Nearly 40 secondary school teachers and students joined the CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25 intellectual property workshop on 19 October 2024, co-organised by the Office of the Provost and Deputy President and the College of Science (CSCI).
Professor Ray Cheung, Associate Provost (Digital Learning) in the Office of the Provost and Deputy President, warmly welcomed all participants in his opening speech. He pointed out that “CityUHK organises various types of innovation and technology competitions, providing secondary school students with different learning experiences beyond the classroom, equipping them to face new challenges”. Through CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25, “we hope students can apply their science knowledge, utilise logical thinking, and unleash their creativity to solve problems in their daily lives. In doing so, we aim to enhance students’ collaboration and problem-solving abilities.” He said.
Professor Cheung also shared the exciting news that all the six winning schools in the previous two competitions already have their Hong Kong short-term patents granted by the Intellectual Property Department, HKSAR Government.
Professor Daniel Ho, Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education) of CSCI, first welcomed Mr. Leo Lo from the Education Bureau, who also joined the workshop. He stressed that, unlike other typical STEM competitions, CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25 offers very special prizes, as winning is not the final note. “The Gold and Silver Award-winning teams will be provided full sponsorship to apply for short-term patents in the name of their secondary schools. We aim to promote the message of protecting inventions and respecting creativity.”
Intellectual property is the backbone of scientific and technological advances, protecting creativity. Aiming to educate and inspire potential secondary school inventors, this half-day workshop guided the CityUHK Science Patent Challenge 2024-25 participants to understand the importance of patent and patent systems.
Mr. Steven Fung, the patent attorney appointed by CSCI, first briefly introduced the concept of intellectual property and the patent system with concrete examples. Later, he talked about how patent benefits entrepreneurship with examples like Apple and Samsung phones, and the story of WiFi. He shared that “sometimes the world is not ready for your invention”, but if your invention truly matters, hard work and perseverance will eventually prove you are right.
Ending the workshop, Professor Alex Wong, Associate Dean (Outreach and Internationalisation) of CSCI, encouraged all the participating secondary school students to show their eyebrow-raising creativity by submitting innovative ideas to CSCI by 27 December 2024.
In the CityUHK Science Patent Challenge, students need to identify a problem and provide a creative and feasible way to solve it. All full-time secondary school students can participate individually or form a team of no more than eight participants in the name of their school. The Gold and Silver Award-winning teams will be provided with the full fee and consultation with a patent attorney for the application of a Hong Kong short-term patent.