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RISUD Annual International Symposium successfully held

The Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) successfully held its annual international symposium on 6–7 July 2023 on campus. Under the theme of “Urban Sustainability through Innovative Technologies”, the Symposium brought together about 50 speakers from across the globe to deliver plenary presentations and workshops. At the opening ceremony, Prof. TENG Jin-Guang, President of PolyU, gave an opening speech via video. He said, “With an aspiration to be an innovative world-class university with a strong sense of social responsibility, PolyU is committed to conducting cutting-edge interdisciplinary research to address pressing societal challenges, including those related to urban sustainability.” The two-day Symposium included plenary sessions by five speakers including Mr WONG Kam-sing, Former Secretary for Environment of the HKSAR Government; Prof. JIANG Guibin, Director of State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Prof. Frank KELLY, Humphrey Battcock Chair of Community Health and Policy , School of Public Health, Imperial College London; Prof. CHOU Siaw Kiang, Emeritus Professor, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore; and Prof. LIN Ming, Chief Scientist of China Communications Construction Co., Ltd. and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. Over 40 keynote and invited speakers provided their insights in workshops on three frontier topics, including air pollution and human health, large floating infrastructure, and urban carbon neutrality. At the closing ceremony, Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, summarised the event. He said, “During this two-day Symposium, I believe we all share the feeling that the fast-growing urbanisation has placed more and more stress on the precious resources on the planets, and challenges like environmental pollution, surging population and land shortage have become more pressing than before. Urban sustainability is now one of the most discussed topics in the society. As we, humankind, all have a common dream and aspiration for quality, sustainable living.” Sponsored by The Ove Arup Foundation and Kwang-Hua Education Foundation, the Symposium attracted over 250 participants joining onsite from different parts of the world.

ADoRILS shares insights on development of Northern Metropolis and Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands

Prof. LING Kar-kan, Associate Director of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) and Director of Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation, was invited to share his insights on the development opportunities of Northern Metropolis and Kau Yi Chau Artificial Islands, as well as the impact and opportunities of the Nation’s development plans, at a seminar by New Prospect for Hong Kong on 15 July.   Prof. Ling said that the Northern Metropolis can reshape Hong Kong’s inherent development pattern of “emphasising the south over the north”, and establish an inseparable “twin city” relationship between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. He mentioned that the “Northern Metropolis Development Strategy” is the first time that the Hong Kong SAR government has recognised the inseparable "Twin Cities" relationship between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and it can encourage government officials to think outside the box, position the project in a cross-boundary spatial framework, and explore the possibilities and effects of Hong Kong-Shenzhen cooperation.   Online coverage: Ming Pao Daily News (Chinese only) - https://polyu.me/3PZAUll

PAIR hosts Research Salon to brief PolyU community on strategic R&D in quantum technology

PAIR hosted a Research Salon “Quantum Technology – The Game Changer” for the PolyU community on 11 July 2023 on campus. At the salon, attendees learned about the University’s latest strategic research and development plan on quantum technology, as well as the current development, challenges and applications in the field. The event featured presentations by faculty members from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), including Prof. LIU Ai-qun, Chair Professor of Quantum Engineering and Science, Prof. CHAU Lap-pui, Global STEM Scholar, Prof. Alan LAU, Professor and Dr Jovie ZHANG, Research Assistant Professor, as well as Dr ZHANG Guofeng, Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics (AMA). Participants had a fruitful exchange and provided valuable and constructive feedbacks for PAIR and PolyU’s future development in this field.

