HKU Arts Undergraduate Information Sessions
Admissions Talk for JS6286 Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies [BA(HDT)]
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Date
May 9, 2025
Time
12:00 nn - 12:45 pm
Venue
CPD-3.04, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Speaker
Prof. Christophe Coupé, Programme Director of BA(HDT)
Algorithmic Reading: AI-Accelerated Explorations of Digital Historical Archives
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Short Description
This lecture explores how digital technologies, including AI, can support the interpretive work of historians. As more materials are digitized, the challenge has shifted from access to understanding large, complex collections, which conventional non-digital training leaves largely unaddressed. The talk presents a method that blends computational analysis with close reading. Using examples from digital history, it shows how techniques like graph decomposition and data linkage can reveal hidden structures and surprising connections. These data-driven and algorithmic approaches make possible types of analysis that are difficult to perform manually. The lecture ends with a call for flexible, discipline-aware systems that help researchers navigate across different levels of scale without losing the richness and nuance that historical interpretation demands.
Date
May 8, 2025
Time
11:00 - 11:45 am
Venue
CPD-4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Speaker
Prof. Javier Cha, Deputy Director of BA(HDT)
Exploring the Human Past with 3D Immersion
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Short Description
This talk introduces the field of archaeology - studying the human past based on the material remains left behind - and how digital 3D models and immersive experiences can enhance archaeology. We will introduce our fieldwork project in southwest Asia. We will then discuss how we use digital 3D scanning and modeling to capture and use data about the past. We scan artifacts and ancient architecture, and then we use augmented and virtual reality to reconstruct and interact with these data. We are now exploring how AI can help support this research.
Date
May 8, 2025
Time
2:00 - 2:45 pm
Venue
CPD-4.36, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Speaker
Prof. Peter Cobb, Deputy Director of BA(HDT)
Digital Methods for Texts
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Short Description
Written texts have been around us for several thousand of years, and it is well-known that Johannes Gutenberg’s invention – the movable-type printing press – played a crucial role in their global spread. Today, our approach to texts – and beyond, our understanding of writing – is again deeply evolving, this time thanks to technical and methodological innovations that one can call ‘digital’. In this talk, we will survey some of these innovations and see how they can help us decipher ancient scrolls, build and share knowledge at unprecedented scales, decipher the roots of our collective memories, or yet understand what makes a great story.
Date
May 9, 2025
Time
2:00 - 2:45 pm
Venue
CPD-4.04, 4/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
Speaker
Prof. Christophe Coupé, Programme Director of BA(HDT)
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