CityUHK partners with Tencent to nurture AI teaching talent and strengthen youth technology literacy
24 Mar 2026
In response to the rapid transformation and development of higher education, City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) recently established several new colleges and institutes dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary studies, artificial intelligence (AI), innovation, and technology research and applications. The University is also actively expanding collaboration with technology enterprises. Among them is a partnership with Tencent WeTech Academy to host the “Principals’ AI Open Class and Tencent AI Campus Tour” event on the CityUHK campus from 16 to 19 March. This programme allowed students to experience and learn about the latest AI applications, while also providing AI related training for Hong Kong primary and secondary school principals, preparing them for the future educational needs.
The opening ceremony of the event was held on 16 March, officiated by Mr Paul Chan Mo-po, Financial Secretary of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In his remarks, he said he was pleased to see Tencent and CityUHK combining their strengths to enhance society’s AI literacy and promote innovative applications of frontier AI technologies in education. He expressed confidence that the initiative would inspire the development of more new projects and help nurture additional AI talent for society.
Professor the Hon Michael Ngai, Chairman of the CityUHK Council, noted that the collaboration between CityUHK’s Institute of Future Learning and Tencent aligns perfectly with CityUHK’s vision to advance digital learning technologies. He hoped that the initiative would encourage widespread participation in AI innovation among teachers and students across the city.
Dr James Li Tsz-shu, Vice President of Public Affairs and Vice President of Cloud & Smart Industries at Tencent, remarked that by opening up Tencent’s core technologies and ecosystem resources, the company aims to inspire young people to use technology to address societal challenges and unleash their innovative potential.
The “Principal’s AI Open Class and Tencent AI Campus Tour” programme catered comprehensively for the needs of both teachers and students. It featured two AI lectures specifically for principals, enabling more than 100 primary and secondary school principals to receive AI training, engage in hands on development with the Weixin Mini Programme with AI, and experiment with intelligent education models.
An AI Programming Bootcamp was also organised, allowing CityUHK students to learn and experiment with various AI models in the market—including Tencent’s AI application tools CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, which allow users to handle various tasks without any programming background.
In addition, from 16 to 19 March, an AI Experience Zone was set up on campus, showcasing four major themes: AI in Education, AI Empowering Teaching, AI Empowering Scientific Research and Tech for Good. Highlights included CityUHK’s professional AI research assistant, “SciencePal”, which demonstrated its potential applications in research planning, literature reviews and experimental testing; along with various AI products developed by Tencent that allowed students to explore diverse applications of AI in education, research and everyday life.
The event provided students and education leaders with a comprehensive understanding of the latest trends in AI development and strengthened connections between the local education sector and technology enterprises. CityUHK will continue to enhance technology literacy and innovation capabilities within the education community, further driving Hong Kong’s development in AI education and research.