From AI to HPC: Lingnan University showcases digital transformation at THE-backed summit

Lingnan University, in partnership with Times Higher Education (THE), launched Digital Universities Asia 2025 on 8 July at its Tuen Mun campus. Held over two days, 8-9 July, the summit was themed “Powering social innovation with digital transformation”, and brought together more than 300 leading scholars, industry leaders, and policy experts from over 90 universities and 140 organisations worldwide. Participants looked at how emerging technologies, and particularly artificial intelligence (AI), can transform teaching and learning, and promote sustainability and social progress.

Officiating guests included Dr Choi Yuk-lin, Secretary for Education, Ms Lim Mei-mei, THE President for APAC, Mr Andrew Yao Cho-fai, Council Chairman of Lingnan University, and Prof S. Joe Qin, President and Wai Kee Kau Chair Professor of Data Science of Lingnan University, and Prof Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Vice-President (Academics) cum Provost and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Scientific Computing.

A main feature was the panel titled “High performance computing for research and education,” made up of Dr Simon See, Global Head of the NVIDIA AI Technology Center, and Lingnan scholars Prof Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Vice-President (Academics) cum Provost and Lam Man Tsan Chair Professor of Scientific Computing; Prof Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Associate Vice-President (Strategic Research) and J.K. Lee Chair Professor of Computational Intelligence; and Prof Li Jia, Associate Professor of the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. They discussed how HPC allows educators, researchers, and students to tackle complex interdisciplinary challenges in clean energy, finance, and the creative industries, and also addressed HPC’s strengths in computational power, high-speed networks, and large-scale data storage, as well as its role in decision-making, problem-solving, and applied education. The panellists also emphasised the importance of critical thinking and human expertise in leveraging AI and HPC capabilities effectively.

Driving digital transformation on campus, Lingnan also held the opening ceremony of the Lingnan HPC NexT Data Centre and hosted its inaugural High-Performance Computing (HPC) Week. The week-long programme featured expert instructors from the Nvidia AI Technology Center (Hong Kong), who provided students and faculty with hands-on experience in applying AI and HPC technologies in education and research.