Date
16 September 2024 (Monday)
Time
9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Location
Conference Centre (E-P/F-01), Tai Po Campus, The Education University of Hong Kong
Highlight Video
^ Group photo of delegates and invited speakers of AIREA 1st AI and Education Forum cum the Launching Ceremony of AIREA (From left to right: Dr Henry So Chi Fuk, Dr Gary Cheng Kwok Shing, Prof Xu Guandong, Prof Zhang Min, Prof John Lee Chi-Kin, Prof May Cheng May-hung, Prof Lionel Ni Ming-shuan, Prof Gong Zhiguo, Prof Looi Chee Kit, Mr Edmond Kuo Hoi)
^ Group photo of delegates, speakers and paricipants on the Launching Ceremony of AIREA
The 1st AI and Education Forum cum Launching Ceremony of Artificial Intelligence Research and Education Alliance
The launching ceremony was attended by distinguished delegates and guests, including President Professor John Lee Chi-Kin, Vice President (Academic) Professor May Cheng May-hung, Professor Xu Guandong, Director of Centre for Learning, Teaching, and Technology (LTTC) and the Director of University Research Facility of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (UDSAI), senior management members, staff and students of EdUHK.
In his address, Professor Lee emphasized the importance of developing AI in education, as its application has become widespread in society. He highlighted the University’s goal of preparing future educators who can adapt to the industry’s evolving demands while remaining mindful of ethical implications and traditional virtues. Professor Lee also mentioned the crucial requirements for developing AI, including facilities with computing power, high-quality data, and experts proficient in the field.
Professor Cheng discussed the University’s initiatives to leverage innovative technologies, such as establishing the Large Language Model Studio (LLM Studio) to create in-house AI tools to benefit students and teachers. She expressed the University’s commitment to exploring innovative measures to ensure EdUHK remains at the forefront of educational innovation while maintaining the highest academic quality and integrity standards.
Professor Xu expressed his gratitude to all participants for supporting the initiative and emphasized the significance of establishing AIREA as a milestone in the development of AI education. He stressed the importance of creating a collaborative platform to foster innovative thinking and provide solutions to the challenges and opportunities faced in the education sector.
On the same day, AIREA held an AI and Education Forum featuring three talks by distinguished scholars: Professor Lionel Ni Ming-shuan, Founding President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) and Chair Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at HKUST; Professor Zhang Min, Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University; and Professor Gong Zhiguo, Head of the Department of Computer and Information Science at University of Macau. With the three speakers and the joining of Professor Looi Chee Kit, Research Chair Professor of Learning Sciences of Department of Curriculum and Instruction, EdUHK as panellists, A panel discussion titled “Navigating AI in Education: Opportunities and Challenges” was held and moderated by Professor Xu Guandong, to explore the role of AI in education.
As AI continues to develop rapidly, concerns have arisen regarding its impact on professional ethics and morality, data privacy, and the well-being of students and teachers. Through AIREA, EdUHK aims to establish a platform for collaboration and knowledge-sharing, bringing together the best minds from academia, industry, and practitioners to promote AI’s application and development in education. AIREA plans to organize more forums, workshops, and seminars featuring innovative minds in the educational landscape to explore the boundless potential of AI in education.
The launch of AIREA marks a significant step towards addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid development of AI in various sectors. By fostering global collaboration on research, driving innovation, and advancing AI technologies in the education sector, EdUHK and its partners aim to create a more inclusive and responsible AI research and education ecosystem that will benefit students, teachers, and the wider community.
^ Welcoming address by Professor John Lee Chi-Kin, President of EdUHK
^ Opening remarks by Professor May Cheng May-hung, Vice President (Academic) of EdUHK
^ Opening remarks by Professor Xu Guandong, Director of LTTC and Director of UDSAI, EdUHK
^ Invited speakers of the AIREA 1st AI and Education Forum (From top-left to bottom-right: Prof Lionel Ni Ming-shuan, Prof Zhang Min, Prof Gong Zhiguo, Prof Looi Chee Kit)
^ Panel discussion titled “Navigating AI in Education: Opportunities and Challenges” moderated by Professor Xu Guandong
Rundown
09:30 AM – 10:00 AM |
Registration |
10:00 AM – 11:10 AM |
Launching Ceremony of Artificial Intelligence Research and Education Alliance |
Welcoming Address
Prof. John LEE
President,
Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction,
The Education University of Hong Kong
Opening Remarks
Prof. May CHENG
Vice President (Academic),
Chair Professor of Teacher Education,
The Education University of Hong Kong
Prof. Guandong XU
Chair Professor of Artificial Intelligence,
Director of Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology (LTTC),
Director of University Research Facility of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (UDSAI),
The Education University of Hong Kong
Invited Talk 1
Topic: From Visible to Invisible: Exploration of AI for Education at HKUST(GZ)
Prof. Lionel Ming-Shuan NI
Founding President of HKUST (Guangzhou),
Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Abstract
The increasing utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education is poised to revolutionize the learning and teaching landscape. This presentation will demonstrate how faculty members at HKUST(GZ) are leveraging AI tools in their teaching to introduce innovative and diverse instructional approaches on campus, with a focus on fostering a student-centered, personalised and effective learning environment. The goal of integrating AI into education at HKUST(GZ) is to explore how teachers can naturally incorporate AI tools into their educational activities, moving from using AI intentionally to using it as easily as they use PowerPoint or Excel or Words. This shift from deliberate AI use to natural integration aims to make AI a seamless part of the educational experience, making teaching more effective and innovative, signifying a promising and forward-thinking direction for the future of education.
