The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is delighted to announce that our PhD students, Mr. Cheung Wai Kit (team representative), Ms. Zhou Yuxin, and Mr. Zhang Lei, supervised by BEEE Associate Professor Prof. Huang Xinyan, have been awarded First Prize in the Arup Research Competition 2025 hosted by Arup Hong Kong.
This year’s competition theme was “Empowering the Future: Energy Transition and Urban Development”. The winning project, titled “Multi-Modal Sensor Fusion for Early Thermal Runaway Prediction in Large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems”, focuses on using multi-modal sensing technologies to predict battery thermal runaway before venting or thermal runaway occurs. This innovative research has strong potential for future application in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), which help to prevent thermal runaway incidents and enhance the safety and reliability of BESS.
The Arup Research Competition was held in three rounds with 42 submissions from research postgraduate students across Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China. This competition sought interdisciplinary and forward-thinking research papers that explore how energy transition can drive equitable, resilient, and smart urban development. Mr. Cheung and his team stood out and won the First Prize in the competition.
The Department of BEEE congratulates Mr. Cheung Wai Kit, Ms. Zhou Yuxin, and Mr. Zhang Lei on their outstanding achievement and wishes them continued success.
