HKUST Annual Report 2019-2020

participated. A new 18-month project, in partnership with EDB, started over the year, is now providing workshops on research project methodologies and STEM-related disciplines for primary and secondary school learners. Academy-related activities for school students included building a drivable electric vehicle and an introduction to drone technology, including piloting different drones. The STEM+E Consortium, comprising the School of Business and Management, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, and six secondary schools, continued to raise skills and awareness on environmental protection, technology commercialization, and adoption. Secondary 3 to Secondary 5 students from 11 schools participated in the Consortium’s program from January to May 2020, giving student teams valuable experience of applying STEM to business solutions. The STEM@HKUST platform ( https://stem.ust.hk ) continued its role in raising awareness of STEM fields among junior high school students in Hong Kong, offering different kinds of learning materials such as articles and videos covering a wide variety of topics including COVID-19, chirality, water reclamation, and 3D printing. CONNECTING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES Activities with the community broadened and deepened as the University built stronger connections with different sectors Extending STEM Knowledge and Activities Igniting a passion for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an important part of drawing young people to these fields for higher study and as careers. In line with this, the School of Science formed a Science Busking Team and trained its student leaders in communication and the design and implementation of popular science activities in Fall 2019 in collaboration with Hong Kong Science Museum and HKUST Center for Language Education. With the onset of COVID-19 that affect exchange in person, the team set up an Instagram page in February 2020 to promote science to the public by posting fun fact articles and initiating engagements with followers. In further science communication ventures, Prof. David BANFIELD (Life Science) participated in Croucher Science Week, organized by the Croucher Foundation, in which 12 of its scholars received science and communication training and then visited primary and secondary schools to share their knowledge and enthusiasm. Under the Academy for Bright Future Young Engineers, supported by the Bright Future Charitable Foundation, engineering academics continued their 12-month secondary school teacher workshop series on multidisciplinary knowledge in STEM education and how to teach it, in partnership with the Education Bureau (EDB). Some 1,200 teachers from over 300 secondary schools INSPIRING ENTHUSIASM FOR STEM Raising Eco-awareness The Department of Ocean Science’s Embrace Blue Lantau project, supported and funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund and Environmental Campaign Committee, led to interactive STEM-related teaching and learning aids, and a mobile app for eco-guided tours, to train university students to run activities for the public promoting biodiversity and coastal conservation on Lantau Island. The Department also teamed up with the Hong Kong government’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to co-organize a summer course on marine ecology and conservation for senior secondary school students. Community discussion on climate change was further energized when the HKUST Institute for the Environment co-organized and coordinated events featuring two co-chairs of the prominent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body, together with HSBC and the Environment Bureau and Hong Kong Observatory. The IPCC co-chairs shared findings from its reports on global warming, climate change and land, and the ocean and cryosphere (the areas of the earth’s surface where water is in solid form) with decision-makers and thought leaders over two days in October 2019. Making Real Change To provide social service opportunities while adhering to COVID-19 distancing measures, the University’s community service initiative, HKUST Connect, adopted digital platforms to make engagement accessible to University volunteers regardless of where they are physically located. One example was HKUST Global Days of Changemaking 2020, which took place online from April to May 2020, drawing over 550 participants. To foster an “Everyone a Changemaker” culture on campus, students, alumni, faculty members, staff, and family members acted as advocates to call for action on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Actions included the adoption of more than 560 trees in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest to support smallholders and address climate change. Mapathon sessions also took place. These sessions involved over 100 students and alumni from nine cities around the world in assisting humanitarian organizations in the developing world to digitally map their most vulnerable areas for better crisis response. Regional NGO Partnerships Beyond Hong Kong, the University’s SIGHT student teams deployed innovative projects with different NGO partners in two Cambodian cities: the MedEasy electronic health record system for mobile clinics with One-2-One Cambodia in Phnom Penh; and a smart road safety project with Homestay Volunteer Teachers Organization in Siem Reap. The SIGHT unit, under the School of Engineering, is an undergraduate innovation platform to inspire students from different majors and backgrounds to devise affordable solutions for global health issues. IMPROVING LIVES TOGETHER HKUST ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 29 28 CONNECTING People and Communities