Zürich meets Hong Kong
ETH Meets Hong Kong in a festival dedicated to celebrating art and culture, science and technology. Shifting the dialogue away from chocolate and cheese, toward how technology will change the way we think about art or how to design sustainable and smart cities.
Celebrating art and culture, science and technology, ETH Zurich stages three events as part of “Zürich meets Hong Kong - A Festival of Two Cities”. While Asians know Switzerland for its impeccable taste in designer watches, cheese, and chocolate, Zurich seeks to broaden the perspective - opening the doors for a new type of cultural exchange.
Leading Swiss SciTech in Asia
Earlier this year, the State Secretary for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI) named ETH Zurich as the Leading House for its Swiss Science and Technology programme in the Asia-Pacific region. In this role, the university supports bilateral science and technology cooperation with Asian countries, including Hong Kong – a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. Currently, ETH maintains more than twenty collaborations with universities and research institutes in Hong Kong. ETH President, Lino Guzzella says, “As one of the world’s most international universities, ETH Zurich embraces opportunities to exchange ideas and explore innovative solutions with our counterparts in Hong Kong."
Technology Inspires Art and Fun
Along with Bob Sumner, Scientific Director at ETH Zurich’s Game Technology Center, award winning interactive media artist Bryan Wai-ching Chung will present. Chung will contrast the concepts of virtual and augmented creativity in the creative arts.
Sumner will help participants, in two already fully booked events, to envision a magical world in which augmented reality enhances creative play in a novel concept that he refers to as Augmented Creativity. “We are living in an interesting time,” says Sumner. “Like the development of the smartphone, I believe augmented creativity is the next era.” Sumner also teams up with Max Rheiner, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and project “Birdly” enabling exhibition visitors the chance to experience what it is like to soar like a bird.
Harnessing Technology to Create Smart Cities
While technology changes the way we play, think, and create, perhaps one of its most important applications lies in how we use it to bolster our infrastructure. Gerhard Schmitt, ETH Zurich Professor of Architecture says, “Currently more than half of the human population lives in urban environments. In the next 40 years, we will have to build as much urban-infrastructure as we have built in the past 4,000 years. Hong Kong and other rapidly growing high-density cities, face complex challenges in terms of transportation, water, pollution and local climate changes." Schmitt, who also directs the Singapore ETH Centre (SEC), Kay Axhausen, Ulf Blanke, and Christian Schaffner - also from ETH will speak in the Smart Cities conference on mobility, energy systems, and integrated solutions along with academic, industry, and urban development experts from Hong Kong.
Corine Mauch, Mayor of Zurich and Nicholas Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology in Hong Kong, will launch the Smart Cities conference. Mauch commented, “When presenting the strengths of our city abroad, universities and the ETH Zurich are indispensable. They are synonymous with knowledge, education and innovation and these, among other qualities, are what Zurich represents.”