PolyU and Tsinghua University Department of Mechanical Engineering Sign Student Exchange Agreement

Prof. XIONG Zhuo, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (THU ME), led a delegation to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on December 17, 2024, to sign a Student Exchange Agreement aimed at strengthening collaboration and student exchange between the two universities. Prof. SU Zhongqing, Head of PolyU ME, and Prof. ZHOU Ming, Deputy Head of THU ME (Research, External Affairs), signed the agreement, which was witnessed by Prof. H.C. MAN, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at PolyU, and Prof. XIONG. This collaboration seeks to promote the holistic development of students, particularly by broadening their global perspectives and enhancing cultural exchanges. The ceremony began with an inspiring welcome speech from Prof. MAN, who expressed his enthusiasm for collaborating with THU ME and his hopes for more students to participate in the exchange programme. Prof. XIONG also expressed his anticipation for future collaboration opportunities between the two institutions. During the ceremony, Prof. SU provided an overview of recent developments in PolyU ME, while Prof. ZHOU presented a comprehensive history of THU ME, highlighting its outstanding achievements and research outcomes. This sharing fostered a deeper understanding between PolyU ME and THU ME. Following the ceremony, the delegation toured PolyU ME's Acoustics Laboratory, Water Tunnel Laboratory and Nature-Inspired Engineering Laboratory, and University Research Facility in 3D Printing, gaining valuable insights into PolyU's research developments and directions. Founded in 1932, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University is one of the institution’s earliest engineering departments. It plays a crucial role in advancing China’s industrial capabilities and fostering innovation in mechanical engineering.

ME PhD Graduate received 2024 Young Scientist Award

Congratulations to Dr Liang Zhaojian, a PhD graduate from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded the 2024 Young Scientist Award in the Physical/Mathematical Science category, conferred by the Hong Kong Institution of Science (HKIS) at the HKIS 31st Annual Conference held on 07 Dec 2024. This prestigious award was established to reward young scientists in Hong Kong who exhibit great promise in their field of study. The award is open to all postgraduate research students who are pursuing an MPhil or PhD degree in any of the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, as well as those who have graduated recently (within 2 years of graduation). Each year, HKIS will confer three winners, which are in the fields of Physical/Mathematical Science, Life Science and Engineering Science, respectively. Dr Liang is the winner in the field of Physical/Mathematical Science this year. Each award winner will receive a cash prize of $10,000 and a certificate of recognition. Dr Liang completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, under the guidance of Dr Li Mengying, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on understanding the transient behaviors of solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs). This work provides valuable insights for safer and more efficient systems for green hydrogen production, advancing the transition to carbon neutrality.  

ME received accolade at 4th Asia Exhibition of Innovations and Inventions Hong Kong

Impactful innovations from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) won a total of 18 accolades at the 4th Asia Exhibition of Innovations and Inventions Hong Kong (AEII), a widely recognised annual event devoted exclusively to invention. Organised by The Hong Kong Exporters’ Association in partnership with Palexpo, the organiser of the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, AEII is a prestigious annual exhibition and competition dedicated to innovations and inventions in Asia. The Department is pleased that Dr Randolph Leung, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr Dongfang Li, a PhD graduate from the Department, have been awarded a Silver Medal for their innovative work. This achievement underscores the commitment of the ME community—faculty and alumni alike—to embracing research breakthroughs. Silver Medal .color-button { background-color: #C0c0c0; color: white; transition: background-color 0.3s; transform: skew(-30deg); } .text_format { display: inline-block; transform: skew(30deg); } .color-button2 { background-color: #CD7F32; color: white; transition: background-color 0.3s; transform: skew(-30deg); } Real-time traffic noise identity extraction Principal Investigator: Dr LEUNG Chi Kin Randolph, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering  Road traffic noise has garnered significant attention in modern urban environments, such as Hong Kong, for its extensive adverse effects on health, society, and the economy. With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), tyre/road noise has become the principal source of traffic noise pollution. A groundbreaking technology has been developed to improve the quantification capabilities of the widely employed Close Proximity (CPX) method for measuring tyre/road noise on urban roads. This innovation facilitates real-time measurement of the sound power level of tyre/road noise, providing a definitive metric for noise sources that are less affected by the varying measurement conditions typical of urban settings like Hong Kong. This technology stands out globally for its exceptional robustness, accuracy, and repeatability in real-time assessments. The results obtained from this technology furnish an absolute noise metric that aids in the predicting and managing urban traffic noise nuisance, which is increasingly influenced by the popularity of electric vehicles.

