News

LSGI Distinguished Chair Professor, Prof. Mei-po Kwan, Elected to UK Academy of Social Sciences

Prof. Mei Po Kwan, Distinguished Chair Professor of the Department of Land Surveying and GeoInformatics (LSGI) and Professor of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been elected a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences, the national academy of academics and practitioners in the social sciences in the United Kingdom. Fellows are elected after an extensive process of peer review for the excellence and impact of their work through the use of social science for public benefit. This includes substantial contributions and leadership in various fields, including higher education, social, economic and environmental policy, government, law, charitable foundations and think tanks. According to the Academy, Prof. Kwan has made significant contributions to theory, methods and practice in urban, geographic information science, mobility and health research. As distinguished scholars and practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors, Fellows were previously known as Academicians. This was changed in July 2014 to bring the Academy in line with other British learned societies.

LSGI Delegation to Wuhan Remote Sensing Week

From 13 to 17 October 2018, a delegation of staff and students from the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) participated in the Remote Sensing Week at Wuhan University which ranks the top in the world in the discipline of Remote Sensing according to Shanghai Ranking. Two major conferences on “National Geographical Conditions Monitoring and Applications” and “Advanced Remote Sensing” were being held. Two keynote speeches were delivered by Prof. John Shi, Head of LSGI, and Prof. Meipo Kwan, Distinguished Chair Professor of LSGI. LSGI academics gave four presentations and the latest research development in Remote Sensing were shared. About 200 people were in attendance. Academic visits were also conducted to i) School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering and ii) the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing were conducted. In which, research areas of LSGI were introduced and discussions on potential research collaborations between two universities were covered. In addition to exchanges between LSGI students and their mainland counterparts, there were tours of the Wuhan university campus and some historic buildings in the city. It was a rewarding trip for all concerned. Below are some of students’ reflections from the trip: Yip Cho Yui, Year 3 “The remote sensing week has covered a wide angle of topics, such as remote sensing on human behavioural science, resource management and spatial big data, which is so aspiring to see how remote sensing is shaping our future for monitoring social issues and reaction to natural hazards, it is all about improving the life quality and safety of our citizens. It would be so excited to participate my future career to this ever-changing field. Moreover, remote sensing research is so up-to-date and new breaks through are coming up as technology and researches evolved. I cannot believe how quick pace and fast-growing this industry is evolving towards. Rarely could we have a chance to attend such a high quality conference, I feel that students or ordinary people would still benefits.”   Yeung Ling Yuk, Year 3 “I cannot wait to attend to those conferences and acquired those astonishing speeches from those international wellknown professors and scholars. Although some of the topics are quite advanced and beyond my understanding on remote sensing, I still reckoned this trip is worthy to attempt. Additionally, Wuhan is a city with antique beauty because of its plentiful and splendid historic backgrounds. The combination of ancient and modern buildings made Wuhan becomes one of the best-view cities in China.” Wong Tin Wai Phoebe, PhD student “The study trip was great that we all had an enjoyable time in Wuhan. The talks delivered by the professors were inspiring and I have more new ideas for my coming research. I look forward to more opportunities to visit other universities.”

Malaysian Delegation visits LSGI

A delegation of 4 teachers from Tsun Jin High School in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, visited the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) on 5 October 2018 to learn more about its undergraduate programmes. They included Ms Choy Yuen Leng, Vice Head of the Teacher Education Department, Ms Wong Han Ni, Assistant Head of the Development Department, Ms Pan Pei Chien, Assistant Head of the Academic Department, and Ms Wong Yoke Leng, Assistant Head of the Counseling Department. After a detailed introduction of the Faculty and its various programmes for international students by Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), and Dr Wallace Lai of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), the delegation toured the Fire Lab of the Department of Building Services Engineering and the Lab for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics of LSGI with Dr George Liu, Dr Wallace Lai, and Dr Matthew Pang. The visit is expected to build a strong partnership between the high school and FCE.

