FCE Alumni Reunion Day 2022

In celebration of the PolyU 85th Anniversary and to foster and strengthen the bond between the Faculty and its alumni, FCE hosted the first ever Alumni Reunion Day on campus on 13 August 2022. More than 200 participants attended the event to celebrate the accomplishments of the Faculty, including guests from the University Council and the University Central Management Team, current and former Faculty members, and alumni of different generations.

Officiating the opening of the event, Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, President of PolyU shared the latest development and achievements of the University in his welcome speech. Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Dean of Faculty, highlighted in particular the endeavours of the FCE Fund and called upon the alumni to render their support to the development of the Faculty by making donations to the Fund. Upon Prof. Li’s call for support, an FCE alumnus made a generous donation to the FCE Fund. Ir Kwok-fai Yau, President of the Federation of PolyU Alumni Associations, also shared fond memories of his PolyU days and expressed gratitude to the Faculty and PolyU. Another highlight of the event was the award presentation ceremony for the first edition of Outstanding Alumni Award of PolyU FCE.

The second part of the Reunion Day consisted of exhibitions and laboratory tours organised by the four departments. Alumni were given a chance to learn about the latest research outcomes and facilities of their alma mater. The Reunion Day provided a craved chance for FCE alumni to catch up with each other in person and celebrate the achievements of the Faculty and the University where they started their professional journeys.

 
 
   

FCE Staff Engagement Events
FCE Management Workshop 2022

A half-day FCE Management Workshop was held on 19 August 2022, to enhance the communication between the University Central Management and FCE academic departments, particularly the first and second-tier management teams in the Faculty and departments.

The President, the Deputy President and Provost, the Vice President (Education), the Vice President (Research and Innovation), the Vice President (Student and Global Affairs), and the Director of Institutional Planning and Analytics shared the University’s strategic initiatives and the upcoming major tasks with around 50 FCE academic and administrative staff. The Dean of Faculty and the Heads of Departments also presented FCE’s strategies and shared the good practices in academic staffing, teaching & learning, research, partnership, and knowledge transfer. The workshop ended with a breakout session where Central Management Team members and participants had group discussions and brainstorms for their respective focus areas, namely academic programmes, research, and partnership. Academic and administrative staff mingled with their counterparts in different departments and shared a good time at the luncheon arranged after the workshop.

FCE Annual Forum 2022

The FCE Annual Forum is a yearly event organised by the Faculty to enhance FCE researchers’ proposal writing skills. The forum this year was held on 22 August 2022 in hybrid mode, FCE academics of different departments shared their successful experiences in writing proposals for various funding schemes. Prof. Defeng Sun, Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics (AMA), was invited to share his successful experience in writing proposal for RGC Senior Research Fellowship Scheme. The detailed list of topics and speakers are as follows:

Topic Speaker
Department
Successful Experience in Writing ECS Proposal Dr Minhyun Lee
Dept of Building and Real Estate
Successful Experience in Writing GRF Proposal Prof. Mingli Chen
Dept of Building Environment and Energy Engineering
RAP’s Successful Experience in Writing GRF Proposal Dr Qian-jie Chen
Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Panel Member’s Views and Successful Experience in
Writing GRF Proposal (via Zoom) 		Prof. Geoffrey Shen
Dept of Building and Real Estate
Successful Experience in Writing Proposal for RGC Major Research Scheme – Theme-based Research Scheme Prof. Xiang-dong Li
Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Successful Experience in Recruiting Quality HK PhD Fellowship Candidates Dr Xiaolin Zhu
Dept of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
Successful Experience in Writing Proposal for RGC Senior Research Fellowship Scheme Prof. Defeng Sun
Dept of Applied Mathematics


Nearly 100 participants attended the event. Interested FCE staff can review the contents shared by the speakers here.
Dean meets recently joined young researchers

Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Dean of Faculty, met a group of recently joined young researchers on 4 August 2022. Apart from introducing the Faculty’s research strengths and focuses to them, Prof. Li also highlighted FCE’s impressive RGC General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) application results of 2022/23 to the new joiners. To prepare the young researchers for a good kick-start of their career, Prof. Li shared some strategies and tips for writing successful research proposals from his own experience.

 
   

Results of RGC Competitive Funding Schemes 2022/23

The ability to secure research funding is one of the widely recognised ways to measure research quality. The 2022/23 application results of the RGC General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS), which were announced on 30 June 2022, once again proved FCE academics’ research excellence. Owing to their similar nature, the application results for GRF and ECS are combined in some of the following analyses.
Dept. GRF grants ECS grants Total
(including GRF & ECS)		 Overall success rate Total amount of competitive funding (including GRF & ECS)
(HK$)		 Amount per eligible staff member (HK$)
BEEE 5 0 5 23% $5,000,468 $208,353
BRE 5 2 7 26% $6,313,369 $233,828
CEE 27 0 27 54% $27,394,627 $507,308
LSGI 7 0 7 35% $5,577,302 $265,586
FCE (Total) 44 2 46 39% $44,285,766 $351,474


As seen from Figure 1 below, the total number of grants increased substantially in the latest round, while the total funding hits a historic high of over $44 million (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Comparison of Number of Grants per Year between Departments over the past 10 Years

Figure 2: Comparison of Total Grants Awarded per Year between Departments over the past 10 Years

In terms of the average funding amount per eligible academic staff member, as shown in Figure 3, the average funding received by FCE academic staff reached its peak in the 2022/23 exercise.

