Issue 69 - July 2016

Table of Contents

• Results of RGC Competitive Funding Schemes 2016/17
• BRE Academic Awarded Prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship
• HK Scholars Programme 2016
• Advanced Nondestructive Testing – Civil Engineering Workshop in Berlin, Germany
• 16th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar
  
• Chun Wo Extends Collaborative Research Initiative to FCE
  
• 7th PRME Asia Forum
  
• Visit to Energy Research Institute in Singapore
• Dutch Delegation Visited FCE
• Staff Promotions
• New Academic Staff
• CEE PhD Student Scoops Award for Outstanding Paper
• The 15th Academic Conference for Postgraduates in Construction Management and Real Estate
• Entry Scholarships for Outstanding FCE Applicants
• Faculty Public Lectures
• Forthcoming Events

The 2016/17 application results for the RGC General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) were announced on 30 June 2016. Due to their similar nature, the application results for these 2 schemes have been combined in some of the following analysis:

Comparisons of departmental performance over the past 10 years using 2 indicators, namely, the number of grants per year and the average funding amount per academic staff member (only eligible staff members are counted) are shown in Figures 1 and 2 respectively. In terms of the number of grants per year, CEE and BSE rank 1st and 2nd, followed by equally ranked BRE and LSGI. In terms of average funding amount per academic staff member, the rankings of our 4 departments are CEE, LSGI, BSE, and BRE. In general, the performances of the four departments in recent years have varied in their ups and downs. The total number of grants awarded to our Faculty has shown a gradual and steady increase over the past 7 rounds (i.e. since 2010/11) but the average funding amount recorded a slight drop in recent 2 years.

Figure 1: Comparison of Number of Grants per Year between Departments

Figure 2: Comparison of Amount of RGC Competitive Funding per Eligible Staff Member between Departments

In the Civil Engineering, Surveying, Building and Construction (CESBC) disciplines of the Engineering Panel, PolyU has led the local universities in the GRF/ECS exercises since 1994/95 in both the number of GRF/ECS projects supported and the total grant value awarded, consistently winning around or over 40% of all GRF/ECS grants allocated in these disciplines. The distribution of the amount of GRF/ECS funding in the 2016/17 round among local universities is shown in Figure 3. We received 40% of the total available funding in the CESBC disciplines. The average funding per project is HK$617K.

Figure 3: Distribution of GRF/ECS Funding in the CESBC Disciplines among Institutions in the 2016/17 Round

Of the 33 GRF/ECS grants awarded to the Faculty this year, 1 was awarded outside the CESBC disciplines. The Faculty won 32 grants (or 40%) totalling HK$19,874K out of 81 GRF/ECS grants awarded by RGC in the CESBC disciplines in the present round (i.e. 2016/17). FCE colleagues are urged to work hard to ensure a greater share of GRF/ECS funding in the CESBC disciplines in the future.

Prof. Meng Ni from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) was recently awarded a prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers. It will support Prof. Ni for 12 months at 3,150 euros per month to conduct research on high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells at one of the leading institutes in Europe – the Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Humboldt Research Fellowship enables highly-qualified scientists and scholars from abroad to carry out research in Germany. Applicants who are experienced researchers should have completed their doctorates less than 12 years ago and have their own, clearly defined research profile. Candidates are selected solely on the basis of their academic qualifications.

5 academics from the Faculty of Construction and Environment have been selected by the Hong Kong Scholars Programme (HKSP) 2016 to engage a mainland scholar as a Postdoctoral Fellow in their research projects. Launched in December 2010 as a joint initiative between mainland authorities and the Society of Hong Kong Scholars, the HKSP promotes academic/ scientific exchanges and collaboration by matching outstanding mainland PhD graduates with leading academics of universities in Hong Kong, who will supervise the mainland scholars for 2 years in a research project. Following are the details:

From 13 to 20 July 2016, a group of 19 nondestructive testing (NDT) engineers from Sweden, Poland, India, Finland, Germany, Australia, Turkey, USA, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong attended a workshop in Berlin, Germany. The workshop was organized by Dr Herbert Wiggenhauser, Head of the Department for Non-destructive Damage Assessment and Environmental Measurement Methods of the Federal Institute of Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin, and co-organized by Ir Dr Wallace W.L. Lai of LSGI. It was the 4th run since 2013, covering the basics and also the advanced development of NDT-CE technologies. The content included testing, evaluation and imaging technologies in civil engineering, such as classical NDT, concept of validation, principles and hands-on practice of impact echo, ground penetrating radar, ultrasonics, thermography, laser-induced spectroscopy, geophysical methods, pile testing, surface wave, electrochemistry of corrosion process, moisture measurement, data fusion, etc. There was also a 1-day visit to the test site in Horstwalde (a forest 50 km away from Berlin), where a few practical survey instruments were demonstrated and everyone enjoyed a German barbecue lunch. A few participants even challenged themselves to a 30-km bike tour of the city and an evening jog. The workshop turned out to be very successful and was highly rated by the participants. The next one will be in 2017. For more information, please refer to http://www.ndte-training.bam.de/en/home/index.htm.