ME Retreat in Dec 2024

The Department successfully hosted its staff retreat at WM Hotel, Sai Kung, on December 3rd and 4th, 2024. The primary focus of the retreat was to address challenges related to curriculum reform and discuss strategies for departmental development. The retreat began with a warm welcome from Prof. Su Zhongqing, who introduced our newly joined colleagues: Dr Zhang Baoping, Dr Fu Yiqiang, Dr Jin Yuankai, and Ms Anthea Mak. We are excited to have such young and promising talents on board. Prof. Su then provided an overview of the Department along with the latest updates. Following this, Dr Yao Haimin, Associate Head (Teaching and Learning), introduced a proposed new MSc programme. In the afternoon, Dr Yao reviewed efforts made to enhance local undergraduate recruitment and led a discussion on the new IRE programme focused on robot design, addressing upcoming strategies and challenges. Dr Tracy Choy, Publicity Committee Chair, initiated a brainstorming session to explore ideas for enhancing the Department's branding and public image. Furthermore, colleagues received updates on the mock Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and preparations for RAE 2026. A topic raised by Dr Tang Hui, Associate Head (Research), regarding the admission policy for research postgraduate students and departmental place allocation sparked lively discussions. Dr Li Mengying, the Research Student Liaison Officer, took the opportunity to propose renaming the PolyU ME Research Presentation Competition. In the evening, promoted colleagues Prof. Zheng Guangping and Dr David Navarro-Alarcon hosted a delightful dinner for all attendees. The delicious food and wine created an enjoyable atmosphere for everyone. The following day, the meeting resumed, with Dr Curtis Ng, Secretary of the Space Allocation Committee, addressing space issues and providing updates on lab renovations. Towards the end of the retreat, Prof. Su led an open forum that encouraged vibrant discussion among staff members. The feedback gathered during this forum will provide valuable insights for the Department’s future development. With over 30 staff members in attendance, the retreat was deemed insightful and constructive, setting a positive tone for the year ahead.

The 10th East Asia Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Workshop

The 10th East Asia Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Workshop (EAMAE-2024) was very successfully held in National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan on 21-23 November 2024. EAMAE-2024 was the tenth one in this annual workshop series. Four top-notch universities in the East Asia region, i.e., Hokkaido University, Korea University, National Cheng Kung University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, are the main participating universities. This workshop series has created a platform not only for academics from these four universities to exchange ideas and views in the broad area of mechanical and aerospace engineering, but also for research students to mingle together and exchange their learning and research experiences. The workshop has been interrupted since 2020 as a result of the COVID. Now, the alliance of four universities has decided to resume this annual event, EAMAE-2024 has extended the success that has been well maintained by previous workshops in Seoul (2011 & 2015 & 2019), Tainan (2012 & 2016), Sapporo (2013 & 2017) and Hong Kong (2014 & 2018). Approximately 100 participants participated in EAMAE-2024, delivering about 35 oral presentations in 4 parallel sessions, i.e., Energy, Biomechanics, Aerodynamics as well as Control and Structure. Professors from each of the four universities were invited to deliver keynote lectures. The event also featured poster presentations by students, showcasing their research and fostering engagement. Meanwhile, discussions were made among the participating departments on continuing the facilitating of student exchange programmes. All these elements contributed to making EAMAE-2024 one of the significant events in this series history. Our PolyU ME team won four awards this year. We are very proud of their fabulous presentations and excellent research work. They demonstrated exceptional academic presentation and research communication skills, effectively explaining their research and its significance to audiences. EAMAE-2024 was also highlighted with elaborately designed social activities reflecting the culture of Taiwan. These activities include traditional lunch at the Local Chicken Restaurant, Excursion Trip in Wushantou Reservoir and some others in which participants mingled together and had a lot of fun. Prof. SU Zhongqing, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Chair Professor of Intelligent Structures and Systems, attended this annual event with 7 academic staff and 14 research students who had fully committed themselves to preparation of this event. It was the aspirations, hard work, and devoted efforts from this group of staff and students that have made EAMAE-2024 another successful event in this workshop series. The next EAMAE will be hosted by Hokkaido University in Sapporo in 2025. Awardee Award Presentation Title Supervisor Mr LI Jinze  Best Poster Award 1st Place  The Study of the Slow-Sound Effect of an Acoustic Resonator  Prof. CHENG Li  Dr LEE Hoi Yin  Best Poster Award 2nd Place  Incremental-Based Non-Prehensile Tool Manipulation in Object Retrieval Under Environmental Constraints Dr David NAVARRO-ALARCON  Ms SUN Siqi  Merit Award In Situ Multi-Directional Liquid Manipulation Enabled by 3D Asymmetric Fang-Structured Surface Prof. WANG Liqiu  Mr LI Weisong  Merit Award Biomimetic Electrochemical CO2 Capture and Release System Dr ZHANG Xiao   

