Forum for World Education
Randy Bennett is Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation at ETS in Princeton, NJ. Since the 1980s, he has conducted research on integrating advances in cognitive science, technology, and measurement to create new approaches to assessment intended to have positive impact on teaching and learning. For his work, he was given the ETS Senior Scientist Award in 1996, the ETS Career Achievement Award in 2005, the Teachers College, Columbia University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016, Fellow status in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2017, the National Council on Measurement in Education’s (NCME) Bradley Hanson Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement in 2019 (with H. Guo, M. Zhang, and P. Deane), and the E. F. Linquist Award from AERA and ACT in 2020.
University of Waikato
My research interests straddle science, technology and STEM education across the school years, with a strong focus on innovative approaches to education in these disciplines, and I am proud to be Director of the award-winning Science Learning Hub - Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao. Other current and recent projects include as Principal Investigator for Magnifying curiosty by investigating the very small (with Dr Sophie Rodrigues) and Te ohomauri o Wairere: The empowering lifeforce of Wairere (with Wiremu Puke) (funded by MBIE's Unlocking Curious Minds initiative); and On2Science: Multiple affordances for learning through participation in online citizen science (with Dr Cathal Doyle from Victoria University of Wellington) (funded by the Ministry of Education and administered by NZCER) and Director of Education for the Centres for Asia-Pacific Excellence (funded by TEC).
I am committed to the teaching-research nexus, and much of my research has led to the development of teacher-facing educational resources. These include the Ethics thinking toolkit, Futures thinking toolkit, Digital technologies and future-oriented science education discussion document for schools, and the citizen science section on the Science Learning Hub. I am on the Advisory Board of the US-based Biology Online and was an advisor for the Ministry of Education's Connected series (2014–2020). In 2022 I led a team reviewing the Ministry of Education's online resources for science and technology education and in 2024 we developed new science education resources for the Ministry's Tāhūrangi portal. In 2023 I was a member of the writing team for the 'refresh' of the science learning area within the New Zealand curriculum.
The University of Hong Kong
David Carless works as a Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong. He is one of the pioneers of feedback literacy research and is listed as a top 0.1% cited researcher in the Stanford top 2% list for social sciences.
Solomon
The University of Hong Kong
Professor Cecilia K. Y. Chan is an internationally recognised leader in artificial intelligence (AI) in education and holistic competency development, she is ranked #52 globally in Education and among the Top 2% of scientists (Stanford–Elsevier, 2025). She is Founding Director of the Teaching and Learning Innovation Centre (TALIC) and Professor at the Faculty of Education in the University of Hong Kong. She has published extensively in leading journals such as Educational Research Review and the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. Her scholarship has shaped international discourse on digital education, and assessment, earning awards including the HKU Young Researcher Award, the HKU Research Output Prize, and the UGC HK Excellence Teaching Team Award.
Esperenza
Cherrypicks
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Secretary for Education, Hong Kong SAR Government
Dr Choi joined the political team of the Education Bureau as Under Secretary for Education in 2017 and assumed the office of Secretary for Education in 2022.
Dr Choi has worked in the education sector for nearly 40 years. She began her teaching career in secondary schools in 1988, serving for more than a decade before joining the Education Bureau’s Curriculum Development Institute, after which she became a secondary school principal. Throughout the years, she actively engaged in community and educational services dedicated to enhancing teacher professionalism and promoting a culture of respect for teachers. Her notable initiatives included organising the Outstanding Teacher Awards and establishing the Hong Kong Teachers Dream Fund. She also served as a member of the Basic Law Promotion Steering Committee, the Fight Crime Committee and the Commission on Youth.
Smart City Academy / Learning & Teaching Expo
President, Forum for World Education
Dr. Cheng Yan Davis served as Special Advisor to the President of Teachers College (TC), Columbia University on international advancement. She is also Senior Advisor to Shanghai Pudong Government (Executive Director of Westgate Group, Inc.) Before coming to TC, Cheng worked at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where she was the Vice Dean of Graduate School of Education (GSE) as well as Special Advisor to the President of the University of Pennsylvania on internationalization efforts. Before coming to Penn, she served as Vice President of Drexel University.
