Students’ Unlimited Creativity Unveiled in ‘Master Code’ Award and Kick-off Ceremonies
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 28 June 2021 – Since 2016, Hong Kong Education City (EdCity) and Microsoft
have co-organised the annual Master Code Competition. The award ceremony of ‘Master
Code 2020: Create a Zero Hunger Future with AI’ was held on June 25. The organisers
have also announced that the theme of ‘Master Code 2021’ is ‘Reimagine Health
and Wellbeing with AI’, aiming to enhance students’ understanding on the impact
of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in healthcare and wellbeing, where
students can make use of their coding skills, along with creativity to design
innovative solutions ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing at all ages,
so as to co-create a healthy future.
Witnessed by a bunch of guests who joined in-person and
through online, Mr Victor Cheng, Executive Director of EdCity unveiled the ceremony by his opening
remarks. He expressed, ‘Technology is for mankind. As the masters
of our future society, students should learn how to solve problems through
logical thinking and to explore possibilities in improving our lives by
utilising innovative technology. The participating schools last year performed
impressively and presented professional designs. We were glad to see students
applying the knowledge they learned in designing creative proposals to achieve “Zero
Hunger”, which illustrated their spirit of global citizenship. This year, we
are very honoured to jointly organise the “Master Code 2021” Competition with
Microsoft for the sixth year. The theme of the competition aims to let teachers
and students enjoy coding, at the same time to raise their awareness towards
both physical and mental health. Artificial intelligence can lead the society
to a healthier life – as long as we use AI creatively and ingeniously, a future
filled with health is only a step away.’
Ms Serena Cheung , the Director of the Public
Sector Group (PSG) at Microsoft, said ‘Artificial intelligence plays an
important role in driving digital transformation; therefore,
it is important to equip our next generations with AI-related skills and to help
them be future ready. We are honoured to co-organise the annual “Master Code
2021” Competition with EdCity. The competition allows students to apply their
programming skills and creativity in designing a practical solution to social
issues, so as to contribute to a better society. There are many impressive
proposals with a shared goal to achieve “Zero Hunger”, and I am impressed by
how they leverage digital platforms such as Minecraft and PowerApps to present
their innovative ideas. I look forward to learning more innovative insights into
how to “Reimagine Health and Wellbeing with AI” from the upcoming competition.’
The competition saw the
enthusiastic participation of students – with 14 vivid and diverse submissions
and some with a global perspective showcasing students’ broad worldview. A judging
panel evaluated the submissions and selected the teams from St. Anthony’s School, Tung Chung Catholic School (Secondary Section) and
Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School as the champion of the Minecraft
Education Edition – Primary School and Secondary School Divisions, and AI Application
Design – Secondary School Division respectively. Highlights of their works
include:
Students from St. Anthony’s School built a Zero Hunger Farm in
Minecraft. They utilised Face API for facial recognition to reduce food waste
by calculating food portion according to the user’s age and gender. The farm is
also equipped with smart food ordering machines and food storehouses. A
particularly thoughtful feature is the smart protective cover automatically
created by the robot Agent. The winning entry by Tung Chung Catholic School
(Secondary Section) features an ‘Unlimited Design AI-assisted Farm’. Within the
farm, there is an International Food Exchange, where facial recognition is used
to regulate currency exchange. Together with voice recognition, it helps users
from around the world to overcome language barriers and facilitate
communication and fair food trade. This entry is revealing students’ world
vision. With the theme ‘Bug Food Matter’, the team from Carmel Divine Grace
Foundation Secondary School leverages AI Builder and machine learning to analyse
pests, which allow farmers to identify pests and thus come up with a solution
to get rid of them. The team also builds a chatbot through Power Virtual Agents,
which responds to users’ questions and provides more information about the pests .
(Details
of the awardees available in the appendix)
The new edition of the competition has three divisions: Minecraft
Education Edition – Primary School (P1 to P6) and Minecraft Education Edition -
Secondary School (S1 to S6), and AI Application Design – Secondary School (S1
to S6). The level in all divisions is according to 2021/22 school year.
There is no limit on the number of participating teams a school can take
part. Each team must be comprised of two to four students, and each student can
only participate in one team in each division. Each team is required to design
one or more solutions with Microsoft Azure AI to improve human health. Students
can select one or more areas from the four specified areas to create their
solutions. These areas are improving or monitoring users’ health condition,
assisting users in maintaining positive mental wellness, promoting the
development of medical technology and cultivating positive living habits. Once the
specified area has been selected, each team has to illustrate the current
situation and problems, then how AI can be used to solve the matters. The
Minecraft Education Edition requires participants to design and present the
strategies / solutions using Minecraft: Education Edition, and optionally to
add Microsoft Azure AI APIs. The AI Application Design requires participants to
design a prototype made with at least one Microsoft Azure AI capability
embedded to demonstrate the strategies / solutions.
