News

Appreciation for Fiona Cheung's support to establish Endowed Professorship in Spatial Science

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is honoured to be the only Hong Kong tertiary institution involved in China’s space exploration projects, contributing to the development of the Nation’s space programme. Ms Fiona Cheung, Chairman of Forest Zone Limited, who has been a keen supporter of PolyU, has provided a generous donation to establish the Fiona Cheung Endowed Professorship in Spatial Science, in order to support PolyU’s continuous contributions to China’s space exploration projects. Prof. Wu Bo, Associate Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, has been appointed as the Endowed Professor. To express its sincere gratitude for Ms Cheung’s generous support, PolyU held an appreciation lunch on 14 June 2022, hosted by PolyU’s President Prof. Jin-Guang Teng. Prof. Teng extended his heartfelt appreciation to Ms Cheung for her staunch support to the University. With this professorship, PolyU will further strengthen its research endeavours to make greater contributions to the advancement of space technology and science. Prof. Wu developed innovative 3D topographic mapping and intelligent geomorphological analysis techniques which contributed to landing site mapping and selection for China’s Chang’e-3, Chang’e-4, and Chang’e-5 lunar missions, as well as the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars. Expressing his gratitude for Ms Cheung’s support, Prof. Wu stated that this professorship is a great encouragement to the staff and students of the Faculty, driving them to strive for excellence in education and research. Ms Cheung, a member of the Governing Committee of the PolyU Foundation and a University Fellow, has been providing invaluable advice to support the fundraising and outreach efforts of the University. Ms Cheung believes the Endowed Professorship can encourage young scholars to follow the footsteps of Prof. Wu, devoting their careers to research and innovation. With the support of donors, the Endowed Professorship Scheme recognises the achievements of world-renowned researchers in their specialised disciplines and enables the Endowed Professors to explore and advance cutting-edge research projects for the betterment of mankind. We hope that like-minded philanthropists will witness the powerful impact of the Endowed Professorship Scheme in the appointment of the aforesaid professorship. Please browse the Scheme website for more information.

LSGI's research won Best Paper Award of the 5th Global Tourism and Hospitality Conference

Research led by PhD student Ke MAI (under the supervision of Dr. Yang XU) from the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) won the Best Paper Award from the 5th Global Tourism and Hospitality Conference held in Hong Kong, 12-14 June 2022. Using mobile phone traces of international travelers collected in Seoul, South Korea and massive social media check-ins that reveal characteristics of places and tourism attractions, the research develops a discrete choice modeling framework to study the factors that affect travelers' propensity to visit different places in the city.   The paper entitled "Understanding and Modelling Tourist Intra-City Destination Choice Using Mobile Phone Data" stood out from 67 conference articles to win the award. The champion team consisted of Mr. Ke MAI, Dr. Yang XU, Prof. Sangwon PARK and Prof. Anthony CHEN.

LSGI project awarded Public Policy Research Funding

A project proposed by Dr Zhu Xiaolin, Assistant Professor of PolyU’s Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, has been awarded a funding of HK$281,060 from the first round of the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme managed by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office.   Dr Zhu’s project, “Developing Low-Cost Remote Sensing System for Detecting Illegal Dumping of Construction Waste in Hong Kong”, is one of the only two projects receiving the funding out of 27 applications. The other one was proposed by a scholar from the School of Professional Education and Executive Development of PolyU.  

LSGI Scholar Conferred Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences for Autumn 2021

Prof. John Shi, Chair Professor of Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), has been conferred a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK), in recognition of his outstanding contributions to social sciences for public benefit. The Academy’s Fellowship gathers concerted efforts of social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors, to support the Academy and its work. Through leadership, scholarship, applied research, policymaking, and practice, they have helped to enhance public understanding of, and address, emerging global and societal challenges.

PolyU President's Awards and Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2021

PolyU recognises the distinguished accomplishments and contributions of staff members through the two tiers of awards, namely the President’s Awards and the Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement. The accolades, categorised into individual and team awards, are presented in the areas of Teaching, Research and Scholarly Activities, and Services. Introducing the new award category of “Knowledge Transfer” recently, the University honours outstanding knowledge transfer endeavours that have created significant impact on industry and society. The awardees from the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) are as follows. President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2021 Category of Award Individual Award / Team Award Post Knowledge Transfer Sub-category: Industry Prof. Bo WU Professor   FCE Faculty Awards for Outstanding Achievement 2021 Category of Award Individual Award / Team Award Post Knowledge Transfer Sub-category: Industry Prof. Bo WU Professor Knowledge Transfer Sub-category: Society Prof. John W.Z. SHI (team leader) Dr Anshu ZHANG Dr Min ZHANG Chair Professor Research Assistant Professor Research Assistant Professor Services Dr Wallace Wai Lok LAI Associate Professor   Congratulations to all award winners!

