News

ISE took part in Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2017 (Autumn Edition) to Promote Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) Technologies

The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was invited to exhibit in the Hong Kong Electronics Fair 2017 (AUTUMN Edition) from 13th to 16th October 2017 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Dr Carman Lee represents RFID/IoT Solutions Laboratory to demonstrate the latest innovative solution – “Industrial IoT-based Smart Robotic Warehouse Management System” (https://www.polyu.edu.hk/ife/corp/cntimgs/techsearch/4_ISE_18_0917.pdf), an Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) project undertook with RV Automation Technology Company Limited. The above solution enhances the operation efficiency of warehouses. It impresses lots of visitors to enquiry for details. The laboratory members explained the solution-related technologies and knowledge enthusiastically to the visitors. During the exhibition period, knowledge are transferred to public. Meeting with potential collaborative partners of the visitors would also probably pave the way for future cooperation.

ISE student won the champion of CILTHK Logistics & Transport Student Final Year Project Award 2017

Miss HO Wing Hang (Iris), who is a graduate student of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), received the award of champion of “CILTHK Logistics & Transport Student Final Year Project Award 2017”, an open competition run by The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Hong Kong (CILTHK). Iris, who graduated from the BSc (Hons) in Logistics Engineering with Management (LEM) programme in 2017, won the competition with her final year undergraduate project entitled “Design of a follow up treatment scheduling system for optimizing the routing of home care nursing staff in the healthcare industry”, which was supervised by Dr K.L. Choy. The student project provides an optimal solution for scheduling the home care nursing staff for a case company. The performance was validated in terms of service satisfaction from the elderly and work satisfaction of the nurses. In regard to the rapid aging population and limited healthcare resources, the proposed method enables further enhancement in providing high service quality and cost effective operation management in healthcare industry. The competition is an annual event organized by the CILTHK, and is open to all final year undergraduates who are studying CILTHK accredited programmes with their individual thesis or group project appraised at Grade A. It aims to celebrate and highlight undergraduate students contributing the Best Practice Development in the field of Logistics or Transportation by recognizing their outstanding academic work. Congratulations again to the winner and we are very proud of our student for the excellent project work and performance.

ISE students received the CILTHK Scholarship 2016/2017 and CILTHK Kerry Logistics Scholarship 2016/2017

Two students of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), received the CILTHK Scholarship 2016/2017 and CILTHK Kerry Logistics Scholarship 2016/2017, organized by The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport Hong Kong (CILTHK). Miss LIANG Wenshan (Iris), who is now a Year 4 student of the BSc (Hons) in Logistics Engineering with Management (LEM), obtained the CILTHK scholarship in the academic year 2016/17 du to her outstanding performance in academic achievement, extra-curricular activities and commitment in serving the society. Iris expressed the view that scholarship is of great importance to those students who are pursuing their interest and aptitude in transport and logistics. She will make the best use of her talent to future development in transport and logistics industry. The CILTHK Scholarship Scheme is an annual event organized by the CILTHK, and is open to all full-time tertiary students studying CILTHK accredited transport and/or logistics programmes in Hong Kong. It aims to promote, encourage and coordinate the study and advancement of the science and art of transport and logistics. Mr WONG Chi-kit (Charles), who graduated from BSc (Hons) in Logistics Engineering with Management (LEM) in 2017, obtained the CILTHK Kerry Logistics Scholarship. Charles expressed that this is an invaluable experience to attend the visit at Kerry Logistics warehouse and apply what he learnt in the real-life situation. It was a good opportunity for him to broaden his mind. The CILTHK Kerry Logistics Scholarship is an annual scholarship offered by Kerry Warehouse (HK) Ltd. to support qualified students undertaking Master/Bachelor programmes in logistics. Other than academic achievement, each shortlisted finalist was invited to give a presentation in a topic concerning the theme of “The Importance of Process Flow in Logistics Industry” after the visit (compulsory participation) in one of the Kerry Logistics operations in Hong Kong.

Awards for PolyU ISE Department’s innovative pedagogies

PolyU ISE Department’s efforts to improve students’ learning experience through innovative pedagogies were rewarded recently with two prizes at the LearnX Impact Awards 2017. The ISE101x "Knowledge Management and Big Data in Business" Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), launched in August 2015, received a Silver Award in the Best Online Learning Model category. The Master of Science in Knowledge Management Master’s programme delivered through a range of in-person and online methods, received a Silver Award in the Best Blended Learning Model category.   excel@PolyU: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/cpa/excel/en/201709/achievements/a1/index.html

ISE student won the Champion of HKIE Manufacturing & Industrial Division Student Project Competition 2016-2017

