After winning the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-2023 Hong Kong, CUHK student team Cloud Players won the first prize in the Cloud track of the Asia Pacific Huawei ICT Competition in March 2023. The team will represent the Asia-Pacific region in the global competition.

Held in Jakarta, Indonesia, the competition has attracted participation of more than 4,800 Huawei ICT Academy students and teachers from 290 leading universities and colleges across 10 countries. With the theme of Connection, Glory and Future, the Huawei ICT Competition aims at empowering students and teachers to stay ahead of the curve and drive innovation in the industry.

Professor Isabella Poon Wai-yin, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, expressed her pride in the outstanding performance of the CUHK students. The University is dedicated to innovative scientific research and will strive to leverage its advantages as a cradle of knowledge to accelerate the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong and cultivate talents to contribute to society.

Mr Zhang Zhengjun, Vice President of Huawei Asia Pacific, introduced Huawei’s PIPES talent development model in the region. “Standing for Platforms, Innovation, Professionalism, Experience and Skills, PIPES is designed to provide tailored training programmes for individuals from all walks of life, including the young generation, government officials, ICT practitioners, entrepreneurs and the general public. With PIPES, we are establishing a robust talent pipeline, not just for ourselves but also for the digital future of the entire region,” he explained.

Ms Sunny Ding, Director of the Channel & Alliance Dept at Huawei’s Hong Kong Enterprise Business Group, added that the Asia-Pacific region is a thriving hub for the digital economy, but it has also witnessed a widening gap in ICT talent. “Huawei is committed to cultivating talent for the ICT industry that can meet the demands of digital transformation. We partnered with CUHK on training and cooperation in the ICT Academy, ICT Competition, ICT courses and Smart Campus, aiming to give impetus to the digital transformation of education. By the end of 2022, Huawei Hong Kong had provided training to four local colleges and universities through the ICT Academy and ICT Competition, including AI, cloud services, cloud computing, 5G and more. We have trained more than 70 teachers and more than 1,500 students in the past two years.”

Remarks: ICT is the acronym of “Information and Communications Technology”. Cloud Players team members include Zhang Wenyu, a fourth-year PhD student in statistics, Zhang Haoyu, who is in year one studying for an MS in information engineering, and Chu Chun-to, a fifth-year undergraduate from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.