TOPIC INSIGHT • 專題探討 25 2024 UMAGAZINE 30 • 澳大新語 Digital technology is constantly evolving, affecting every economic sector and industry. What changes has digital technology brought to the educational model of universities? In this interview, five honorary doctors of the University of Macau (UM) share their perspectives on this question. These five honorary doctors are: Prof Ching-Ping Wong, known as the Father of Modern Semiconductor Packaging; Prof Cai Fang, listed among the ‘100 economists who influenced the economic development of China in the past 60 years’; Prof William Shiyuan Wang, a world-renowned linguist; Prof Leong Kam Weng, a pioneer in nanotherapeutics research; and Prof Franco Maloberti, a leading scholar in microelectronics research. They discuss how universities can promote teaching and research innovation in the digital era, and share their insights and visions for the future development of higher education. Question: ‘Innovation-driven development’ has frequently appeared in the development policy documents of the Chinese government. What does ‘innovation’ mean to universities? Prof Wong: ‘Innovation’ emphasises practical, commercially valuable research, while ‘creativity’ is more concerned with pure research. Typically, scholars who aim for a Nobel Prize prioritise ‘creativity’ and pursue intellectual breakthroughs in pure research, so they put less focus on ‘innovation’. On the other hand, since pure research underpins much applied research, many research teams engage in ‘innovation’ and develop commercial products based on the findings of pure research. I have noticed that in recent years, the Chinese central government has increasingly acknowledged the importance of innovation in universities. As a result, it has allocated more resources to enhance academia-industry collaboration to boost productivity through innovations. Prof Cai: In China, as the demographic dividend diminishes, technological innovation has emerged as a new growth driver, which is poised to shape China’s economic development until 2035, where ‘innovation-driven development’ plays a crucial role. China’s economic development, including the development of the Guangdong-Hong KongMacao Greater Bay Area and Macao’s economic restructuring, is inseparable from ‘innovationdriven development’. So, what does ‘innovationdriven development’ mean? It means generating potential wealth and employment opportunities through the development of intellectual property rights. Therefore, it is important for universities to cultivate a significant pool of innovative talent. By doing so, they can ensure that students are equipped with the skills to harness innovative technologies and transform research results into commercial products. Question: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a driving force behind scientific and technological innovation. How does it impact the development of academic disciplines? Prof Wang: AI picks up language very quickly and begins to produce articles as though they were produced by a human, a development that fascinates linguists. According to the theory of mind, humans have the capacity to understand others by ascribing mental states, such as emotions, expectations, thoughts, and beliefs, and use these states to predict and explain others’ actions. This is a fundamental aspect of effective communication. In contrast, AI is fed the entirety of the Internet to reproduce language. Does it mean that AI operates on a theory of mind? I believe that by understanding the process behind AI creation, we can significantly broaden the research scope of linguistics and achieve a 汪正平教授 Prof Ching-Ping Wong 王士元教授 Prof William Shiyuan Wang
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzM0NzM2