The President's Awards and Faculty Awards 2022

The distinguished accomplishments and contributions of staff members at PolyU are recognised through 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, Knowledge Transfer, and Services.

This year, two FCE academics were bestowed the President’s Awards and four individuals/groups were awarded the FCE Faculty Awards in four categories.

LSGI collaborates with Hong Kong Space Museum on “Moon | Mars VR” interactive exhibition

To promote greater awareness and interest in space technology among the public, Prof. Bo WU of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), Associate Director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations (RCDSE), delivered a public lecture titled “Space Exploration: A Journey to the Heavenly Questions” at the launch ceremony of the “Moon | Mars VR” exhibit on 3 December 2022 at the Hong Kong Space Museum.

As the developer of the innovative 3D topographic mapping and intelligent geomorphological analysis techniques used in several space exploration missions of China, Prof. Wu introduced the application of 3D mapping, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and other technologies in support of these space missions to the audience. He expressed that he was pleased to collaborate with the Hong Kong Space Museum in showcasing the “Moon | Mars VR” exhibit and let the public experience some of the scientific research achievements of PolyU and the Nations’ space exploration accomplishments over the years.

Making use of the data provided by the relevant space agencies of China and Prof. Wu’s research team, a virtual reality (VR) system of the landing sites of Chang’e-4 and Tianwen-1 spacecrafts on the Moon and Mars was created. The public can now have a taste of spacewalking on the Moon and Mars through the VR system. The “Moon | Mars VR” exhibit will be on for a year at the Hong Kong Space Museum. If you are interested in a trip to the Moon and Mars, do not miss the chance!

Green Tech Fund supports CEE academic-led project on mitigation of traffic-related air pollution

Sustainable urban development is a key research area of FCE. Recently, Prof. Shuncheng LEE of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) was granted HK$5.56 million by the Green Tech Fund (GTF) for his project to develop an air cleaning system.

Prof. Lee’s project, titled “Development of nanotechnology based hybrid air cleaning system towards green transport”, plans to develop a regenerable air cleaning system (RACS) which will be applicable for removing NOx, PM2.5, volatile organic compounds (VOC), and O3 generated and accumulated at Public Transport Interchanges (PTI). The deliverables of this project are expected to mitigate air pollution in PTI, and scale up to other urban micro-environments in Hong Kong like roadsides, tunnels, the airport, etc. The ultimate goal is to support the realisation of green transportation and create a more liveable environment through the Hong Kong Clean Air Plan 2035.

The GTF was established by the Hong Kong government in 2020 to provide better and more focused funding support to research and development projects which can help Hong Kong decarbonise and enhance environmental protection.

Project led by LSGI researchers receives Innovation Technology Fund to unfold lost WWII heritage

A project titled “Unfolding the lost WWII heritage: promotion of geo-spatial and geophysical technologies”, led by Dr Wallace LAI and Dr Wai Yeung YAN of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), recently receives a HK$4.75 million funding support from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF).

The two-year project will commence in early 2023 to develop airborne geo-spatial and geophysical technologies for imaging selected buried heritage sites in rugged natural terrain in Hong Kong. It is hoped that the project will promote an integrated Art-Tech approach for historical interpretation and heritage conservation in Hong Kong.

Apart from Dr Lai and Dr Yan, the project team comprises of researchers from the Hong Kong Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and The University of Hong Kong.

FCE organises Workshop on Strategies for China Grant Applications

The Faculty constantly provides guidance and support to our academics on various research scheme applications. On 28 November 2022, FCE organised the Workshop on Strategies for China Grant Applications to encourage FCE researchers to apply for major China grants.

Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty, gave an overview of the major China research schemes and FCE’s performance in recent years as he kick-started the workshop. Several young FCE researchers shared their respective successful experiences of writing proposals for some major China grants, including Dr Huanfeng DUAN, who was recently awarded HK$1,244,750 funding by the NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme 2022/23 for his joint project on rainstorm investigation with Prof. Feifei ZHENG from Zhejiang University.

Prof. Yang CHAI of the Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science, was invited to share his experience and insights with FCE researchers. In his closing note for the workshop, Prof. Meng NI, Associate Dean (Research), shared some tips for long-term career development as a researcher. Around 60 FCE academics attended the workshop.

The topics shared at the workshop are as follows. Interested FCE staff can download the presentation decks from FCE Staff Intranet.

FCE advocates Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme

Nurturing the next generation of researchers and innovators is a shared objective of the University and the Faculty. An informal get-together was arranged for the FCE participants of the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Scheme (URIS) on 20 December 2022 for experience sharing. Prof. Meng NI, Associate Dean (Research) of Faculty, Prof. Songye ZHU, Associate Head (Research) of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and Dr Wei MA of CEE joined the event and mingled with the students at the gathering. Some of the students shared their research foci and their graduate aspirations.

URIS is a programme administered by the Graduate School (GS) which aims to strengthen academic curiosity and enquiry-based learning among undergraduate students. The participating FCE undergraduate students will be given opportunities to undertake research projects under the guidance and supervision of some of the Faculty’s top-notch academics.

Paper on electrochemical thermocells wins HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers 2022

Miss Chun CHENG, a PhD student of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), has won the HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers 2022 with her supervisor Prof. Meng NI. Organised by The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE), the award aims to motivate global young researchers aged 35 or below to publish innovative papers and to seek advancement in the engineering field. Co-authored by Prof. Shien-Ping FENG from the City University of Hong Kong, the paper was entitled “Numerical study of electrochemical thermocells for harvesting low-grade waste heat”, which identified some potential methods to optimise cell performance and thus to reduce energy loss and thermal pollution.

PhD student achieves excellence at 2022 Young Scientist Awards

Miss Yamin QING, a PhD student supervised by Dr Shuo WANG of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), received the honourable mention in the 2022 Young Scientist Awards (YS Awards) Physical/Mathematical Science category organised by the Hong Kong Institution of Science (HKIS) for her research excellence in science/technology and her potential to become an accomplished scientist.

The YS Awards are organised annually and aim to reward young scientists and engineers in Hong Kong who show great promise in their fields of study, namely physical/mathematical science, life science, and engineering science.

FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series

The FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series is one of the signature events of the Faculty in celebration of the PolyU 85th Anniversary this year. From June to November 2022, a total of six lectures were delivered by six FCE Chair Professors of different disciplines. These open lectures were meticulously planned to cover a wide variety of research fields to demonstrate FCE’s comprehensive range of research expertise.

The Series ended on a high note with the lecture delivered by Prof. Ben Young, Vice President (Student and Global Affairs) and Chair Professor of Steel Structures of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) on 22 November 2022. The last lecture of the Series, titled “Structural behaviour of tubular members and joints using high-performance steels”, was conducted in hybrid mode and attracted more than 170 face-to-face and online participants.

After Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty, kick-started the lecture with a welcome address, Prof. Young led the participants through an hour-long journey to explore the behaviour of tubular structures using high-performance steels from the experimental investigation and numerical investigation perspectives, the shortcomings of the existing design rules, and the improved proposed design rules. The lecture concluded with a dynamic Q&A session, during which Prof. Young answered questions from the participants. Insights were also shared on the obstacles to the wider adoption of S690 steel and the future development trend of high-strength steels etc.

Long-serving staff of FCE

Prof. Wei CHU of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has retired after contributing more than 28 years of service to PolyU. He served the University from September 1994 to December 2022. A souvenir was presented to him by the Faculty Dean, Prof. Xiang-dong LI, as a token of appreciation on 5 December 2022.