News

New Dean for FCE

Prof. Xiangdong Li, Director of PolyU’s Research Institute of Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) and Ko Jan Ming Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) from 1 January 2021 upon the retirement of Ir Prof. You-Lin Xu. He thanks Prof. Xu for his leadership and guidance over the last 6 years and wishes his predecessor all the best. Prof. Li began his academic career at PolyU in 1995. He has a PhD in environmental technology from Imperial College London. His major research interests include regional pollution, urban environmental studies, and remediation of contaminated sites. He has published more than 200 papers in leading international journals, and is an author of 15 highly cited papers (top 1%) in Environment/Ecology of the Web of Science database. A past president (2011-2013) of the International Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH), he is currently an associate editor for Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), a journal published by the American Chemical Society, and serves on the editorial board for several other international journals in related fields.

Results of RGC General Research Fund 2020/21

The 2020/21 application results for the RGC General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) were announced on 30 June 2020. Due to their similar nature, the application results for these 2 schemes have been combined in some of the above analysis:   In terms of the number of grants, CEE led with 15 grants, followed by both BSE and LSGI with 5 each. As seen from Figure 1, the number of grants secured by individual departments, except CEE, has dropped this year, while the total funding secured by FCE departments has reached over $24 million (Figure 2).   In terms of the average funding amount per academic staff member (only counting those who are eligible), the rankings of our 4 departments in descending order are CEE, LSGI, BSE and BRE. As shown in Figure 2, the average funding received by FCE academic staff has reached a high in the 2020/21 exercise.   In the Civil Engineering, Surveying, Building and Construction (CESBC) disciplines of the Engineering Panel, PolyU has led local universities in the GRF/ECS exercises since 1994/95 in both the number of GRF/ECS projects supported and the total grant value awarded, consistently winning around 40% of all GRF/ECS grants allocated in these disciplines. The distribution of the amount of GRF/ECS funding in 2020/21 among local universities is shown in Figure 4. PolyU received 45% of the total available funding in the CESBC disciplines this year, with an average funding of HK$814K per project.   Of the 28 GRF/ECS grants awarded to the Faculty this year, 3 were awarded outside the CESBC disciplines. The Faculty won 25 grants (or 34.7%) totaling HK$20,961K out of 72 GRF/ECS grants awarded by RGC in the CESBC disciplines in the present round (i.e. 2020/21).

URAP Subject Ranking 2019/20

In the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) 2019/20, PolyU was ranked third for the subject of Architecture and tenth for the subject of Civil Engineering, the only local university to be in the top ten in both subjects. This was an improvement from the field rankings in 2017/18, where PolyU was 6th and 15th in Architecture and Civil Engineering respectively. Since 2010, URAP has ranked world universities based on academic performance indicators that reflect the quality and the quantity of their scholarly publications. As a non-profit organization, it was established at the Informatics Institute of the Middle East Technical University in Turkey.

LSGI Scholar Receives Leader of the Year Award

In recognition of his achievement in lunar topographic mapping and geomorphological analysis for finding the best landing location on the far side of the Moon for the Chinese space mission of Chang’e 4, Prof. Bo Wu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) was recently honoured by the Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd. with a Leader of the Year Award 2019 in its Education/Professions/ Technology & Innovation category. He shares the award with another recipient, Prof. Kai-leung Yung of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, whose research on a camera pointing system enabled Chang’e-4 to capture stunning panoramic images of the lunar surface. Established since 1994, the award aims to provide role models for a younger generation and inspire the public to strive for the best in the development of Hong Kong.

CEE Scholar Coauthored Article in Nature Sustainability

Nature Sustainability has published an article coauthored by Dr Peng Wang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and 4 of his former colleagues at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. Entitled “Photovoltaic panel cooling by atmospheric water sorption-evaporation cycle,” it proposes a sorption-based atmospheric water harvester as an effective component for a new and versatile photovoltaic panel cooling strategy. With little constraint in terms of its geographical application and the potential to improve the electricity production of existing and future photovoltaic plants, the cooling strategy can result in less CO2 emission or less land occupation by photovoltaic panels. More details can be found in the full article https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0535-4. Contributing to global sustainability, the research has been highlighted by Science magazine at https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/new-solar-panels-suck-water-air-cool-themselves-down. Dr Wang also promoted this new technology in a blog post at https://sustainabilitycommunity.springernature.com/users/266280-peng-wang/posts/atmospheric-water-cools-photovoltaics-and-more.