Miss CAI Jiaxiao, who is a fresh graduate of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), has won the Champion for her final year project entitled “Higher Individuality for Effective Swarm Intelligence” in HKIE Manufacturing & Industrial Division Student Project Competition 2016-2017 on 2 June 2017. This project is supervised by Dr. Velvet Chen (ISE) and supported by scientific officer Mr. Sam Lam (ISE). This project considers the expanding demands of robotic tasks with higher complexity, higher dimensionality, and different information density. Other than employing the conventional low cost–effective approach of increasing the number of swarm, this project intends to adopt higher swarm individuality to obtain higher flexibility and re-configurability of the system. In order to optimize the system performance using a simple individual robot design and a minimum number of swarm, a target following technique using computer vision was developed and a novel path planning algorithm, directional A* algorithm was proposed. The system has been tested with a self–developed swarm robot target following system, the Auto–Cart (a new supermarket service system). The HKIE Manufacturing & Industrial Division Student Project Competition is an open competition that attracted participating teams from the major Hong Kong universities in June 2016. This competition is an annual event organized by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) to recognize the project handling skills and creativity of students studying in disciplines related to manufacturing and industrial engineering, and it is highly competitive, with two rounds of selection processes to screen out the top three projects.

全港中小學產品設計大賽2016-2017

香港理工大學工業及系統工程學系主辦的「全港中小學產品設計大賽2016-2017」入圍作品評審暨頒獎禮已於2017年5月13日在香港理工大學圓滿舉辦。是次比賽吸引近60間學校報名以及多達300人參與。比賽設有「小學組」和「中學組」兩個組別，參賽隊伍沒有年齡限制，不同組別的同學都可發揮他們的小宇宙，互相切磋。 出席嘉賓包括香港電腦教育學會(HKACE) 、資訊科技教育領袖協會 (AiTLE)、協辦 公司DTSL及各參賽學校的代表。全港中小校學生共有34組入圍作品。參賽作品以產品報告、會報介紹、產品功能及外型設計作評分準則。頒獎典禮當日，所有組別將製成品展現於理工大學校園內，並由多名專業評審即場評分。統計評分後，深井天主教小學的參賽作品【甜心雨傘】奪得小學組冠軍及最具吸引力設計獎，該校另一作品【BB 副被器】則同時奪得亞軍及最具創新設計獎，成績斐然！中學組冠軍由天主教郭德勝中學的【不求人(Self-Competence)】獲得，該作品亦同時獲得最具創新設計獎。 香港理工大學工業及系統工程學系系主任陳鏡昌教授表示，是次活動有助鼓勵創意設計，提升學生對產品設計的興趣，同時展示學生在科學、科技、工程、數學等方面的學習成果。學生由概念圖開始到原型整合製作全程一手包辦，該學系亦安排大學生導師，對每一組同學進行跟進及協助，希望能為每組同學提供最有利的資源與創作環境。是次比賽讓學生有機會把想法付諸實踐，從而啟發學生的創意及設計才能。   媒體報導 http://www.educators.hk/?p=4007  

ISE is partnering with University of Potsdam (Germany) on developing an Industry 4.0 MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)

ISE student won the championship in HKIE 2017 Essay Competition “Green Transportation Logistics Transportation in Horizon – 2020”

Mr. YAM, Chi Him (David), who is a final year student of BSc (Hons) in Logistics Engineering with Management (LEM) in the Department of Industrial and System Engineering (ISE), participated in the HKIE 2017 Essay Competition “Green Transportation Logistics Transportation in Horizon – 2020”, an open competition organized by the Hong Kong Institution of Engineering (HKIE) – Logistics and Transportation Division. After an intense competition, David was awarded the championship, at a ceremony held on 27 April 2017. The individual project title of David is “An intelligent last-mile delivery planning system for effective high-end e-commerce frozen goods delivery yielding energy efficiency and distribution efficiency”, which was supervised by Ir. Dr. KL Choy. It is a research-based student project of the PolyU ISE department. The student project provides suggestions to remediate the environmental impacts of delivery services by reducing the delivery idle time at destinations and the travelling distance to fulfill all required orders. The proposed model aims to, first, introduce mild renovations at the existing outbound staging area of warehouse and the delivery truck internal layout; second, introduce a lightweight IT system that makes use of data clustering technique and Genetic Algorithms (an AI technique) to optimize the workflow of delivery service. The competition is open to young HKIE engineers under the age of 25 and full time students of accredited Logistics or Transportation Engineering Degree Programs in Hong Kong. It is aimed to promote innovative ideas in the design and implementation of logistics and transportation systems in Hong Kong.