RIAIoT Director receives funding from Research Grants Council for project on high-performance collaborative edge computing for smart city applications

The project “High-performance Collaborative Edge Computing Enabling Smart City Applications: Framework and Methodologies” led by Prof. CAO Jiannong, Director of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), Dean of Graduate School, Associate Director of University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, and Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing in the Department of Computing, was awarded a funding of HK$50.821 million from the Research Grants Council’s Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24.   The project aims to build a new smart city computing infrastructure enabled by collaborative edge computing with edge/cloud collaboration, city-scale edge network deployment and built-in AI services. During development, the research team will propose a Collaborative Edge Computing Framework (CECF), which provides new abstractions and functionalities for geo-distributed edge nodes, hence supporting technical requirements of collaboration and sharing of computing and data resources in performing application tasks.   The project will help address many key challenges in large-scale resource management, performance-guaranteed task scheduling, resource-aware edge AI and secure data sharing, thus enabling advanced smart city applications.   Press release: https://polyu.me/3rrBRsF   Online coverage: Ming Pao Daily News - https://polyu.me/3pNARP2 Hong Kong Economic Times - https://polyu.me/3NUj4Ol Oriental Daily News - https://polyu.me/44rSgMg Sky Post - https://polyu.me/46Kg2EJ Ta Kung Pao - https://polyu.me/44AlHeO HK01 - https://polyu.me/3OcrxNX Line Today - https://polyu.me/3pFswNr

RISUD Member receives funding from Research Grants Council for project on intelligent tropical-storm-resilient system

The project “INTACT: Intelligent Tropical-storm-resilient System for Coastal Cities” led by Prof. NI Yiqing, Member of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), Yim, Mak, Kwok & Chung Professor in Smart Structures, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center (Hong Kong Branch), was awarded a funding of HK$48.293 million from the Research Grants Council’s Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24.   The project aims to mitigate the risk of tropical storms and enhance the resilience of high-rise building clusters in coastal cities by developing a real-time early-warning and management system, which will be made accessible to the public for guiding effective emergency responses. The project will also lead to new methodologies and design codes/standards for high-rise buildings that are more resistant to tropical storms, thus benefitting the construction industries, developers, public and city planners in the medium and long run.   Press release: https://polyu.me/3rrBRsF   Online coverage: Ming Pao Daily News - https://polyu.me/3pNARP2 Hong Kong Economic Times - https://polyu.me/3NUj4Ol Oriental Daily News - https://polyu.me/44rSgMg Sky Post - https://polyu.me/46Kg2EJ Ta Kung Pao - https://polyu.me/44AlHeO HK01 - https://polyu.me/3OcrxNX Line Today - https://polyu.me/3pFswNr

VP(RI) speaks on PolyU’s R&D for interdisciplinary research and technology innovation in an interview with eastmoney.com

Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), in an earlier interview with eastmoney.com, said that Hong Kong’s advantage in basic research is conducive to the development of interdisciplinary, disruptive technological innovations, and the combination of this science and technology advantage with the many application scenarios in the Mainland to boost enterprise productivity can contribute to the Nation’s economic strength, bringing promising socioeconomic benefits in the future. “Whether disruptive technologies can have an impact on society ultimately depends on how the technology changes people’s lives in practical application scenarios, and whether enterprises can apply the technologies in various scenarios to promote explosive economic growth. This is why PolyU attaches great importance to technology application scenarios,” he said. At present, PolyU has set up innovation institutes for technology transfer in various cities in the Mainland. Last year, the University established the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR), with 11 research institutes and 5 research centres dedicated to promoting interdisciplinary research and stimulating disruptive technological innovations to address major societal challenges.  As the largest interdisciplinary research platform in the Greater Bay Area, PAIR will continue to make unremitting efforts to promote interdisciplinary research and innovation for the benefit of the Greater Bay Area and the world.  Online coverage:  eastmoney.com - https://polyu.me/3prR8ZY  

PAIR featured on THE Campus

An article titled “A model for maximising the impact of small research units” by Prof. CHEN Qingyan, Director of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR), was published on Times Higher Education Campus (THE Campus). In the article, Prof. Chen shared with readers about how a quasi-centralised research management model and collective branding strategy can help stimulate large-scale interdisciplinary research in a university. Read the article:  THE Campus: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/model-maximising-impact-small-research-units  

