23 May 2023
The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK) has announced it will be the first school in Hong Kong to establish a Cloud Innovation School (CIS), with the support of Amazon Web Services (AWS), to foster further development of the startup communities and prepare technology talent for the job market. The school will focus on four areas, Cloud Computing Training and Education, Cloud Course Development, Academic Research, and Employment and Entrepreneurship Development and provide HSUHK students with comprehensive and practical training in cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics, using AWS’s cloud courses and resources, as well as HSUHK’s cross-disciplinary financial technology expertise.
CIS is a systematic collaboration model between AWS and educational institutions. Educational institutions lead to define the teaching frameworks, while AWS is responsible for providing cloud technology and relevant educational resources. The model aims to support educational institutions to develop their academic programs and research capabilities, as well as promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
The Secretary for Education of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, said that “Higher education is the cradle of talent and helps create a strong impetus for the growth of Hong Kong. I am pleased to note that HSUHK and AWS are collaborating to set up a Cloud Innovation School, with a view to nurturing further innovation and technology talent in alignment with the policy direction of stepping up promotion of innovation and technology in Hong Kong.”
“In this digital age, AI and data science are the new trends leading us into the future, and the demand for technologically versed talent will increase exponentially. With its unique ‘Liberal + Professional’ education model, HSUHK offers students diverse, up-to-date and innovative programs,” said Professor Simon S M Ho, President of HSUHK. “By establishing the first ‘Cloud Innovation School’ in Hong Kong, our students will be able to utilize AWS’s cloud technology and educational resources and learn to work with world-leading cloud technology. With our small-class teaching model and excellent faculty members, we strongly believe that the Cloud Innovation School will greatly enhance the effectiveness of our teaching, further equip our students for the future, and prepare them to embrace more opportunities.”
“AWS has always been committed to helping cultivate digital talent through a wide variety of educational and training resources. We have trained over 100,000 cloud computing talent in Hong Kong,” said Robert Wang, Managing Director, AWS Hong Kong and Taiwan. “We are honored to work with HSUHK to bring the CIS model to Hong Kong. This collaboration marks a milestone for AWS in promoting cloud education in Hong Kong, and we hope that it can provide more practical cloud skills training for students in different professional fields.”
The collaboration between AWS and HSUHK will focus on four main areas:
Cloud Computing Training and Education: AWS will provide more than 600 digital skills courses to HSUHK students. Additionally, AWS will provide the AWS Cloud Essentials Course, which is highly recognized by the industry, free of charge, to HSUHK’s fintech students. This course covers a range of topics, from AWS cloud basics to machine learning (ML). The HSUHK’s School of Business will conduct research and teach fintech data collection knowledge through a banking data platform developed by an AWS Partner as part of its Bachelor of Business Administration in Financial Analysis and Financial Technology program. These efforts aim to comprehensively improve the practical knowledge and skills of HSUHK students in fintech, allowing them to apply the knowledge and cloud technology learned in the classroom to real-world applications. Additionally, HSUHK has joined the AWS Academy program designed specifically for higher education institutions. As a member institution, HSUHK has several professors who are AWS-certified educators, which authorizes them to use AWS Academy’s courses and resources to teach students.
Cloud Course Development: To cultivate a new generation of cloud professionals in data science and AI, AWS has collaborated with HSUHK to design a new subject for the Master of Science in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence program. The subject incorporates AWS’s world-leading cloud courses and teaching resources to provide students with professional training in ML and AI, enabling them to use data science and AI techniques to solve practical problems. The course will jointly be taught by three departments of HSUHK’s School of Decision Sciences: Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics and Insurance, and Supply Chain and Information Management. The subjects include topics such as cloud basics, distributed systems and cloud computing, and big data management. AWS and HSUHK also plan to collaborate on designing a cloud computing foundation credit subject specifically for undergraduate students across the university.
Academic Research: AWS will provide cloud resources and technical support to HSUHK’s academic and research teams to help them achieve research results faster and more accurately. Several faculty members from HSUHK’s School of Decision Sciences have also developed demonstrations of their research results in blockchain and AI on the AWS Cloud, leveraging their research results for teaching purposes.
Employment and Entrepreneurship Development: HSUHK and AWS will leverage their respective strengths and resources to establish a productive industry-academia collaboration and incubate startup teams. HSUHK will utilize its extensive industry network to facilitate the matching of talent with different enterprises, while AWS will continue to support HSUHK’s various entrepreneurship and innovation competitions through its AWS Activate program, which provides students with technology training, judging support, and sponsorship for prizes. AWS will also offer customized innovation courses leveraging existing resources from the Amazon Culture of Innovation courses to meet the needs of different departments.