OECD Education and Skills Directorate
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Professor Yike Guo is the Provost of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as well as Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, and also Director of Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Center. He is a world-renowned computer scientist who has led several large-scale AI and data science research projects in Hong Kong, Mainland China, the UK and other European countries. He was the Founding Director of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College London, one of its seven Global Institutes, as well as the Vice President (Research and Development) at Hong Kong Baptist University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), a Member of Academia Europaea (MAE), Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (FHKEng), Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE), Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS), and Fellow of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (FCAAI).
Professor Guo was awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award of the 2022 Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Award, which is considered to be the highest award for Chinese AI science and technology. In June 2025, Professor Guo was named "Leader of the Year 2024" in the Education/Professional/Technology and Innovation category from Sing Tao News Corporation for his transformative contributions to education and technological innovation in Hong Kong. In November of the same year, Professor Guo was elected as an International Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the Information and Electronics Engineering Division. The CAE is the nation's highest academic institution in engineering sciences and technology, and membership is considered as the highest lifelong academic honor in the field.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Janet Hsiao is a Professor in the Division of Social Science and the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST). Before joining HKUST, she was a Professor of Psychology at University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. in Informatics from University of Edinburgh and was a postdoctoral researcher at University of California San Diego. As a Cognitive Scientist, she is best known for her research on learning and visual cognition, including face recognition, reading, and object detection and identification. She adopts an interdisciplinary approach, using methods and theories from artificial intelligence, experimental psychology, psycholinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience to study the human mind. In particular, she developed the Eye Movement analysis with Hidden Markov Models (EMHMM) method to quantify individual differences in eye movement pattern and consistency, which has revolutionized the use of eye movement data to understand cognition. She has also combined EMHMM with deep learning methods to understand the role of attention in human learning and its implications for explainable Artificial Intelligence research. She received the Best Language Modelling Paper Prize from the Cognitive Science Society in 2006 and the Early Career Award from the RGC Hong Kong in 2012. She is now a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society and serves on the Governing Board. She is also Editor-in-Chief of British Journal of Psychology and an Associate Editor of Cognition.
Beijing Normal University
University of Waikato
Professor Jones amongst other things, leads on international engagement and delivery with a strong focus on the Asia-Pacific regions, including development of offshore programmes and campuses. He has responsibility for the development of the University's Tauranga Campus and wider engagement. A former Dean of Education and Research Professor, he has had a long involvement in international education and has built educational research capability in a number of countries. A current member of the Establishment Board of the Forum for World Education and is the Senior Vice President. He holds several professional leadership positions including adjunct professor and various company directorships, and is the immediate past Chair of the NZ Centre at Peking University Advisory Board.
Professor Jones main fields of research have been in science education and technology education, particularly in teaching, learning, assessment, leadership, teach education and curriculum development. He has supervised over 50 Masters and PhD research thesis as well as having over 300 publications (books, chapters, referee journal articles and conference presentations).
He has secured externally-Funded Research and Development Contracts (1992-2020): Generated and directed over $50m in external research contracts, in areas such as national and international evaluations in curriculum, school reform, ICT, curriculum development, teacher change, assessment and resource development.
The Education University of Hong Kong
Professor KONG Siu Cheung is currently a Chair Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology and Director of the Artificial Intelligence and Digital Competency Education Centre (AIDCEC) at The Education University of Hong Kong. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning (RPTEL) and Journal of Computers in Education (JCE). He is on the Stanford Top 2% Scientist in Education list from 2019 to 2025. Professor Kong is leading projects on Artificial Intelligence in Education and Artificial Intelligence Literacy for primary, secondary and university students, teachers, parents, and administrative staff in Hong Kong from 2020 to 2028. He is the programme leaders of the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence for Executive Professionals [MSc(AIEP)] programme and the Certificate Professional Development Programme (PDP) (5-Week) on Artificial Intelligence in Primary Education at the Education University of Hong Kong.
