Talk Abstracts

 

 

 


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Title: "Big Data Decision Analytics @ CUHK"

Speaker: Professor Helen Meng, Director, Stanley Ho Big Data Decision Analytics Research Centre, CUHK

Abstract:
Technologies in mobility, Internet of Things, client-cloud architectures, affordable massive data storage, broadband networks and heterogeneous data, etc. have created an unprecedented explosion in data known as “Big Data”. Big Data is characterized by its “Volume”, “Velocity”, “Variety” and “Veracity”. Deriving “Value” from Big Data leads us to the field of “Analytics”, which aims to understand the data and deriving intelligence to make evidence-based, optimized and insightful decisions. This talk introduces CUHK's initative to embark on the interdisciplinary pursuit of Big Data Decision Analytics, covering such areas as Public Health, Earth System Science, Logistics and Supply Chain Management and Digital Learning.

Biography:
Helen Meng is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received all her degrees from MIT and joined CUHK in 1998. She is also the Founding Director of the Microsoft-CUHK Joint Laboratory for Human-Centric Computing and Interface Technologies, which has been recognized as a Ministry of Education of China (MoE) Key Laboratory since 2008. In 2013, she helped establish the CUHK Big Data Decision Analytics Research Center and serves as its Founding Director. She also served as Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Engineering from 2006 to 2010. She was Technical Program Chair of INTERSPEECH 2014, former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing, and was elected into the IEEE Board of Governors in 2014. She served in the review panels of the Swedish Research Council European Research Infrastructure Initiative, and the National Centres of Competence in Research of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Helen’s local professional services include Convenor of the Working Party for the 2015 Manpower Survey of the Information Technology Sector in Hong Kong, and Convenor of the Engineering Assessment Panel of the Research Grants Council funding schemes for the Local Self-financing Degree Sector. She holds appointed memberships in the Steering Committee on eHealth Record Sharing of the HKSAR Government, Council membership of the Hong Kong Productivity Council, Open University of Hong Kong, and former memberships in the Research Grants Council and HKSAR Government’s Digital 21 Strategy Advisory Committee. 

Helen received the Ministry of Education Higher Education Outstanding Scientic Research Output Award in Technological Advancements in 2009, and CUHK's Faculty of Engineering Exemplary Teaching Award, Young Researcher Award, and Service Award in previous years. Helen is a Fellow of the Hong Kong Computer Society, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and IEEE.

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Steve Ward.jpgTitle: "Algorithmic Education"

Speaker: Professor Steve Ward, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, MIT CSAIL

Abstract:
It is widely recognized that computer literacy is a valuable component of contemporary education, owing to the widespread applicability of algorithmic skills in our professional and
personal lives.  Beyond that common assumption is the growing argument that algorithmic thinking be viewed as an underlying dimension of education, along with reading, writing, and mathematics, rather than as an add-on module for existing educational programs.  The integration of algorithmic thinking into education (at any level) is a challenging goal, as it requires re-thinking how other (not obviously computer-related) material is taught.  The motivation and potential benefits of this program will be discussed, along with the challenges it presents.

Biography:
Steve Ward is Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT, whose faculty he joined in 1974.  Since that time his teaching and research have dealt broadly with the architecture of computer systems, at both hardware and software levels; recent research foci have included goal oriented computing and related variants of conventional computing models.  Currently his primary interest is in education -- including the engineering of educational tools, experiences, and concepts.

Steve holds SB, SM, and PhD degrees from MIT.

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Alvin Leung_0.jpgTitle: "Technology-mediated Learning, Big Data, and Learning Outcomes: Issues and Challenges in Education"

Speaker: Professor Alvin Leung, Dean, Faculty of Education, CUHK

Abstract:
Technology has transformed the process of teaching and learning in education but the positive and transformational effects of technology-mediated learning have yet to be proven. In this presentation, issues and challenges related to researching and understanding learning outcomes in an era where the use of computing technology has made availability "million datapoints" are discussed.

Biography:
Alvin S. M. Leung is Dean of Education of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research interest includes career development and assessment, school guidance, and cross-cultural and multicultural issues in education and counseling. Among the awards he received included the "Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of the Counseling Profession" Award from the Society of Counseling Psychology of the American Psychological Association in 2009. He currently serves as Chief Principal Investigator of a large project supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to develop a e-platform and e-resources to aid the career exploration of young people.

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Chris Terman.jpgTitle: "See One, Do One, Teach One"

Speaker: Professor Chris Terman, Director of Academics, MIT edX, MIT CSAIL

Abstract:
This talk describes work to adapt traditional teaching techniques for use online and our experiences in using the results in both blended learning and MOOC environments.  Our goal is to enable hands-on interaction via visualizations and virtual lab benches, spanning the range from guided step-by-step engineering activities to more open-ended design challenges.  Student feedback is provided through a combination of automated testing, peer interactions, and comparison with a large corpus of previously submitted work.  The tools we'll describe have been used by 1000s of students here at MIT and 100,000s of students on the edX platform.

Biography:
Dr. Chris Terman is a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with four decades of experience as a teacher, digital systems designer, courseware developer, and entrepreneur. Chris' research has been in the areas of programming languages, compilers and computer-aided design tools for integrated circuits. Most recently he was the research director of the MIT Qmulus Education project, a research collaboration with Quanta Computer, Inc., focused on the development of cloud-based educational technologies.

Chris received his BS in Physics from Wesleyan University and headed to MIT for graduate school in 1973.  He completed his MS, EE and PhD degrees in Computer Science and Engineering and subsequently joined MIT's EECS faculty.  Chris escaped from MIT in 1985 and tried his hand at being an entrepreneur before returning to MIT in 1995.  Chris is an avid hiker and enjoys guiding summer walking tours in the Swiss Alps.

