33 32 HKUST Annual Report 2020-2021 LOCAL TO GLOBAL Meanwhile, new digital and innovation leaders are set to be trained under Memoranda of Understanding with: AMTD Group, a financial institution, and AMTD Charity Foundation; China Construction Bank, to co-organize the Greater Bay Area’s first MSc in Financial Technology; and Tencent Finance Academy. The Tencent agreement is expected to generate a fintech curriculum integrating the company’s business experience, fintech case study series, and internship opportunities for HKUST students. To foster synergy with Greater Bay Area researchers in key emerging areas, HKUST(GZ) signed a strategic cooperation agreement in June 2021 with International Digital Economy Academy, a Shenzhen-based research institute founded in 2020, to forge collaborative relationships in fields including artificial intelligence, digital economy, and fintech. In addition, the University’s Academy for Continuing Education was established in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Special Collaborative Demo Zone in 2020 to provide high-quality training to keep executives up to date on the latest technology and industry developments. Among program highlights over the year, the Academy invited top universities and industry leaders, including Tsinghua University, University of California at Santa Barbara, Zhejiang University, andWITiNMEM to deliver nine seminars to the region’s professionals. The seminars were organized in collaboration with IEEE, the world’s largest association for technical professionals. Foshan Initiatives Boost Technology Transfer In the 2020 round of the Foshan-HKUST Projects initiative, 12 applications under the University-Enterprise Collaborative R&D Program were approved, with RMB31.4 million total funding allocated. Under the Induction of Entrepreneurship Talents Program, eight projects were granted funding, totaling RMB3.62 million. The FoshanHKUST scheme, organized with the Foshan city government and Nanhai district government, is providing RMB35 million annually from 2019 to 2023 for joint projects with local industry. The projects, managed by the University, facilitate knowledge transfer and technical collaboration, particularly in the field of smart manufacturing. In April 2021, the HKUST Foshan Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization opened in the Sanlongwan Innovation Cluster in Nanhai, fortifying on-going technology transfer and cooperation. Eleven incubation project teams, six of which from the HKUST community, were successfully introduced to the Center. INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIVITY Moving Ahead on Global Priorities HKUST remains the only Hong Kong university member of the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global University Leaders Forum (GULF), with President Prof. Wei SHYY regularly discussing trends, challenges, and best practices in higher education and research with the 28 other presidents of eminent global universities. In the GULF meeting in January 2021, the higher education heads explored ways that universities can contribute to the provision of skills and reskilling opportunities for tomorrow’s society. Subsequently, HKUST’s Associate Provost (Teaching & Learning) was chosen to represent the University in a working group on the “Reskilling Revolution” initiative. The initiative is a key WEF priority seeking to future-proof one billion people’s employability by 2030 by providing better education, skills, and jobs in readiness for the new roles anticipated in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and global shifts to sustainability. Also in January, President Shyy participated in the WEF’s first virtual Davos agenda, which brought together global decision-makers in government, industry, business, and civil society to discuss sustainability, economic recovery from the pandemic, and technology advancement, among others. Later in the year, he joined WEF-related virtual summits on global technology governance and the post-COVID jobs reset. Adding input to smart urban development worldwide, Prof. Masaru YARIME (Public Policy) contributed to the privacy impact assessment section of the Global Policy Roadmap, released by the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance on Technology Governance and aimed at helping identify model policies for the evolution of smart, ethical, and successful cities. The roadmap provides a baseline for cities to develop policy and identify existing policy gaps. The privacy assessment is part of the Privacy and Transparency key principle, one of five principles identified for model policies. Virtual Ways to Wider Horizons Overseas ties and intercultural understanding were enhanced when HKUST became one of 13 founding members of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)’s Virtual Student Exchange Program, the first of its kind in Asia. With the difficulties in in-person exchanges during the pandemic, the founding universities have made available more than 100 credit-bearing academic courses and co-curricular programs to students, with over 1,200 students participating. In a second step ahead for joint global endeavors fostering online learning, the HKUST Business School joined the Future of Management Education Alliance. The Alliance comprises global business schools that seek to develop top technology for online learning and to explore new business education models. Other members include Imperial College Business School (UK), ESMT Berlin (Germany), University of Melbourne (Australia), and Ivey Business School (Canada). Webinars Fathom Forthcoming Trends Numerous inspiring joint webinars with international partners explored visions and potential directions in a range of fields, offering thought-provoking insights for those attending. These events saw HKUST join with the University of Chicago to fathom post-pandemic fintech directions; KTH Royal Institute of Technology on the latest scientific discoveries on testing and vaccines on COVID-19; and University of Southern California on urban sustainability. Trends in sustainability were also the focus of virtual panel discussions with the French Consulate-General and faculty members, focusing on finance, fashion, and energy. A further joint session brought together the University and Microsoft Hong Kong to discuss technology’s role in keeping and developing talents in Hong Kong in the decades ahead, in celebration of the two organizations’ respective 30th anniversaries in Hong Kong in 2021. In total, over 10,000 audience members from the HKUST community, partner organizations, industry, and institutions took part in these events.
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