Master Code 2021 will be open for registration in late June, and there
will be a series of activities, such as Minecraft workshop and AI Application
Design workshop, for teachers and students. The registration will close on
October 22, and the deadline for accepting entries is 6 pm on November 2. Finalists
will be required to give a 10-minute presentation about their proposals to the
judging panel in late October 2021, and the award ceremony will take place in
December.
For details of Master Code 2021, please visit: https://www.edcity.hk/coding/en/
Appendix:
Winners of Master Code 2020
Champions
Division
|
School
|
Title of Entry
|
Primary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
St. Anthony’s School
|
Zero Hunger Farm
|
Project Highlights:
In this Minecraft Education Edition entry, the
1.
2.
3.
|
||
Secondary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
Tung Chung Catholic School (Secondary Section)
|
Unlimited Design: AI Farm Assistant
|
Project Highlights:
In their Minecraft Education Edition entry,
1.
2.
3.
4.
|
||
Secondary School Division – AI Application Design
|
Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School
|
Bug Food Matter
|
Project Highlights:
Employed the Microsoft PowerApps to build
1.
2.
|
First Runner-Up :
Division
|
School
|
Title of Entry
|
Primary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School
|
Hunger Terminator
|
Project Highlights:
They built a zone in Minecraft, that could tackle
1.
2.
3.
|
||
Secondary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
HKSYC & IA Wong Tai Shan Memorial College
|
Zero Carbon Oasis
|
Project Highlights:
They took Dubai as their theme and build a
|
||
Secondary School Division – AI Application Design
|
Our Lady of the Rosary College
|
AI Pests Detector
|
Project Highlights:
Inspired by the Microsoft AI Builder in a
|
Second Runner-Up :
Division
|
School
|
Title of Entry
|
Primary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
SKH Kei Hin Primary School
|
New Yemen
|
Project Highlights:
The team took Yemen as their theme and
1.
2.
3.
|
||
Secondary School Division – Minecraft Education
|
HKSYC & IA Wong Tai Shan Memorial College
|
Self-Sufficient Village
|
Project Highlights:
They use an African village as their theme
|
||
Secondary School Division – AI Application
|
Bishop Hall Jubilee School
|
Don’t Waste Food
|
Project Highlights:
The team used App Inventor 2 to design a
1.
2.
|
Notes to the Editors
Please
download high-resolution photos here.
Photo Descriptions
Photo
1: Prize-giving guests include Mr Victor Cheng, Executive Director,
Hong Kong Education City (Left 5), Ms Serena Cheung, Director, Public Sector
Group (PSG), Microsoft Hong Kong (Right 5), Prof Yeung Yam, Principal Investigator,
CUHK Jockey Club AI for the Future Project (Middle), Ms Law Tik, Senior Service
Manager (Charity Services), St. James’ Settlement (Left 2), Ms Esther Ng, Acting
Assistant Education Manager, Oxfam Hong Kong (Left 1) and representatives of supporting
organisations and strategic partners shared the joy of the winning teams and witnessed
the launch of ‘Master Code 2021: Reimagine Health and
Wellbeing with AI’.
Photo 2: Mr Victor Cheng, Executive Director, Hong Kong Education
City (Left 3), Ms Serena Cheung, Director, Public Sector Group (PSG), Microsoft
Hong Kong (Left 4) and representatives of supporting organisations and
strategic partners officially launched ‘Master Code 2021: Reimagine Health and Wellbeing with AI’.
Photo 3: St. Anthony’s School, the Champion of the Minecraft Education Edition – Primary School Division,
builds a Zero Hunger Farm, which replaces manpower
with kiosk machine in order to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Also,
they utilised Face API for facial recognition to calculate food portion based on
the user’s age and gender.
Photo
4: Tung
Chung Catholic School (Secondary Section), the Champion of the Minecraft Education Edition – Secondary School Division, features an ‘ Unlimited Design: AI Farm Assistant ‘. Within the farm, there is an International Food Exchange, where
facial recognition is used to regulate currency exchange. Together with voice
recognition, it helps users from around the world to overcome language barriers
and facilitate fair food trade.
Photo 5: Carmel Divine Grace
Foundation Secondary School , the Champion of the AI
Application Design – Secondary School Division, develops ‘Bug Food Matter’,
which leverages machine learning to analyse pests. It allows farmers identify pests,
then come up with solutions.
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