2 ME Scholars recognised amongst world’s most highly cited researchers 2024

Congratulations to Prof. WANG Zuankai and Dr ZHANG Xiao being two of the 16 PolyU academics who have been recognised in the "Highly Cited Researchers 2024" list by Clarivate Analytics. This annual list recognises researchers for significant impact in their respective research fields. Each researcher selected has authored multiple highly-cited papers that have ranked in the top 1% by citations for their fields and publication year in the Web of Science over the past 11 years. This year, a total of 6,636 researchers from 59 countries and regions from a diverse range of fields have been named as Highly Cited Researchers. PolyU had the third highest number of the world’s most Highly Cited Researchers in Hong Kong, including ten awardees in cross-field research, two from engineering disciplines, and one from chemistry as well as computer science respectively. The department is proud of Prof. Wang and Dr Zhang’s outstanding achievements in ground-breaking research. Their accomplishments reaffirm ME’s dedication to research excellence.

ME Scientists secured highly competitive national funding in NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme

The RGC has recently announced the application results for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Research Grants Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme in 2024/25 exercise. A total of 50 research projects out of 616 eligible applications for a total sum of HK$59.666 million in this round of exercise were granted. In this highly competitive research grant, 25 full proposals submitted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) were funded and only 7 full proposals have been awarded the funding support. We are particularly proud that Prof. SU Zhongqing, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Chair Professor of Intelligent Structures and Systems, and Prof. WANG Zuankai, Associate Vice President (Research and Innovation), Kuok Group Professor in Nature-Inspired Engineering and Chair Professor of Nature-Inspired Engineering, were two of the seven awardees. Prof. SU will receive around HK$1 million to conduct a joint project entitled “Ultrafast Laser-enabled Three-dimensional Characterization of Stacked Coatings” with Prof. YE Lin at South China University of Science and Technology. While Prof. WANG will receive around HK$1.2 million to conduct a joint project entitled “Solar Interfacial Evaporation-driven Water-electricity hydrogen-fuel Co-generation: Materials and Devices Design” with Prof. ZHU Jia at Nanjing University. In NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme (JRS) 2023/24 exercise, a total of 40 research projects out of 423 eligible applications for a total sum of HK$47.3 million in this round of exercise were granted. Four PolyU projects have received total funding support of HK$4.8 million for a duration of four years. The projects cover topics in life science, new materials science and sustainable city development. Prof. CHENG Li, Associate Dean (Research) of Faculty of Engineering, Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was one of the four awardees. Prof. CHENG received around HK$1.2 million to conduct a joint project entitled “A New Paradigm for Designing and Manufacturing of 4D Printed Reconfigurable Lattice Structures for Tunable Broadband Vibration Suppression” with Prof. MENG Han at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme aims to promote collaboration between researchers/research teams in Hong Kong, China and the Chinese Mainland on the basis of complementing the existing strengths of both sides. The amount of funding for Hong Kong China applicants is limited to HK$1.25 million. The grant encourages young researchers of similar fields from Hong Kong China and the Chinese Mainland to foster collaboration through the dissemination of their recent and unpublished research works. Having successfully secured funding through this highly competitive scheme for two consecutive years, we affirm our continued commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration within our research community. It is very encouraging to see that ME scientists from the Department are acclaimed by the Nation to further develop scientific research in cutting-edge technologies.  

