Awards and Achievements (Research)

Dr Amos Darko honoured with Green Talents Award by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Huge congratulations to Dr Amos Darko, a PhD graduate and currently a Research Assistant Professor of our Department, on being honoured with a Green Talents Award in the Green Talents Competition 2020 organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research!   Dr Darko’s research efforts focused on the adoption and promotion of green building technologies in the developing world, contributing to a novel‘Implementation Strategy’ in the end. In the face of the fierce competition from over 580 talents from 87 countries,Dr Darko impressed the jury by his research on a highly relevant issue especially fo rdeveloping countries. More:https://polyu.hk/rgLzZ   Dr Darko would like to give big thanks to his supervisor, Prof. Albert Chan of BRE, for his continuous research guidance and support and for the recommendation he made in support of this great achievement.   Have a read of Dr Darko Amos' profile : Dr Amos DARKO  

New Book on Corruption by Dr Owusu Kingsford and Prof. Albert Chan

Authored by Dr Owusu Emmanuel Kingsford, Postdoctoral Fellow of BRE and Prof. Albert Chan, Chair Professor and Head of BRE, a new book, 'Corruption In Infrastructure Procurement', was released in October 2020. Representing an extensive study on the extant constructs of corruption in infrastructure-related projects, this book. published by the Taylor & Francis Group and sponsored by the Institute of Hong Kong Surveyors, contributes to determination of the incidence and prevalence of corruption in infrastructure projects and its ultimate elimination.   Dealing with the subject of corruption has never been easy regardless of the institution, context, or discipline being studied. However, with the immense help and contributions from supranational institution experts, including the World Bank, the United Nations, and other reputable international organizations such as the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Center (GIACC), most anticipated difficulties were largely overcome. These experts helps to pilot test the questions and indicators that were being examined. Dr Owusu says, "The study was successful thanks to their contributions and efforts and those of other experts from over nineteen countries who participated in the international survey."   With the aim of making a quantitative assessment of the constructs of corruption and the activities within the procurement process of infrastructure-related works, this book serves as the first module of a series of other developing modules that intends to demonstrate how the application of extant technologies such as smart contracts and machine learning can be deployed to substitute human decision making and influences in the procurement process, enhance transparency and curb corruption and other contractual irregularities within the process.   Have a read of Prof. Albert Chan's Profile: Ir Prof Albert PC CHAN Have a read of Dr. Owusu Kingsford's Profile: Dr Emmanuel Kingsford Owusu  

Prof. Heng Li’s success in Government Fund Applications and HK Scholars Program 2020

A huge round of applause to Prof. Heng Li, Chair Professor of Construction Informatics, who received a grant of over HK$7 Million from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) and funding of over HK$870,000- from the government’s Central Policy Unit! The respective winning projects were ‘A Computer Vision-enabled Digital Twin for Construction Resource and Progress Management’ and ‘Solving Public Housing Problem in Hong Kong by Adopting Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) to Build the Transitional House’.   Meanwhile, Prof. Li’s Hong Kong Scholar candidate, Dr He Ping, was successfully selected for the Hong Kong Scholars Program 2020. In November 2020, Dr He was appointed as a Postdoctoral Fellow for two years’ work on the project ‘Synthesis of Structural Health Monitoring via Distributed Filter of Sensor Networks’.   We wish Prof Li every success in both projects!   Have a read of Prof. Heng Li’ s profile : Prof Heng LI

