ME Student Team acclaimed for innovating Tennis Ball Collector Robot

Three final year undergraduate students of the Department, Vincent Yu Wai Yin, Sampson Chung Shan and Clarence Lau Wing Hay, as a team working for their final year project, designed a tennis ball collector robot which can search, collect and store tennis balls autonomously. The robot is able to move swiftly and avoid obstacles such as ball net fence on the tennis court. It can also autodetect tennis balls and fetch them everywhere on the court. Its sophisticated device enables the robot to retrieve balls on the edge without hurdle. The project was highly acclaimed for its skillful mechanism and practical application. The student team further enhanced the robot, under the project supervisor, Dr Wong Wai On of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with the help from a PolyU alumni KF Leung as well as great support from the PolyU Industrial Centre. The Tennis Ball Collector Robot won the Silver Prize in the 5th China College Students “Internet Plus” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award held from 12 to 16 October 2019. The team was invited to showcase the robot in HKTDC DesignInspire held in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 5 to 7 December 2019. A Hong Kong entrepreneurial team considered the Tennis Ball Collector Robot has high market prospects. It is expected that it will be commercialized in the coming year.     References: [明報新聞網] 網球機場手推車回收 機械人代勞 The 5th Hong Kong University Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition 第5屆中國互聯網+大學生創新創業大賽 花絮

ME PhD student received the 2019 HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers

A ME PhD student received the 14th HKIE outstanding paper award for young engineers/researchers announced in the award ceremony on 20 Sep 2019 held by the HKIE Transactions Committee, The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). Structural health monitoring is a critical engineering issue attracting a lot of R&D strength from the literature and engineering areas in the past decades. Various complex structures including truss structures and satellites in space engineering, bridges and building structures in civil engineering, offshore structures in ocean engineering, water supply pipe systems, and railway systems etc are usually business-critical but may often suffer from vibration damage or fatigue problems, and eventually have structural cracks or bolt loosening issues. Timely structural health monitoring and regular maintenance are therefore greatly important to smooth operation of these structures and also highly relevant to public health and safety. The award-winning work is entitled by “A second-order output spectrum based method for detecting bolt-loosening fault in a satellite-like structure”, which is done by a ME PhD student, Mr Quankun Li, in the research group of nonlinear dynamics, vibration and control (NDVC) led by Dr Xingjian Jing. The work is about a systematic and effective method for accurately identify and locate potential crack or bolt-loosening faults in these aforementioned complex structures, based on a novel nonlinear feature of vibration response of structures using only several trails of vibration signals. Compared to existing results in the literature, this unique method can make full use of fault-incurred nonlinear features but minimize the influence of inherent nonlinear dynamics already existing in structures, and eventually can give more accurate and sensitive diagnosis on potential fault and its location. The method is developed based on a series of studies within Dr Xingjian Jing’s NDVC group on the theory and methods for analysis and design of nonlinear systems in the frequency domain in the past years. The work done by Mr Li has led to several publications in top international journals including Structural Health Monitoring (IF3.798, Rank 6/86 in Multidisciplinary Engineering), Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (IF5.005, Rank 6/129 in Mechanical Engineering), Nonlinear Dynamics (IF4.6004, Rank 7/134 in Mechanics), and so on, and would have wide engineering applications. The HKIE Outstanding Paper Award for Young Engineers/Researchers 2019 is an international paper award which is organised in its 14th consecutive year. It is the HKIE ultimate goal to encourage young engineers and researchers to publish their works and advance in their professional findings, as well as to promote engineering among the younger generation. This competition is open to young engineers and researchers worldwide who are at the age of 35 or below. Three papers have been selected for the year’s Award. A Public Lecture will be organised for the three awardees to share and exhibit their findings and accomplishments in various engineering fields.

ME PhD student received Belt and Road Scholarship 2019/20

Every year, a number of scholarships and awards are offered by the HKSAR Government, and other public or private organizations to assist non-local students in financing their education in Hong Kong. Some are available solely for non-local students, and others are awarded on a competitive basis to all students regardless of nationality or residency status. To strengthen education collaboration with the Belt and Road countries, the Belt and Road Scholarships have been offered to students coming from designated counties along the Belt and Road regions since the 2016/17 academic year. To attract more non-local outstanding students to further their studies in Hong Kong, the Belt and Road Scholarship further expanded to cover all regions along the Belt and Road in the 2019/20 academic year. This year, our PhD student Luiza Labazanova coming from Russia was the recipient of the 2019/20 Belt and Road Scholarship (Research Postgraduate). Luiza received a scholarship to cover her full tuition fees and is tenable for the normal duration of the programmes concerned. The scholarship will be renewed annually subject to the satisfactory academic performance of the awardees. In the 2019/20 academic year, up to 20 Belt and Road Scholarships (Research Postgraduate) were offered to students from countries along the Belt and Road to study first-year full-time publicly-funded research postgraduate programmes in Hong Kong. To learn more about the scholarships, please visit Study in HK > Scholarships.