RILS co-organises HKBIM Future Public Housing Design Competition

The Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) co-organises the “HKBIM Future Public Housing Design Competition” together with China (Hong Kong) Association of Architects and Engineers (CHAAE), Logistics and Supply Chain MultiTech R&D Centre (LSCM), Hong Kong STEM Education Alliance (STEM Alliance), The Hong Kong Project Management Exchange Centre (PMEC) and Hong Kong Academy of Management (HKAOM). The opening ceremony of the Competition was held at Jockey Club Auditorium, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on 4 July 2023.   Guests of honour included: Mr Michael WONG Wai-lun, Deputy Financial Secretary of the HKSAR Government; Dr WANG Weiming, Director-General of the Department of Educational, Scientific and Technological Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR; Ms Winnie HO Wing-yin, Secretary for Housing of the HKSAR Government; Ms Lillian CHEONG Man-lei, Under Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry of the HKSAR Government; Dr Miranda LOU, Executive Vice President of PolyU; Mr Tony TSE Wai-chuen, Mr SHANG Hailong and Mr Duncan CHIU, Legislative Council Members of the HKSAR; Mr Simon WONG, Chief Executive Officer of LSCM; and Dr Barry LI Chi-hong, President of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE).   This Competition is classified into Secondary School and Open categories. Contestants can unleash their creativity in developing viable design proposals for future public housings by using the HKBIM software platform developed by PolyU. The winning entries may have the opportunity to be applied to future public housing design projects.   After the Ceremony, Dr JIA Beisi, Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong, delivered a keynote speech on “An Overview of Contemporary Public Housing Design and the History of Public Housing Architecture in Hong Kong”. Subsequently, Ms LI Xiaoying and Ms MA Jie from the Smart Construction Laboratory of PolyU introduced HKBIM, the main design software for this Competition.   Online coverage: Ta Kung Pao - https://polyu.me/44vVb6k Wen Wei Po - https://polyu.me/44sEYyE Dot Dot News - https://polyu.me/46BIkkU Orange News - https://polyu.me/3NBuw1a Xinhua Net - https://polyu.me/3NCeG6j RTHK - https://polyu.me/3rek5ZQ Hong Kong Economic Times - https://polyu.me/3py1LKy Bastille Post - https://polyu.me/44dSJS8

VP(RI) tells Radio The Greater Bay, Hong Kong and Mainland achieve win-win from research collaboration towards national development

Prof. Christopher CHAO, Vice President (Research and Innovation) of PolyU, at the inaugural Qianhai disruptive technology innovation forum held earlier on 30 June 2023 in Qianhai, Shenzhen, shared with China Media Group’s channel, “Radio The Greater Bay”, his views on Hong Kong higher education’s research and development in supporting national developments.   Prof. Chao expressed that with Hong Kong’s very strong research capabilities, as well as the abundant space, large population and rich application scenarios in the Mainland, Hong Kong and the Mainland can collaborate closely to achieve a win-win situation. He shared that PolyU has led some research teams to places in the Mainland to support the industry development based on actual conditions. “The most effective way to enhance a region’s economic strength through scientific research is to get to know the region, understand its development needs, and then bring our relevant research teams there,” he said.   Prof. Chao hoped to see more PolyU’s technology transfer in data science or fields related to digital economy such as financial technology and information technology in the Mainland. He said, “I think digital economy or financial technology should be particularly suitable for Qianhai, and we also have the research strengths to achieve mutual benefit here.”   Online coverage: Radio the Greater Bay - https://polyu.me/3OiuxbB (Chinese only)

Director of RIAIoT shares insights on development of artificial intelligence of things

Prof. CAO Jiannong, Director of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), Dean of Graduate School, Associate Director of University Research Facility in Big Data Analytics, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing and Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science, shared his insights on the development of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) at the BOE Innovation Partner Conference (BOE IPC) held in Beijing on 29 June 2023. Prof. Cao explained that AIoT has become an important infrastructure in the era of digital economy. Distributed collaborative intelligence has been playing an indispensable role in the paradigm shift from IoT to AIoT. It promotes the development of single-node intelligence towards multi-node intelligence, thus leading the society towards a smart era.   Online coverage: Sina - https://polyu.me/447qt3q (Chinese only)