Speech by S for IT at opening ceremony of Jockey Club Enhancing Youth Empathy Project through Immersive Visualisation Exhibition (English only) (with photo)
******************************************************************************************
Lester (Chairman of the Council of the City University of Hong Kong (CityU), Mr Lester Garson Huang), Professor Kuo (President of CityU, Professor Way Kuo), Winnie (Head of Charities (Grant Making - Youth, Education & Training, Poverty) of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Ms Winnie Ying), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning and happy new year.
I am delighted to join you today at the opening ceremony of the Jockey Club Enhancing Youth Empathy Project through Immersive Visualisation Exhibition. What we are witnessing today are truly impressive, i.e. collaboration and innovative solutions from NGOs, academics and students to empower our young people to develop passion for needy groups in the society, and to develop a stronger sense of responsibility among them to address the related social challenges. This initiative aligns well with the policy objectives of the Innovation and Technology Bureau.
Innovation and technology is not just about economic growth. It also can do good in terms of social improvements. And this is something that our Bureau is trying to do. The $500 million Innovation and Technology Fund for Better Living finances innovation and technology projects for NGOs to work together and utilise innovation and technology to solve social problems. These projects can be in the areas of education, environment, health or transport. Taking advantage of technology, we aim to improve the life of our citizens and address social issues in a more effective and efficient manner.
Immersive technologies are also starting to gain ground in Hong Kong's training, industrial, educational, healthcare and entertainment sectors. We are also encouraged that $28 million funding from the Innovation and Technology Fund has been approved for projects that involve application of immersive technologies. These include virtual-reality training systems for construction workers, law enforcement officers handling incidents involving assault amongst inmates in custody, as well as aircraft engineers in conducting safety inspection.
Complementing the traditional media, immersive technologies can create sensory experiences through three-dimensional visual and audio effects, holography, haptic technology and artificial olfaction simultaneously. I am very delighted to see that the City University is pioneering the efforts to adopt immersive technologies to drive social innovation.
In fact, what we are seeing in the exhibition today is the innovative use of immersive technologies to allow participants to experience the challenges facing a group of persons, such as ethnic minorities and the elderly or even that of another species - in this case a whale! The potential benefits boil down to better understanding the social or environmental issues from different perspectives, reducing inter-group conflicts, enhancing empathy in the community and even providing remedies to social problems. For example, thanks to the immersive visualisation, participants have hands-on understanding about the needs of wheelchair users, and came up with a system which facilitates mobility with greater independence and convenience.
I would like to thank the City University and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for sharing and executing the mission in youth education and social development. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Jockey Club for their patronage and sponsorship, and to the City University for their promotion of the use of innovative technologies to address social issues. I wish the project a resounding success, doing good and doing well.
Thank you very much.
Ends/Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Issued at HKT 12:14
Issued at HKT 12:14
NNNN
Photo