Biography of Prof. Lionel Ming-Shuan NI
Professor Lionel M. Ni is the Founding President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)). Professor Ni earned his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1980. He served as Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) and Chair Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Macau; Chair Professor and Head of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School and Special Assistant to the President; Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University (1981 to 2002), the Microelectronic Systems Architecture program director at US National Science Foundation (1995-1996) co-founder and CEO of CC&T Technologies, Inc., Michigan (1998-2001), and the Chief Scientist of the China’s National 973 Program on Wireless Sensor Networks (2006 to 2011).
Professor Ni’s research interests include high-performance computing, internet technologies, mobile computing, wireless networking, big data, and intelligent computing. He has published three books and over 360 refereed journal and conference articles with over 37,000 citations on Google Scholar. The winner of eight best paper awards, he has multiple achievements including ownership of 28 US/China patents and having supervised 73 well-placed PhD students.
11:10 AM – 11:25 AM |
Tea Break |
11:25 AM – 12:10 PM |
Invited Talk |
Invited Talk 2
Topic: User-Centric Evaluation of Large Language Models
Prof. Min ZHANG
Professor,
Department of Computer Science and Technology,
Tsinghua University
Abstract
Large language models (LLMs) are emerging tools increasingly used across various domains, making user-centric performance assessment crucial for guiding service selection. Existing benchmarks often overlook user-specific needs, focusing on predefined general model capabilities, such as world knowledge and reasoning. This talk aims to study user experiences, understand users’ needs and expectations, and evaluate LLM performance in real-world scenarios from a user-centric perspective. A benchmark is introduced, along with a new User Reported Scenarios (URS) dataset, comprising 1846 real-world cases from 712 participants across 23 countries/regions, categorized by the user intents taxonomy. It aligns well with human preferences, validating it as an effective, user-centric evaluation of LLMs.
Biography of Prof. Min ZHANG
Dr. Min Zhang is a full professor in the Dept. of Computer Sci. & Tech., Tsinghua University. She is the chief director of the AI Lab. She specializes in Web search, personalized recommendation, and user modeling. She has been the Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transaction on Information Systems (TOIS) since 2020, and also serves as the General Chair of ACM MM’25, and PC Chair of CHIIR’24, RecSys’23, CIKM’23, ICTIR’20, WSDM’17, etc. She won the “Test-of-Time” award at SIGIR’24.
12:10 PM – 02:00 PM |
Lunch Break |
02:00 PM – 02:45 PM |
Invited Talk |
Invited Talk 3
Topic: Generative Neighbor Augmentation for Robust Graph Learning
Prof. Zhiguo GONG
Professor of the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City,
Head of Department of Computer and Information Science,
University of Macau
Abstract
Generally speaking, the performance of graph learning technologies depends on the balance of data distribution, such as a uniform distribution of node labels and node degrees. However, the graph data in the real world is usually unbalanced because the data is often gradually established over time, and the nodes of new categories are generally sparse with quite few neighbors. In this talk, we introduce our generative algorithms for automatic neighbor augmentations.
Biography of Prof. Zhiguo GONG
Gong Zhiguo is currently a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart Cities, University of Macau, and a professor and the associate dean of Faculty of Science. He received his Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1998. He is currently engaged in research on machine learning and data mining. His main results have been published in international conferences and journals such as SIGIR, CIKM, IJCAI, ICDE, VLDB, SIGMOD, KDD, AAAI, TODS, TIST, TKDE, TKDD, VLDBJ, etc. He is the conference chair of IEEE/WIC/ACM WI/IAT 2012, WAIM2014, and Apweb-WAIM2018, the local chair of ICDE2019 and IJCAI2019, IJCAI2023, and the program committee chair of PAKDD2019 and IEEE ICBK2021.
02:45 PM – 03:45 PM |
Panel Discussion |
Panel Discussion
Topic: Navigating AI in Education: Opportunities and Challenges
Moderator
Prof. Guandong XU
Chair Professor of Artificial Intelligence,
Director of Centre for Learning, Teaching and Technology (LTTC),
Director of University Research Facility of Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (UDSAI),
The Education University of Hong Kong
Panellist
Prof. Lionel Ming-Shuan NI
Founding President of HKUST (Guangzhou),
Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Panellist
Prof. Min ZHANG
Professor,
Department of Computer Science and Technology,
Tsinghua University
Panellist
Prof. Zhiguo GONG
Professor of the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City,
Head of Department of Computer and Information Science,
University of Macau
Panellist
Prof. Chee Kit LOOI
Research Chair Professor of Learning Sciences,
Department of Curriculum and Instruction,
The Education University of Hong Kong
03:45 PM – 04:00 PM |
Closing Remark |