Generative AI and Cybersecurity (GenAIC) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students Education

Off-school Advanced Learning Programme (2025/26 school year):
Generative AI and Cybersecurity (GenAIC) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students Education
(Funded by Gifted Education Fund)

Introduction

The Generative AI and Cybersecurity (GenAIC) Engineering Skills for Gifted Students Education programme aims to equip gifted students with essential knowledge and skills related to Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI (Gen AI), and cybersecurity. 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 strong foundational knowledge and techniques in AI, generative AI and cybersecurity, so as to enable them to become the drivers of today’s 4th industrial revolution and the future technological advancements.
To provide gifted students with strong practical skills in artificial intelligence, generative AI, and cybersecurity, enabling them to contribute to the ongoing digital transformation and future technological advancements.
To develop students’ hands-on abilities in coding, system design, engineering practice, critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving, empowering students to design and implement innovative projects that address real-world challenges.
To strengthen Hong Kong’s talent pipeline by nurturing a new generation of IT experts equipped to protect digital systems, integrate AI and cybersecurity into secure cloud and edge applications, and support the city’s role as a leading technology hub in the Greater Bay Area.
Promote multidisciplinary learning across science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, fostering creativity, ethical awareness, security consciousness, and entrepreneurial skills aligned with the HKSAR Government’s education and innovation policy.
To arouse students’ security awareness and insights to minimise security breaches and future attacks. Students will learn the various phishing and malware threats and the ways to protect themselves against the threats.
Cultivate positive values and attitudes, including perseverance, responsibility, and ethical use of AI and the cyber world, preparing students to become responsible youth leaders who can shape the future of technology in Hong Kong and beyond.

Timeline

Date and Time	Contents
Phase 1: Foundational Guest Lectures on AI, Generative AI, and Cybersecurity
8 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on AI and its Development
15 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on modern cyber threats and explainable AI
22 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Guest Lectures on cybersecurity and AI ethics
Phase 2: Fundamentals of Computer and Cybersecurity
29 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Introduction to computer security, cybersecurity, and cryptography
5 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Symmetric encryption and its various algorithms
12 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Asymmetric encryption and key exchange
26 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Hash functions, message integrity and authentication
3 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Digital signatures and access control
10 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Computer network basics and secure communication protocols
Phase 3: Advanced Topics in Cybersecurity and Its Applications
17 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Cloud and Wireless Network Security Essentials
24 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Fundamentals
31 Jul 2025 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Fundamentals of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

Phase 4: Fundamentals of Conventional AI and Generative AI
7 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Introduction to AI and Machine Learning, AI Tools, libraries, techniques & hardware (FPGA/GPU/NPU)
14 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Fundamentals of Deep Neural Network, model training and Inference
21 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Object detection and facial recognition with Yolo on GPU
28 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	AI on PYNQ FPGA Platform: Object detection and image classification with Vitis-AI and Pynq
4 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Introduction to Generative AI and large language model, tokenization, and word embedding
11 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Attention Mechanism, Transformer architecture, and text generation
Phase 5: Advanced Edge AI Applications Development on Edge Computing Platform (Hands-on Edge AI)
18 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Text to image generation, its various methods and models
25 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Building your own custom LLM with DeepSeek
2 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	AI security, AI ethics, and explainable AI
Phase 6: Final Project, Mentorship, Presentation, Competition and Exhibition
9 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Mentorship meeting
16 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm - 7:30pm	Mentorship meeting
Oct to Nov 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 2025/26 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: 18 Mar 2026 (Wed)

Result Announcement Date : By early 10 Apr 2026

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