Figure 3: Comparison of Amount of RGC Competitive Funding per Eligible Staff Member between Departments over the past 10 Years

In the Civil Engineering, Surveying, Building and Construction (CESBC) disciplines of the Engineering Panel, PolyU has been in the leading position among local universities since 1994/95 in both the number of GRF/ECS projects supported and the total grant value awarded, consistently winning around or almost reaching 50% of all GRF/ECS grants allocated in these disciplines. The distribution of the amount of GRF/ECS funding in 2022/23 is shown in Figure 4. PolyU received 49% of the total available funding in the CESBC disciplines this year, with an average funding of HK$949,000 per project.

Figure 4: Distribution of GRF/ECS Funding in the CESBC Disciplines among Institutions in the 2022/23 Round

Of the 46 GRF/ECS grants awarded to the Faculty this year, 3 were awarded outside the CESBC disciplines. The Faculty won 43 grants (or 45.2%) totalling HK$41.28 million out of 95 GRF/ECS grants awarded by RGC in the CESBC disciplines in the 2022/23 round.

FCE colleagues are encouraged to strive for improvement to ensure a greater share of GRF/ECS funding in the future, which also impacts the R-portion of the University as well as its departments.

 
 
   

FCE ranked top 50 in 3 subjects by ShanghaiRanking

ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2022 recently ranked PolyU the 4th place in the world for the subject of Civil Engineering, 37th place for Remote Sensing, and 50th place for Environmental Science & Engineering. Civil Engineering and Remote Sensing are also among the eleven PolyU subjects which ranked top in Hong Kong. Proud of being highly regarded in global rankings of academic subjects, FCE seeks to further its academic excellence and reach new heights.

First published in 2017, the GRAS comprises rankings of more than 5,000 universities in 54 subjects across Natural Sciences, Engineering, Life Sciences, Medical Sciences, and Social Sciences. The rankings adopt a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data, including research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality and international academic awards.

 
   

FCE student achievements
FCE PhD students shine at international conferences

The Faculty always supports PhD students to take part in various kinds of local and international conferences as a way to enhance their exposure. Recently two PhD students from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) obtained outstanding results at international conferences:


PhD Student Ms Nimesha Jayasena Mr Zengjia Guo
Supervisor Dr Daniel Chan
Dept of Building and Real Estate

Co-supervisor:
Prof. Mohan Kumaraswamy
Dept of Civil Engineering
The University of Hong Kong 		Prof. Meng Ni
Dept of Building and Real Estate
Paper Potential for PPP in the Next Wave of Smart Infrastructure: In Smart Villages and Rural Infrastructure Novel mini-channel cold plate with different shapes of pin fins for effective battery thermal management
Award Highly Commended Paper Award 2022

International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction World Building Congress 2022
(Category: “Public Private Partnerships: Past, Present and Future”) 		The IGEC Best Student Presentation Award

The 14th International Green Energy Conference (IGEC)
FCE undergraduate students receive HSBC Scholarships 2021/22

Since 1965, the HSBC Scholarships have been supporting tertiary students in Hong Kong through different scholarship schemes, so as to help them unleash their potential and contribute to the society. Among the 26 PolyU undergraduate students who have been awarded scholarships under the HSBC flagship scholarship schemes 2021/22, five are from FCE. The awardees are recognised not only for their outstanding academic performance, but also for their substantial community service and strong leadership ability. The FCE awardees are:


Mr William Chiu, Global Head of Future Skills, Group Corporate Sustainability, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and Dr Eric Tam, Associate Dean of Students, pictured with eight of the PolyU awardees at the HSBC Scholars Day held on 21 July 2022.

Scholarship scheme Awardee
HSBC Greater Bay Area (Hong Kong) Scholarship 2021/22 King Ho Wong,
BSc (Hons) in Surveying
Dept of Building and Real Estate
HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship 2021/22 Po Wai Wong,
BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering
Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Yi Nam Xu,
BSc (Hons) Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
Dept of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics

Wai Lam Yau,
BSc (Hons) in Surveying
Dept of Building and Real Estate
HSBC Vocational Education Scholarship 2021/22 Ka Wai Wong,
Higher Diploma in Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics
Dept of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics

LSGI MSc student wins 1st prize with team in Huawei ICT Competition 2021-2022 Global Final

The Huawei ICT Competition is a competitive ICT talent exchange event that fosters global competition and communication among international college students. The Competition 2021-2022 consisted of three competitions – Practice, Innovation, and Industry. It has attracted 150,000 students from over 2,000 universities and colleges across 85 countries and regions.