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53ec281b02e67.jpgTitle: "Demythologize the development of student creativity in collaborative e-learning: Potential contributions of data science"

Speaker: Professor Chi-yue Chiu, Dean, Faculty of Social Science, CUHK

Abstract:
Aside from their importance in sustainable economic growth and evolution of human civilizations, creativity and innovation are important goals in education and human development. Research has shown that collaborative learning activities, particularly those that engage students from different national and disciplinary cultures, can foster creativity. However, not much is known about the motivational, affective, cognitive and interpersonal processes that promote or hinder development of creativity in team learning. e-learning provides ample opportunities for collaborative learning across national and disciplinary boundaries, as well as rich data to identify the active ingredients that drive creativity in cross-cultural, integrative collaborations. In this talk I will share my thoughts on how e-learning and data science can help to demythologize the development of creativity in collaborative learning.

Biography:
Prof. Chiu Chi-yue is an internationally renowned behavioral scientist.  He received his PhD from Columbia University (New York) in social psychology, and is currently Choh-Ming Li Professor of Psychology and Dean of Social Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Chiu has created several new fields of investigation in basic and applied social sciences, including multiculturalism and creativity, and polycultural psychology. The rich implications of his research on the development of personal, social and cultural competences have been extensively exploited in education, management, marketing, legal studies, arts, sports, communication, and international relations. Being an active researcher, Professor Chiu owns an impressive record of research awards and publications with significant impact. He is also an innovative and passionate educator and the winner of several outstanding teaching awards at the universities he taught.  Professor Chiu possesses extensive
academic management experience.  During his early years at the University of Hong Kong, he served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and as the Head of the Department of Psychology there.  He was the Founding Director of the Culture Science Institute and the Research Director of the College of Business at Nanyang Technological University.  He has actively contributed to the academic community through his editorial roles in reputable journals and book series. For eight years, he has collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to offer voluntary research development training to Chinese social scientists in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and Australia.

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Rob Miller.jpgTitle: "Online Education with Learnersourcing"

Speaker: Professor Rob Miller, Professor, MIT CSAIL

Abstract:
One challenge of MOOCs is the enormous size of the classes, which typically draw more than 10,000 students at a time.  We are exploring ways to turn the size of the class into an advantage instead.  One way is "learnersourcing," a kind of crowdsourcing that draws on the crowd of students to improve lecture videos.  Passive learnersourcing observes their video-watching behavior, and active learnersourcing asks students to help outline and summarize parts of a video to make the video easier to navigate.  We are also studying ways to visualize and cluster thousands of student-written programs in a programming MOOC, by exploiting common behavior in the programs.  The overall goal of this work is to find ways to use the massive scale of MOOCs to make the smaller-scale on-campus learning experience better

Biography:
Rob Miller is a professor of computer science at MIT, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He earned bachelors and masters degrees in computer science from MIT (1995) and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (2002). He has won an ACM Distinguished Dissertation honorable mention, NSF CAREER award, and six best paper awards at UIST and USENIX. He has been program co-chair for UIST 2010, general chair for UIST 2012, associate editor of ACM TOCHI, associate director of MIT CSAIL, and education co-officer of MIT EECS. He has won two department awards for teaching, and was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow for outstanding contributions to MIT undergraduate education. His research interests lie at the intersection of programming and human computer interaction, including crowd computing, online education, software development tools, and end-user programming.
 
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Irwin King_0.pngTitle: "Big Education on KEEP (Knowledge and Education Exchange Platform)"

Speaker: Professor Irwin King, Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Engineering, CUHK

Abstract:
With the recent development of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), University Open Online Course (UOOC), Small Personal Online Course (SPOC), flipped classroom, etc., these novel online eLearning pedagogies are providing quality education at scale to the masses and are fueling a transformative change with the use of technology in education.  The Knowledge and Education Exchange Platform (KEEP) is an education portal with knowledge aggregation and technology integration that provides access to quality educational resources.  Against this backdrop, the talk will present how KEEP is being used in Big Education for learning analytics and scaled education anytime, anywhere, on any devices to anyone.

Biography:
Irwin King is the Associate Dean (Education) of the Engineering Faculty and Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also the Director of Rich Media and Big Data Key Laboratory at the Shenzhen Research Institute. His research interests include machine learning, social computing, Big Data, data mining, and multimedia information processing.  Recently, Prof. King has been an evangelist in the use of education technologies in eLearning for the betterment of teaching and learning.

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Title: "Using Human Language Technology to Improve MOOC Learning"

Speaker:  Professor Victor Zue, Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT CSAIL

Abtract:
This talk will describe some of our recent research on developing content processing and search capabilities for MOOC using human language technologies.  Specifically, we first show mechanisms to link several offerings of the similar courses from different institutions and platforms to customize students' learning.  We then show that linking the various courseware associated with a given course will improve some learning-related tasks, especially for novices.

Biography:
Victor Zue is the Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. For more than three decades at MIT, Victor studied and codified the acoustic manifestation of speech sounds in American English, and the subsequent application of this knowledge in the development of spoken dialogue interfaces to make human-computer interactions easier and more natural. After a ten-year hiatus serving various stewardship positions at MIT, Victor has returned to teaching and research in 2011. His current research interests are in the area of applying human language technologies to enable easy access of structured and unstructured information from the web, especially in online education.

Victor is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, and a Fellow of the International Speech Communication Association. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and an Academician of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He received the Okawa Prize in 2012, and the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award in 2013.

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