ME Student Team win Gold at ASM Technology Award 2019

A student team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) won the Gold Award for its ingenious robot design at the ASM Technology Award 2019.  The annual event has been organised since 2015 to recognise excellence in technology, showcasing outstanding final year projects of undergraduates from top faculties and schools of engineering in Hong Kong. PolyU's trio - Roy CHOW Hung-ming; Ji-ho SHIN; and Rudra Ajay SOMESHWAR, under the supervision of Dr Henry CHU, Assistant Professor, and Dr Curtis NG, Technical Support Group Leader, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of PolyU, presented their final year project titled "ASME Competition Robot Development & Vision Based Target Alignment" and was honoured with the Gold Award at the competition. This was the fifth time that PolyU participated in the event and the second time that a PolyU team won the championship. The project developed by the PolyU winning team was a semi-automated robot with a unique gripper design for garbage collection with the aid of vision-based alignment. The robot featured a motorised platform for navigating a compact environment, a micro-controller system for wireless communication and control, and a vision-based system for object detection and robot positioning. It was developed in two stages with design inspiration from studying real-life tools such as robotic arms, forklift and dump cart. Initially, the team planned to design a robot for the Student Design Competition organised by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), in which they were challenged to develop a fully functional prototype that can quickly and carefully pick up and return balls back to the starting area. The students then showed how their device could be transformed into an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) for garbage collection using advanced image processing techniques in the ASM Technology Award contest. "The students are eager to learn new knowledge and technology, and able to integrate them into the project to enhance the robot performance and functionality. They have developed new modules for the robot to demonstrate the potential of transforming it for use in real life," said Dr Chu.

ME PhD Students Won Student Competition Awards in ISSW32

Two ME PhD students, Liang Yu and Liu Lili won the Student Competition Awards in the 32nd International Symposium on Shock Waves (ISSW32) held at the Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore in Singapore on 14-19 July 2019. Since the inception of the International Symposium on Shock Wave (ISSW) in 1957, ISSW has served as authoritative platforms for the international scientific community to meet and exchange ideas on the study of shock wave and blast wave related phenomena and their applications. ISSW32 is a continuation in the series of biannual international symposia that have been held throughout the world. It had over 400 participants, including more than 370 overseas delegates. Student authors were encouraged to participate in the Student Competition. Winners were selected based on the best oral and poster presentations. Liang Yu and Liu Lili are both devoted to Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) investigation. RMI plays a crucial part in promoting the supersonic combustion efficiency but impeding the ignition in the Inertial Confinement Fusion. Therefore, it is significant to investigate how to improve or suppress RMI developments. Liang Yu reported “Evolution of an air/SF6/air Finite-thickness Fluid Layer Impacted by Shock Wave” and Liu Lili presented “Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability on Dual-mode Interface Impacted by Shock Wave”. Both of them concisely explained the interface coupling as well as compressibility effects on the fluid layer evolutions and the mode-competition effects on the multi-mode interface evolutions. The judging panel acclaimed their presentations, and each received an award of USD250. Both research study is under the supervision of Prof. Chih-yung Wen and affiliated to the High-speed Thermo-fluid and MAV/UAV Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

ME PhD Graduate Won Young Investigator Award in 11th Asia-Pacific Conference

Dr Dawei Zhang, a PhD graduate of PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering, won the Young Investigator Award in the 11th Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion (ASPACC 2017) held in Sydney, Australia on 10-14 December 2017. He presented a paper “Hypergolic Ignition Induced by Binary Collision of TMEDA and WFNA Droplets: Non-Monotonic Effects of Impact Parameter”. The corresponding author of the paper is his PhD supervisor, Dr Peng Zhang. Mr Yicheng Chi, a PhD student of Dr Peng Zhang, collected the award as a delegate at ASPACC 2019 held in Fukuoka, Japan on 1-5 July 2019. The Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion (ASPACC) is a biennial event sponsored by the Combustion Institute and organized by members of the Asia-Pacific regional sections. Its goal is to promote the exchange of information and to elevate combustion science and technology through regional and global scientific partnership. ASPACC provides a forum for mutual exchange of information in the Asia-Pacific combustion community involved in both fundamental and application-oriented research and development works. In ASPACC 2017, six winners of the Young Investigator Awards from different regions were selected by the Conference Scientific Committee from nearly 400 papers. Dr Dawei Zhang received his PhD degree under the supervision of Dr Peng Zhang in 2018. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