Kick-off Forum of the Development of Test/Survey Methods and Specifications for Underground Utility Survey

Underground pipe burst? Pipe leak? How often are these problems heard in the spiderweb underground in Hong Kong? In first half 2018, there are 13 cases reported in public media, those not appeared in public media are estimated to be at least 30 times more. Funded by ITF General Support Scheme and Sum Kee Construction Ltd, as well as support by 4 Government departments and MTR, Ir Dr. Wallace Lai from Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) hosted a public kick-off forum on 31 August 2018, announcing the start of a two-year project for establishing a set of utility survey specification for accreditation. The $1.37M project is entitled ‘Development of Specifications and Standards for Underground Utility (UU) Survey based on Nondestructive Testing, Surveying, Imaging and Diagnostic (NDTSID) Approaches’. The forum attracted 78 participants from 29 units including Government, utility stakeholders, service providers, and commercial lab. The project represents an effort of knowledge transfer from basic/applied research to practical use in Hong Kong and elsewhere. LSGI will take the lead in this project and will conduct rounds of consultation, reaching consensus of the specifications for procurement by the Government and various utility stakeholders. By the end of the project, six NDTSID approaches will become accreditable by Hong Kong Accreditation Services under the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS) of the Government, the first attempt and showcase to the world. It is believed that the deliverables will benchmark the expected and practically viable standards of the NDTSID technologies in underground utility sector.

LSGI Graduate Won the FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses

Dr. Zhe YANG, a fresh LSGI PhD graduate, has recently won the “FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses” with a cash prize of HK$10,000 for the 2017/18 academic year. Dr. Yang did her PhD research on the topic “Investigation of Equatorial Ionosphere Scintillations Using GNSS Observations from Hong Kong Region”, under the supervision of Dr. George Zhizhao Liu at the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE), the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI). She will be officially presented this Award at the Congregation Ceremony in November 2018. Her PhD scholarship during her PhD programme was fully supported by Dr. Liu’s research project funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC). Her PhD research has made a significant contribution to the study and understanding of the characteristics of equatorial/low-latitude ionospheric scintillations, which have a profound impact on the satellite-based GPS/GNSS applications. During her PhD program, she authored/co-authored many high quality papers at prestigious top journals such as GPS Solutions and JGR, in addition to a number of submissions under review. She also had 10 publications/ presentations at internationally/nationally reputed conferences & workshops. She was a recipient of two international conference/workshop awards. Dr. Yang is the 3rd recipient of this FCE Awards in the LSGI and also the 2nd recipient at the Micro-LARGE. In the 2014-2015, Micro-LARGE’s first PhD graduate Dr. Rui XU became the Department of LSGI’s first graduate to win this prestigious Award since its inauguration in 2011-2012. Dr. Liu is the 2nd supervisor in the FCE faculty who has trained two or more PhD graduates winning this coveted award. Congratulations to Dr. Yang!

LSGI Orientation Day 2018

LSGI Orientation was held on 27 August 2018 for all new undergraduate students of LSGI. Prof. John Wen-zhong SHI, Head and Chair Professor of LSGI, welcomed the students and introduced them to the academic and supporting staff of the department. After which, he gave introduction of department’s academic programmes and state-of-art research performance. Two LSGI student representatives, Samuel Yu (Yr 4 BSc) and Angus Chow (Yr2 HD) gave sharing to freshmen on their study at LSGI. In which, their useful and warm suggestions on study and university experience impressed students very much. Followings were introductions by representatives of OGUR, Library, Mental Wellness of the University Health Service and CENTRE STAR on useful information including study, research information, health support for their U-life. Students also had a chance to meet with their respective programme leaders and academic advisors in break-out sessions at the end of the Orientation. It was a great start to the academic year for our LSGI freshmen.

