On September 17, 2026, Dr. You-Wu Wang from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) Hangzhou Research Institute and Dr. Xiao-Si Yang, postdoctoral fellow at CNERC-Rail (HK Branch), acting as project team members, traveled to Beijing alongside Chief Engineer Jian-Bing Chen and Dr. Kun Yuan from CCCC First Highway Consultants Co., Ltd., Prof. Xue-Song Mao from Chang’an University, and Prof. Fan Wang from Xi’an University of Science and Technology. Following thorough preparatory work, the team participated in the on-site defense for the project "Theory of Reliability Assessment for Roadbed Serviceability under Long-term, Slow Hydrothermal Variations in the Qinghai-Tibet Engineering Corridor," submitted to the Joint Fund for Enterprise Innovation and Development of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The defense was held at the Beijing Conference Center, where Director Jian-Bing Chen delivered a detailed presentation on the project proposal and responded to questions from the expert panel. The defense was successfully concluded, and the team is now awaiting the subsequent notification from the National Natural Science Foundation of China regarding the project evaluation results.
