Prof. Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), Associate Director of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, and Chair Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, has been appointed the Able Professor in Construction Health and Safety with effect from 1 August 2019. This is the fourth appointment for the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) in PolyU’s Endowed Professorship Scheme, which honours distinguished scholars for their outstanding academic and research achievements.

For more than three decades, Prof. Chan has conducted research on a wide range of topics across the broad field of construction engineering and management, including construction health and safety, project success, construction partnering, and public-private-partnership. His outstanding contributions have earned him a string of awards and prizes, including the Hong Kong Institute of Project Management Achievement Awards (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018), the Asia Pacific Project Management Achievement Awards (2014, 2017, 2018), the First Class Scientific Advancement Award (2016), the Grand Award in the Community Excellence category, Distinguished Knowledge Transfer Awards (2016), Gold Medals in the 36th and 44th International Exhibition Inventions, New Techniques and Product, Geneva, Switzerland (2008, 2016), the Premier Award of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) International Innovation & Research Awards in the Innovation Achiever’s Award Category (2008, 2015), and Local Grand Prize Winner of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) Innovation Award (2015).

His current research interests focus on exploring how extreme hot and humid weather affects the health and productivity of construction workers and developing innovative devices to help improve their well-being.

3 academics of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been approved for research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Following are the details:

Prof. Siu Lai Chan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has been awarded funding of $272,000 from the Professional Services Advancement Support Scheme to undertake an 18-month project entitled “Guideline on Modern Design Method of Second-order Direct Analysis for Steel Structures.”

4 academics of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been awarded FCE Matching Funding for external competitive grants. Following are the details:

The following project has been approved funding from the FCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme:

Dr Jianfu Shen of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) has been allocated $600,000 of start-up funding from BRE, the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), and PolyU for a 3-year project entitled “Do Insiders Exploit the Market Mispricing in Value/ Growth Stocks?”

To share successful experiences of applying for RGC competitive research funding, the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) held its annual forum on 29 August 2019. More than 80 scholars, researchers and students attended. Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE, gave an opening speech, after which Dr Xinyan Huang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) and Dr Charles Wong of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) shared their experiences in writing proposals for the Early Career Scheme and the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) respectively. Prof. Chi-Sun Poon then added his views as a member of the RGC engineering panel. Shedding light on getting funding from the RGC Theme-based Research Scheme was Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of BSE. Also recounting his successful experience in securing the Research Impact Fund was Prof. Yi-qing Ni of CEE.

In addition, Prof. Meng Ni of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) talked about recruiting quality candidates for the HK PhD Fellowship, and Dr Ben Leu of CEE shared his experience of passing the major review exercise. Following an open discussion, Prof. Xiangdong Li, Associate Dean (Research), concluded the forum.

At the FCE annual forum		Prof. Li speaking at the forum

At the annual forum of the International Association of Chinese Professionals of Global Positioning Systems (CPGPS) held in Wuhan, China, from 20 to 22 July 2019, two PhD students from the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI) were honoured with Best Paper Awards. For his paper entitled “Investigation of Attenuation Impact of High Speed Train Window Glass on GNSS Signals,” Mr Yangzhao Gong received a 1st-order Best Paper Award, while Mr Shiwei Yu received a 2nd-order Best Paper Award for his “Study of ionosphere-related parameters’ variation based on GNSS data under the impact of the 2012 tropical cyclone Tembin in Hong Kong region.” Both Mr Gong and Mr Yu are supervised by Dr George Liu of LSGI.

In the Professional Excellence in Building Awards 2019 organized by the Australian Institute of Building (Hong Kong Chapter) (AIB-HK), two PhD students of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) were rewarded for their entries.

Ms Nicole Yiu received a certificate of high commendation for her empirical investigation of the current application and future development of the safety management system in the Hong Kong construction industry, while Mr Timothy Olawumi received a certificate of merit for his exploratory study of the application of building information modelling to the sustainability of the built environment. They received their award certificates on 21 June 2019. Both of them are supervised by Dr Daniel Chan, Associate Professor of BRE.

Ms Yiu and Mr Olawumi receiving their awards

A PhD student from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), Mr Abdullahi Saka, has come first in the Best Student Presentation Award (Category: Smart Planning, Design and Construction, Smart Environment) organized by the Hong Kong PolyU Student Chapter of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB). He received an award certificate and a cash cheque of $1,000 at the closing ceremony of the CIB World Building Congress on 20 June 2019. His winning paper was entitled "Adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Developing Countries: A System Dynamics Approach." It was co-authored with Dr Daniel Chan and Dr Francis Siu of BRE.

Mr Saka with Dr Chan (right) and Dr Siu (left)

The following research students have been selected for the FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses:

On 27 August 2019, incoming freshmen of undergraduate degree and Higher Diploma (HD) programmes of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) attended an orientation held by their respective departments. Introductions of each department were made at each of the orientations: the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) was introduced by its Acting Head Prof. Michael Yam; the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) by its Head, Prof. Asif Usmani, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) by its Head, Prof. Chi-sun Poon; and the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) by its Head, Prof. John Shi.

Following each of the departmental introductions were briefings by various programme leaders.

At the BRE orientation		New students of BSE at its orientation

Prof. Poon introducing CEE at its orientation		At the LSGI orientation

In addition, representatives of various administrative and supporting units of PolyU introduced their services at all or some of the orientations. They included the Office of General University Requirements, the Centre STARS (Student Advancement and Resources), the Industrial Centre, the University Library, the Chinese Mainland Affairs Office, the Health, Safety and Environment Office, and the University Health Service.

More than 180 full-time new students of FCE taught postgraduate (TPg) programmes had their orientation on 26 August 2019. They were welcomed and introduced to FCE by Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE. Associate Dean (Teaching) Prof. Geoffrey Shen introduced the Postgraduate Scheme in Construction and Environment before the 4 departments of FCE were introduced by Prof. Michael Yam, Acting Head of BRE, Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of BSE, Prof. Chi-sun Poon, Head of CEE, and Prof. John Shi, Head of LSGI. New students were also introduced to the Mental Wellness Clinic before they met with their programme leaders.

For their significant contributions to Hong Kong and the community, 4 alumni of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) made it onto the 2019 Honours List of the HKSAR Government. Receiving the Silver Bauhinia Star was Dr Tin-cheung Cheung, an alumnus of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), while a Bronze Bauhinia Star was awarded to Ir Robin Kui-biu Lee, an alumnus of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). In addition, fellow BRE alumnus Mr Simon Miu-man Siu received a Medal of Honour, and fellow CEE alumnus Mr Barry Lap-hei Kwok received a Chief Executive’s Commendation for Government/ Public Service.