an engineering project led by HKU;
- To provide a way for students to contribute to their schools using their skills learnt through this project.
With the increased availability of low cost, easily programmable, network-centric credit card-sized computers that can plug into a computer or TV, students can put their programming creations into practical use by programming such computers. The proposed KE project is to apply the knowledge from multimedia programming teaching in the Department of Computer Science to benefit primary and secondary school students, as well as the general public and any online community interested in programming low cost credit card-sized computers. Through workshops, demonstrations and exercises, students will learn to design and program a device that can be used in their schools and beyond. We will not only train their logical thinking but also provide a channel for their efforts to be translated into practical applications that can be appreciated, hence having continued impact after the competition.
Project Description:
Through organizing workshops and a competition, the project aims at teaching primary and secondary school students basic programming, thus enabling the students to create products using low-cost computers that can be put into practical use in their schools.
Target Deliverables in 2015/16:
- Organization of the Create for School competition.
- A web site for disseminating information related to programming low-cost credit-card sized computers.
- Workshop materials on software-hardware integration and their uses.
- Workshop materials on programming low-cost credit-card sized computers.
- A list of sample codes for low-cost credit-card sized computers.
- Link of the site from HKU Engineering Knowledge Exchange Portal.
- Media coverage of the competition and the Knowledge Exchange outcomes.
Robotics in daily life
Principal Investigator:
Prof. David W.L. Cheung
( Department of Computer Science )
Telephone: 2859-7072
Email:
dcheung@cs.hku.hk
Project Objectives:
Robotics and the related studies of artificial intelligence are becoming ever prominent and meanwhile compelling in the innovation and technology arena. Meanwhile, the HKSAR Government is encouraging the development of robotics to solve two thorny issues most advanced communities are facing – that brought by the aging population and the rising labour cost. These challenges were exactly expressed by the Financial Secretary of the HKSAR Government during his visit to the HKU Engineering Advanced Robotics Laboratory together with the Innovation and Technology Commissioner and industrialist representatives in May 2015. The trend is now rising more rapidly now as Mainland China seeks to become the top robot producers in the medium term future, thus fueling more interest in applications of robotics in daily life occasions such as:
- operation theatres (e.g. over 2000 tele-operated robotics surgery cases using daVinci have been performed in Queen Mary and Prince of Wales Hospital since 2007);
- exoskeleton devices used in wearable rehabilitation and robotic graspers;
- hospitals (e.g. TUG for delivering drugs and supplies);
- vision and grasping (e.g. HKU UG students participating in the Amazon Picking Challenge);
- robotic auction enabled by locating and fetching;
- self-driving cars (developed by Tesla).
This mega-trend has already made its impact in the economy of the developing world and quietly revolutionized our customer market. It has also caught wide media coverage, e.g. local newspapers interviewing HKU on our robotics initiative. It is also essential to engage secondary and junior school students in the technology as HKU Engineering has been actively supporting the Robotic Olympiad Competition.
There is also a growing trend of collaboration between industry and HKU on frontiers in robotics technology. An example is a HK$8 million ITF funded project on robotics where PIs from the Department of Mechanical Engineering are collaborating with an industrial partner to develop robots driven by the advanced electro-rheological fluid technology. This will ultimately benefit Hong Kong’s service and manufacturing industries.
Project Description:
To provide most updated information to the community on robotics development and daily applications and exchange of ideas with local and international research groups via briefing, training, news broadcast, educational materials, exhibitions, technical tours and participating in local and international competitions etc.
Target Deliverables in 2015/16:
- Feature stories and videos on robotics applications (by show-casing key faculty members and their research work);
- Participation in 2 to 3 exhibitions, conferences and competitions which promote the subject to the public;
- 10,000 copies of pamphlets, booklets and promotional materials that support the project;
- A bilingual website and social media channels to disseminate the news of robotics development.