TecHKU » Tony Chiu

iClass: Turning a School Project into a Business

Tony Chiu — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 17:09:50 +0000

by Tony Chiu | Interviewers: Tony Chiu, Donald Lam | Photo Credits: Tony Chiu | Also Contributing: Hiko Cheung | 6 April 2014

An HKU engineering final year project back in 2009, iClass has grown into a fully fledged e-learning solution with over 15000 users locally and 70 users overseas.

We interviewed Eric Au Yeung, Ken Law, Alan Chiang and Paul Wong, the iClass HKU alums who now work at their own company IT Wake Limited in Cyberport, and actively looking to expand the business to Shanghai.

The Process of Development

So how did it all start?

iClass: The muse of the iclass project was actually the CBC lecture room in HKU Chow Yei Ching Building. There are buttons on the seats of that room which serves various functions in lectures, allowing for example a professor to ask a question and get immediate feedback from students in a multiple choice.

Alan Chiang, Paul Wong, Viki Lei, Ken Law, Eric Au Yeung, and Alex Yi; the core members of the iClass team.

iClass in action. The web app and on iOS.

We realised that these functions could be transferable to a mobile app. So we got cracking.

How did you manage to turn the project into a business?

iClass: We thought the project has a lot of commercial potential so we continued to work on it after our graduation. Half a year into the project, companies such as Ming Pao began to take interest in us. We went to the HKU Technology Transfer Office in Cyberport to set up a company and commercialize our project. By March 2012, we were able to get funding from the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund to expand.

Today, we have members working full-time and part-time on iClass. We even take HKU students in regularly, so that they could work on campus.

Advices for Startups

iClass: When you are an undergraduate, your ideas truly belong to you. You won’t be guaranteed that in a workplace. Make good use of your projects. It is important that you do not waste your projects on something that is just for passing time. There are many helpful resources you make use of at HKU.

If you want to learn about starting a businesses, you could enter entrepreneurship programs, such as those by the Technology Transfer Office. They give you weekly tutorials on theories regarding startups, and they regularly invite entrepreneurs in to give you useful advices.

If you need funding, you could look for them from Cyberport. The Cyberport Creative Micro Fund that we got for example, was up to HK$100,000 of grant. If they find your project or pitch interesting, you will also be able to enroll into their incubation program, which provides training, office space, and sponsorships for overseas exchanges.

More About iClass

How do you differentiate it with other popular systems, such as Moodle?

iClass: Moodle is more about submitting your coursework and getting your lecture notes. iClass is more about enhancing interactions during lectures. We offer better mobile support, native apps, and we are able to make use of these technologies to create quiz functions and drawing pad functions, etc., and sync them in real time.

How has iClass changed the way lecturers and students interact?

iClass: The revolution is in the speed of exchanges and interaction possible with iClass. distributing quizzes and class work is massively improved. In the past, if you were distributing a class assignment, the whole process of distribution, work, submission and marking, may take about 3 to 4 days. Now, because all those procedures are automated, it takes just 5 to 10 minutes. On top of that, lecturers can now analyse results, such as common mistakes, instantly.

What is the major selling point of iClass amongst e-learning solutions?

iClass: The user-friendliness. We even asked a group of elderlies, who did not even know how to use an iPad, to try our app and they picked up very quickly.

We try to make our systems as easy to use and as intuitive as possible. We also provide excellent support, for example holding tutorials and workshops at the HKU Centre of Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) specifically to teach teachers to use iClass.

How many people are using iClass now?

iClass: Today, we have over 70 members and 15,000 users, from overseas and Hong Kong. They are mostly primary schools, but we have secondaries and universities, too.

With the exception of HKU, which uses our service free of charge, we use a licensing system. Members purchase our service on an annual basis, and they get updates once in a while.

How is the progress on implementing iClass in HKU?

iClass: We have always been recommending iClass to various departments in HKU. We set up workshops regularly to introduce our product to professors.

At the moment, a number of different courses are already using our solutions: Engineering (ELEC 2814, ELEC 6098 with Dr. Fok), Dentistry with Dr. James Choi, a medicine common core course (CCHU 9019), Journalism (JMSC 9011 with Prof. Ying Chan), and some statistics courses.

Go to our dev@HKU page to see the list of apps by the people in HKU.

About
Latest Posts

Tony Chiu

Tony is a second year student in History and Journalism at HKU. He also blogs at HKYOU and many other places.

Latest posts by Tony Chiu (see all)

iClass: Turning a School Project into a Business - April 6, 2014
Xiaomi, just another Chinese fake? - January 15, 2014
What Separates Good from Great - November 10, 2013

Note: The interview above was originally conducted in Cantonese.

Xiaomi, just another Chinese fake?

Tony Chiu — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 13:57:20 +0000

by Tony Chiu | Photo Credits: Tony Chiu | 15 January 2014

Are you willing to replace your iPhone or Galaxy for something that performs less well, has a worse display, with a slower processor, has fewer functions, poorer camera sensor, and more plasticky from a Mainland Chinese company that is known for copying Apple?

The answer is yes.

Xiaomi, with its Hongmi smartphone has done something that not many manufacturers have managed. Creating something Cheap and Cheerful. Google used to do it with their G1, and the Nokia 5230 was a real treat. But now Google has gone all “up-scale” with Nexus, and god knows where Symbian is now.

It’s Cheap. At HKD $999, it is very good value for money. Of course, the specs aren’t as ground-breakingly impressive, but its got four 1.5GHz cores, 4.7-inch 312 PPIs, a 800MP 28mm sensor with Full HD, and it supports Dual SIM. I have no idea what all those mean. All you need to know is that it really isn’t far off from the big daddies.