The University of Hong Kong
Nancy Law is a professor and Chair of Learning Sciences and Technology at the University of Hong Kong. She served as Associate Dean (Research) and Associate Dean (Strategic Development) respectively in the Faculty of Education during the period July 2022 to December 2025. She was the Founding Director for the Centre for Information Technology in Education (CITE) for 15 years and is currently the Deputy Director for CITE. She led the Strategic Research Theme on the Science of Learning at the University of Hong Kong from 2013 to 2017. She is a renowned learning scientist and an elected Fellow of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. Interdisciplinary research on digital citizenship learning and assessment has been a key research focus she has led in recent years, encompassing digital literacy, artificial intelligence literacy, and their relationship to individual and societal well-being. Another key area of her research is developing an intelligent design-aware learning and analytics system—IDEALS—to support teachers in achieving effective multimodal e-learning.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Dr. Jac Leung is a Lecturer in the Division of Integrative Systems and Design (ISD), Associate Program Director of MSc on Technology, Leadership and Entrepreneurship (TLE), and the Director of AI Literacy Hub at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He has attained the Doctor of Education from The University of Hong Kong, MSc in Environmental Engineering, and BSc in Mechanical Engineering. His teaching and research interests include design-based learning, design and systems thinking, AI literacy, and self-determination theory.
Dr. Leung is dedicated to promoting Human-AI collaboration in Education. He is the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator of AI in education, metaverse, makers education, and sustainability education projects (sum ~HKD18.6M). He is the co-author of the book AI Literacy in K-16 classrooms. His co-authored article “Conceptualizing AI Literacy: An exploratory review” has 2600+ citations in Google Scholar.
Dr. Leung is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Fellow of the Academy of Education Excellence (AEE) at HKUST. He received the Thetos Early Career Distinguished Teaching Award in 2025 and was nominated twice for the UGC Teaching Award (Teams category in 2020, Early Career category in 2025).
He serves multiple academic committees for UG and PG programs including ISD, TLE, the Extended Major in AI program (EXT-AI), and the MPhil Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE). He also serves as an educational advisor for multiple AI-based enterprises.
East China Normal University
University of Pennsylvania
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Dr Sean McMinn joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in July 2022 as the Director of Center for Education Innovation.
Sean holds a PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning from Lancaster University, United Kingdom. He first joined HKUST in 2005 and had since taken up various teaching and leadership roles in the Center for Language Education (CLE) and School of Humanities and Social Science (SHSS). Sean had been the Academic Director of the Master Program in International Language Education offered by SHSS (2018-2020) and the Associate Director of CLE (2020). He left the University in 2021 and joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Director of the English Language Centre, where he led over 100 academic and non-academic staff members to support the English language teaching and learning for the University.
CONNECT MENA
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
The Education University of Hong Kong
Dr. Davy Ng is currently an Assistant Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. He has been IT and STEM Education Panel Head at a local secondary school in Hong Kong, and a Visiting Scholar at the Division of Integrative Systems and Design, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests lie in the areas of (Generative) AI literacy, metaverse and STEAM education, and technology-enhanced pedagogic innovation. He has published around 50 articles, many in Q1 journals, and authored a book on AI literacy that obtained the China New Development Award from Springer Nature in 2023. He has been named in the 2024 and 2025 Stanford's List of World's Top 2% Scientists in Education.
OECD
Former US Assistant Secretary of Education
Council Vice-Chair, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Board Member, Forum for World Education
Ms. Edith Shih, a Council Member of HKUST since August 2018, is an Executive Director and the Company Secretary of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, where she has overseen legal, regulatory, corporate governance and compliance matters for over 30 years.
University of Pennsylvania
Brookings Institution
The Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority
Xiaoming Xi is Director at the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, leading the Assessment Technology and Research Division, the Education Assessment Services Division and the International and Professional Examinations Division. Previously she was Executive Director of New Product Development and Senior Director in R&D at ETS. Her research leadership has impacted global large-scale tests such as ETS’s TOEFL, TOEIC and higher education tests as well as Hong Kong’s tests for college admissions, teacher certification and students’ progress monitoring.
A strong contributor to the educational assessment community, Xiaoming has been a Council Member of the International Test Commission (ITC) since September 2023. She has also served on the Executive Board of the International Language Testing Association (ILTA), chaired various ILTA award committees, and currently chairs the ILTA By-Laws Committee.
Xiaoming has been on the Editorial Board of several leading assessment journals, and has won multiple awards, including the 2015 Top 25 Women in Higher Education and Beyond, the Sage/ILTA Best Book Award, and the ILTA Best Language Testing Paper Award.
Xiaoming has published widely in assessment theories and practices including validity, fairness, construct definition, assessment design, human and automated scoring, and AI technology. She has guest edited two AI-related special issues “Automated Scoring and Feedback Systems” and “Advancing Language Assessment with AI and ML” for Language Testing and Language Assessment Quarterly respectively and has multiple patents in applications of AI.