ISE 協助香港科技園公司建立大中華區首個智能倉庫綜合解決方案

(Source: on.cc東網訊) http://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/news/20170407/bkn-20170407083010239-0407_00822_001.html   機械人技術配智能倉庫　迎合工業4.0發展 【on.cc東網訊】 全球正步向「工業4.0」年代，利用先進科技，讓傳統工業或工序走向智能化。有參與香港科技園公司「企業飛躍計劃」的成員公司，成功建立大中華區首個智能倉庫綜合解決方案，更在科學園內建立實驗倉庫，現場展示機械人技術設施及運作。相關技術方案預期能協助不同行業，如物流運輸、電子商貿等，改革傳統倉庫，進入智能化進程。 傳統倉庫管理的多個工序，包括商品分類、存放及配送等，都大量依賴人手進行及管理，影響倉庫管理的準確性及效率。有見及此，由業界組成的精銳動力科技有限公司(下稱RV)，聯合物流運輸公司DHL及香港理工大學，以香港為基地，建立大中華區首個結合先進機械人技術的智能倉庫綜合解決方案，以科技解決問題。 香港科技園公司行政總裁黃克強相信，智能倉庫方案可以於不同業界廣泛應用，滿足不同業務需求和結構，「先進科技造就生產及消費模式轉趨個人化，其中主要發展樽頸為倉庫及提存，呢個方案正好突破制肘，幫助生產商及商企超越傳統模式，開展小批次生產及個人化銷售嘅新世代。」 為促進業界了解新技術及具體運作，RV在香港科技園公司支援下，在科學園改建4400平方呎空間，化身成實驗倉庫作為示範，現場展示技術方案及機械人技術設施及運作，利用現實場景解釋倉庫儲存設計及運作。 相關解決方案採用大量自動化機械人技術，包括能適應環境變化的自動移動機器，及基於工業物聯網(IIoT)的機械人揀選工作站，以提高整個工序的效率。整個方案的重點，則是基於雲端的群控機械人控制系統，能掌控機械人的移動，以及控制負責放置與揀選工作站的操作。 精銳動力科技有限公司首席執行官周定漢指，方案可解決愈趨複雜及微細的個人化市場發展，有利物流及倉庫管理行業加強競爭力，協助他們走向「工業4.0」，「新方案有助業界走向智能機械人自動化模式，更能夠令勞動力升級轉型，培訓成為管理技術型員工。」 協助方案研發的香港理工大學工業及系統工程學系系主任陳鏡昌認為，「工業4.0」正在推動下一個工業革命，「我哋將會繼續同業界合作，設計新嘅智能倉庫解決方案，配合香港發展。」DHL大中華區首席信息官Noel Singgih則稱，近年受成本上漲及勞動力招聘困難等因素影響，令倉庫管理愈來愈有挑戰性，通過RV的方案，可以將勞動物集型任務交予機械人執行，讓公司保留勞動力，執行更重要的任務。

Manufacturing Forum 2017: The New-Generation Entrepreneurs and Successors of Manufacturing Industries

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) co-organized the “Manufacturing Forum 2017: The New-Generation Entrepreneurs and Successors of Manufacturing Industries" with MIES of IET Hong Kong and MILES Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University on 25 March 2017. Manufacturing Forum is an annually event to introduce and report the update information of related industries.  This year, six distinguished young industrialists were invited to share their cases and valued experiences on Enterprises Optimization, New Brand Development, and New Product/Service Development with the audiences. The Forum was supported by the following organizations: Federation of Hong Kong Industries Young Executive Council HKIE- Manufacturing & Industrial Division HKIE- Youth Members Committee Hong Kong Productivity Council Hong Kong Electronics Industry Council Hong Kong Metal Manufacturers Association Hong Kong Logistics Association Hangzhou Hong Kong Youth Association Hong Kong Society for Quality Institute of Industrial Engineers Hong Kong Institution of Mechanical Engineers-HK Branch Locksmithing Institute of Hong Kong Open University of Hong Kong - S&T department Taiwan Businessmen Association Dongguan Taiwan Youth Federation The Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trades & Industries Ltd The Institute of Purchasing & Supply of Hong Kong The IVE Engineering 901 e-Invictus The event attracted 84 participants. 42 of them were IET members and the other were the members of those supporting organizations.   The programme rundown is as follows. Activity Welcome Speech Professor K.C. Chan Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Opening Speech Dr. Johnny Ng Chairman of IET Hong Kong Chairman of Hong Kong United Youth Association Ltd Topic 1 Do What You Love, Love What You Do! Speaker: Miss Jennifer Tsui, CEO of Shing Hing Group and Founder of The Darts Factory Topic 2 Transformation Cases of Taiwan Industries in Post-industrial Society Case 1) Host of Crowd Funding Speaker: Mr. Alpha Chen, CEO of 901 Crowd funding Alliance Case 2) Online Service Platform Speaker: Mr. Weber Lin, Director of Taiwan Businessmen Association Topic 3 Step Forward to Upgrade the Traditional Manufacturing Industries Case 1) Further Development of a Fine Crafts Manufacturer Speaker: Mr. Hank Hsu, CEO of Sheng Fan Buddha Handicrafts Ltd Case 2) The Road to Brand Building Speaker: Mr Evan Wu, Founder and CEO of Pointy Nose Coffee Topic 4 The Story of Memorigin Tourbillion Speaker: Mr. William Shum CEO & Founder of Memorigin Watch Company Limited Panel Discussion All guest speakers Closing Remark Ir. Ricky Wu Chairman, MIES of IET Hong Kong