ME PhD student awarded Best Student Poster in TAROS 2019

The 20th TAROS (Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems) conference was hosted by the Centre for Advanced Robotics @ Queen Mary, Queen Mary University of London from the 3rd to the 5th of July 2019. PolyU ME department was honored to have the PhD student Omar Zahra appeared in the prestigious Robotic research conference of its kind, and he was awarded the Best Student Poster. TAROS is the longest running UK-hosted international conference on Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS), which is aimed at the presentation and discussion of the latest results and methods in autonomous robotics research and applications. TAROS offers a friendly environment for robotics researchers and industry to take stock and plan future progress. It welcomes senior researchers and research students alike, and specifically provides opportunities for research students and young research scientists to present their work to the scientific community. Omar joined the ROMI-Lab in January 2018 as a PhD student in PolyU, under the supervision of Dr David NAVARRO-ALARCON. His research interest includes robotic manipulation, bio-inspired control, AI, and multi-modal perception. Currently, he is developing neuro-inspired methods for modelling and coordinating the motion of robotic systems.

ME PhD student Won Excellent Oral Award in CEEGE 2019

GUO Zhenbin, PhD student of the Department, got the Excellent Oral Award in the 2nd International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Green Energy (CEEGE 2019) in Roma, Italy from June 28-30, 2019. This conference was a premier forum for electrical engineering and green energy researchers and professionals getting together to help our globe to be sustainable, green-living, more human through their insights and innovations. The forum focused on providing an opportunity to technologists, scientists, industrialists, environmentalists and experts to showcase their novel energy efficient technologies. The goal of the conference was to address energy and environment related challenges, especially those facing the developing world by providing networking opportunities for global collaborations for developing suitable solutions for diverse applications and user groups. Outstanding world leaders as faculty presented their research on modern technologies, providing solutions for sustainable development. Participants were from across the globe, including the oil producing countries Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the vital oil-consuming developed and developing countries. GUO Zhenbin presented a paper “Improving Electrochemical Performance of Si-based Electrode via Gradient Si Concentration”, stood out amongst the participants. His presentation was selected as the best one at the conference. Zhenbin joined the Department in July 2016 as a PhD student in PolyU, under the supervision of Dr Yao Haimin. His research interest includes the performance optimization of lithium-ion batteries. Currently, he is a Research Assistant of the department, developing high-performance lithium-ion batteries with functional gradient designs.

Success in securing GRF/ECS 2019/20

In the 2019/2020 results of grants from the Research Grants Council’s General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) announced in June 2019, five of our GRF proposals and one ECS were funded. Congratulations to the following colleagues who were successful in securing a GRF/ ECS grant in this round. Principal Investigator Project Title Prof. CHEN Guohua Conformal coating of elastomeric conducting polymer with ionic conductivity on Ni-rich layered cathodes for enhanced redox cycle stability of lithium-ion batteries Dr RUAN Haihui Towards low-cost thermal imaging based on chalcogenide glasses: exploiting nonlinear viscoelasticity in precision lens molding Prof. SU Zhongqing In-situ 3-D Nonlinear Ultrasonic Imaging for Embedded Scatterers with 3-D Features Using Diffuse Waves: from Offline NDE to Continuous SHM Prof. WEN Chih-yung Numerical and Experimental Investigations of Thermochemical Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Hypersonic Flows Dr ZHU Jie Study of genetic algorithm-based inverse metamaterial design for acoustic wave manipulation in water Dr JIAO Zengbao Phase stability and deformation mechanisms of nanocrystalline fcc medium- and high-entropy alloys at low and intermediate temperatures

ME Student Team won the Gold Award of ASM Technology Award 2019

Terrific! The PolyU ME student team won the Gold Award of ASM Technology Award 2019. The team members, CHOW Hung Ming Roy, SHIN Ji Ho and SOMESHWAR Rudra Ajay, supervised by Dr Henry Chu and Dr Curtis Ng, competed with HKU, HKUST, CUHK and City U. The PolyU ME team project “ASME Competition Robot Development & Vision Based Target Alignment” stood out from the rest, triumphed in the competition. For the sake of promoting technological innovation in Hong Kong, ASM Technology Award proposes to be fertile soil for the growth of potential engineers. Each year, five established local institutions, including The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The City University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and The University of Hong Kong are invited to join the Competition by nominating two outstanding Final Year Projects (FYP) of their undergraduate students with engineering or related background. This year, 10 nominated FYP teams have made their impressive and fabulous presentations in the finale on 28 June 2019. After a day-long intense competition, the PolyU ME team won the championship. The project and presentation were judged by technical performance and project quality, creativity, quality & originality, applicability and practicability application of technology, clear communication of key areas, approaches & arguments, clarity and organization of presentation. The panel of judges consisted of senior professionals and experts from ASM, invited academic staff from universities and also industry practitioners. We are very proud of the outstanding performance by the PolyU ME student team. The team was awarded HK$50,000 as scholarship. And the PolyU Faculty of Engineering, as the institution of the Champion, received a donation of HKD100,000 as an encouragement to the outstanding students of the Faculty.