News

CEE Departmental Retreat 2023

The CEE Departmental Retreat, with over 40 staff participants, was successfully held on 18-19 August 2023 in Shenzhen. The retreat was kicked off by Prof. Chi Sun Poon’s, Head of CEE’s, welcoming remarks to our newly joined colleagues and his updates on the Department’s performance, followed by the presentations by Prof. Anthony Chen (Associate Head (Teaching) and Professor), Prof. Songye Zhu, Associate Head (Research) and Professor, and Dr Andy Leung (Associate Head (Partnership) and Associate Professor). The event covered a wide range of discussions topics, including the DoKPI performances, new research directions, teaching development, promotional and marketing strategies etc. The discussion was fruitful and laid the foundation of strategic directions of the Department in the upcoming year.

Meeting with King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT)

CEE has been exploring partnership opportunities with different international institutions. Prof. Chi Sun Poon, Head of CEE, and CEE members had a meeting with the delegates from the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) on 11 August 2023 (Friday). The collaboration and partnership opportunities between the two universities were discussed.

New joiner - Dr An WANG

Dr An Wang earned his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 2020 and his master’s degree from McGill University in 2016. Before joining PolyU, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Senseable City Lab, MIT. His interdisciplinary research focuses on the nexus of sustainable transportation systems, urban environmental sensing, and data-driven modeling techniques. His recent work explores the environmental and energy justice issues in large metropolitan areas of the U.S. and Canada. Dr Wang’s research has been featured in multiple high-impact journals, including Atmospheric Environment, Environmental Science & Technology, and Applied Energy. Born and raised in an industrial city in China, he is keen to establish impactful studies and contribute to low-carbon transitions on his motherland.   Dr Wang has joined us on 21 August 2023.

CEE Members Received Outstanding Paper First Class Award

Congratulations to Dr Tony Sze, Associate Professor of CEE, and Dr Hongliang Ding, CEE PhD graduate supervised by Dr Sze, whose paper titled “Effects of Road Network Characteristics on Bicycle Safety: A Multivariate Poisson-lognormal Model” was awarded the  Outstanding Paper First Class Award in the Second Digital Transportation and Smart Travel Academic Forum in Guilin on 4-6 August, 2023.   

New joiner - Dr Mengmeng WU

Dr Mengmeng Wu obtained his Ph.D. degree from City University of Hong Kong (CityU), in 2020. He completed his master's and bachelor's degrees from Shandong University of Science and Technology, in 2017 and 2014, respectively. Prior to joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr Wu worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CityU from 2020-2023. Dr Wu's current research interests include micromechanics of granular media; discrete element modelling (DEM); multiscale modelling and simulation of geomaterials; computational geomechanics; machine learning in geoscience. Dr Wu has joined us on 14 August 2023.

New joiner - Dr Dingbao SONG

Dr Dingbao Song obtained his B.S. Degree (2013) from Shandong University of Science and Technology, M.S. degree (2016) from China University of Geoscience (Wuhan), and Ph.D. degree (2021) from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Prior to joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr Song worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at PolyU in 2021. Dr Song’s current research interests include treatment of dredged sediment and soft soil, interaction between soil-underground structure, analyses of consolidation settlement and treatment of contaminated soil. Dr Song has joined us on 14 August 2023.

PolyU Three-minute Thesis Competition 2023

The PolyU Three-minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition was successfully held on 30 June 2023. Four CEE PhD students were nominated by the Faculty as finalists to compete for the first place of the competition on the University level. Congratulations to Mr Ye Zhongnan, CEE PhD student supervised by Dr Mark Hsu, on winning the Championship in the final stage of the competition. The title of his research presentation is “Dynamic Rescue in Flames: Adaptive Indoor Path Planning with Real-time Structural Safety Prediction”. For more details of the competition, please refer to https://www.polyu.edu.hk/3mt/hall-of-fame/.

PolyU CEE Webinar Series: Modeling Coastal Flooding due to Compound Ocean Disasters

Dr Wang Jinghua delivered a seminar with the topic of “Modeling Coastal Flooding due to Compound Ocean Disasters” on 26 July 2023. It was co-organized with HKIE Civil Division.

New joiner - Dr Jiawen XIE

Dr Jiawen Xie obtained her B.Eng. degree (2015) from Nanjing University and her Ph.D. degree (2021) from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at PolyU. Dr Xie’s current research interests include 1) PM2.5 pollution, source apportionment, and health risk assessment; 2) airborne transmission of bacteria and antimicrobial resistance in urban environments. Dr Xie has joined us on 1 August 2023.

New joiner - Dr Yong KONG

Dr Yong Kong obtained his B.Eng. degree (Hons, 2013) from the China University of Mining and Technology, and earned his Ph.D. degree (2020) from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). Prior to joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, he served as a postdoc fellow at HKUST, HKU, and PolyU. Dr Kong’s research interests primarily focus on computational geomechanics and geophysics, with the aim of seeing the unseen and quantifying the unknown in flow-related geohazards. Dr Kong has joined us on 1 August 2023.