News

CEE Members Received Fugro Prize 2021/2022

Congratulations to Dr Ho Tsz On and Dr Chen Wenbo for receiving the Fugro Prize 2021/2022 (1st runner up) with the paper titled "Study on Engineering Characteristics of Cement Stabilised HKMD". The Fugro Prize is established and organized by the Geotechnical Division of the HKIE.  It is an annual award for the author(s) of the best papers in geo-data, geotechnical and or geo-environmental engineering.  

HK$44 million secured from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme to tackle a grand challenge on air pollution and public health

Air pollution is the greatest environmental health risk factor for premature deaths worldwide; among all air pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is one of the deadliest. Since PM2.5 is a cocktail of components from a mix of sources and not all components or sources are equally toxic, research on the toxic components and their associated sources responsible for PM2.5 health effects plays a key part in air quality management.   Led by Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Dean of Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), Director of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), Chair Professor of Environmental Science and Technology, and Ko Jan Ming Professor in Sustainable Urban Development, the project entitled “Unravelling the Black Box between Air Pollution and Public Health for Transformative Air Quality Management” has been awarded HK$44.5 million funding by the Research Grants Council (RGC) Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2022/23 (Twelfth Round).   As the project coordinator, Prof. Li will lead a multi-disciplinary team of 10 researchers from PolyU, CityU, CUHK, HKU and HKUST. The project is expected to generate solid evidence of key PM2.5 toxic components and emission sources that contribute to the acute toxicity of PM2.5, particularly in the exacerbation of two index diseases of the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and ischemic heart disease (IHD). Furthermore, the research team will evaluate the benefits and costs of their proposed strategy of targeting the sources of PM2.5 toxic constituents against the conventional approach targeting total mass concentrations when formulating air quality management policies. Effective, practical, and economical approaches to managing air quality and public health will be recommended through this project. For example, the completion of the current project may lead to 1) a revision of the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) algorithm and the associated 'Health Advice' and 2) a review and updates of the Air Quality Objectives (AQO) in Hong Kong. The experience in Hong Kong may serve as a case model for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and ultimately for the global society.

CEE students visit WEEE Park and Wetland Park

On 22 July 2022, Prof Anthony Chen, Dr Yi Jiang and Dr Barbara Siu led 16 CEE students to visit the WEEE Park and the Wetland Park. The WEEE Park is a state-of-the-art Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) treatment and recycling facility located at Tuen Mun, where students learnt about the process of recovering useful materials from the electrical and electronic appliances through various physical processes. The site of Hong Kong Wetland Park was originally intended to be an ecological mitigation area (EMA) to compensate for the wetlands lost due to Tin Shui Wai New Town development. It showcases the diversity of the Hong Kong's wetland ecosystem and highlights the need to conserve them. Despite the summer heat (37oC), all participants found the tour fruitful and enjoyable.   We have uploaded the photos of the tour to the following share drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sot4gJS9_uEk7F97-uhnbTV4ouTbBsBl?usp=sharing   Thank you very much for your support and we look forward to seeing you in the next activity.

PolyU CEE Webinar Series: Biotechnology advances for xenobiotics degradation and resource recovery in wastewater treatment

Dr Ling LENG delivered a seminar with the topic of “Biotechnology advances for xenobiotics degradation and resource recovery in wastewater treatment” on 27 July 2022. It was co-organized with RCRE & HKIE Civil Division.

PolyU CEE Webinar Series: Nonlinear soil stiffness for analyzing ground movements in engineering practice

Dr Chao ZHOU delivered a seminar with the topic of “Nonlinear soil stiffness for analyzing ground movements in engineering practice” on 20 July 2022. It was co-organized with HKIE Civil Division.

PolyU Ranked 4th for Civil Engineering in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2022

In the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2022 released by ShanghaiRanking, PolyU is listed as the 4th best in the world and 1st in Hong Kong in Civil Engineering. It confirms once again our global excellence in education and research in the discipline. The GRAS uses a range of objective academic indicators and third-party data to measure 5,000 top world universities’ performance in respective subjects, including research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality, and international academic awards.  More than 1,800 universities across 96 countries and regions are eventually listed in the rankings. The full version of GRAS 2022 and its methodology can be found here.

A PolyU Team Won First Prize at 2nd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring

A young team from PolyU (1 postdoctoral, 3 PhD students, and 1 MPhil student from the Hong Kong Branch of the National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center, CNERC-Rail) won the First Prize at the 2nd International Competition for Structural Health Monitoring (IC-SHM, 2021). Their supervisor is Prof. Yi-qing NI, Director of CNERC-Rail. The organization received 53 submissions from 12 regions. The group participated in Project 3: Computer vision-based vibration measurement and damage assessment. The competition is organized by the Asia-Pacific Network of Centers for Research in Smart Structures Technology (ANCRiSST), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute (ZJU-UIUC Institute), and the University of Houston. A new competition is launched this year to further extend the frontiers of computer vision-based civil infrastructure inspection and monitoring. 

Prof. Anthony Chen’s paper on Covid-19 vaccine passports’ impact on pedestrian accessibility published in Reginal Studies, Reginal Science

Prof. Anthony Chen’s team conducted a before & after analysis to visualized the impact of the Covid-19 vaccine passport (VP) restrictions on the use of indoor public space on pedestrian accessibility to all 97 metro stations in Hong Kong.   Results show that vaccine passports have caused a 50% reduction in accessibility of two-thirds of stations for pedestrians without a vaccine passport (PwoVP). Particularly, PwoVP must walk 460 m longer to reach Kowloon (KWO) station; Tai Wo (TWO) and Ma On Shan (MOS) stations are inaccessible.   The findings can help to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of long-term policies in restricting access to public spaces, such as the VP system.

CEE Student Won in Young Persons’ Lecture Competition (Hong Kong Heat) 2022

Congratulations to Mr LI Danning (PhD candidate, CEE, supervised by Dr LENG Zhen) for winning the 1st place in the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) Young Persons’ Lecture Competition (Hong Kong Heat) 2022 with his topic “Investigation on the Aging Mechanism of Asphalt Rubber Binder Prepared with Waste Tire Rubber”. Mr LI will then represent IOM3 Hong Kong Branch to attend the Young Persons’ World Lecture Competition Final in late 2022.

CEE Students Won Best Performance and First Prize Awards

Congratulations to Zhifei Tan and Linyi Yao (Ph.D. candidates, CEE, Supervised by Dr Zhen LENG) for winning the Best performance and first prize awards in the 1st International Competition on Intelligent Simulation of Transport Infrastructure 2022, in Harbin, China.