The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is delighted to announce that Dr Chen Zhe, a PhD student supervised by Prof. Xiao Fu, has been selected as a recipient of the FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses 2024/25.
This award recognizes the exceptional quality of Dr Chen’s PhD thesis and his outstanding performance during the oral defense. Organized by the Faculty of Construction and Environment, the FCE Awards honor the most distinguished doctoral research within the faculty.
In the thesis, Dr Chen addresses the critical challenge of making AI trustworthy for building energy management. By integrating domain knowledge and physical rules into data-driven models, he transforms “black-box” models into interpretable and reliable tools for optimizing and diagnosing air-conditioning systems. The impact of his research has been demonstrated through a year-long, real-world deployment at PolyU's chiller plant, achieving a remarkable improvement in energy efficiency and substantial energy savings.
The Department warmly congratulates Dr Chen on this outstanding achievement and looks forward to his continued success and the positive impact his work will bring to the field.