LSGI Academic among World's Top 10 Scholars

In the latest “Updated science-wide author databases of standardised citation indicators” compiled by Stanford University, it consists of over 100,000 top scientists worldwide. We are glad to share that Prof. Weng Qihao from LSGI ranked 9th among 52,403 scientists in the field of Geological & Geomatics Engineering globally. Congratulations to Prof. Weng!

LSGI Academic in Action to Engage Prospective Students through Online Lecture

On 7 May 2022, Prof. Qihao Weng of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) gave an inspiring online lecture on the topic “The Greater Bay Area (GBA) from Space: Daytime vs. Nighttime, and Big Data vs. Small Data” as part of the PolyU Online Lecture Series organised by Global Engagement Office (GEO). Prof. Weng analysed the urbanisation process in the GBA by comparing big data and small data methods during the one-hour lecture which was well-attended by around 250 prospective Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) students from the Mainland China. Prof. Weng’s lecture gave prospective JEE students a glimpse into PolyU’s educational and research excellence.

Young Researcher Collaborative Research Fund Supports Early-career Researchers

This year the Faculty launched the FCE Young Researcher Collaborative Research Fund (FCE YRCRF) to encourage young researchers to develop their research skills and methodologies by engaging in collaborative research with their peers. The FCE YRCRF is not only conducive to the long-term development of young researchers to better prepare for the Research Assessment Exercise, but also lays the foundation for the Young Collaborative Research Grant (YCRG) to be launched under the RGC Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) in early 2022. We are delighted to announce that there are two projects led by LSGI researchers that have gained support in the 2021/22 exercise. Principal Investigator Project Title Amount (HK$) Dr Yang XU Quantifying the Potential Impact of Shared Autonomous Vehicles on Parking Demand and Fleet Size Requirements in Cities $493,200 Dr Xiaolin ZHU Green Energy Solution to Carbon Neutrality in Hong Kong: Spatiotemporal Modelling and Optimization $500,000

Prof. John Shi was conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Professor Shi Wenzhong John, Director of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute and Chair Professor of LSGI was conferred as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) for his contribution to social science in late 2021. The Academy’s Fellowship is made up of distinguished individuals from academic, public, private and third sectors, across the full breadth of the social sciences. Through leadership, scholarship, applied research, policymaking, and practice, they have helped to deepen the understanding of, and address, some of the toughest challenges facing our society and the world. New Fellows are named due to the excellence and impact of their work, which addresses matters of vital importance and contributes to the social sciences for the public good. Through leadership, scholarship, applied research, policymaking and practice, they have helped to deepen the understanding of some of the toughest challenges facing our society and the world. Congratulations to Prof. Shi!

PolyU Students Won the Third Prize in Huawei APAC ICT Competition 2022 & Advanced to Global Final

Huawei APAC ICT Competition 2022 is the largest ICT skills contest in the Asia Pacific region developed by Huawei to promote a sound talent ecosystem. Entrants had to compete in one of two technology tracks: Network or Cloud. The PolyU’s Polynomials team won the Third Prize in Cloud track for their multidisciplinary knowledge, outstanding performance, and good teamwork. They stood out from 114 students who advanced to the regional final. The team is passionate on big data, AI, cloud, and geospatial technologies, and relevant applications in E-Commerce, IoT, and Smart City. Through learning from a comprehensive set of tutorials provided by Huawei, the team quickly got on board with the Huawei burgeoning ecosystem both in theory and in practice. The team obtained in-depth knowledge of four kinds of state-of-the-art IT technologies as well as their evolutionary history and applications. The PolyU winning team will continue their journey for the Global Final in June 2022 which will be held in Shenzhen, China.   Polynomials Team members: Feng Yun Lin, Zhong Xiu Ming and Tang Man Kit (students from Department of Computing and Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics) Instructor: Dr. Yang XU, Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics