42 outstanding postgraduate and senior undergraduate students from 11 countries converged on the campus of PolyU for the first ever summer school organized by the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE). With the aim of attracting well-prepared candidates to explore postgraduate study opportunities at FCE, the week-long summer school introduced students to various specialties of the Faculty, including the laboratory facilities run by each of our 4 departments. Some 60% of the students came from the Chinese mainland, with the rest coming from other countries including Australia, Canada, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, Spain, UK and USA. They were welcomed to a dinner with Prof. Jin-Guang Teng and Prof. Xiang-Dong Li, Dean and Associate Dean (Research) of FCE, on 20 August 2012, the first day of the summer school. The reminder of the week was filled with seminars on different topics, from urban planning and management to energy efficient building technologies to modern positioning technology. Led by our academics, these seminars gave participating students a preview of what to expect should they choose to further their studies with us.

Competition for our summer school was particularly keen, with an admission ratio of about 1:10. Only excellent students with a good command of English were admitted into the Summer School.

Photo gallery: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/Photo/20120821_summer_school/

The Faculty of Construction and Environment has doubled the number of Chinese postdoctoral fellows from the Hong Kong Scholars Program, which is supporting a total of 64 projects at 6 local universities in its second year. 17 of those projects are led by PolyU academics, 6 of whom (35.3%) are from the Faculty of Construction and Environment. Details of their projects are listed below.

Postdoc Fellow	Dept.	Supervisor	Project Title
Dr Song Wenfang	BRE	Prof. Albert Chan	Anti heat stress clothing for construction workers in hot and humid weather
Dr Li Xingang	CSE	Prof. William Lam	Journey Time Estimator for Traffic Surveillance and Incident Detection under Network Uncertainties
Dr Fang Lin Chuan	CSE	Prof. Li Xiangdong	The Interactions among Biodegradable Chelants, Soil Microbes, and Plant Roots in the Phytomanagement Process of Metal-contaminated Soils
Dr Yi Tinghua	CSE	Prof. Ni Yiqing	Verification of wind pressure and wind induced response of a supertall structure using a long-term structural health monitoring
Dr Zhao Guang Si	CSE	Prof. Yin Jianhua	Performance Evaluation of a Soil Nailed Slope in Hong Kong by Long-Term Monitoring Using Optical Fiber Sensors and Numerical Modeling
Dr Wu Hao	LSGI	Prof. Shi Wenzhong	Theory and applications of GIS and remote sensing

In the first ever construction management awards sponsored by the Hong Kong Institute of Construction Managers (HKICM), 3 alumnae of the Department of Building and Real Estate were rewarded for their final year dissertations. At the master's degree level, Ms. Choi Nga Yee was the champion with her investigation of the current application and future development of the Pay for Safety Scheme in the Hong Kong construction industry. Her fellow classmate, Yiu Sze Nga, Nicole, received a merit award for her study of heat stress management in the same industry. Both of them were supervised by Dr Daniel W. M. Chan.

At the bachelor's degree level, Ms. Lee Mun Wai, Wendy, was given a merit award for her study of personal knowledge management practices for construction professionals in the public sector of Hong Kong. She was supervised by Dr Patrick Fong.

The awards aim to provide an open competitive platform for students to demonstrate their knowledge and share their learning, promoting the profession of construction management at the same time. The champion will receive a certificate and a cash coupon of HK$10,000 at the HKICM Annual Dinner in September 2012.

An intensive course on high speed rail engineering co-taught by Dr Kao Tsung-chung of the Railroad Transportation & Engineering Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Prof. Ni Yi-qing of PolyU's Department of Civil and Structural Engineering drew 57 engineering professionals to our campus on 10-11 August 2012. The turnout was better than expected, thanks to supporting organizations like the MTR, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies for spreading the word. Covering the history as well as the future development of this mode of transport, the course highlighted the challenges and opportunities for engineers working in this field today. This is the second year that FCE has run the course. With the never-ending quest for speed posing a safety risk, engineers have their work cut out for them for many years to come.

Dr Kao Tsung-chung

On the afternoon of 8 August 2012, 5 student representatives from the 19th Faculty of Construction and Environment Students' Association (FCESA) met with Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean of FCE, and a couple of administrative staff from the Faculty Office to discuss their plans for the upcoming academic year. Embracing their roles as student leaders, the executive committee members of the FCESA have lined up a series of activities to welcome new students, who can look forward to making some friends at one of the orientation events. Besides a 3-day camp with their prospective classmates, several matches in basketball, badminton, and football are planned for the fall, culminating in the FCE Cup. There will also be a study tour and a singing contest early next year. It is hoped that these student-run activities will enrich the university experience for all participants.

Dr Leng joined the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as Assistant Professor in July 2012. He received his Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering in Traffic and Civil Engineering from the Southeast University in China in 2000 and 2003 respectively. He then obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. in 2011.

Dr Leng has been serving as Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Illinois Center for Transportation since August 2011. He was a Research Assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from August 2005 to August 2011 and at the Mississippi State University in the U.S. from August 2003 to July 2005.

His main areas of research interests are sustainable pavement materials and technologies, nondestructive pavement evaluation, pavement preservation, maintenance and rehabilitation, and accelerated pavement testing.

On 20 August 2012, the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) welcomed Dr Wong Man Sing, Charles, as an Assistant Professor, who received his Ph.D. in Remote Sensing and GIS in 2009, MPhil in Remote Sensing and GIS in 2005, and BSc in Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics in 2003, all from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Not only did Dr Wong achieve the highest academic qualification from LSGI, he also established a strong connection in research areas.

In 2005, Dr. Wong joined LSGI as a part-time research fellow and stepped up to a Senior Research Fellow in 2011. He was a Fulbright scholar at the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center of the University of Maryland in College Park from 2006 to 2007. Currently he is the official site manager for two AERNET stations in Hong Kong.

He has various research project experiences, including the use of remote sensing to study urban heat island effect, urban environmental quality, landslides, vegetation and ecosystems, spectral mixture analysis, aerosol retrieval and air quality monitoring. Moreover, he has published over 30 scientific papers, 2 book chapters, 10 peer-reviewed journals and over 50 conference proceedings in the last 7 years.

With his fabulous knowledge in remote sensing, his teaching will focus on this area in the coming semester.

FCE Public Lecture:
New Developments in Automated Change Detection from Very-High-Resolution Remote Sensing Data
Date & Time: 11 September 2012 (Tue), 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Venue: Room AG710, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Website: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/events/20120911_lecture/

First International Conference on Performance-based and Life-Cycle Structural Engineering (PLSE 2012)
Date: 5-7 December 2012
Venue: Regal Kowloon Hotel, 71 Mody Road, Tsimshatsui, Hong Kong
Website: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/fce/PLSE2012

The 5th International Symposium on Transportation Network Reliability (INSTR)
Date: 18-19 December 2012, Hong Kong
Venue: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Website: http://www.instr2012.org