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 | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | LAU 7209 |
| 15 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Guest Lectures on modern cyber threats and explainable AI | LI 3610 |
| 22 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Guest Lectures on cybersecurity and AI ethics | LI 3610 |
| Phase 2: Fundamentals of Computer and Cybersecurity | ||
| 29 May 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Introduction to computer security, cybersecurity, and cryptography | LI 3610 |
| 5 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Symmetric encryption and its various algorithms | LI 3610 |
| 12 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Asymmetric encryption and key exchange | LI G600 |
| 26 Jun 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Hash functions, message integrity and authentication | LI G600 |
| 3 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Digital signatures and access control | LI G600 |
| 10 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Computer network basics and secure communication protocols | LI G600 |
| Phase 3: Advanced Topics in Cybersecurity and Its Applications | ||
| 17 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Cloud and Wireless Network Security Essentials | LI G600 |
| 24 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Fundamentals | LI G600 |
| 31 Jul 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Fundamentals of Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies | LI G600 |
| 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) | LI 1503 |
| 14 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Fundamentals of Deep Neural Network, model training and Inference | LI G600 |
| 21 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Object detection and facial recognition with Yolo on GPU | LI G600 |
| 28 Aug 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | AI on PYNQ FPGA Platform: Object detection and image classification with Vitis-AI and Pynq | LI G600 |
| 4 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Introduction to Generative AI and large language model, tokenization, and word embedding | TBC |
| 11 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Attention Mechanism, Transformer architecture, and text generation | TBC |
| 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 | TBC |
| 25 Sep 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Building your own custom LLM with DeepSeek | TBC |
| 2 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | AI security, AI ethics, and explainable AI | TBC |
| Phase 6: Final Project, Mentorship, Presentation, Competition and Exhibition | ||
| 9 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Mentorship meeting | TBC |
| 16 Oct 2026 (Fri) 5:30pm – 7:30pm | Mentorship meeting | TBC |
| Oct – Nov 2026 | Student Project Presentation, Competition and Exhibition | TBC |
Notes:
- Class dates are subject to change.
- Classes will be conducted on campus unless otherwise necessary.
Venue Abbreviations:
- LAU — Lau Ming Wai Academic Building
- LI — Li Dak Sum Yip Yio Chin Academic Building
Contact Information
Department of Electrical Engineering
City University of Hong Kong
Email: eegefp@cityu.edu.hk