Innovate for Future (IFF) is an open competition of innovation & technology to inspire our young people in Hong Kong to create innovative products or services for solving and improving our real life challenges, though idea generation to prototype development. The competition may apply to all local schools including primary, secondary and tertiary. Students will pitch how to move human society forward with feasible innovation and products in our coaching process.

This competition is supported by our international partner, San Jose State University (SJSU) Silicon Valley Center for Global Studies (SVCGS). The final champion or winners will have opportunity to submit their projects to SJSU global program such as Silicon Valley Innovation Challenge (SVIC) Competition and Showcase.

This competition is supported by our Technology & Support Sponsors of IFF2023.  The final champion or winners will have opportunity to be nominated to join their industry support programs.

IFF2023 Competition Theme

Social Innovation & Sustainability for Future

Social Innovation is hot topic today, it is a process to improve the welfare and wellbeing of our society. It is also an innovative way to take care of social needs and resolve our environmental challenge.  We expect that it is a long term goal to foster social innovation and bring us a sustainable future.  Social innovators are playing a crucial role to design new principles and tools of sustainable development and put them into practice.  To achieve this mission, our Innovate for Future (IFF) and competition event will develop an innovative platform for young people to design innovative products or services that can improve our environment, our health and our society.  Students will be inspired to create their ideas in an innovative way, raise out the concern of our society and learn to resolve our real life challenges through IFF competition with supported by academic partners, industry mentorship and other global programs.

IFF2023 Competition Event Highlight

  • One-Day Competition Pitch cum Conference
  • Pitch & Demonstration by Student Projects
  • Half-day Conference & Technology Speakers Sharing
  • Exhibit Past IFF Projects Showcases in Conference
  • Local & Global Technology Partners Support and Sharing
  • Global Competition Submission to SVIC/SJSU
  • Internship Program and Continue Supports for Post-Event

Awards & Prizes

Total Cash Awards: HK$32,000

Awards with Cash and Certificate
(For Secondary & Tertiary Streams)

  • Champion HK$8,000
  • 1st Runner up HK$5,000
  • 2nd Runner up HK$3,000
Awards with Certificate
  • Certificate of Excellence (2 teams)
  • Certificate of Merit (5 teams)
 

Awards Cups with Certificate
(For Top 3 Primary Stream)

  • Certificate of Excellence (2 teams)


Certification of Participation for All Participants

  • SJSU Global Program: Winners will be nominated to submit their projects to SVIC Showcase.
  • Public Exposure in EXPO: Winners will be invited to our Exhibition Partners to present talks and showcases.
  • Industry Support Program: Winners will be nominated to our Technology & Support Sponsors to extend their projects through their industry support and other training programs.
  • Funding Program: Winners will be nominated to our HKETA partners to apply funding scheme to extend their project for commercialization.


Remark
: The organizer reserves the rights to make final decisions for the nomination and invitation.

IFF2023 Winners Benefits

  • One year of Youth Membership
  • Access to HKETA’s Industry Community
  • Start-up and Mentorship Training
  • Global Entrepreneurship Program
  • Public Exposure

Conference Talks

Talk 1: Enabling Digital Transformation in Small and Medium Enterprises – Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Opportunities (in Virtual Base)

Speaker: Dr. Ben CHENG, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Manufacturing, Materials and Mechatronics, School of Engineering, STEM College, RMIT University, Australia

Talk 2: Generative AI and its Application in Industrial Metaverse

Description:  ChatGPT attracts a lot of attention recently for text generation and its downstream task. Diffusion model can generate photorealistic images according to your given description.  Generative AI also play a very important role in the development of industrial metaverse application. Technology such as Domain randomization can create different scene and scenario to develop robust AI applications.  In this talk, we will talk about generative AI and how it can be applied to industrial metaverse.

Speaker: Dr. Charles CHEUNG, Ph.D., Senior Data Scientist and Deputy Director, NVIDIA AI Technology Center Hong Kong, NVIDIA

Talk 3: AI for Video Analytics

Description:  AI for Video Analytics is a cutting-edge approach that leverages the power of machine learning and deep learning to transform video surveillance systems. By equipping video surveillance with advanced analytical capabilities, AI-driven video analytics promises to revolutionize the way monitor, process, and interpret vast amounts of video data in real-time. It helps our lives becomes smarter in several ways, traffic management, crowd monitoring, waste management, optimize traffic signals and etc.

Speaker: Mr. Hiroshi OCHIAI, Director Alliances, Portfolio and Customer Services, APAC, Axis Communications.

Talk 4: Education in Technology Aspect, TBC

Speaker: Dr. Alan WONG, Ph.D., Acting Associate Dean of College of Professional & Global Education, and Director of Silicon Valley Center for Global Studies, San Jose State University, USA

Timeline for IFF2023

IFF2023 Event Launch
Open For School Team Registration

Deadline : 15/5/2023 12:00nn Closed

Judging Session for Top 5 Teams Selection
Past IFF Showcases Registration
Mentorship Kick off (include Site Visit, Sharing Session)
Pitch cum Conference & Awards Ceremony
Global Competition to SJSU/SVIC

Judges:

  • Dr. Charles CHEUNG, Ph.D., Senior Data Scientist and Deputy Director, NVIDIA AI Technology Center Hong Kong, NVIDIA
  • Mr. Hiroshi OCHIAI, Director Alliances, Portfolio and Customer Services, APAC, Axis Communications
  • Professor Eric Wing Kuen SEE-TO, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Computing & Decision Sciences, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
  • Mr. Ricky CHOI, Senior Manager, Smart Living, Cyberport

Mentors:

  • Dr. Jeff AU, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer, Department of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, School of Science and Technology, The Hong Kong Metropolitan University
  • Mr. Kelvin TO, Senior Project Officer, Smart City Innovation Centre and VTC STEM Education Centre, Vocational Training Council

Partners & Sponsors

Organizer
Premium Supporting Organization
Venue Sponsors
Exhibition Partners
Awards Sponsors
Technology & Support Sponsors
Supporting Organizations