Events

WIEEE Industry Visit to CLP Power Shatin Centre

On January 30, WIEEE organized a technical visit to the CLP Power Shatin Centre for a delegation of female EEE students and faculty. Led by CLP engineers and PolyU alumni, participants gained firsthand insights into power operations through tours of the Testing and Transformer departments and a demonstration of the Grid-v system. The visit concluded with an inspiring career sharing session by a female engineer, offering valuable mentorship to the next generation of women in the field. We sincerely thank CLP for this rewarding experience, which successfully bridged academic learning with industry practice and further motivated our students toward professional engineering careers.

Seminar on "Challenges and Opportunities for LVDC and MVDC in the Energy Transition" by Prof. Johan Driesen

Date: 22 January 2026, Thursday Time: 2:30 PM Venue: FYW-3316, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 859 8869 4437 Password: 123456 Speaker: Prof. Johan Driesen, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: The ongoing energy transition is increasingly enabled by advances in batteries, information and communication technologies, and power electronics. Power electronics in particular has emerged as a key enabler, acting as a game changer for electromobility, the large-scale integration of renewable energy sources, grid-connected battery storage, and the reliable operation of energy-intensive infrastructures such as data centres. As electrification scales up, conventional AC-based architectures face limitations in terms of efficiency, controllability, and flexibility. In this context, low-voltage and medium-voltage direct current (LVDC and MVDC) systems are gaining attention as promising alternatives to further support sustainable electrification. By reducing conversion stages and enabling more controllable power flows, DC systems offer opportunities for more flexible yet reliable operation, particularly at higher power levels. This seminar discusses the potential of LVDC and MVDC technologies, as well as the associated technical and operational challenges, drawing on research conducted at KU Leuven and the EnergyVille research centre in Belgium. Specific use cases, including high-power charging infrastructure for electric trucks and the powering of data centres, are presented to illustrate the opportunities and remaining hurdles for DC-based power systems in the energy transition. Speaker’s Bio: Johan Driesen received the MSc degree in 1996 as Electrical Engineer from the KU Leuven, Belgium. He received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven in 2000. In 2000-2001 he was a visiting researcher in the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK. In 2002 he was working at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. Currently, he is a full professor at the KU Leuven and teaches power electronics, renewables, drives and electromobility. He conducts research on distributed energy resources, including renewable energy systems, low-voltage DC-systems, power electronics and its applications, for instance in renewable energy, storage and electric vehicles. Within EnergyVille, the research collaboration specializing in energy in smart cities and buildings, in cooperation with VITO and Imec, Johan Driesen is involved in the programmes on power electronics, power systems and distributed energy sources. Currently he serves as the director of the KU Leuven Institute of Energy and Society. In 2026, he became an IEEE fellow for “contributions to the integration of renewables and electric vehicles in the electricity grid”. WEBINAR WEBSITE: https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/ https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/centre-seminars.htm

Seminar on "Challenges Posed by the Oversupply of Inverter-Based Resources and Hybrid AC/DC Transmission in the Brazilian Interconnected Power System" by Prof. Glauco Taranto

Date: 22 January 2026, Thursday Time: 11:30 am Venue: FJ303,  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Speaker: Prof. Glauco Taranto

EEE Career Talks - 2025/26 academic year

A series of EEE Career Talks were organized from October to mid-November 2025 during the 2025/26 academic year, providing an invaluable platform for students to explore future career paths. Building on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from previous years, the talks featured enthusiastic employers from leading organizations. They shared valuable insights into their companys’ backgrounds, available job opportunities, and graduate trainee or internship programs, along with potential progression path. The sessions were valuable for both final-year students and year-3 students seeking internship opportunities. We were grateful for the participation of the following organizations: Airport Authority Hong Kong CLP Holdings Limited Electrical and Mechanical Services Department HK Electric Co., Ltd. Jardine Engineering Corporation The event received excellent engagement from our students, who gained advice on job applications, recruitment processes and timelines, as well as critical industry knowledge and networking opportunities. We extend our sincere thanks to all participating organizations and look forward to building on this success in the future.

