The first thing many of the students noticed was the green.
After Hong Kong’s dense skyline, the lush, rain-washed campus of the University of Peradeniya felt almost overwhelming — a reminder that they had arrived somewhere genuinely different. Fifty-five students and staff from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University had travelled to Sri Lanka not simply to visit, but to teach, learn and engage with local communities through a mix of hands-on work and cultural exchange.
Over several days, their journey took them from a water research centre in the country’s central highlands to primary and secondary schools along the southern coast. Along the way, they shared technology workshops, explored sustainability challenges, and discovered that some of the most meaningful exchanges happen outside any formal programme.
At the Water’s Edge
One of the group’s first stops was a research facility dedicated to water quality and sustainable development, built through a partnership between China and Sri Lanka. For communities where access to clean water remains a critical issue, the centre’s work carries direct relevance to everyday life. For the visiting students, it offered an opportunity to see how scientific research can be translated into practical solutions.
The programme included a lecture by Dr. Yawei Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who shared insights into emerging technologies, sustainability and international scientific collaboration. His presentation sparked lively discussions and encouraged students to think about the broader impact of research beyond academic settings.
But the experience was not confined to the lecture room.
Equipped with gloves, testing equipment and sample containers, students joined researchers in hands-on water quality testing. They collected samples, analysed water conditions and learned how scientific data supports environmental management and public health. For many, it was their first experience working directly with issues they had previously encountered only in textbooks.
Bringing Technology into the Classroom
The next stage of the journey led the team to several primary and secondary schools in Galle, where they delivered interactive workshops introducing students to emerging technologies.
The sessions were designed to be accessible and engaging. No prior technical knowledge was required — only curiosity.
Students explored virtual and augmented reality applications, watched drone demonstrations, experimented with LiDAR scanning technology and learned about digital mapping and smart city development. For many of the local students, it was their first opportunity to interact with such technologies firsthand.
As VR headsets transported them into virtual environments and laser scanners generated three-dimensional models in real time, classrooms quickly filled with questions, excitement and discovery.
The workshops were developed and delivered by PolyU students themselves, drawing on knowledge from disciplines such as land surveying, geo-informatics and digital technologies. In the process, they discovered that teaching can be one of the most effective forms of learning — explaining a concept to someone encountering it for the first time often deepens your own understanding of it.
Making Things Together
While technology dominated many of the morning sessions, cultural exchange often took centre stage in the afternoons.
The PolyU team introduced traditional Chinese crafts such as lacquer fan-making and tie-dye art, inviting students to create their own designs while learning about the traditions behind them. Because much of the process relied on demonstration rather than language, the activities quickly became shared experiences rather than formal lessons.
Music sessions proved equally memorable. Students sang together, shared songs from their respective cultures and discovered common ground through rhythm and performance. Sports activities brought another layer of connection, with games and friendly competition helping students bridge linguistic and cultural differences with ease.
The programme also included sharing sessions led by students from 15 PolyU departments, offering local students insights into university life, academic pathways and future career possibilities across a wide range of disciplines.
These interactions were not performances staged for an audience. They were genuine conversations between young people eager to learn from one another.
What They Brought Home
When asked to reflect on the experience, many PolyU students spoke less about individual activities and more about the perspectives they had gained.
Issues such as water security, education access and technology adoption became far more tangible when viewed through the realities of another country and community. Several participants noted that the experience helped them better understand how their academic knowledge could be applied beyond the classroom, particularly when working alongside people from different cultural backgrounds.
Teachers from participating schools shared similarly positive feedback. Many observed that the technology workshops had sparked continued discussions among students about science, innovation and future careers long after the sessions had ended.
Back in Hong Kong, the memories that seemed to linger longest were not the formal ones — not the lectures or the scheduled workshops — but the afternoons: a classroom erupting in laughter over a botched tie-dye pattern, an impromptu song that neither side had planned, the particular shade of green that greeted them on the very first morning.