FCE Build a Smart City Competition 2026 blends theory with real-world experience to inspire future innovators

Building on the resounding success of the FCE Build a Smart City Competition held last year, this flagship event returned in 2026 to engage secondary students with Smart City concepts and inspire them to develop innovative solutions that will transform Hong Kong into a smarter, more sustainable city.

The 2026 competition attracted more than 160 students from over 30 secondary schools. The participating teams chose one of five distinct projects, each carefully designed by an FCE department to showcase their unique academic strengths and research expertise:

 
The competition kicked off with an opening ceremony and a two-day workshop held on 26 June and 3 July 2026. During the opening ceremony, contestants were walked through the competition guidelines and introduced to FCE’s diverse undergraduate programmes.

The subsequent workshop, tailored by each department to match their specific project themes, offered contestants a glimpse of FCE’s pedagogy—complex concepts and technologies were illustrated through a rich mix of academic theory with practical application. The contestants explored the project concepts through talks, hands-on workshops, laboratory sessions, group discussions, and site visits to relevant government, public, and commercial institutions.

With the workshop successfully wrapped up, the contestants have six weeks to innovate and develop their projects. We look forward to seeing their creative ideas and project outcomes on the presentation day on 14 August 2026.

FCE connects with prospective students at education fair and secondary school visits

FCE fosters global perspectives through diverse non-local learning initiatives

FCE is highly committed to nurturing a global mindset among its students, actively aligning with the University’s mission to encourage non-local learning experiences. In pursuit of this goal, the Faculty's departments have continued to diversify their short-term outbound learning opportunities, enabling students to enrich their studies and broaden their international horizons.

In the 2025/26 academic year, FCE departments coordinated a wide array of non-local learning activities, taking students to destinations including New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the Chinese Mainland.

The destinations were meticulously chosen to maximise discipline-specific learning experiences. In Osaka, Japan, an earthquake-prone city, students explored cutting-edge disaster prevention and cultural preservation strategies. In Harbin, they witnessed how solar energy is harnessed for building efficiency during harsh winters, while in Shanghai, they experienced how metropolitan culture and rapid social development shape modern engineering practices. Students visited New Zealand to compare how local conventions shape the real estate industry relative to that of Hong Kong. Finally, in Galle, Sri Lanka—a partner country of the Belt and Road Initiative—students empowered the local community with geospatial technologies and promoted Chinese culture.

Through these transformative experiences, FCE continues to groom the next generation of future-ready professionals and socially responsible global citizens.

Results of RGC Competitive Funding Schemes 2026/27

Prof. Yi-Qing Ni receives Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award

The Faculty is proud to share that Prof. Yi-Qing NI, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), has been awarded the prestigious 16th Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award by the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The Award selected only 40 winners from a highly competitive pool of 471 outstanding scholars following a rigorous evaluation process by academicians across diverse engineering disciplines. Prof. Ni is one of the three Award recipients from Hong Kong.

The award celebrates Prof. Ni’s decades of dedication to the integrated modular design methodology for large-scale structural health monitoring (SHM) systems and the whole-life-cycle SHM framework. His pioneering modular design methods are widely used in large civil engineering infrastructure, with major milestones including early fieldwork on the Tsing Ma Bridge and the ongoing 20-year operation of the Canton Tower’s SHM system. Furthering his extensive track record, his team is currently collaborating with government departments to support the next-generation wind-resistant disaster prevention design for Hong Kong's Northern Metropolis.

Prof. Tommy Wei honoured with HUAWEI Spark Award for research translation excellence

Prof. Tommy WEI, Professor of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE), has been honoured with the prestigious HUAWEI Spark Award for his research on human visual system mechanisms and their application to multimedia systems from camera capture to screen displays. Under Prof. Wei’s leadership, his team developed a visual science-based method that improves calibration accuracy and user experience, which addresses a key challenge in display colour calibration.

Established in 2021, the award recognises researchers tackling key industrial challenges in fields such as information technology, materials science, and algorithms. Prof. Wei is the second PolyU scholar to earn this honour, and the only academic from a Hong Kong tertiary institution awarded in the past two years.

New academic staff

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) welcomed a new Associate Professor, Prof. Di CHEN, in early July 2026. Appointed under PolyU's Presidential Young Scholars Scheme, Prof. Chen also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry (CHEM).

Prof. Chen obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Prior to joining PolyU, he served as a research-track Professor at the Future Laboratory of Tsinghua University. His research focuses on surface electrocatalysis and functional materials for energy and environmental applications, including high-temperature fuel cells, waste-gas and volatile organic compound treatment, antibacterial building ceramics, and refractory materials for harsh thermal environments.