HK PhD Fellowship Scheme 2020/21

PolyU was awarded 29 HK PhD Fellowships for 2020/21, a testimony of its strong research programmes. The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased to have the above 10 winners (34.5% of PolyU total) for 2020/21.

Most Outstanding PolyU Student Award 2019

Miss Ching Tung Ip, a full-time final-year student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), has won the prestigious Most Outstanding PolyU Student Award 2019. She was chosen for her outstanding academic achievement, strong leadership ability, extensive involvement in extra-curricular activities, substantial community service, and good personal qualities. Prior to winning this award, Miss Ip first won the Outstanding Student Award of CEE, then a similar award from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), in addition to numerous scholarships. She believes that an outstanding student should be mature, responsible, and independent. She has certainly demonstrated those qualities with her commitment to serve others. She was a mental health ambassador in 2016/17 and a student ambassador for the university before serving as the Chairlady of the Student Chapter of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) at PolyU in 2019/20. The Outstanding Students Award Scheme of PolyU is held each year to motivate students to excel in both academic and non-academic pursuits, cultivating a campus culture and public image that is congenial for the development of all-round graduates. Nominees for the award first compete at the departmental level, the winners of which then compete at the faculty level. The winner of the Most Outstanding PolyU Student Award is chosen from the 8 awardees of the Outstanding Student Award of Faculty/ School.

Endowed Professorships for FCE

The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased that 2 of its academics have been rewarded with endowed professorships for their outstanding academic and research achievements. Prof. Xiangdong Li, Director of PolyU’s Research Institute of Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), Associate Dean (Research), and Chair Professor of Environmental Science and Technology in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), has been appointed as Ko Jan Ming Professor in Sustainable Urban Development for a period of 5 years from 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2025. Prof. Li’s major research interests include regional pollution, urban environmental studies, and remediation of contaminated sites. He has published more than 200 papers in leading international journals, and is an author of 15 highly cited papers (top 1%) in Environment/Ecology in the Web of Science database. He was awarded an Outstanding Young Researcher (Overseas) Fund from the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2007. A past president (2011-2013) of the International Society of Environmental Geochemistry and Health, he is currently an associate editor for Environmental Science and Technology, a journal published by the American Chemical Society, and serves on the editorial board for several other international journals in related fields.     Prof. Shengwei Wang, Chair Professor of Building Services Engineering (BSE), has been appointed Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart Building from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2025. His research interests include building energy systems, smart and energy-efficient control, energy system optimal design and energy diagnosis, building demand response and grid-responsive buildings as well as building automation technologies. A highly cited scholar in the field of energy science and engineering, he has published over 300 papers in refereed journals. One of the most successful scholars at PolyU in integrating academic research with industrial applications, he has received about HKD 20 million from industry for applied energy research and application projects. He is an associate editor of the academic journal of ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers), Science and Technology for the Built Environment, and leads the Building Energy and Automation Research Laboratory at PolyU. With the above appointments in PolyU’s Endowed Professorship Scheme, there are now 5 endowed professorships in FCE.

LSGI Scholar’s Scientific Approach to Keep New Virus off Campus

As part of PolyU’s efforts to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, remote infrared body temperature measurement was implemented at various entrances of the university in early February 2020. This was done with the help of Dr Wallace Lai of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), who converted prior work developed by Dr Steven Tsang in the Department of Building and Real Estate back in 2003 to fight SARS into feasible practice within a short period. Based on the scientific ground work done by Prof. Lung-Sang Chan and his team from the University of Hong Kong, Dr Lai elaborated on the science behind this preventive measure for the colleagues of the Facilities Management Office for their implementation.

Research Impact Fund 201920

PolyU has been awarded about 45% of the Research Impact Fund 2019/20, the largest share among the local universities. Of the 5 projects received by PolyU, one was led by Dr Bo Wu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), with co-principal investigators from the University of Hong Kong, collaborators from Europe, as well as partners from mainland China and local institutions. Entitled “Mapping and characterization for optimized evaluation of potential landing sites on the moon and Mars to support future missions,” the 4-year project will receive HK$4,469,360 from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, which funds 70% of the project cost, with the remaining 30% from the university and other partners.