Awards and Achievements (Teaching)

A Warm Welcome to Mikkel an Exchange-in PhD Student from Denmark

 “Hi, I am a Danish PhD student from Section of Corporate Communication,Department of Management at the Aarhus University.My research area can be summarised as the Role of Strategic Communication in the Management of Projects in Project-based Organisations.” Mr. Mikkel Brauer Johnsen introduces himself, an exchange-in PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Patrick S. W. Fong, Associate Head (Partnership)in our Department.   Mikkel’s PhD thesis combines two theoretical fields, namely Project Management and Strategic Communication. The aim of the thesis is to contribute with a better understanding of how organisations, whose primary activities and operations are organised around projects, achieve business goals through their strategic use of communication toward their dyadic client interactions.   Mikkel adds, “I am a visiting student of Dr. Patrick S. W. Fong, Associate Head (Partnership),the Department of Building and Real Estate through the Research Student Attachment Programme for incoming visiting PhD students. I stay at PolyU till 30 November and I enjoy life in Hong Kong and at PolyU.Also,I look forward to meeting lots of new colleagues and learning a lot from my stay at PolyU.”   We truly wish Mikkel a fruitful stay in Hong Kong!    

‘PolyU People Stories 理動人心’ Featuring BRE Members - To Promote ‘Can-do Spirit’

 To mark the milestone of the 80th Anniversary and promote the can-do spirit, PolyU first ever rolled out ‘PolyU People Stories 理動人心’this year.This mind-blowing campaign will embrace a total of 80 inspirational stories of the 80 members in this big family. We are excited that in the BRE Community, the uplifting stories of our alumni,the late Dr Ng Wing Hong and Ms Lin Po Heung as well as our Department Head, Prof. Albert Chan are shared through the campaign ‘PolyU People Stories 理動人心’.Their stories come with countless acts of determination,hard work and enthusiasm. You may wish to savour every moment of their journeys through the following links: The Late Dr Ng Wing Hong, BRE Alumnus   Ms Lin Po Heung, BRE Alumna   Prof.Albert Chan Ping Chuen, BRE Staff Member  

Property Management Student Exploring Population Ageing in Japan To Enrich Elderly’s life in HK

Winnie So Ka Wing, a year-3 student of our Property Management Programme, was selected from ninety-seven applicants to explore the subject of population ageing in Kyoto,Japan through ‘PolyU Global Student Leadership Programme (GSL) ’from 31 July to 13 August 2017. This programme aims to train students to be a well-equipped future leader with global perspectives.   The hands-on experience and diverse insights further fostered Winnie’s confidence to do more for brightening up the elderly’s life in Hong Kong.Keep up the good work, Winnie!    

‘Best Presentation Award’ & ‘Most Popular Presentation Award’ Go to Xue and Maxwell in the 16th Academic Conference for Postgraduate Students in Construction Management and Real Estate

Congratulations to our research students,Ms Xue Xiao and Mr. Antwi-Afari Maxwell Fordjour on winning the Best Presentation Award and the Most Popular Presentation Award, respectively in the recent ‘16thAcademic Conference for Postgraduate Students in Construction Management and Real Estate’!   In this Conference,a group of research students from the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Shenzhen University had an academic exchange of their studies in the area of Construction Management and Real Estate.Meanwhile, there was a very keen competition among the participating research students for the awards.   Under the supervision of Ir Prof. Heng Li, Chair Professor of Construction Informatics in PolyU, Xue’s study aims at developing a green building experience-mining (GBEM) model to adapt previous solutions to a new situation while the objective of Maxwell’s paper is to develop a method to detect and classify slip, trip, and loss of balance (STL) events based upon foot plantar pressure distribution data captured using wearable insole pressure sensors.Ticking all the right boxes, their hard work well deserved the accolades and the warmest congratulations.   More about Ms Xue XIAO’s Paper ‘Case-Based Reasoning and Text Mining for Green Building Decision Making’: Title: Case-Based Reasoning and Text Mining for Green Building Decision Making Abstract: Great benefits are obtained by sharing previous experiences in meeting the needs of the standard evaluation systems for green building around the world. To date, there are no existing methods available that enable this to take place in a systematic way. This paper addresses the issue by developing a green building experience-mining (GBEM) model that enables previous green building solutions to be adapted for a new situation.A database of 10 cases is used to demonstrate and evaluate the effectiveness of the GBEM model. The results confirm the model’s potential to facilitate users in the selection of the solutions when addressing new green building challenges. Keywords: Case-based reasoning, Green building Text mining   Name:Xiao Xue Department:the Department of Building and Real Estate, PolyU Email address:xue.xiao@connect.polyu.hk   More about Mr. ANTWI-AFARIMaxwell Fordjourand his paper ‘Wearable Insole Pressure Sensors for Automated Classification of Construction workers’ Slip-Trip-Loss of Balance Events’: Title: Wearable Insole Pressure Sensors for Automated Classification of Construction workers’ Slip-Trip-Loss of Balance Events Abstract: The objective of the current study was to develop a method to detect and classify slip, trip, and loss of balance (STL) events based upon foot plantar pressure distribution data captured using wearable insole pressure sensors. Twenty young healthy participants participated in experimental trials involving falls on the same level due to STL events experienced by construction workers. Foot plantar pressure distribution data acquired during the STL events were input to supervised machine learning classifiers[e.g., decision tree (DT), artificial neural network (ANN),K-nearest neighbor (KNN),and support vector machine (SVM)]. The results show good accuracy, sensitivity,and specificity of the classifiers, confirming the feasibility of detecting potential fall risks effectively. The implications of this study are of value to researchers and practitioners because the method quantitatively measures the type of events and provides a computational tool that records automated foot plantarpressure distributions, which can help understand fundamental causes off all-related injuries in construction workers. Keywords: Construction worker,Loss of balance, Pressure sensor, Slip, Trip.   Name:Antwi-Afari Maxwell Fordjour Department:the Department of Building and Real Estate, PolyU Email address:maxwell.antwiafari@connect.polyu.hk  

