President S. Joe Qin addresses AI and education at World Digital Education Conference
President Qin (middle) at the “Transformation of Teachers’ Roles and Enhancement of Abilities in the Intelligent Era” forum of the 2025 World Digital Education Conference.
Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science at Lingnan University, led a delegation to the 2025 World Digital Education Conference in Wuhan, hosted by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. President Qin was invited to discuss “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Future Teachers” with scholars from around the world at the “Transformation of Teachers’ Roles and Enhancement of Abilities in the Intelligent Era” forum.
In the parallel forum on 15 May, President Qin stated that although the teaching profession will not disappear, universities need to re-evaluate which majors and disciplines may decline and which increase in the era of AI.
In an interview with Hubei Television, President Qin said that since August 2023 all staff and students at Lingnan University have had free access to versions of ChatGPT covering teaching, research, and management, with the recent addition of the DeepSeek option. He explained that universities need to nourish talent, phase out skill training that may be replaced by AI, and strengthen digital literacy. Lingnan University has made Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) a compulsory subject for all first-year students, and developed an AI lesson preparation system that improves teachers’ efficiency by 90 per cent.
President Qin delivering a talk on “The New Era of AI and Data Science” at the Boya Lecture Series of Central China Normal University.
On 16 May, President Qin was invited to speak on “The New Era of AI and Data Science” at the Boya Lecture Series of Central China Normal University. On the same afternoon, he delivered a keynote speech, “AI Innovations in Higher Education”, at the third AIREA Forum on AI and Education, where he told scholars and experts from Germany, Japan, Australia, and Russia about Lingnan University's digital practices and insights. Prof Frankie Lam, Director of the Teaching and Learning Centre, also participated in the forum's roundtable discussion.
President Qin explains the development and applications of AI to teachers and students of Hubei Wuchang Experimental High School.
President Qin then visited the Hubei Wuchang Experimental High School and delivered a keynote speech to enthusiastic students about AI and its future applications. The delegation also visited the Hubei Media Group and the Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company.
Apart from attending forums and visiting institutions, as a leading researcher working across automation and control, President Qin discussed the transformative impact of AI on process engineering in the May Focus issue of Nature Chemical Engineering. He highlighted techniques such as machine learning and generative AI are paving the way for breakthroughs in drug discovery and materials science.
Click to read the full article: “Sensing connections in automation, control and robotics”.