Prof. Meng Ni wrote an invited commentary perspective in Science on fuel cells

Invited  byScience,  Prof.  Meng  Ni  (BRE,  PolyU)  and  Prof.  ZongpingShao  (Nanjing  TechUniversity, China and Curtin University, Australia) published a commentary perspective articleentitled “Fuel Cells that Operate at 300o–500oC”.    In  this  perspective,  Prof.  Ni  and  Prof.  Shao  technically  commented  a  Science  paper  on  fuelcells.  They appraised the new contributions of the Science paper regarding the proposed new mechanism for proton conduction.  They also pointed out the limitations of the Science paperfor future improvement.In addition,they discussed the future of protonic ceramic fuel cells(PCFCs)   working   at   300o–500oC   and   the   applications   of   protonic   conductors   inelectrochemical water-splitting for hydrogen   production and electrochemical ammoniasynthesis.    The details of the commentary perspective can be found at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6500/138   Prof.  Meng  Niis  currently  a  Professor  and  Associate  Head  (Research)  of  Department  of Building and Real Estate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.He is a Humboldt Fellow(Germany).His  research  focuses  on  high  temperature  fuel  cells,  rechargeable  metal-air batteries, flow batteries, novel electrochemical cells for low-grade heat harvesting, and energy materials.He  is  serving  as  a Senior Editor for Sustainable Energy  Technologies  and Assessments: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/sustainable-energy-technologies-and-assessments(Elsevier) and a former Associate Editor for Science Bulletin (Elsevier).  Recently,he  was  invited  to  be  an Associate  Editor for International  Journal  of  Green  Energy: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ljge20/current(Taylor & Francis) and International Journal of  Energy Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1099114x(Wiley).He is also one of the founding editor of Energy and AI: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy-and-ai/(Elsevier).   For more details about Prof. Ni, please visit: Prof Meng NI  

Dr Esther Yung’s Success in Bidding PICO Public Policy Research Project

Please join us in congratulating Dr Esther Yung, Associate Professor of BRE, on her success in bidding for a PICO Public Policy Research Project (HK$0.38M)! The success is a reward for the great endevours of Dr Yung’s research team.   Entitled ‘Effects of Indoor Environmental Quality on the Satisfaction Level of the Elderly in Residential Care Homes’, the heart of the winning project is to identify the underlying indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors associated with the satisfaction of the elderly with their residential care homes (RCHEs) and their living quality. Including the two co-investigators, Prof. Edwin Chan of BRE and Dr C.K. Chau of BSE, (Department of Building Services Engineering, PolyU) Dr. Yung’s research team is dedicated to finding out how to improve the indoor environment of RCHEs and enhance the satisfaction and quality of life of the elderly in RCHEs. A mixed methods approach is used to realize their goals.   The years have seen an ageing society, in Hong Kong and elsewhere and a rapidly growing demand for elderly care. Achieving a better indoor environment at RCHEs is a matter of urgency.   Dr Yung’s years of admirable dedication to academia and society deserves rounds of applause. We wish Dr Yung’s team every success in its future endeavours. Have a read of Dr Esther Yung’s profile: Dr Esther HK YUNG    

Ph.D. Graduate, Shell Receiving RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship

 It is great that Dr Xiao Li, our Ph.D. graduate of 2019, was appointed as a RGC Postdoctoral Fellow at theUniversity of Hong Kong (HKU) in April 2020.  The scheme aims to incentivise young researchers to buildup  a  career  in  research  and  development  (R&D)  in  Hong  Kong,  providing  support  for  50  awardees  this year.  HKU will also consider an additional top-up that brings it to a similar level of the HKU Presidential Postdoctoral  Fellowship  (HKU-PPF),  which  aims  at  hosting  the  world’s  most  exceptional  post-doctoraltalents to undertake frontier research at HKU.   Dr Li would like to give sincere thanks to his supervisor, Prof. Geoffrey Shen of BRE, for his continued guidance and support, in particular, the recommendation for this remarkable achievement.

Prof. Eddie Hui’s Dedication to Serving Our Community

Prof. Eddie Hui, Associate Head (Partnership) of BRE, is honoured to accept appointments as a member of the HKSAR Government’s three steering groups, 1) Task Force for the Study on Tenancy Control of Subdivided Units, 2) Subsidised Housing Committee of the Hong Kong Housing Authority and 3) Panel of Advisors for the Land Sharing Pilot Scheme for periods of eighteen months, two years and three and half years, respectively.   As the world’s most expensive property market, Hong Kong faces a shortage of land in developing proper living places for society, in particular, the grassroots and underprivileged population. To tackle the complex challenges, the Task Force has the mission of exploring the feasibility and options for tenancy control of subdivided units while the Subsidised Housing Committee puts new ideas forward on the supply of subsidized housing. The Land Sharing Pilot Scheme intends to unleash development potential on private lots and speed up the short-to-medium-term public and private housing supply.   Prof. Hui says, “I am very much delighted to have such an opportunity to serve the community. Also, it is my honour to be appointed.”   Picking up a wealth of wisdom along the way, Prof. Hui is an all-round professional with diverse experience in research and consultancy projects in housing studies and real estate investment and finance, etc. He has been serving a wide range of public organizations in Hong Kong, from the Property Management Services Authority (plus anti-epidemic support scheme), Estate Agency Authority, Real Estate Investment Trust Committee, Securities and Futures Commission, Building Appeal Tribunal, Town Planning Board, Metro/Rural and New Town Planning Committee, Hong Kong Housing Society, Urban Renewal Authority, Real Estate Services Training Board to Advisory Panel Member of Planning Department on Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area and so on. Prof. Hui’s unwavering efforts and passion have been widely applauded.   Have a read at Prof. Eddie Hui's profile : Prof Eddie CM HUI MH

