Prof. Wei Zhao, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, China

Fellow, IEEE; Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences

Bio: Professor Zhao Wei is an Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences and an IEEE Fellow. He currently serves as Chair Professor, University Provost, Director of the University Academic Committee, and Dean of the Institute of Higher Education at Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology. Previously, he held positions including Rector of the University of Macau, Vice Chancellor of American University of Sharjah, Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Director of the Computer and Network Systems Division at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of Texas A&M University.

Prof. Zhao has extensive experience across the broad domains of higher education and research administration. Among Chinese scholars who pursued their careers in the United States, Professor Zhao held one of the highest-ranking positions in both the U.S. federal government and American higher education institutions. In Hong Kong and Macau, he was the first mainland Chinese scholar to become a university rector through a global recruitment process. During his tenure as Head of the Department of Computer Science at Texas A&M University (1997–2001), the department's research funding quadrupled, and its undergraduate program rose to 17th place in national rankings. During his tenure as Rector of the University of Macau, the university was visited twice by Chinese national leaders, completed a new campus 20 times larger than the old one, and saw its world ranking soar from 2,000th to 270th.

Prof. Zhao has made remarkable contributions to advancing higher education and scientific research in China. In 2002, he initiated the "DragonStar Program" and served as its first Director. The DragonStar Program selects ten distinguished overseas Chinese professors from across the United States each year to return to China on a voluntary basis and teach graduate-level computer science courses. The program has received widespread acclaim, with feature reports by major media outlets including China Central Television (CCTV). In 2011, Professor Zhao was appointed by China's Ministry of Science and Technology as the Chief Scientist of the National Basic Research Program (973 Program) on the Internet of Things. In recognition of his outstanding achievements in science and education, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST-USA) and the Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award by the China Computer Federation (CCF).

Prof. Li Qing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China

Fellow, IEEE; Fellow, AAIA; Fellow, IET; DMCCF

Bio: Qing Li is a Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Computing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his B.Eng. from Hunan University (Changsha), and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California (Los Angeles), all in computer science. His research interests include multi-modal data management, conceptual data modeling, social media, Web services, and e-learning systems. He has authored/co-authored over 500 publications in these areas, with over 74,000 citations and H-index of 111 (source: Google Scholars). He is actively involved in the research community and has served as Editor-in-Chief of Computer & Education: X Realitty (CEXR) by Elsevier, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence (TAI), IEEE Transactions on Cognitive and Developmental Systems (TCDS), IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE), ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT), Data Science and Engineering (DSE), and World Wide Web (WWW) Journal, in addition to being a Conference and Program Chair/Co-Chair of numerous major international conferences. He also sits/sat in the Steering Committees of DASFAA, ER, ACM RecSys, IEEE U-MEDIA, and ICWL. Prof. Li is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, and AAIS.

Talk Title: KCube2: AI and KG-Powered VR Ecosystem for Personalized and Immersive Learning
Abstract: Knowledge representations and interactions are at the forefront of teaching, learning, and career planning activities in all endeavors of education and career development. University students are increasingly faced with a myriad of interdisciplinary topics that are seemingly unrelated when unstructured knowledge representations are presented, especially during advising and career orientation sessions. This is especially challenging in fast-changing technical domains such as Computer and Data Science where university curricula are reviewed on an annual basis. This makes it increasingly difficult for instructors and administrators to present both the big picture as well as the detailed knowledge components of degree programs to students who face problems in choosing a career and/or establishing a plan of study and assessment. In this talk, I shall introduce the KCube2 -- a Phase II project of KCube which is a knowledge graph (KG) framework equipped with virtual reality for structuring and presenting both the overviews of the Computer Science curriculum taught at the Department of Computing in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as well as for students to develop their study with the help of a digital tutor (called pocket TA). We employ computational information storage and retrieval methods, machine learning, and interactive Virtual Reality to facilitate users (instructors and students) to better understand, manipulate, and visualize abstract concepts and relationships in the development of teaching and learning activities in our department.

Prof. Weijia Jia, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China

Fellow, NAAI; Fellow, IEEE

Bio: Prof. Weijia Jia is a Fellow of the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (NAAI), a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE Fellow), and Dean and Chair Professor of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Future Networks at Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai.

Prof. Jia studied in the Department of Computer Science at Central South University from 1978 to 1982, where he received his Bachelor of Engineering degree. From 1982 to 1984, he continued his studies in the same department and received his Master of Engineering degree. From 1987 to 1988, he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Ottawa, Canada. From 1988 to 1991, he served as a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Central South University. From 1992 to 1993, he studied at the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons in Belgium and received his Ph.D. degree. From August 1993 to August 1995, he conducted postdoctoral research at the German National Research Center for Information Technology (GMD). From August 1995 to 2013, he served as a full-time Professor in the Department of Computer Science at City University of Hong Kong, as Director of the Future Networking Technology Center at its Shenzhen Research Institute, and as Chair of the Departmental Curriculum Committee. From 2014 to 2017, he served as a Zhiyuan Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. From 2018 to June 2020, he served as Chair Professor of Computer Science at the University of Macau, Director of the Centre for Data Science, and Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City.

In June 2020, Prof. Jia joined Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai as a Professor and Dean of the BNU-UIC Joint Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Future Networks, as well as Vice President of the United International College (UIC).

Prof. Jia has long been engaged in research in artificial intelligence and related fields. In 2016, he was named a Distinguished Member of the China Computer Federation (CCF).

Talk Title: Is intelligence a tool or an end in itself （youth or artificial)?
Abstract: Let’s first review several generations of industrial revolutions as well as the AI revolution (or “AI avalanche”) occurring today. I would like to rise several questions which I probably cannot give the solutions but wish to discuss: 1. How should we position ourselves in the AI revolution? 2. Will the youth be educated as the tool-users entirely relying on AI, even at the brain-degeneration cost? 3. Do we have way out or do we need holistic education？How do we conduct holistic education? What should we educate for the youth?