News

BSE Chair Professor Appointed as Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart Building

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is honoured to announce that Ir Prof. Wang Shengwei, Chair Professor of BSE, has been appointed as Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart Building (潘 樂陶慈善基金智能建築教授) under the University’s Endowed Professorship Scheme commencing on 1 April 2020. PolyU established the Endowed Professorship Scheme in 2012 to honour distinguished scholars for their outstanding academic and research achievements. Ir Prof. Wang obtained his BEng and MSc from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in 1983 and 1986 respectively, and his PhD from University of Liege in 1993. He joined PolyU in the same year as assistant professor, and promoted to associate professor in 2000, to professor in 2005 and to the Chair Professor of Building Services Engineering in 2008. He is a Fellow of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA), a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), and a Fellow of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). He is also an associate editor of the academic journal of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), “Science and Technology for the Built Environment”, and the guest/adjunct professors of ten universities in China and USA. He is leading the Building Energy and Automation Research Laboratory in PolyU. He is one of the leading and most fruitful scholars internationally on building energy and intelligent buildings in the subject areas including: building energy system smart and energy-efficient control, energy system optimal design and energy diagnosis, building demand response and grid-responsive buildings as well as building automation technologies. He obtained over 40 research and technology development funds, including 16 general research funds (GRF) from Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC), an Overseas Youth Talent cooperation grant of National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He published over 300 papers in refereed journals (including over 230 paper in journals cited by SCI). He was also one of the top 150 highly-cited scholars on “Energy Science and Engineering”. He is also one of the most successful scholars in PolyU in integrating academic research with industrial applications. He received about HKD 20 million from industry for applied energy research and application projects. He participated a large number of energy saving and optimization projects for commercial and industrial buildings, including large landmark building such as International Commerce Centre (ICC), achieved energy savings of 15%-42% and maximum annual energy saving of over ten million kWh per individual building. Congratulations to Ir Prof. Wang for the honour and thanks for Ir Prof. Wang’s continued outstanding academic and research contributions to the Department and University. 

BSE Student Wins Prestigious Scholarship

A third-year undergraduate from the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), Miss Siyan Wang, has been awarded the President Emeritus Professor Poon Chung-kwong Scholarship 2019/20 of HK$20,000 for her outstanding academic achievement and active involvement in extra-curricular activities. She participated in an engineering summer programme in Cambridge in 2019 and volunteered to be a group leader for the International Wildlife Conservation Programme at Khorat Zoo in Thailand in 2018. Self-motivated and hard-working, Miss Wang is also the recipient of the Commercial Radio 50th Anniversary Scholarship and a BSE Scholarship for mainland Chinese student.

BSE Scholar Supported by ITF

Prof. Lin Lu of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) was awarded HK$1,268,450 from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) for a 2-year trial scheme project entitled “Development and optimization of the novel transparent heat insulation nano-coating and its application on local building glazing facade.” Starting in January 2020, the project will apply Prof. Lu’s novel transparent heat insulation nano-coating for energy-saving at the Government’s Electrical and Mechanical Services Department Headquarters in Kowloon Bay. Since 2013, Prof. Lu has collaborated with local industry on nano-coating development, receiving 1 mainland patent, 1 US patent, the TechConnect 2017 Global Innovation Award, and a certificate of merit in the 2017 Hong Kong Green Innovations Award for her efforts.

The HKIE Safety Specialist Committee Students Project Competition 2019

The Department of Building Services Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is pleased to announce that one of our MEng students has been awarded in the HKIE-SSC Students Project Competition 2019, which is organized by the Safety Specialist Committee (SSC) of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). Mr. Xiao Wencong was awarded Merit (BYME Award) in the Master Degree Group with his project “Estimate of the Heat Release Rate in Burning Train Car Using Fire Model”. Both Mr. Xiao and his project supervisor, Professor W.K. Chow were invited to the Annual Dinner cum Award Presentation of the HKIE/SSC Students Project Competition 2019 held on 14 January 2020 at Club One, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.  

BSE NewsLetter - Dec 2019

BSE NewsLetter - Dec 2019

BSE Student Awarded CIE Hong Kong Outstanding Student Lighting Project Award 2019 The

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to announce that our student, Mr. WONG Yat Kuen, has been awarded “Outstanding Student Lighting Project Award” by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) Hong Kong at the Annual General Dinner. Mr. WONG completed his final-year project under the supervision of Dr. Minchen (Tommy) WEI of BSE at PolyU. Now he works at New World Construction Company Limited and is also a part-time student of the programme Master of Science in PolyU BSE.   CIE, as the international scientific body as well as the international standardizing body in the field of light and lighting, publishes international standards and technical reports for fundamental knowledge and applications in the fields of light and lighting.   BSE would like to congratulate the achievement of Mr. WONG. We wish him continued success.