Study Tour from Wuhan and Tongji Universities

LSGI received delegations with 52 students and 5 teachers and staff from Wuhan and Tongji Universities during 30 July to 3 Aug 2018 to foster academic exchange and strengthen the collaborations between three universities. The delegation included 22 undergraduate students from Wuhan University and 27 undergraduate and 3 postgraduate students from Tongji University. The weeklong study tour covered a public lecture by guest speaker from USA, six academic lectures by academic staff of LSGI, culture exchange and sharing by students from LSGI, Wuhan and Tongji Universities, visits to PolyU’s House of Innovation, LSGI’s laboratories and facilities, Survey and Mapping Office, Lands Department of Hong Kong Government, City Gallery at Central and Tsing Ma Bridge. Prof. John Shi, Head of LSGI, gave an introduction of the department in the opening of study tour.   On the last day of study tour, students from these two universities gave presentations by groups on what they have learnt and gained in the visit and shared their research conducted before. Students enjoyed the study environment at PolyU a lot and all the lectures were very inspiring. Dr George Liu concluded that we hoped the visit not only brought them knowledge on academic, also memorable culture exchange experience to all the participants and valuable friendships amongst three universities. We look forward to more academic collaborations and exchanges between PolyU, Wuhan and Tongji Universities in the near future.

Visit to the School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering Wuhan University

On June 6th, 2018, Led by Prof. Shi, head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), a delegation of PolyU visited the School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering at the Wuhan University. The visit aims to strengthen the collaboration between the two universities/departments on teaching and research. On behalf of PolyU, Prof. Shi signed two memorandums with Wuhan University to facilitate student exchange for undergraduate and master programs. Meanwhile, a memorandum for a Joint Spatial Information Research Laboratory (SIRL) is signed by the two sides to foster research collaborations on Geographic Information Science (GISc) and Remote Sensing. Prof. Jianya Gong, Dean of the School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, directed the signing ceremony. During the ceremony, the officials from the two universities discussed the student exchange programs. The two departments also planned  to offer courses in summer 2019 to better accommodate students’ interests in trendy topics and emerging technologies (e.g., big data analytics). At the end of the signing ceremony, Prof. Jianya Gong and Prof. Shi exchanged souvenirs on behalf of the two universities. The visit strengthen the long-term collaborations between the two sides that would benefit teaching and research of both universities in the future.

Advanced Nondestructive Testing – Civil Engineering Workshop in Berlin, Germany

On 27 June - 3 July 2018, a group of 19 nondestructive testing (NDT) engineers from Sweden, Switzerland, India, Algeria, Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong attended a workshop in Berlin, Germany. The workshop was organized by Dr Ernst Niederleithinger, Head of Department 8.2 Nondestructive Damage Assessment and Environmental Measurement Methods of the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin, and co-organized by Ir Dr Wallace W.L. Lai of LSGI. It was the sixth run and started with a group of 12 Hongkongers in 2013, covering the basics and also the advanced development of NDT-CE technologies. The content included testing, evaluation and imaging technologies in civil engineering, such as classical NDT, concept of validation, principles and hands-on practice of impact echo, ground penetrating radar, ultrasonics, thermography, laser-induced spectroscopy, geophysical methods, pile testing, surface wave, electrochemistry of corrosion process, moisture measurement, data fusion, etc. There was also a one-day visit to the test site in Horstwalde (a forest 50 km away from Berlin), where a few practical survey instruments were demonstrated and everyone enjoyed a German-type BBQ lunch. The workshop turned out to be very successful and was highly rated by the participants. The next one will be in 2019. For more information, please refer to http://www.ndtetraining.bam.de/en/home/index.htm.

Summer Programme 2018

The one-day PolyU Summer Programme – LSGI session was successfully held on 13 July 2018. Organized by the Secondary School Relations Section of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, the summer programme gave some local secondary students in forms 4 and 5 an introduction to the undergraduate programmes offered by the university. This year, LSGI session received 35 secondary school students from 15 local secondary schools. The programme engaged the participants with hands-on workshop in satellite image processing, including normalized difference vegetation index, satellite image overlay analysis and integrated analysis by case studies. We introduced our undergraduate programmes and provided tours to two laboratories, Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics and Underground Utility and Survey Laboratory. It was a range of worthwhile experiences for all the students who participated