From 3 to 5 March, a delegation led by Professor William K.M. Lee, Director of HKU SPACE, travelled to Suzhou and Shanghai for academic exchanges, marking a new chapter for the collaborative development of cross-border continuing education

The first stop of the visit was the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding" with the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) Continuing Education School at the Zhihui Port in Taicang, officially establishing a strategic partnership. As a benchmark university in the field of engineering education in Mainland China, NPU has outstanding advantages in disciplines such as aerospace, marine engineering, and materials science. The delegation focused on inspecting the teaching facilities and research laboratories of the Taicang campus, gaining a detailed understanding of its educational characteristics and innovation system.

At the Yangtze River Delta Research Institute of NPU, the delegation visited the Drones and Virtual Robotics Lab. By observing technological innovation achievements on-site, they deeply understood NPU’s cross-disciplinary integration practice in the field of "Artificial Intelligence + Engineering Education," and truly felt NPU’s outstanding advantages in industry-academia-research integration.

Subsequently, the delegation visited the Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jiading, to gain an in-depth understanding of its modern operations, including the fully automated intelligent Chinese medicine pharmacy prescription and dosing system, the AI four diagnostic system for evidence identification, and the 5G visualisation of the ward's nursing process management system. These intelligent healthcare initiatives serve as crucial benchmarks for the digital transformation of Chinese medicine education. Finally, the delegation visited Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine to discuss future cooperation and new ideas for promoting the spread of traditional Chinese medicine culture between Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The visit proved fruitful as the School not only expanded its collaboration network with Mainland universities but also created new avenues for cooperation in the fields of smart education, technological innovation, and cultural heritage, injecting new momentum into cross-border continuing education.