Greater Bay Area Institute News Main Headline

CCISTC’s first collaboration with IFTM in organising ‘2022 “Transcending Ideas” Global Essay Competition’ Macao Award Ceremony

中文摘要 / Summary in Chinese

“Transcending Ideas” is a global essay competition opens to students from any country. Cambridge Centre for the Integration of Science, Technology and Culture (CCISTC) provides academic support and work with regional partners to welcome students across the world to demonstrate, develop and contribute their critical thinking. The organiser, CCISTC, has held the ‘2022 “Transcending Ideas” Global Essay Competition’ award ceremony in Macao region which was co-organised by the IFTM at the Grand Hall of IFTM Mong-Há Campus on 12 November, 2022.

Nearly 300 high school students were attracted and took part in the competition globally. All of the essays were judged by academics and scholars from the University of Cambridge along with some external experts in relevant subjects. Finance & Economics, Psychology, Law, Law for Juniors, Medicine, Computer Science, Maths & Physics, and Engineering & Sustainability were the 8 subjects made available this year, of which the 5 runners-up representing Macao were awarded in topics of Law, Computer Science and Engineering & Sustainability respectively.

One of the runners-up representing Macao, Victoria Chong Pui I from Santa Rosa de Lima English Secondary School (Macao), received the First Prize with her essay ‘Is artificial intelligence a threat to human kind?’. ‘I had so much fun writing my essay as it was something I was interested in and had so much passion for. This made the competition a valuable experience for me. Having the panel of judges reading my essay and listening to my presentation, gaining myself hands-on experience and… it was like a one-and-only chance for me to go through all these,’ she said.

‘Knowing that my essay was regarded as deserving of a prize was really beyond my expectations, yet, I believe this essay computation(competition?) has laid a foundation for my future study in computer science.’ Victoria added. Besides, she expressed her gratitude towards her teacher for guiding her along the way, the school for providing such opportunity in writing and presenting her thoughts to the world, her parents for giving endless support and love to her, as well as CCISTC for organising the amazing event.

Liu Chien Yueh, another interviewee from Pui Ching Middle School Macao, won the Second Prize in the competition with her paper ‘Droughts affect the dairy industry in California’ on the topic of Engineering & Sustainability. ‘During the preparation of my research paper, I have taken reference from many papers conducted by other scholars. This has allowed me to learn to clarify objectives and messages before writing, as well as how to write with an effective writing process,’ she said.

Thanks to the global essay competition, Liu found her quality of writing style had improved and she was able to produce the work using clear and concise language which she valued the most and was grateful for. She saw joining such a global competition organised by collaborating international parties as a valuable experience and milestone of getting into a world-recognised higher education institution as it enhanced students’ understanding of the subject, and most importantly on their ability to convey that understanding through good writing.

Benjamin Ng, Regional Director and Adjunct Lecturer of CCISTC, first expressed his pleasure in collaborating with IFTM, a globally-recognised higher education institution of rich resources in learning with excellent instructors and curriculum. He stated that by holding such a global essay competition, CCISTC does not only strive for students’ improvements in writing, but also to offer a platform for students to explore different fields and express their own thoughts and opinions towards the topics, and these are the real reasons behind. ‘It is crucial to have international collaboration in the field of education,’ he said, ‘It is always good to see more, listen more and learn more from different cultures all around the world. By doing so, schools, teachers and students will be able to get in touch with more excellent and diversified methods of both learning and teaching, and to compare, exchange and collaborate for an effective educational system. Students can benefit from joining competitions and seminars to obtain a better cultural understanding and communication skills, thus seeing them as motivations to take bigger and further steps in the field of education.’

With the efforts endorsed by the CCISTC and IFTM in building partnerships for the first time, sharing the same purpose of creating a larger platform for students, schools and the industry, both the Centre and the Institute are allowed to foster developments and bringing positive effects on educators’ wellbeing in Macao, even in the Greater Bay Area. This, for sure, opens avenues for cooperation and collaboration between top universities, institutions and organisations all over the world. To truly reap the benefits of collaboration, both parties should have more frequent communication and more cooperation such as different seminars and conferences for teachers and students, which results in building and maintaining close relationships among units.

Next year, IFTM will organise the Macao pre-selection round for the global essay competition 2023 in hands with CCISTC, together work for a better Macao to foster and nurture talent development, as well as create a better platform for students to rise and shine!

President’s Corner

A special place

IFTM’s unique positioning means students have access to a deep pool of exclusive opportunities, including exchange and internship programmes outside Macao, allowing them to be exposed to new ideas, and to broaden their horizons. Read More