Discovery Festival celebrates innovation achievements at CityU
Emily Law
(From left) Professor Horace Ip Ho-shing, Professor Fredrick Ma Si-hang, Professor Way Kuo, Professor Alex Jen Kwan-yue and Mr William Khoo Wun-fat officiate at the ceremony.
This annual festival showcases the teaching and learning outcomes originating from CityU’s unique Discovery-enriched Curriculum (DEC).
An Opening Ceremony cum Teaching Excellence Award Presentation on 7 March was officiated by Professor Frederick Ma Si-hang, Chairman of MTR Corporation Limited and Honorary Doctor of Social Science at CityU and, Professor Way Kuo, CityU President, Professor Alex Jen Kwan-yue, Provost of CityU, Professor Horace Ip Ho-shing, Vice-President (Student Affairs), and Mr William Khoo Wun-fat, Convocation Vice-Chairman.
In his speech on discovery and innovation at the ceremony, Professor Ma advised the students to take discovery tours of themselves, the world and new things. “It is very important to ask questions and to be curious,” Professor Ma said.
He added that he was very impressed by the exhibits shown at the festival, in particular the students’ inventions, all of which highlighted how much the world was changing and that was why innovation was important.
In his talk, Professor Kuo highlighted the importance of education by stressing that a university degree was not the end of the journey for one’s education and that students should utilise what they had learned in class for the benefit of society.
“A good combination of teaching and research distinguishes CityU from other institutions, and we always make sure that the research we conduct is useful to society,” he said.
Dr Nicholas Thomas
Dr Thomas, the only awardee this year, was a committed teacher whose motto “Learning from research. Learning for life,” is exercised throughout his teaching at CityU. He explains ideas clearly to different age groups and abilities, interacts with students to make them feel comfortable about learning, and generally makes learning fun.
His students found his lectures to be very interesting, unforgettable, and great opportunities to think independently and build teamwork.
The ceremony also saw the presentation of awards to the winners of the My Own Discovery Contest, the Smarter Life Aided by Robots’ Competition, and the Undergraduate Innovators. The awards serve as recognition of achievements in original discoveries at CityU.
An exhibition titled Learning&Discovery@CityU is being held until 9 March. The event reveals how CityU students’ discoveries and innovations are beneficial to society. Some of the innovative projects include:
● Self-transformable Wheel Chair: a redesigned wheel chair that helps people with mobility difficulties to get into cars, especially taxis;
● FoneFraud Shield: a mobile app that protects senior citizens from falling victim to phishing and fraud;
● EMG-driven Rehabilitation Orthotic Hand: a robotic hand driven by real-time electromyography signals from the forearms muscles that serves as a hand muscle rehabilitation tool;
● Transfriendly: Horizon Guide: an intelligent navigation assistance system that helps the visually impaired catch the bus;
● Ferro-phone: a musical instrument played with magnetic fluid and electromagnets.
Other highlights include the Majors and Minors Fair, which provide informative references about undergraduate majors and minors for Year 1 students; the International Culture Carnival, which showcases singing and an international food tasting event for international and local students.
Participants will also learn about “DEC 2.0”, intellectual property, entrepreneurship and how to commercialise their creative ideas.
Students showcase their innovative projects.