News

PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2023

We are pleased to share that Dr Shuowen Zhang won the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2023! YIRA is organized by the Research and Innovation Office to encourage young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problems in society. Dr Zhang attained the award for her research focus on smart and reconfigurable 6G wireless networks aided by intelligent reflecting surface. She will be granted a research funding support of HK$500,000 for recognizing her dedication to advancing knowledge and making a positive impact on society. Check out the video to learn more about the awardees.

Merit Prize of Information Technology in the 9th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

  Our BEng in EIE student, Tam Pak Sam, won the Merit Prize of Information Technology in the 9th Hong Kong University Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for his final-year project “Water Drinking and Pill Taking Reminder” on 3 June 2023. The Competition is organized by the Hong Kong New Generation Cultural Association, and co-organized by the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation with the support from the Innovation and Technology Commission to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among tertiary students. Supervised by Dr Lawrence Cheung, this final-year project aims to develop a system that helps the staff in hospital wards and nursing homes to monitor the water and pill consumption of the people receiving care in a convenient and systematic way.

JUPAS Consultation Day

JUPAS Consultation Day 2023 was held on 20 May on the campus of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  It was designated mainly for the Secondary 6 students to explore their options and plan their academic journey at Poly U.    In this event, our Department held three activities for the prospective students to learn more about Electrical Engineering BEng(Hons) Scheme(JS3170), including the info seminar, lab guided tour, and the consultation counter session. During these three activities, the students could meet the Department Representatives and look around our laboratories. They could also get personalized advice from the consultation counter session on what they were curious about.   We were thrilled to have you join us last Saturday.  We hope that you found the event informative, engaging and valuable.   

Best Student Papers Awards 2022 by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) Logistics & Transportation Division (LTD)

Congratulations! The paper “Comparative Study of the Mass Transit Systems in Hong Kong and Shenzhen” which was completed by our student, Mr Chan Kei Chit, is awarded as one of the HKIE LTD Best Student Papers 2022. The year’s topic was “Smart Transport” and Kei Chit put his continued efforts and endless patience into his project on this topic. Ultimately, his hard work and determination have paid off, and we are truly grateful. We would like to thank HKIE LTD for honouring this meaningful award to Kei Chit. It must contribute so much to him towards his professional growth and career development.

Interview by Ta Kung Pao

 Dr Xinyu Zhou was interviewed by the Ta Kung Pao on 3 May 2023. As the world enters the era of IoT, 5G, green energy and electric vehicles, Wide Band Gap (WBG) semiconductors that can fully demonstrate high-voltage, high-temperature and high-frequency capabilities become the darling of the market. Dr Zhou introduced third-generation microelectronic circuits to the general public of Hong Kong in this interview. He discussed about the advantages of third-generation semiconductor circuits compared with conventional integrated circuits, and the wide applications of third-generation microelectronic circuits in people’s daily life. Dr Zhou also shared about the interdisciplinary research between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and integrated circuit design. The interview article and video can be viewed at https://www.tkww.hk/a/202305/03/AP6451e493e4b0e38b843689c3.html.

IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award 2023

Dr Shuowen Zhang won the IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award 2023 for her paper “Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Aided Wireless Communications: A Tutorial” published on IEEE Transactions on Communications! The award recognizes the best tutorial paper published in any IEEE Communications Society magazine or journal in the previous five calendar years. Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is an enabling technology to engineer the radio signal propagation in wireless networks. By smartly tuning the signal reflection via a large number of low-cost passive reflecting elements, IRS is capable of dynamically altering wireless channels to enhance the communication performance. It is thus expected that the new IRS-aided hybrid wireless network comprising both active and passive components will be highly promising to achieve a sustainable capacity growth cost-effectively in the future. Despite its great potential, IRS faces new challenges to be efficiently integrated into wireless networks, such as reflection optimization, channel estimation, and deployment from communication design perspectives. Dr Zhang provides a tutorial overview of IRS-aided wireless communications to address the above issues, and elaborate its reflection and channel models, hardware architecture and practical constraints, as well as various appealing applications in wireless networks. Important directions worthy of further investigation in future work are also highlighted in this winning paper.

TechConnect 2023 National Innovation Awardee - Professor Eric Cheng, for the new technology “Ammonia Powered Fuel Cell-based Electric Vehicle”

Congratulations! Prof. Eric Cheng Ka-wai and his research team developed the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel-cell EV in 2021. And now, we are thrilled to know that this new technology “Ammonia Powered Fuel Cell-based Electric Vehicle” is awarded the TechConnect 2023 Innovation Award. Our Department would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for Professor Cheng and his research team’s efforts.   Please find the official announcement on TechConnect website: https://www.techconnectworld.com/World2023/participate/innovation/awards.html More details could be found here: Worlds first ammonia-powered fuelcell Achievements by Professor Eric Cheng

HKSAR Government’s Smart Traffic Fund - Dr Weihua GU’s project “Development of Software for Optimising the Planning and Scheduling of New Energy Buses”

The project “Development of Software for Optimising the Planning and Scheduling of New Energy Buses” which is led by Dr Weihua GU’s has been received the HKSAR Government’s Smart Traffic Fund. The project aims to develop a software tool to optimise the planning and scheduling of new energy buses on different routes, in order to build a more environmentally friendly travel experience and promote the development of new energy public transport. Thank Hong Kong Government for giving support to the project. Dr Weihua GU and our Department would continue to commit ourselves to creating a positive impact in addressing social needs through the application of advanced technologies.   For more information, please click the link below: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/rio/news/2023/20230420---innovative-solutions-to-promote-new-energy-transportation-and-enhance-driving-safety

Publication on Nature Communications was selected as Editors’ Highlights under the topic of devices

A paper “19.31% binary organic solar cell and low non-radiative recombination enabled by non-monotonic intermediate state transition” published by Prof. Gang Li’s research team on Nature Communications on 30 March 2023 was selected as the Editors’ Highlights under the topic of devices. Non-radiative recombination loss suppression is critical for boosting performance of organic solar cells. Here, the authors regulate self-organization of bulk-heterojunction in a non-monotonic manner, and achieve device efficiency over 19% with low non-radiative recombination loss down to 0.168 eV. The paper is available at https://www.nature.com/collections/bjiiabbacg.

Invitation to PolyU Engineering Project Competition 2023

We are pleased to invite school team(s) from your school to join our PolyU Engineering Project Competition 2023. The Engineering Project Competition invites team of 4 student members to join our competition workshop and complete a STEM-based project. Winners of the projects will be showcased and will be presented with trophies and certificates. This is a good opportunity for interested students to learn more about Computing and Engineering and experienced hands on laboratory experiences. All artefacts of the competition can be brought back to their own schools. Details can be found at our website: www.polyu.edu.hk/feng/competition and via the poster below. The registration is now open, from 10 April to 12 May 2023. An online briefing of the competition will be held on 5 May 2023 4:30 p.m., teachers/ studentsif interested in the competition are welcome to learn more about the competition at the briefing, please register: https://polyu.hk/hgfYN.   If you wish to learn more about the competition, welcome to discuss with us (Enquiry: 2766 5064 ( phone) / denquiry@polyu.edu.hk (email))   With best regards Faculty of Engineering The Hong Kong Polytechnic University