His publications are many and varied, including nine books and over 380 refereed journal papers, which have been cited over 30,000 times. He has a Google Scholar H-index of 86. In particular, his two scholarly books ‘Modern Electric Vehicle Technology’ (Oxford University Press) and ‘Electric Vehicle Machines and Drives’ (Wiley-IEEE Press) have been highly commended by electric vehicle (EV) researchers, with the latter having been translated into Chinese by the China Machine Press, which significantly expands its influence in the EV community. He also initiated the translation of EV research into EV education, namely the first MSc EV course, the first BEng EV course, and the first MSc EV programme in Hong Kong.
Professor Chau has secured many competitive research grants in Hong Kong, including 17 Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) General Research Fund grants as principal investigator and one RGC Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) grant as project coordinator. For the TRS project ‘Wireless Power Transfer - The Next Stage’, with funding of HK$30.6 million from 2021 to 2025, he is responsible for coordinating research activities of investigators in PolyU, The University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Increasingly, he has further elevated wireless power transfer technology to new heights via direct wireless energy conversions, which include wireless motoring, lighting and heating.
Professor Chau’s work has had two particularly significant impacts: namely, leading the development of advanced permanent-magnet (PM) motors for electric and hybrid powertrains, and pioneering the research into wireless motors for EV and industrial applications. He developed the PM hybrid motor, stator-PM motor, magnetic-geared PM motor and magnetic-geared electric-variable-transmission motor system. As noted above, these innovations directly led to him becoming a recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) fellowship. With regard to wireless motors, he developed the wireless DC motor, wireless servo motor, wireless switched reluctance motor, wireless shaded-pole induction motor, wireless PM brushless DC motor, wireless universal motor, wireless hybrid stepper motor and wireless ultrasonic motor. His related innovation, the Highly Integrated Wireless Ultrasonic Motor System for Fully Enclosed Environments, was granted the Grand Award and Gold Medal at the 4th Asia Exhibition of Innovations and Inventions Hong Kong in December 2024.