From 13 to 16 June 2016, 206 researchers, practitioners and exhibitors from 29 countries attended the 16th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). Organized by the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), the conference was kick-started by Prof. John Shi, Head of LSGI, and chaired by Ir Dr Wallace Lai, Assistant Professor of LSGI. Since 1986, this conference has brought together scientists, engineers, industrial delegates, manufacturers, software engineers, and end-users working in various GPR areas, ranging from fundamental electromagnetics, antenna design, forward modeling, inverse modeling, algorithm development to civil engineering and all kinds of surveying applications.

The conference programme included 3 pre-conference tutorials, 5 keynote speeches, 2 parallel oral sessions, 1 poster session, a competition for young scientists, 13 equipment exhibitions, a field demonstration, 2 utility lab visits, 5 bids for GPR 2018, and a gala dinner. The proceedings included 121 online papers in IEEE’s xplore library, and 2 special issues will be published by IEEE JSTARS and NDT &E International respectively in early 2017. 6 presentations were shortlisted for the Young Scientist Award, which went to Mr Markus Löwer from the Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics in Germany. Dr Johannes Hugenschmidt at the University of Applied Science in Rapperswil, Switzerland staved off keen competition from the US, China, the UK, and Russia to be the next host of GPR 2018.

The organizing committee would like to acknowledge the financial sponsorships from 13 GPR exhibitors and the Faculty of Construction and Environment of PolyU, technical co-sponsorship from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (IEEE-GRSS), the Society of Exploration Geophysics and NDT & E International. Manuscript review was done by 11 scientific panel members and 52 reviewers, and monitored by 12 international advisory committee members. Logistic support was provided by the LSGI general office. The post-conference excursion to HK Global Geopark was led by Prof. Lung-Sang Chan from HKU. All these efforts are greatly appreciated. Special thanks also go to the LSGI’s researchers and 25 undergraduate student helpers, without whom the conference would not have been a success.

To advance construction-related methods for better safety, quality, environment, or productivity in the industry, Chun Wo Development Holdings Ltd. recently launched a research initiative to collaborate with academia on selected R&D projects funded by the Innovation and Technology Commission. The company visited the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) on 13 July 2016 to present their initiative in detail. Guests including Director (Construction) of Chun Wo Mr Edward Yeung, Mr Rayland Lee, another Director and Mr Gary Chou, its General Manager (Technical) were warmly welcomed by Prof. You-lin Xu, Dean of FCE, who introduced the Faculty and its research areas. In attendance were Prof. Meng Ni, Associate Head (Research) of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE); Prof. Ya-ping Du, Associate Head of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE); Prof. William Lam, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE); and Dr George Liu, Associate Prof. of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI). The presentations were well received by the FCE staff, who look forward to further information from Chun Wo on the research topics to be explored jointly.

At the 7th Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Asia Forum on 7 July 2016, Dr Patrick Fong, Associate Head (Partnership) of the Department of Building and Real Estate, gave a presentation where he described how construction and environment disciplines have contributed to sustainable development goals and advocated the involvement of other Faculties besides business schools in this important endeavor. The theme of the Forum was stakeholder engagement for responsible management education in contributing to sustainable development goals. The panel discussion following Dr Fong’s presentation illuminated the need for a more sustainable physical built environment in order to protect the natural resources on our planet.

On 18 July 2016, Prof. Meng Ni of the Department of Building and Real Estate, Prof. Hongxing Yang and Dr Vivien Lu of the Department of Building Services Engineering visited the Energy Research Institute (ERI) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. They met with Prof. S.H. Chan, a co-director of ERI, and 3 of its programme directors, Dr Narasimalu Srikanth, Dr Yann Grynberg, and Dr Ovi Lian Ding, to learn more about its research activities, particularly with respect to renewable energy technologies, sustainable building technologies, and fuel cells at ERI. With the aim of exploring future research collaboration, Prof. Yang gave an overview of the Faculty of Construction and Environment, Dr Lu introduced research on green building technologies, while Prof. Ni presented his research on fuel cells and electrolyzers for energy conversion and storage. They also visited the labs at ERI before wrapping up their visit, which was supported by the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development.

On 15 July 2016, a delegation of 30 students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) visited the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE). Led by Ir Paul Wiggenraad and Ir TJ Zitman of CEG, the visiting group was introduced to FCE and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) by Prof. You-lin Xu, Dean of FCE, and Prof. William Lam, Head of CEE, respectively. Ir Wiggenraad also introduced CEG and its programmes before Delft student representatives shared their experience in arranging study trips with CEE students. The visit concluded with a tour of several CEE laboratories and a lunch hosted by CEE, with the former Dean of TU Delft’s Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering turned Dean of PolyU’s School of Design, Prof. Cees de Bont, joining as a special guest.

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