Edge AIoT and Microelectronics (EdgeAIoTM) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students

Off-school Advanced Learning Programme (2024/25 school year):
Edge AIoT and Microelectronics (EdgeAIoTM) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students
(Funded by Gifted Education Fund)

Introduction

The Edge AIoT and Microelectronics (EdgeAIoTM) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students programme aims to equip gifted students with essential knowledge and skills related to AI, IoT, edge computing, and microelectronics technologies. It also seeks to empower them with coding, engineering, and mathematics skills, as well as critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving abilities. These soft and hands-on skills will enable them to develop applications that can solve current and future world problems.

Programme Objectives

To provide gifted students with the foundational knowledge and techniques in AI, edge computing, IoT and microelectronics to solve local and global problems;
To equip students with engineering skills and experiences through lab sessions, assignments and projects, to develop edge AIoT devices by using advanced hardware and software utilised in the industry;
To create awareness of the semiconductor manufacturing process, and nurture talents that can design and develop semiconductor and hardware systems demanded in Hong Kong and global industry, market, and academia;
To inspire gifted students about the role and applications of microelectronics in other advanced applications such as AI and IoT. Students will learn how to design and implement pure hardware, System on Chip (SoC) and Integrated Circuit (IC) for AI and IoT applications;
To arouse students’ awareness on ethics of using AI and other technologies in daily life and its security issues, and nurture their ability to evaluate and analyse various systems; and
To nurture positive values and attitudes among students and foster their perseverance in overcoming problems

Timeline

Date and Time	Contents
Phase 1: Foundational Guest Lectures on AI, Edge AIoT and Microelectronics
23 May 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on Computer Hardware and Microelectronics Engineering
30 May 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on AI and its Development
6 Jun 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on Edge Computing and its Application
Phase 2: Fundamentals of Microelectronics and Digital Systems Design
13 Jun 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Introduction to microelectronics and digital systems
20 Jun 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Combinational logic design
27 Jun 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Sequential logic design
4 Jul 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	FPGA design and Implementation with Vivado and Vitis:
11 Jul 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	System on Chip Design (SoC) on FPGA: Hardware Acceleration
18 Jul 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Edge detection and Camera/Video streaming on FPGA
Phase 3: Basic AI and Machine Learning Theories and Techniques with Hands-on AI Coding in Python
25 Jul 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Machine learning Python libraries and environments
1 Aug 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	AI and Machine learning algorithms and techniques
8 Aug 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Fundamentals of Deep Neural Network, its training and inference (MNIST Dataset use case)
15 Aug 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)
Phase 4: Edge AI Internet of Things (Edge AIoT) Design and Development on FPGA (PYNQ)
22 Aug 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Introduction to AI Internet of Things (AIoT) and Edge computing
29 Aug 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Embedded Edge AI Platforms and Tools
5 Sep 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Deep Learning Processor (DPU) Implementation and Pre-trained AI Model Inference
12 Sep 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	AI Model quantization, compilation, and Inference with Vitis-AI and PYNQ
19 Sep 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Smart home automation with FPGA and AWS
Phase 5: Advanced Edge AI Applications Development on Edge Computing Platform (Hands-on Edge AI)
26 Sep 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Getting Familiar with GPU/NPU Architecture, GPU/NPU Hardware Acceleration Platforms and Developer Tools
3 Oct 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	YOLO Object Detection, Training, and Inference on GPU/NPU Hardware Acceleration Platform (Hands-on)
10 Oct 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Face Recognition Implementation on GPU/NPU Hardware Acceleration Platform (Hands-on)
Phase 6: Final Project, Mentorship, Presentation, Competition and Exhibition
17 Oct 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Mentorship meeting
24 Oct 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Mentorship meeting
Oct to Dec 2025	Student Project Presentation, Competition and Exhibition

Notes:
• Class dates are subject to change.
• Classes will be conducted on campus unless otherwise necessary.

Medium of Instruction

Course Material: English
Class Teaching / Discussion: English supplemented with Cantonese

Application

Eligibility: Secondary 1-5 students in the 2024/25 school year who meet the following requirements:

Applicants should demonstrate great interest and outstanding performance in mathematics, and should be experienced in at least one text-based computer programming language such as Python, C/C++, Java and JavaScript; and
Show eagerness to learn about topics related to AI and microelectronics
Applicants should be a HKAGE member

Programme Fee: Free of charge

Application Deadline: 2 Apr 2025 (Wed)

Result Announcement Date : By early May 2025 (tentative)

More information can be found HERE.

Contact Information

Prof. Ray Cheung
Associate Provost (Digital Learning)
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
City University of Hong Kong
Tel: 3442 9849
Email: eegefp@cityu.edu.hk