Nurturing Student Innovation and Leadership through Student-Initiated Interest Groups

To prepare students with strong technical skills and leadership abilities, the engineering faculty at the University of Hong Kong has established the Tam Wing Fan Innovation Wing (a.k.a. the HKU Inno Wing) and a program that supports student-initiated interest groups (SIGs) focused on technology and project-based learning. The SIG program engages students in hands-on projects, enhances their practical and project management skills, and gains valuable experiential learning experience. It also adapts the Students as Partners (SaP) method to cultivate students' sense of ownership and responsibility in their SIGs. Academic advisors and participating students collaborate in various decision-making processes, including planning, funding acquisition, recruitment, training, prototyping and deployment. This practice paper offers an in-depth exploration of the SIG program hosted within the HKU Inno Wing, delving into governance aspects such as the management structure, funding model, resource allocation, and development support. It showcases two exemplary SIGs as case studies: one centered on bio-inspired robotics and the other on electric vehicle (EV) technologies. The bio-inspired robotics SIG achieved two Guinness World Records for “The Fastest 50m Swim by a Robotic Fish”, while the EV technologies SIG designed and fabricated a fully functional electric vehicle from scratch, earning international recognition for their innovative efforts in overcoming financial and engineering challenges. Through case study interviews, we evaluate the SIG's impact on students' learning and development, revealing its effectiveness in cultivating profound technical skills and core leadership competencies. The paper concludes with an examination of identified challenges and opportunities, providing insights for similar initiatives in tertiary education.