Dicky Lau Yu Him / Karen Mung Nga Ting / Zhang Shijie / Ying Shenghua / Edward Cheung Ka Chun

Student Affairs Office Publications and Highlights Student Stories Dicky Lau Yu Him / Karen Mung Nga Ting / Zhang Shijie / Ying Shenghua / Edward Cheung Ka Chun
It was unique because we interned as a group. Using our initiative, with guidance from the company, we developed and implemented a comprehensive programme.

All five collaborators on the “Safe Guard Chain” project are in total agreement: this Internship was transformational. Their assigned task was to help develop an enterprise data security system that would integrate facial recognition, object detection and blockchain technology. The system had to allow authorised users to log in via the camera lenses on their mobile phones or computers. It also had to capture users' faces to understand what data was being accessed, and then uploaded to blockchain. “One part of our job was to 'train the lenses' through artificial intelligence (machine learning) so they could accurately identify faces” says Dicky Lau. “This hands-on experience immersed me in cutting-edge technologies, which is something I think potential employers will appreciate.”

Fellow intern Edward Cheung soon realised that what he had learned about AI in the classroom was mainly confined to concepts. Using his expertise to transform theory into practice was a completely new challenge. “Doing that in the workplace was more complicated than expected,” Cheung says. “But I'm glad that I gained this insight into AI applications and was able to turn concepts into real-world skills.”

Ying Shenghua, who also worked on the AI aspect, believes that confronting challenges accelerated the team's growth as independent learners. “At one point, I had to change the machine learning model, which I had never attempted before,” Ying says. “But I took the initiative, conducting online research and I was motivated to put theories into practice and to experiment. Overall, the internship boosted my confidence and showed one must always be ready to learn.”

Karen Mung and Zhang Shijie collaborated on marketing of the security system and putting together promotional videos in English and Chinese. They also worked on proposals for a broader marketing campaign and a tokenised loyalty programme. Company executives gave a few specific guidelines, but in general the team was encouraged to innovate without feeling constricted. Mung expects that this internship will help distinguish her from other job candidates. “It was unique because we interned as a group. Using our initiative, with guidance from the company, we developed and implemented a comprehensive programme.” she notes.

Zhang Shijie recalls how he had to burn the midnight oil to quickly elevate an “amateurish”' promotional video to professional standard. “At short notice, I was asked by an executive to enhance a video which would be presented to a potential client the following day,” Zhang says. “We worked together and revised the video repeatedly until we were both fully satisfied with it.”