The 10th ME Research Presentation Competition

The 10th PolyU Mechanical Engineering Research Presentation Competition was successfully held on November 7, 2024. This annual event provides research students with a platform to showcase their project results and share knowledge with the PolyU community. Dr Li Mengying, the Research Student Liaison Officer, introduced the competition and emphasized the importance of academic pitching skills. The aim is to train research students to effectively communicate their academic ideas to both peers and non-experts. Dr Tang Hui, the Associate Head (Research), addressed the opening of this 10th annual competition, noting its significance in providing invaluable opportunities for ME research students to showcase their talents. This year, fourteen academics from three main research clusters (Acoustics & Robotics, Manufacturing Materials & Mechanics, Thermofluids & Energy) were invited to form the panel of judges. Following the oral presentations, participants engaged with the audience during the research posters exhibition. The displayed posters not only highlighted their research project results but also provided an opportunity for participants to convey their ideas and interact with viewers and professionals. The event was attended by other research students and PolyU staff members, who also had the chance to vote for the People's Choice award. The participants actively sought support from the large audience in securing votes. Prof. Su Zhongqing, the Head of the Department, concluded that this competition has served as an excellent platform for our PhD students to showcase their research achievements and practice the art of delivering compelling presentations over the past 10 years. A good presentation acts as a bridge, connecting complex ideas with the audience's understanding and willingness to embrace those ideas. We should applaud everyone for their outstanding presentations. Congratulations to all the participants on their fabulous presentations and excellent research work!   Champion & People’s Choice: Miss WANG Qing (Supervisor: Dr AN Liang) Title: Green Hydrogen Generators: Inspection and Evaluation 1st Runner-Up: Miss ZHOU Yingying (Supervisor: Dr ZHANG Xiao) Title: Hydrogen peroxide from water, for disinfection  2nd Runner-Up: Miss XU Jialu (Supervisor: Dr MA Yuan) Title: TactiSound Film: A multimodal film type auditory-haptic feedback device Merit: Mr PI Rendong (Supervisor: Dr YU Xiang) Title: TSSL: Trusted Sound Source Localization  

Prof. Zhang Xiao Secures Highly Competitive Innovation and Technology Fund for Fuel Cell Technology

Prof. ZHANG Xiao, Assistant Professor and Presidential Young Scholar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded the Innovation and Technology Fund - Innovation and Technology Support Programme (ITF-ITSP) research grant of around 1.4 million Hong Kong dollars for a Nanotechnology and Materials Science project. The project is titled "Mass Production of Low-cost High-efficiency Catalysts for Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (AEMFCs)". As the project investigator, Prof. ZHANG will lead a 1.5-year project, in collaboration with Siphone Science and Technology Limited. Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) offer a promising alternative to proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) due to their ability to use non-precious metal catalysts with reduced costs. However, the sluggish anodic reaction of AEMFCs, i.e., hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), requires a higher amount of platinum (Pt) catalysts, resulting in higher costs and posing a significant economic challenge for the development of high-performance AEMFCs.  This project aims to address this challenge by mass production of low-cost, but efficient HOR catalyst. Isolated Pt on metallic substrates using a hydrothermal and dipping strategy developed by the project group will be created, which can produce 3000-mg-catalysts/time/batch, with the HOR activity nearly ten times higher than that of commercial catalysts. The technology developed in this project has a high potential for commercialization as it can be easily applied to existing catalyst development and fuel cell production lines. Launched in November 1999, the Innovation and Technology Support Programme (ITSP) (Platform & Seed) aims to support applied research and development (R&D) projects undertaken by R&D Centres or designated local public research institutes, aiming to transfer the R&D results to local industries, with strong commercialisation potential or exploratory and forward-looking in nature.  

ME PhD student wins Second Prize at 7th International Symposium on Laser Ultrasonics and Advanced Sensing

Congratulations to Mr LUO Guojie, a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) won the Second Prize for Outstanding Report at the 7th International Symposium on Laser Ultrasonics and Advanced Sensing (LU2024) held on 21 to 25 Oct 2024 in Nanjing, China. The team members, Mr Luo Guojie (PhD student), Dr He Yi (Postdoctoral fellow), Mr Zhang Wanglinhan (PhD student), supervised by Prof. SU Zhongqing, presented a paper entitled “Photoacoustics-driven annular tweezers for acoustofluidic manipulation of particles”. The LU2024 international conference is dedicated to the latest scientific results, methodological and technological advancements, and applications of Laser Ultrasound, Optoacoustics, Phononics and light-matter-sound interactions. The symposium was started in order to bring together world leading researchers in this field and offer a forum for those involved with basic researches and industrial applications of laser ultrasonics, bringing a remarkable impact to this field. The LU2024 focused on the laser generation and/or detection of acoustic waves, application to nondestructive testing, ultrafast optoacoustics, innovative instruments and research achievements in biomedical applications, guided waves, advanced sensing including noncontact, micro/nanoscale or nonlinear measurements and so on.  /* Apply default table styles */ /* Apply mobile-specific styles */ @media (max-width: 600px) { .img-size { width:100%; } }