News

Gold Medals for the teams of Prof. Hong-Xing Yang

Prof. Hong-xing Yang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) and Division Coordinator of RISUD and his teams received 2 gold medals for their inventions at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva held from 10 to 14 April 2019. The first medal was for an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) for efficient energy recovery. Consisting of alternating dry and wet channels, the IEC uses exhaust air and water evaporation to pre-cool fresh air for central air-conditioning systems of buildings. His research team included Dr Yi Chen and Ms Yunran Min, a PhD student in BSE. The other gold medal was from a consultancy project to develop a prototype for the third generation in-building hydropower system. In addition to the hydraulic design of the hydro turbine improves the efficiency, the new system also features magnetic coupling for transmission and sealing, which could be work independently, minimising the likelihood of wear-and-tear. His team for this project included Dr Jiyun Du and Mr Zhicheng Shen.

Immediate Past Director of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Appointed Next President of PolyU

The Council of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) announced the appointment of Professor Jin-Guang Teng, currently a Vice-President of Dean of Graduate School of Southern University of Science and Technology in China, to be the next President of PolyU from 1 July 2019. Prior to his current role, Professor Jin-Guang Teng was the Director of RISUD from January 2012 – June 2018. Under the effective leadership of Professor Teng, RISUD has developed and supported a significant number of strong Inter-disciplinary Research Projects related to sustainable urban development and established and strengthened networks and collaborations with other scholars, universities, industries and governments on local, regional and international scales. RISUD is delighted to welcome Professor Teng to be PolyU's next President. We are confident that Professor Teng will set a clear and viable vision for PolyU's future development and steer the University to scale new heights. RISUD will continue to strive to further enhance the impact of PolyU in the development and dissemination of innovative solutions for sustainable high-density urban development in Hong Kong and the world under Professor Teng’s leadership at the University.

2018 State Science and Technology Awards

Prof. Xiaoli Ding, of LSGI, Associate Dean (Partnership) of FCE, Division Coordinator of RISUD and his collaborators from Central South University, China University of Mining and Technology, Guangdong Institute of Geological Survey, and Chang’An University were rewarded with a State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (second-class) for their research on key InSAR technologies for millimetre-level ground deformation monitoring and their applications.

2nd RISUD TOAF Distinguished Lecture on MIT Innovations and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

2nd RISUD TOAF Distinguished Lecture on MIT Innovations and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (Poster) Speaker: Prof. Gang CHEN, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Date: 15 January 2019 (Tuesday) Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (A tea reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.) Venue: Room Y302, 3/F, Block Y (Lee Shau Kee Building), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Campus map) Medium: English   The 2nd RISUD TOAF Distinguished Lecture on “MIT Innovations and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem” was held on 15 January 2019 on the campus of PolyU. The lecture was given by Prof. Gang CHEN, who is the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering; Director, Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories; Director, DOE EFRC: Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  The lecture was overwhelmed with interest and attracted 133 participants from industry practitioners, government units, international academia and students.  The lecture was started by a warm welcome by Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Director of RISUD, followed by a speech by Ir Dr Andrew K.C. CHAN (Chairman, Arup Group Trusts) to introduce the background of The Ove Arup Foundation – the sponsor of this lecture.  The lecture was very well received by the participants and generated lively discussions. We are very grateful that, with the financial support from The Ove Arup Foundation, the lecture was held with success.            

Advanced Seminar on “Sustainable Urban Development in HK” 可持續城市發展工作坊

深圳市以創新引領超大型城市可持續發展為主題，建設國家可持續發展議程創新示範區。為此，深圳市科創委邱宣書記率隊重點針對資源環境承載力和社會治理支撐力相對不足等問題,就“大城市可持續發展”到香港理工大學進行考察交流。 理大可持續城市發展研究院、中國內地事務處以及深圳研究院圍繞理大“高密度城市可持續發展”方面的研究和“與國內已成功對接的產研”為課題，以香港這個成熟都市的切身經驗為本，舉辦了一個為期五天的工作坊和深圳市政府官員作深入交流。 日期: 2018 年10月29日 至 2018年11月2日 地點: 香港理工大學第八期, Z座, 南棟, 12樓, ZS1215室 (另有其他實地考察地點) 語言: 普通話 詳情: 請參考日程

RISUD/LSGI Distinguished Lecture on Introduction to BeiDou Satellite Navigation System

RISUD/LSGI Distinguished Lecture on Introduction to BeiDou Satellite Navigation System Speaker: Prof. Yang Yuanxi, Professor of Geodesy and Navigation, Xian Research Institute of Surveying and Mapping and China National Administration of GNSS and Applications (CNAGA) Date: 11 December 2017 (Monday) Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Registration starts at 5:30 p.m.) Venue: Room PQ303, 3/F, Mong Man Wai Building (PQ), PolyU Medium: Mandarin

The Fifth Workshop of HKPolyU-HIT Joint Research Centre for Sustainable Urban Water Environment

