Dr Huang Xinyan Awarded the National’s 2023 Excellent Young Scientists Fund on Wildfire Research

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is delighted to announce that our Associate Professor, Dr Huang Xinyan, has been granted a total funding of RMB 2 million from the National's 2023 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau).

Dr Huang's research focuses on fundamental fire dynamics and the development of smart firefighting technologies to enhance fire safety in buildings and cities. His investigations extend to understanding the complexities of natural fire phenomena and the interaction between humans and wildland fires. The awarded project, "Smouldering Wildfire," specifically examines the burning of decomposed plant litter and organic soils. These large-scale smouldering wildfires lead to significant economic losses, regional haze events, ecological damage, and substantial carbon emissions. Dr Huang's research will involve conducting experiments of varying scales, developing AI-powered computational models to predict smouldering-related wildfire carbon emissions, and proposing a smart firefighting framework for preventing, detecting, and suppressing smouldering wildfires.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Excellent Young Scientists Fund aims to support young scholars (under the age of 38 for males or 40 for females) who have made significant contributions to basic research and demonstrated innovation in their respective fields, fostering their growth as internationally recognized scholars. Each year, only 25 young scholars in Hong Kong and Macau are selected to receive this prestigious funding.

The Department would like to extend heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Huang for this outstanding achievement.