City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is committed to promoting innovation and technology development, broadening the knowledge base of gifted secondary students, and nurturing future talent to address social challenges through innovative technology. Since the 2020/21 academic year, CityUHK has offered training programmes for gifted students. This year's theme is "Generative AI and AIoT Coding Skills Education for Gifted Students" (the Gifted Students Programme). One of the participants, Ken Mochizuki, a secondary 6 student from ELCHK Lutheran Secondary School, developed an intelligent device designed for the visually impaired, winning the Gold Award in the Senior Student category at the Asia Pacific Information and Communications Technology Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2024 and benefiting the community with his innovative invention.

 

The Gifted Students Programme provides secondary students with knowledge related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology through various activities, such as theoretical lectures, laboratory classes, and exhibitions. Professor Ray Cheung Chak-chung, Associate Provost (Digital Learning) of CityUHK, who is in charge of coordinating the programme, said that CityUHK will continue to cultivate potential innovative talent to have a more positive impact on society. He praised Ken for his diligence, proactive attitude and ability to seize opportunities to pursue academic excellence. “Ken has applied the knowledge he learned to real-life situations, using technology to help those in need, achieving the goal of social inclusion. From prototype to realising a product, he has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities,” he said.

 

Ken applied the knowledge about AI, programming and computer vision he learned in the Gifted Students Programme, with the guidance of CityUHK faculty, to develop the intelligent shopping assistant "A-EYE". The device uses a camera to identify items and signs in stores, provides product information for visually impaired individuals, and uses voice navigation to help them locate products, thus enhancing their shopping experience.

Ken joined the Gifted Students Programme in May last year. He mentioned that the courses taught by CityUHK professors and researchers, with occasional lectures from industry professionals in the innovation and technology sector, were professional and up to date and provided him with a lot of inspiration.

 

He expressed his gratitude to Professor Cheung and the CityUHK team for their encouragement and support, and said he intends to pursue further studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering at CityUHK to delve deeper into hardware-related knowledge. He said, "During the programme, I deeply realised CityUHK's emphasis on the development of innovative technology, including the 'HK Tech 300' programme, which encourages and assists student entrepreneurship. This innovation-driven culture is very appealing, making me feel that CityUHK provides an ideal environment to realise my entrepreneurial dreams."

"HK Tech 300" is an innovative entrepreneurship programme organised by CityUHK for aspiring entrepreneurs among CityUHK students, alumni, research staff and others to launch start-ups and ignite their entrepreneurship journey. Since its launch in 2021, the programme has incubated more than 900 start-up projects, and over 190 start-up companies have received angel funding and venture capital investment.

The nine-month "Generative AI and AIoT Coding Skills Education for Gifted Students" is organised by the Department of Electrical Engineering and funded by the Education Bureau's Gifted Education Fund. It is specifically designed for gifted secondary students. The programme covers foundation mathematics AI and Python programming for the development of relevant AI applications, and provides engineering skills and experience through practical classes and project studies. Students also have the opportunity to use industry-leading hardware and software to develop IoT devices, nurturing their ability to create AI models and laying a solid foundation for future technological innovation.