Article prepared by Mr. Ng Tsz Hang
The Hong Kong SAR Government had invited local university students to join the delegation for the visit to France in June 2016. In the delegation, there were in total 19 students majoring in engineering from CityU, CUHK, HKU, HKUST, and PolyU. Four HKU Mechanical Engineering undergraduates were selected to join the visit, including Mr. Siu Man Kit, Mr. Chan Ting Him, Mr. Lam Chun Chung and myself.
The visit mainly focused on learning about the latest developments in aviation, engineering, innovation and technology in France. During the visit, the HKSAR government delegation led by Chief Executive, Mr. C.Y. Leung, met with related authorities in France and discussed on further development of technology and innovation in Hong Kong, in order to take reference from the strategies adopted by French authorities and their experience.
Student group showcasing latest technologies to the Chief Executive, Mr. C.Y. Leung
Meanwhile, we had the opportunity to visit different facilities in Toulouse and Paris. On the first day, we visited Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (National School of Civil Aviation), which is France's only university dedicated to aviation studies, and Europe's largest aeronautics and civil aviation university. The representatives of ENAC showed us their training facilities for pilots and air traffic controllers, including an Airbus A320 flight simulator and air traffic control simulators. We were delighted to have a taste to fly the A320 simulator, which was not a typical experience in institutes in Hong Kong.
Later that day, we visited the Final Assembly Line of Airbus A350XWB, situated in Toulouse-Blagnac Airport. The Airbus representatives walked us through the Cathay Pacific A350XWB (Manufacturing Serial Number: 72), which did not have the cabin panels installed yet. It was very rare for us to look at the wiring of aircraft so closely. Later, we were shown with the latest cabin products in the cabin mock-up centre.
Visit to the Final Assembly Line of Cathay Pacific Airbus A350WB
On the second day we toured Oncopole, a leading cancer research facility in France. We were impressed by the scale of the oncology hospital and their effort on combating cancer by researching new medicines and treatments. We also toured the baggage handling facilities in Toulouse-Blagnac Airport before heading to Paris.
Visiting the Toulouse-Blagnac Airport
In Paris, we visited Centrale-Supelec, a key training and research centre in engineering sciences in the Paris-Saclay technology cluster. We got a valuable chance to talk with local students about their achievements in engineering projects, including the palm-controlled quadcopter. Later, we also toured the fascinating SOLEIL synchrotron facility, which supports the study of matters by accelerating electrons around a 354 m circumference. This type of research facilities was literally unseen in Hong Kong.
On the last day of the visit, we visit Usine IO, an incubator for hardware prototyping, which provided all-rounded prototyping machines for young designers and engineers to put their designs into practice. We all hoped that Hong Kong will soon establish similar facilities for promoting innovation and product development.
Overall, the visit to France was a very valuable opportunity to broaden our horizon by seeing the technological facilities in France. It is of paramount importance to develop local products and innovation, which is right now the world trend. Our studies of mechanical engineering with our experience in France this time definitely provided us insights and new ideas of further developing our career in technological and product design field.