Dr. Temple Northup, director of the Valenti School of Communication, spoke at Shantou University in southeast China on May 16 and met with university officials throughout the week to discuss upcoming collaborations. Shantou University is a public university of around 10,000 students located a few hours northeast of Hong Kong.

Dr. Northup’s public talk, which was delivered to a lively crowd in the Shantou University library’s main auditorium, explored current innovations in digital media. Specifically, Dr. Northup discussed how the explosion of augmented reality, virtual reality and computer-learning artificial intelligence systems are shaping the field. Dr. Northup ended by presenting some of the privacy and security implications these new systems pose.

“One interesting thing I have found is that even though the U.S. and China have vastly different media environments, we both face many of the same challenges when it comes to technology adoption and fears about how our data is being used,”  remarked Dr. Northup.

In addition to his public talk, Dr. Northup met with Shantou University administrators to discuss the possibility of student exchanges in the future.

“Our goal is for our students to become global citizens,” said Dr. Northup. “My hope is that we can send our first group of students to Shantou University next summer for a month so they can study while being immersed in another culture.”