HKUST Annual Report 2023-2024

14 Learning for Life Ready for Game-Changing Rewards and Risks of AI As a tech-rich university, keeping ahead of the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence (AI) is a key objective for our educators. Their commitment is demonstrated by the 16 projects supported by HKUST’s Education and Generative AI (EDGE-AI) Fund in 2023-24. The fund, established in spring 2023, promotes best new practice for using generative AI in undergraduate teaching. Topics cover AI tools for assessment and peer feedback, virtual teaching assistants, and AI-assisted design thinking, among others. Externally, we received support through the recently established University Grants Committee (UGC) Fund for Innovative Technology-in- Education. Projects supported include “Reimagining Assessment” and “Creating a Generative AI Companion”. In addition, the University is actively involved in digital education innovation internationally. In January 2024, HKUST became a founding member of the Cyber- Physical Learning Alliance and the Digital Education Alliance. These alliances motivate global collaboration on learning analytics and smart classrooms, and provide access to executive briefings on global education trends. Boundary-Breaking Learning for Practical Dreamers Meanwhile, the opening of HKUST(GZ) has sped forward the University’s contribution to groundbreaking cross- border education and intercampus synergy. Over the year, this led to the introduction of the Cross-Campus Academic Coordination Framework, which will coordinate and regulate core academic affairs across HKUST and HKUST(GZ) to ensure comparable quality of academic offerings and facilitate collaboration between the two campuses. The launch of the Redbird Cross Campus Study Program will boost resource-sharing and other synergies. To facilitate the development of quality taught postgraduate programs at HKUST(GZ), a set of Guiding Principles was also adopted in 2023-24. The University pushed past conventional experiential boundaries as the first cross-disciplinary, cross-campus, and cross-reality course got underway in fall 2023. “Metaverse Cross-Disciplinary Design Thinking” enabled students from different disciplines at HKUST and HKUST(GZ) to immerse themselves in the University’s new metaverse classroom, opening up learning opportunities that overcome physical and other limitations of the real world and stimulate creativity. In other novel cross-campus ventures, HKUST introduced Asia’s first “AI lecturers” in spring 2024, mobilizing out- of-the-box teaching and fostering studies involving both Hong Kong and Guangzhou campuses.