BRE Students Winning the HKIS Outstanding Final Year Dissertation Awards for Undergraduate Students 2016

In the Outstanding Final Year Dissertation Awards for Undergraduate Students (2016) organized by the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS), three alumni of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) of PolyU were rewarded for their final year dissertations announced on 30 December 2016. A total of 2 full-time students and 1 part-time student from the BSc(Hons) in Surveying programme won the awards including 1 Top Award and 2 Second Awards. Award Category  Dissertation Title Student Name  Supervisor Name  Top Award (Planning and Development Division) Empirical Study of the Impact of Railway Development on Property Prices: The Case of West Island Line Miss Cheung Ho-man(Full-time SUV Student) Mr Kong Wai-kei  Second Award (Building Surveying Division) A Study on the Contribution of BIM to Increase Productivity in Hong Kong Public Housing Projects Miss Chan Hiu-yu(Full-time SUV Student) Mr Stephen Kong  Second Award (General Practice Surveying Division) An Empirical Study of the Contravention of Lease Conditions in Existing Industrial Buildings in Hong Kong Miss Lai Tsz-man, Iris(Part-time SUV Student) Dr Daniel Chan The purposes of the awards aims are to promote research amongst our future surveyors and to reward the efforts of the students. The awards were based on merits in research as well as the research output's applicability to the surveying profession. Each winner received an award certificate and a prize cheque of HK$1,500 (Top Award) and HK$1,000 (Second Award) at the HKIS Outstanding Dissertation/Thesis Awards Presentation Ceremony and Cocktail Reception 2016 held on Friday, 9 June 2017 at the Royal Plaza Hotel, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

BRE Students Winning Smart-e Competition Youth Housing in Hong Kong

BRE Subject ‘The Legal Context for Construction and Real Estate’ on RTHK 這一科, 學什麼

It is with great delight that we have the opportunity of introducing our subject ‘The Legal Context for Construction and Real Estate’ to the public, particularly,students and teachers of secondary schools on the on-line platform, ‘RTHK 這一科, 學什麼’.   Legal matters are important to everyday activities without exception in the world of construction. The subject ‘The Legal Context for Construction and Real Estate’is the introductory law module for students of our Surveying Programme, Property Management Programme and two Higher Diploma Programmes.Through interesting and practical case studies, our students can better understand the legal issues in the construction industry which helps pave the way for their future professions.    

BRE Students Receiving HSBC Scholarship Awards

Please join us in congratulating our students, Tsang King Fai and YungTsun Kiu on receiving the HSBC Scholarship Awards 2016/17. In recognition of their excellence in the all-round development, King Fai, a student of BSc (Hons) in Surveying Programme and Tsun Kiu, a student of Higher Diploma in Building Technology and Management (Surveying) are awarded ‘HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship’(HK$50,000-)and‘HSBC Vocational Education Scholarship’(HK$20,000-), respectively.The recognition inspired the students to unleash their potential and realise their ambitions. All awardees are invited to the HSBC Scholars Day 2017 on29Junewhichwillbea fantastic occasion for guests of honour, members of the selection panels and awardees,etc.to mingle with one another.  

Mr. Stephen Mau's receiving the Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance/Achievement 2015/16

“Everything is Awesome” BRE Exchange-out Student says, in University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Student Exchange Programme is certainly of great benefit to our students’ horizons, understanding of other cultures, personal network and career development. We have made a strong connection with a range of prestigious universities around the world since we joined the programme in 2003. “Study hard, Play hard is what I do here.”, ourYear-4 Surveying Student,Raphael Lai Wai Yeung says.Through our Student Exchange Programme, Raphael currently studies in the University of Wisconsin, Madison which is one of the very famous public universities in the United States. Meeting people from all around the world, getting a taste of life of Americans and studying in one of the prestigious university with other talents are all awesome which definitely will become one of the unforgettable journeys in Raphael’s undergraduate study. In our Department, Raphael’s major is surveying and he has chosen the General Practice (GP) Stream. GP is under the school of business in University of Wisconsin, Madison and the workload is huge as students have assignment nearly all the weeks. Raphael shares, “As we all know,we have to study and finish the assignments on time. Professors here are nice and they take good care of all students as the classes here are relatively smaller. The subject, ‘Residential Property Development’ is my favourite class here since I can apply the knowledge I learnt in PolyU practically in this city, Madison.”In addition, different states in the USA have their respective legislation regarding the real estate market, which was quite tough to Raphael at the beginning.However, he handle sit well right now as BRE equipped him with a very concrete foundation. Studying there is challenging but Raphael believes he can gain a lot academically once he finished the exchange programme. Wandering around the street, having good food and enjoying the beautiful great city with other students are so amazing to Raphael. ‘Badger’ is the official mascot of the University of Wisconsin, Madison which also represents how good the students’ attitude is when it comes to the balance of study and fun time-Study hard,Play hard. Raphael thanks BRE for giving him a precious opportunity of student exchange. We wish Raphael a fruitful stay!