On 14 March, a small group consisting of two professors and eight engineering students from the Open University of Hong Kong came to visit UIC. The students are members of the IEEE OUHK Student Branch.
They were greeted by UIC’s Mr Geoffrey Ho (Director of ITSC), Dr Mark Kai Pan (Associate Director of ITSC) and Ms Cham Fung Ying (Deputy College Librarian). Firstly, they were shown the 3D laboratory, hosted by Dr. Amy Zhang (Computer Science and Technology Programme), where they were provided with a talk about the equipment that UIC has and uses.
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| Dr Kevin Hung (OUHK) meets with Dr Mark Kai Pan (UIC) |
Dr Kevin Hung, an Assistant Professor at the Open University of Hong Kong’s School of Science and Technology who led the group to UIC mentions that he has gained a much better understanding. He now knows that UIC has a large population of students of over 5,000 and that many UIC graduates even further their studies in Hong Kong. “These were surprises for me, and got me interested in collaborating with UIC at different levels,” Dr Hung said.
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| The group from the Open University of Hong Kong got the chance to visit UIC's 3D priniting labratory |
He was particularly impressed by UIC’s attractive campus and that UIC takes it seriously to teach in English with no compromises even though it’s mainland China. Dr Hung further explains that “There are lots of resources and efforts for students’ English enhancement, plus the enthusiasm of the instructors / staff in addition to the artworks of (general education) students that are displayed throughout campus” fascinated him.
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| The group from OUHK were there shown around the Learning Resource Centre by Ms Fung Ying Cham (Deputy College Librarian) and Mr Darrell Rea (Senior Lecturer of the ELC) |
Dr Hung also spoke about how he was actually hoping to let the students from OUHK meet with UIC students and start some discussion (forums) on topics such as the differences / similarities in habits / styles of studying. Campus cultural difference, job prospects and how we should prepare were other issues he would have liked his students to discuss with UIC students. Plus the important attributes to be a successful person as well as having them discuss the defining of “success”. He understands that due to the limited time, the students didn’t get to do that. Instead, they were shown the facilities, “To me, knowing the people is more meaningful than knowing the facilities” Dr Hung said. They were then shown around the campus including a guided tour of the library, also known as the learning recourse centre. This was followed by a small trip to a restaurant in Jinding to try some of the local cuisines and desserts that are popular in the area.
In the future, Dr Hung would hope to see things like exchange tours with UIC going to OUHK, or OUHK coming to UIC in which students get to exchange ideas face-to-face. Also joint projects in areas like education technology and I.T. Finally, he would like to promote OUHK’s postgraduate programmes to students in UIC.
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| The group finished off with a taste of the local cuisine in Jinding |
Dr Mark Kai Pan mentions the importance of this visit as “A good chance for Hong Kong native students to explore the mainland’s higher education system as well as an opportunity to showcase our state-of-the-art industrial and academic resources”. He hopes this visit will achieve a linkage between Hong Kong and UIC teachers as well as students plus the opportunity to build a partnership with professional bodies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Also it was a taste of the local life by Hong Kong students to study in the mainland.
Reporter/Photographer: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Editor: Deen He (MPRO)