High Performance Fuel Cells for Electricity Generation Using Plastic Waste and Coal as Fuels

In Hong Kong, about 1,866 tonnes of plastic waste is disposed of in landfills, daily [1]. The burning of plastic wastes in an incinerator could generate harmful gases such as dioxins, and the energy efficiency (for electricity generation) is in the range of 13-24% only [2]. Since coal will continue to be an important fuel in China in coming decades, it is necessary and urgent to improve the energy efficiency of coal conversion.   In collaboration with Shenzhen University and Nanjing Technical University, Prof. Meng Ni’s team have developed high performance fuel cells for electricity generation using plastic waste and coal. When a suitable catalyst is used, the power output of the fuel cell using plastic waste (green curves in Fig. 1) is comparable to that when using H2 fuel (black curves in Fig. 1) [3]. In another study, when an Ag-infiltrated Ni/(Y2O3)0.08(ZrO2)0.92 anode was used, the fuel cell was able to efficiently convert the coal chemical energy into electricity (Figure 2) with a much higher power density than is achieved by other similar technologies (Figure 3) [4].   Prof. Meng NI’s research covers fuel cells, metal-air batteries, building energy, and the built environment.He  is  a  Senior  Editor  for Sustainable  Energy Technologies  and  Assessments(Elsevier)and a founding editor of Energy and AI(Elsevier). He is an active reviewer for over 70 journals, including Science and Nature Communications.   Have a read of Prof. Ni's profile : Prof Meng NI   References: [1] Monitoring of solid waste in Hong Kong, waste statistics for 2013, Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong SAR. [2] T. Malkow, Novel and innovative pyrolysis and gasification technologies for  energy  efficient  and  environmentally  sound  MSW  disposal,  Waste Management, Vol.24, issue 1, 2004, pp. 53-79. [3] W.Z. Cai, P.P. Liu, B. Chen, H.R. Xu, Z.J. Liu, Q. Zhou, F.Y. Yu, M.L. Liu, M.N.Chen, J. Liu,Meng  Ni, Plastic waste fuelled solidoxide fuel cell system for power and carbon nanotube cogeneration,International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 44, Issue 3, 15 January 2019, pages 1867-1876. [4] Heping Xie, Shuo Zhai, Bin Chen, Tao Liu, Yuan Zhang,Meng Ni, Zongping Shao, Coal pre treatment and Ag-infiltrated anode for high performance hybrid direct coal fuel cell, Applied Energy, Volume 260, 15 February 2020,Article 114197.

Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Awardee’s New Adventure in BRE

One of the awardees of the HK PhD Fellowship Scheme  2020/21,Peng Huiwen, will be embarking on a new adventure in exploring the ‘flow  space’ within the megacity region,  ‘Guangdong-HongKong-Macao Greater Bay Area’ under Prof. Eddie Hui’s supervision in the coming academic year.   Huiwen’s research aims to investigate the factors affecting flows in the  spatial  network  structure  of  urban  agglomerations  and  to explore the influences of flow factors in the megacity region.  Meanwhile,empirical work on the Greater Bay Area continues, consisting of nuanced analysis of the spatial structure characteristics of the flows of information, traffic, capital, and goods.  The work contributes to promoting  spatial  cooperation  and  integration  strategies  for  the Greater Bay Area.   Huiwen shares, "Being granted an HKPF Scholarship is an honour and an inspiring start for my future PhD life. It is a recognition of my past endeavours and serves as a stepping stone for me to chase my dream.  Last but not least, I am particularly grateful to Prof. Eddie Hui and Lang Wei for their support and encouragement through out my application."   The Fellowship provides an annual stipend of HK$309,600 and a conference and research-related travel allowanceof HK$12,900 per year for each awardee for a period up to three years.   We greatly look forward to welcoming Huiwen in September 2020.

Joint Supervision Scheme with Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Macao Universities 2019/20