Mr Xiu Ming Zhong, a MSc student of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), teamed up with two students from the Department of Computing as “Polynomials” for the competition. Under the instruction of Dr Xu Yang from LSGI, the PolyU team won the First Prize in the Hong Kong SAR Final and Third Prize in the APAC Region Final in Cloud Track, and finally received the First Prize in Cloud Track of the Practice Competition in Global Final. They are also the only team from Hong Kong among all finalists. As their passion for the ICT industry is further ignited by this competition, the team aspires to keep enhancing their experience in innovative applications in E-Commerce, Healthcare, IoT, and smart city.

 
 
   

FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series

The second lecture of the FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series was held on 26 July 2022. Prof. Yiqing Ni, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit and Director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Centre (Hong Kong Branch) (CNERC-Rail), delivered an online lecture entitled “Online Monitoring and Vibration/Noise Control of Railway Systems: From Metro to Maglev” to around 150 participants.

After a brief welcome speech by Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Dean of Faculty, Prof. Ni started the lecture by introducing the research focuses of CNERC-Rail and its knowledge transfer projects, then he illustrated online monitoring of metro, high-speed rail, and maglev systems. Online vibration/noise control and energy harvesters for trains were explained through some videos. Prof. Ni also compared the merits and shortcomings of several machine learning paradigms for applications to railway systems.

The lecture ended with a Q&A session where Prof. Ni, Prof. Li and online participants discussed the possibility of further applications of these railway monitoring technologies, for instance in the Qinghai–Tibet railway, and explored potential research collaboration opportunities between CNERC-Rail and the commercial sector.

 
   
 

FCE Departmental/Programme Orientation 2022

Every year, the Faculty welcomes a new batch of freshmen to the big FCE family. During 24 to 28 August this year, the four FCE departments held the Departmental/Programme Orientation Sessions to provide guidance to the freshmen as they begin one of the most important chapters of their lives.

The orientation sessions provided freshmen an overview of their home departments, the academic programmes they will study, the resources available to them, and the rules and regulations they need to follow. Some also had the chance to have a first taste of the latest 4D immersive learning experience. More than 600 students joined the orientation sessions either online or in person.

 
   

Welcome new staff to FCE

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) welcomed Prof. Jerry Yan to the post of Chair Professor of Energy and Buildings in August 2022. Prof. Yan obtained his PhD degree in Energy Processes from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. Prior to joining PolyU, he served as the Chair Professor of Energy Engineering at the Mälardalen University (2005 to 2022) and Director of the Future Energy Profile (2013 to 2022) funded by the Swedish Knowledge Foundation and industrial partners. Before that, he was the Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Energy Engineering at the Luleå University of Technology from 2001 to 2004.

Prof. Yan’s research covers topics related to advanced energy systems, renewable energy, climate change mitigation technologies and related environmental issues and policy. He has published more than 400 journal papers with over 20,000 citations, including those featured in Science, Nature Energy, and Nature Climate Change. He has led several advisory assignments for international organisations, such as United Nations, European Union Commission, and Asian Development Bank. Prof. Yan is also an academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) also welcomed a new Assistant Professor recently. Dr Jacqueline Lo obtained her BSc degree in Civil Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, MSc in Structural Engineering and Geo-mechanics and PhD in Construction Management from Stanford University in 2016 and 2022 respectively. She has rich internship experience in universities and companies around the world, including The University of Hong Kong, ARUP and Yau Lee Construction Group in Hong Kong, Disneyland Research Group in Shanghai, and Northwestern University in the US, etc.

Dr Lo’s research interests include topics in the field of civil engineering and construction management, such as construction and facilities innovation, digital construction and management, data analytics, digital twin and internet of things, transportation, evacuation modeling, risk mitigation and sustainability to the built environment. She aims to advance innovative solutions for the next-generation building and infrastructure systems, and smart city development.

 
 

FORTHCOMING
EVENTS

   PolyU 85th Anniversary FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series
Date: From now to November 2022
Time: 6:00 – 7:00pm
Format: Online / Physical
Event Schedule:
Date Speaker
27 September (Tue) Prof. Qihao Weng (LSGI)
25 October (Tue) Prof. Qingyan Chen (BEEE)
22 November (Tue) Prof. Ben Young (CEE)







Details: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/news-and-events/events/2022/6/fce-chair-professor-lecture-series/?sc_lang=en		  
 
      PolyU Undergraduate Info Day 2022
Date: 8 October 2022 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30am – 5:30pm
Details: to be announced		  
 
 
 
 

INVITATION FOR PROGRAMME ADMISSION

 
 
 

Applications are invited for the following programmes.
Undergraduate Programmes https://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/study/undergraduate-programmes/
Taught Postgraduate Programmes https://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/study/taught-postgraduate-programmes/
Research Postgraduate Programmes https://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/study/research-postgraduate-programme/

For e-Prospectus, please visit https://www.polyu.edu.hk/study