Turning virtual assignments into real-life impact learning, for example. Now, if people see the value of online interactive lecture delivery, then you will fundamentally change engineering teaching in a classroom setting.” Dean Cheng is also expecting that this experience will serve as a living example of the need for engineering education to move beyond the training of technical experts toward the provision of solutions and services that can impact society. “From this pandemic, we have seen our faculty and alumni produce so many useful solutions, provide something needed,” he said. “That’s why we must Instructors have found some students are more comfortable asking questions online. By Prof. Pedro Sander, Computer Science and Engineering 23 IN FOCUS In Spring semester , I co-taught an introductory C++ programming course for undergraduates with Dr. Cecia CHAN and Dr. Cindy LI. As with other HKUST courses, we had to conduct our classes entirely on Zoom. The virtual setting made it more challenging to interact with students during lectures, though a er-lecture Zoom discussions were productive and the interaction very natural. We did have to overcome some challenges on organizing the programming lab sessions and exams, but in terms of teaching the material, I feel Computer Science in general is suitable for this setting. To show how work as a computer scientist relates and can potentially impact topical aspects of life, in this case COVID- , we decided to explore the wealth of data available to enable students to analyze the current outbreak in di erent countries. The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in the US keeps daily updated statistics for COVID- cases. We used this data as input, and worked with teaching associate Mr. Wallace MAK to develop an assignment asking students to process the data and generate relevant statistics about the outbreak. I developed a web-based motion chart that loads and displays the statistics from their assignment so that students could visualize the trends. Students were excited to explore this daily updated data and compute relevant statistics that allowed them to clearly understand the current situation in di erent countries. Meanwhile, I continued to work on a more advanced version of the visualization tool online. It became a hit, with several people using it daily to explore the statistics and better analyze the current situation in several countries. This work also sparked research on how to assign optimal colors to countries in the visualization. I am now collaborating with Prof. Guilherme FONSECA, from Aix-Marseille University in France, who is developing and ne-tuning an algorithm to assign automatic color visualizations based on national colors. We plan to further explore other aspects of the visualization. So from one innovative project assignment to multiple impacts, not only on students but on the wider community as well. strengthen our students’ training in the humanities in addition to technical knowledge. In this way, they will understand people’s needs, and the services and products they create will not just be another technical solution or gadget but impactful and relevant.” View the COVID-19 statistical web-based motion chart
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