Seminar on "New Frontiers in One-Bit Signal Processing: From Sample Abundance to Efficient Intelligence at Scale" by Prof. Mojtaba Soltanalian

Date: 8 January 2026, Thursday Time: 2:00 pm Venue: DE306,  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Speaker: Prof. Mojtaba Soltanalian

Seminar on "Active Management and Control of Lithium-Ion Power Batteries Concepts and Recent Progress" by Prof. Rui Xiong

Date: 6 January 2026, Tuesday Time: 2:00 pm Venue: EF402a,  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Speaker: Prof. Rui Xiong

Seminar on "Minimal Stability-Recovery in Perturbed Markov Chains" by Dr Lin Lin

Date: 5 December 2025, Friday Time: 4:30 PM Venue: FYW-3316, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 859 8869 4437 Password: 123456 Speaker: Dr Lin Lin, The University of Hong Kong Abstract: In this seminar, we will discuss stability-analysis and minimal-recovery problems for perturbed Markov chains, which serve as a fundamental model for autonomous systems operating under stochastic uncertainty and functional perturbations. To tackle the challenges of robustness assurance and resilience quantification, a computational framework is presented that establishes stability criteria through the spatial relation of reachable and invariant sets, introduces a robustness indicator to identify system-critical transitions, and synthesizes minimal recovery strategies to ensure system resilience. The theoretical results are demonstrated through two applications: an ultrasound navigation system that ensures reliable anatomical landmark identification, and a robotic soft tissue surgery plan that guarantees success against anatomical uncertainties.   Speaker’s Bio: Dr Lin Lin is currently a Post-Doc Fellow at The University of Hong Kong and the Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center, Hong Kong. Prior to that, she was a Post-Doc Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Hong Kong in April 2024. She was a visiting research student at the University of Adelaide, King’s College London, and Hokkaido University in Oct.-Dec. 2022, May-Jul. 2023, and Feb. 2024, respectively. Her research interests include networked collective intelligence, logical networks, and reinforcement learning. Dr. Lin was a recipient of the Hong Kong Young Scientist Award (Honorable mention), IETI PhD Fellowship Award, the Outstanding Engineering Thesis Award from HKU, and Outstanding Master Degree Thesis Award from Chinese Institute of Electronics.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/ https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/centre-seminars.htm

Seminar on "Modeling LLMs as Complex Systems: Recent Advances" by Dr Hao Liao

Date: 28 November 2025, Friday Time: 4:30 PM Venue: FYW-3316, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 859 8869 4437 Password: 123456 Speaker: Dr Hao Liao, Shenzhen University Abstract: This report details key technologies for building next-generation LLM complex agents, focusing on three core capabilities: memory, goals, and character. We will present recent our works: 1) a pre-trained context compressor that enables long-term memory by overcoming context length constraints; 2) a hierarchical reward method for large codebases that guides agents in complex tasks like fault localization; and 3) R-CHAR, a meta-cognitive role-playing framework for generating consistent and believable character behaviors. Together, these works provide a foundation for more powerful and autonomous AI agents.   Speaker’s Bio: Dr. Hao Liao is a Tenured Associate Professor at Shenzhen University, holding a PhD from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2015). His research focuses on information mining, complex systems, information diffusion, and LLMs. He has led multiple NSFC grants and industry projects with companies like Microsoft and Tencent, and holds over 60 patents. He has published works in top journals and conferences, and has received accolades such as the CCF-Tencent Rhino Bird Award and the Guangdong Provincial Young Top-Talent.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/ https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/centre-seminars.htm

Seminar on "Optimal Control of Hydrogen Fuel Cells" by Dr Yulin Liu

Date: 14 November 2025, Friday Time: 4:30 PM Venue: FYW-3316, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 859 8869 4437 Password: 123456 Speaker: Dr Yulin Liu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Abstract: This seminar focuses on the application of advanced machine learning techniques in the optimal control of hydrogen fuel cells. The proposed methods possess the merits of superior control performance, model independence, low computational burden, and guaranteed closed-loop stability, which make them attractive for industrial applications that require robustness under uncertainty and low computational cost.   Speaker’s Bio: Yulin Liu received the B.E. degree in automation from the Southwest University, China, in 2018. He received his MPE degree in electrical and electronic engineering from The University of Western Australia (UWA), Australia, in 2020. He received his PhD degree in electrical and electronic engineering from UWA, Australia, in 2024. From 2024-2025, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the UWA, Australia. He joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), China, as a postdoctoral fellow in 2025. His research focuses on the intelligent control of energy storage systems in renewable energy power grids, and his research interests have recently extended to intelligent manufacturing.     WEBINAR WEBSITE: https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/ https://www.ee.cityu.edu.hk/~cccn/centre-seminars.htm

Seminar on "Automatic Rank Determination for Low-Rank Adaptation via Submodular Function Maximization" by Dr GAO Yihang

Date: 4 November 2025, Tuesday Time: 4:00 pm Venue: FJ303,  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Speaker: Dr GAO Yihang