But what’s more interesting is why it is Cheerful.

Its founder, Lei Jun, likes to tell us that Xiaomi is more than about gadgets. He wants us to know that Xiaomi is a culture of which everything is done unconventionally.

They get thousands of users to take part in the design of their products. That’s why they don’t just make phones. They sell bits of a router so that enthusiasts could take pleasure in assembling them IKEA-style, they sell Hoodies with MI-bunnies on them, and they even sell MI-stuffed animals!

I mean yes, its rock-concert-like press releases and some of its designs are reminiscent of Apple’s. But aside from that, they may really be on to something.

Buying a Xiaomi isn’t just buying a phone. Buying a Xiaomi is getting a piece of the action.

There is only one thing that is stopping me from Meeing myself now.

Being Chinese, It doesn’t support Facebook.

They very subtly call this the iOS7 theme. Don’t worry, it’s just one of the countless configurations. They say anyone could send them their designs, and if they like it they will buy it off you for 1 million RMB.

Since they only sell everything online, you have to go to one of those Xiaomi Homes to see it in the flesh. This is in Shanghai though, HKers will have to wait.

They will also sell you a 47-inch 3D TV for 2999 RMB, which you can check out at Xiaomi Home’s very own living room. That is if you’re in the Mainland. For now, HKers are only getting the phones.

The Hongmi doesn’t support Facebook. If you want FB, you’d have to go for the Mi3. But you don’t want that, because it’s 1999 RMB and it’s only sold in the Mainland. What irony.

Author

Tony Chiu Follow @thschiu

Second Year, History and Journalism

thschiu@gmail.com

The opinion and views in this article are that of the author and do not reflect the opinion or views of the HKU Journal of Technology, or the TecHKU Editorial Team. You can comment below to let the author know what you think.
To submit an opinion piece of your own, send an email to techkueditors@gmail.com or use the contribute button on the top right of this site.

What Separates Good from Great

Tony Chiu — Sat, 09 Nov 2013 16:13:52 +0000

by Tony Chiu | Photo Credits: Tony Chiu ; Model: Hieu | 11 November 2013

Something interrupted my peaceful drink the other night. And till now, I’m still very bothered by it.

My friend and I were enjoying some lovely beverages and, as usual, we chatted about our dreadful professors who gave us loads of work, and whined about how some girl we met the other day didn’t seem to be interested in us.

But today was different. Today, somebody texted my friend.

A distinctive ringtone thundered across the lounge through a gazillion watt speakerphone, and silenced everybody. They started to stare at him as he stood up, twisted his arse, put a hand in his pocket, and jiggled back and forth. Eventually, after a full Morris dance, he managed to whip out what appeared to be an over-sized faux leather case.

He began staring at his phone and stayed still for minutes. Bad news, I thought. Somebody has rejected him, again.

But no, he was just using face recognition to unlock his new Samsung Galaxy S4.

So why am I so bothered by this? Well, you see, I get extremely frustrated about people’s constant urge to quantify the good and bad in everything, while taking no interest at all in what really matters. The experience of a product.

Samsungers forever tell us about all the great functions in their phones. You get an enormous screen and a detachable battery. You get to swipe type, and wave your hand to change pages, and pause a video by looking away from the screen. You get expandable memory. You get to share your photos by bumping phones together. And you even get to use your phone as a credit card.

Yes, in every single measurable way Galaxies are better than iPhones.

But what’s the point of counting up all those functions? What’s the point of measuring the size of your screen if you can’t even take it out of your pocket?

Demo of activating face recognition:

1. Place phone directly in front of your face

2. Adjust angle and distance of phone with respect to your face

3. Hold facial expression

4. Wait patiently

5. If it does not respond after a minute, simply use your passcode to unlock

Dieter Rams

A German Industrial Designer

Founder of Vits?

Former Chief Design Officer at Braun

One of the modern faces of functionalism in product designs.

Dieter Rams’ 10 Principles:

https://www.vitsoe.com/rw/ about/good-design

You see, with an iPhone 5S, what you get is an aluminium, sapphire and glass structure sculpted using crystalline diamonds. You have the hardware and software designed by Sir Jony Ive, who is highly influenced by Dieter Rams — the godfather of industrial design — and his 10 principles of good design: You get a user-friendly, understandable interface as you unlock the phone seamlessly with Touch ID by simply resting your finger on a button. You get a feel of unobtrusive elegant proportions as you hold this cold piece of metal in your palm. Most importantly, as an option, you get an honest genuine factory leather case.

You can’t quantify the philosophy behind a design or the care that’s put into building a product. A simple game of Top Trumps wouldn’t do. These are things that you’ll only understand once you use it.

Analogous to drinks, a Samsung device is like vodka. It’s packed with punch, and all possible ingredients you can imagine. You get more bang for the buck, but nothing feels quite the way you want it to.

An Apple device is like wine. It’s packed with a rich history of sophisticated processes and refinements. It’s carefully crafted by people who understand tastes and care about your experience.

At the end of the day, you spend just as much, and get just as drunk. But the difference between them is simply galaxies apart.

In a hundred years’ time, people will look back into the innovations of the 21st century. When they talk about Samsung, they’d compare it with the likes of HTC, Blackberry and Sony. But when they talk about Apple products, they’d put them next to the Airbus A380, the Bugatti Veyron and the Burj Khalifa.

Yes, Samsung makes good phones. But Apple makes good things.

That’s what separates good from great.

Author

Tony Chiu Follow @thschiu

Second Year, History and Journalism

thschiu@gmail.com

To submit an opinion piece of your own, send an email to techkueditors@gmail.com or use the contribute button on the top right of this site.