BSE’s Associate Professor’s Project Winning the Asia Pacific Rim Region Energy Project of the Year Award (2019)

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity (PolyU) is pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Lai, Associate Professor and FacilityManagement Programme Leader, contributed to a project that has been selected to receive TheAssociation of Energy Engineers (AEE) Asia Pacific Rim Region Energy Project of the YearAward for 2019.   The accomplishment of project “The Pioneering First Retro-Commissioning Energy SavingProject for Hong Kong Public Hospitals in Asia” recognizes the significance of hospital facilitymanagement and the outcome generated from the research collaboration between Dr. Lai, theHospital Authority, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, CLP Power and theHong Kong Green Building Council.   The project involved retro-commissioning services at the main buildings of Caritas MedicalCentre and the North Lantau Hospital. The works focused on reducing energy consumptionby fine-tuning the settings of chillers and chilled water pumps and optimising the efficiency ofthe chillers. The project is expected to save up to 1 GWh of electricity a year – equivalent tothe annual energy consumption of around 250 households and a reduction in carbon emissionsof some 510 tonnes a year.   The Award was presented on 24 September 2019, the day prior to the opening of the 2019 AEEWorld Energy Conference & Expo at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C..   AEE is a non-profit professional society with over 18,000 members in more than 100 countries.AEE offers a variety of informational outreach programs including training, conferences,chapters, journals, and certification programs. The mission of AEE is to promote the scientificand educational interests of those engaged in the energy industry and to foster action forsustainable development.   Congratulations to Dr. Lai for his achievement and hope Dr. Lai keeps shining in the discipline.

BSE Assistant Professor to be awarded Proulx Early Career Award by International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS)

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is delighted to announce that Dr. Xinyan Huang, Assistant Professor of BSE, is the recipient of the 2020 Proulx Early Career Award at 13th International Symposium of Fire Safety Science in Waterloo, Canada.  

MEng Student Won 1st Prize in National Competition

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to announce that Miss Chen Qingxin, our Master of Engineering in Building Services Engineering (MEng in BSE) student under the supervision of Prof. Deng Shiming, has won the 1st prize in the 13th Chinese National Competition (South China Region) for college students majoring in Refrigeration and Air-conditioning held in Guangzhou on 21 June 2019.   Another two MEng students of Prof. Deng also won 2nd prizes in 2017 and 2018 in the same competition. Quality of teaching and research of BSE keeps shining on the national stage.   BSE would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Chen on her academic success and achievement on winning the prize.

Eurasian OpenSEES Days on 20 and 21 June 2019

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity (PolyU) was pleased to report that the first Eurasian Conference on the Open Systemfor Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSEES) was held at PolyU on 20 and 21 June2019.   As a platform for scholars and engineers from all over the world to share the latestcomputational tools for complex engineering analysis and design, the conference consisted ofover 40 presentations, including 3 keynote speeches from leading academics: Prof. FilipFilippou of the University of California at Berkeley, Prof. Xinzheng Lu of Tsinghua University,and Prof. Giorgio Monti of La Sapienza University of Rome. Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of theFaculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) of PolyU, gave a welcome address at theopening ceremony. The organizing committee was led by Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of BSE.   Attracting over 130 participants, the conference provided an overview of the latestdevelopments made on the OpenSEES framework as well as presented some research andpractical outcomes in which OpenSEES plays an important role.   The OpenSEES is a software framework for simulating the seismic response of structural andgeotechnical systems. OpenSEES has been developed as the computational platform forresearch in performance-based earthquake engineering at the Pacific Earthquake EngineeringResearch Center.   A one-day annual workshop providing foundational knowledge on using OpenSEES at a levelsuitable for beginner and intermediate users was arranged on 18 June 2019. Following theusers’ workshop, a developers’ workshop had been arranged to delve into introduction of newmodules into the OpenSEES framework, such as new material and element models, throughvarious hands-on exercises on 20 June 2019.   BSE would like to congratulate the success of the conference. We look forward to seeing theparticipants in BSE activities in the near future.