The 5th Workshop of HK PolyU‐HIT Joint Research Centre for Sustainable Urban Water Environment (香港理工大學－哈爾濱工業大學可持續城市水環境聯合研究中心) was held in Yixing, a city in Jiangsu Province, on 18th November 2017, at which six researchers from HIT (冯玉杰教授, 李一凡教授, 邢德峰教授, 刘冰峰教授, 李建政教授 and 刘绍琴教授), and six researchers from PolyU (Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Prof. Guo-hua Chen, Dr. Henry Po-Heng Lee, Dr. Ben Shao-yuan Leu, Dr. Yi Qian, and Dr. Wei-zi Cai) presented their recent research achievements in water pollution, wastewater treatment, energy production, resource recovery, and environmental nanotechnology. After the technical sessions, a working meeting of the Management Committee of the centre was held in the late afternoon to summarize the achievements of the centre during the last 5years. Further collaboration between PolyU and HIT in this area as well as the development of the centre was also discussed. The main achievements of the centre were summarized as follows. Six collaborative interdisciplinary research projects were jointly initiated and equally funded by both the State Key Lab of HIT and the RISUD of PolyU Ten joint publications in renowned SCI journals Strengthened exchanges among researchers associated with the centre Joint-supervision of 4 PhD students Five joint workshops conducted in Hong Kong or in the mainland   The members of the centre fully agreed that the past collaborations have assisted both PolyU and HIT to effectively increase their research capability and allowed them to explore new topics of multi-disciplinary research. As the existing agreement will expire soon, both sides agreed that the existing collaboration should be continued and expressed the wish to sign a new agreement to extend operation of the joint centre for another 5 years, with the following three focuses: (1) Development of innovative wastewater treatment technologies to achieve synergy of water reuse, energy generation, and resource recovery; (2) A smart urban water system with the aid of geo-spatial information technologies for pollution monitoring and simulation at a large scale; and (3) Heterogeneous transmission of environmental pollutants from the air phase, or the land/soil phase into the water phase through the interface. Members of the joint centre also had a discussion on a new strategic policy recently released by the Central Government of China which encourages the establishment of new joint state key laboratories in Hong Kong or Macao. As the state key laboratory of HIT and PolyU have had a long history of successful collaboration in sustainable urban water environment, both sides agreed to prepare for the submission of a joint application for establishing this new type of state key laboratory in the near future once the scheme is launched.

RISUD Public Lecture on Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environmental Forensics

RISUD Public Lecture on Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environmental Forensics On 17 November 2017, over 50 local participants attended a public Lecture on “Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environment Forensics” delivered by Dr. Chin Man “Bill” Mok. The seminar was jointly organized by three institutions, namely, Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center (Hong Kong Branch), and ASCE Hong Kong Section. Dr. MOK is Vice President and Principal Engineer of GSI Environmental Inc, Oakland, California, USA. He is currently Fellow of ASCE, EWRI Fellow, and Rudolf Diesel Fellow of the Technical University of Munich. During this seminar, he introduced two interesting applications of data science techniques to advance engineering practice first. One application is high-resolution rainfall characterization, and the other is environmental forensics. In addition, he also presented several machine-learning techniques, such as cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, principal component analysis, positive matrix factorization, independent component analysis, etc.

RISUD Distinguished Lecture on Multi-Hazard Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Structures in a Life-Cycle Cost Perspective

RISUD Distinguished Lecture on Multi-Hazard Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Structures in a Life-Cycle Cost Perspective Speaker: Prof. Dan M. FRANGOPOL, The Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture; Professor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lehigh University Date: 7 November 2017 (Tuesday) Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (A tea reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.) Venue: Room Y302, 3/F, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y), PolyU Medium: English

RISUD Visiting Fellowship Scheme – Summer 2017 (Sponsored by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation)

RISUD Visiting Fellowship Scheme – Summer 2017 Sponsored by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation According to the wishes of Dr Samuel Yin of the Ruentex Group, part of the annual donation of HK$ 1 million made by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation to RISUD for scholar activities should be used to support a Visiting Fellowship Scheme to enhance scientific exchanges and research collaborations with researchers from the following five partner universities designated by the Foundation: National Taiwan University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Tongji University and Tsinghua University (Beijing). In the summer of 2017, 6 scholars visited RISUD with the awarded Fellowship. Their visits were each proposed and hosted by a member of RISUD. Apart from other exchange activities, each Visiting Fellow delivered a research salon organized by RISUD to stimulate collaborative research. Visiting Fellow Hosting member of RISUD Research Salon Topic Prof. Zhishan SU / Professor, Sichuan University Dr Dan TSANG (Division of Urban Environment) Applications of Computational Chemistry in Asymmetric Catalysis Prof. Huizhao TU / Professor, Tongji University Dr Tony N.N. SZE (Division of Urban Systems) Connected Vehicles for Weight-based Traffic Safety Risk Assessment Dr Fulin WANG / Associate Professor, Tsinghua University Prof. Hong-xing YANG (Division of Green Buildings) DC Power and Distributed Power Storage in Buildings Dr Xiangdong XU / Associate Professor, Tongji University Prof. Anthony CHEN (Division of Urban Systems) Valuation of Travel Time Uncertainty: A Bridge between Scheduling and Reliability Models Prof. Hongrui ZHAO / Professor, Tsinghua University Prof. Xiao-li DING (Division of Urban Infrastructure) Experiments and Discussion of Urban Scaling Law in China Dr Xingyi ZHU / Associate Professor, Tongji University Dr Yu-hong WANG (Division of Urban Systems) Sustainable Materials for Smart Road   Prof. Zhishan SU, Dr Fulin WANG, Dr Xiangdong XU and Prof. Hongrui ZHAO and their hosts had a lunch with Prof. Jin-guang TENG, Director of RISUD and Prof. Xiangdong LI, Associate Director of RISUD on 1 September 2017. This photo was taken after the lunch gathering.