HKUST Annual Report 2018-19

31 HKUST DEVELOPING 21ST-CENTURY SKILLS IN STUDENTS STEM Platform Introduced Promotion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in secondary schools received a major boost with the launch of the interactive STEM@HKUST platform (https://stem.ust.hk) in 2018 to spur curiosity among junior high school students and provide teaching support for these subjects in Hong Kong. The platform provides information on STEM events and competitions, and original videos from HKUST faculty and students that encourage young learners to take on everyday problems with a scientific mind-set. It was co- founded by Prof. King CHOW, Director of the Center for the Gifted and Talented, and Prof. Tim WOO, Founding Director of the Center for Global and Community Engagement in the School of Engineering. Talks, workshops, exhibitions, and booths were also organized for various large-scale STEM-related community events, including InnoTech Expo 2018, InnoCarnival, Learning and Teaching Expo, and HK SciFest 2019 to enhance understanding and activities among secondary teachers and students. Scientific and Environmental Input The School of Science supported school students’ participation in several large-scale competitions over the year. Among these were the Pan Pearl River Delta Physics Olympiad, and the Hong Kong, Asian, and International Physics Olympiads. On the environmental front, the School’s Department of Ocean Science co-organized the “Coastal Habitats Protection Campaign for South Lantau” with the Hong Kong government’s Sustainable Lantau Office (under the Civil Engineering and Development Department) in July and August 2018. This sought to promote conservation initiatives through community education activities, such as roving exhibitions about coastal habitats on Lantau, and workshops. Environmental action was also on the list of Interdisciplinary Programs Office outreach programs. The Community EXPLORE project, organized by Prof. Arthur LAU (Environment and Sustainability) and funded by HSBC Hongkong Bank Foundation, continued to develop high school students’ technical skills in monitoring air quality in their communities. The project has involved over 60 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Technology in the Community The School of Engineering gained renewed support from Bright Future Charitable Foundation for its Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers, which introduces engineering concepts and hands-on experience to secondary school students. Over summer 2018, more than 40 participants from five schools attended a four- day electric vehicle summer program, where they worked in teams to build a drivable car. In 2019, the Academy also held a series of training workshops for secondary school teachers for the first time, with over 200 schools attending. The first two sessions focused on smart living and environment, with lectures and prototype-building to highlight engineering design processes and how to integrate problem-solving and other engineering approaches into teaching materials and modules. The first public event held by the France-HKUST Innovation Hub brought together teams from Greater China and India to take part in a corporate social responsibility solutions competition inspired by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Innovation Contest 4CSRtech was co-organized with the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong & Macau and Orange Group. Winning solutions at the November 2018 final centered on: an employee mental health monitoring system for companies, designed by an HKUST team; and an integrated health and safety smart device for construction workers’ helmets, proposed by BeeInventor Ltd., a start-up incubated at the Hong Kong Science Park. Prof. Richard SO (Industrial Engineering and Decision Analytics) and his research students shared their research on human hearing with members of the Hong Kong Parents Association for the Hearing-impaired at an event at Pamela Youde Child Assessment Centre at Shatin. Along with a talk by Prof. So on hearing impairment, parents could experience what their hearing-impaired children would hear when listening to a normal conversation or a song by using a program developed by Prof. So’s research postgraduate students for the event. The meeting, the second of its kind, was coordinated with the voluntary help of doctors from the Hong Kong government’s Department of Health. The University connected more closely with the community over the year, sharing its knowledge in numerous different initiatives