News

CEEAA Scholarship 2021 cum CEE/CSE 50th Anniversary Logo Design Competition Award Presentation Ceremony

The CEEAA Scholarship 2021 cum CEE/CSE 50th Anniversary Logo Design Competition Award Presentation Ceremony was held on 14 Sep 2022 (Wed). Ir Edmond Wong, President of CEEAA, and Ir Prof. Chi Sun Poon, Head of Department, were invited to deliver a speech to kick off the ceremony. The CEEAA Scholarship recognizes students with outstanding achievements and active participation in extra-curricular activities. Apart from the CEEAA Scholarship, the awards of CEE/CSE 50th Anniversary Logo Design Competition were also presented to the winners. For more details about the design, please visit here. Congratulations to all awardees once again!

MOU Signing Ceremony between PolyU and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC)

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) was successfully held on 7 Sep 2022.   Prof. Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation), represented PolyU and Mr Kan Jun, Chairman, represented CRBC completed the MOU signing formalities. The partnership strengthens the collaboration between CEE and CRBC by leveraging their respective expertise in research and engineering production.   The signing ceremony was witnessed by Prof. Xiangdong Li, Dean of FCE, Prof. Chi Sun Poon, Head of CEE, and other honoured representatives from CEE and CRBC.

CEE student was awarded the Newton International Fellowship

Dr Pin ZHANG, PhD student supervised by Prof. Zhenyu Yin, defensed on July 2022 and was recently awarded the Newton International Fellowship. He will go to the University of Cambridge and the Alan Turing Institute to continue his research work.   The Newton International Fellowship Scheme was established in 2008 to select the very best early career researchers from all over the world across natural sciences (approximate 25 annually) and humanities (approximate 12 annually) and enable them to work at UK research institutions for two years. Newton International Fellowships are made available by the Royal Society and British Academy.

Prof. C.S. Poon Conferred Endowed Professorship and Dr Zhou Chao Appointed as Endowed Young Scholar

The Fourth Inauguration of Endowed Professorships cum the First Inauguration of Endowed Young Scholars was held on 31 Aug 2022 to pay tribute to distinguished scholars for their outstanding academic and research achievements, and to demonstrate the support and recognition from the community to PolyU for its research excellence.   Under the Endowed Professorship Scheme, Ir Prof. C.S. Poon, Head of Department and Chair Professor of Sustainable Construction Materials, was appointed as Michael Anson Professor in Civil Engineering.  It provides resources and support for Prof. Poon’s team to propagate the research culture that Prof. Anson championed early on, turning ideas into real solutions.   Dr Zhou Chao, Assistant Professor, was appointed as Tsui Tack Kong Young Scholar in Civil Engineering under the first launch of Endowed Young Scholars Scheme, which supports early-career academics and drives innovations that bring positive and long-term changes to the world.   Congratulations to the two CEE members!

New joiner - Dr Zhang Ning

Dr Zhang Ning obtained his B.Eng. degree from Southeast University in 2013 and Ph.D degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2019. Before joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr Zhang worked as a Postdoctoral research fellow in Shantou University from 2019 to 2022. Dr Zhang has been focusing on the inter-disciplinary research fields between artificial intelligence and geotechnical engineering. His ongoing research includes deep learning-based constitutive modelling, Smart construction of shield tunnelling, Improvement on deep learning method in geotechnical engineering. Dr Zhang has joined us on 1 Sep 2022.

New joiner - Dr Li Yinglei

Dr Li Yinglei obtained his bachelor degree (2011) in Civil Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, master degree (2014) in Structural Engineering from Tongji University and PhD degree (2019) in Structural Engineering from Monash University. Before joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr Li worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) from 2019 to 2022. Dr Li has been working actively in the research fields of steel-concrete-FRP composite members, seawater sea-sand concrete, stainless steel-concrete composite joints, and floating structures. He has published more than 20 journal papers with 856 citations and his H-index is 14 (Google scholar). Dr Li has joined us on 1 Sep 2022.

HK$44 Million Secured from RGC Theme-based Research Scheme to Tackle Grand Challenge in 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.   The project, titled “Unravelling the Black Box between Air Pollution and Public Health for Transformative Air Quality Management”, is co-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 Prof. Ko Jan Ming, Professor in Sustainable Urban Development. It has been awarded HK$44.5 million worth of 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. 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 update of the Air Quality Objectives (AQO) in Hong Kong. The experience in Hong Kong may also serve as a case model for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and ultimately for the global community.

CEE Newsletter (Aug 2022)

The latest CEE Newsletter has been published! For full version, please visit here: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/cee/news-and-events/newsletter/202208aug/.

New joiner - Dr Chen Zhengwei

Dr Zhengwei Chen obtained his BEng in Traffic Equipment & Information Engineering from Central South University in June 2014 and he got his PhD related to a research topic of Train Aerodynamics and Traffic Safety from Central South University in January 2021. Before joining PolyU as a Research Assistant Professor, Dr Chen worked as a postdoctoral fellow at PolyU from 2021 to 2022. Dr Chen’s research interests include drag reduction of high-speed trains, mitigation of crosswind effects on high-speed trains, high-speed train/tunnel aerodynamic effects, vehicle system dynamics, rail transit safety and environment, and physics-informed machine learning. Dr Chen has joined us on 29 August 2022

New joiner - Dr Xiang Yu

Dr Xiang Yu received his B.Eng. degree in 2010 and Ph.D. degree in 2017, both from Hunan University, China. After graduation, he joined PolyU and successively worked as a Research Associate, Postdoctoral Fellow and then Research Fellow from 2017 to 2022. Dr Xiang’s research interests include high-performance structures enabled by the use of fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites and ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC), numerical modelling of FRP-strengthened/reinforced concrete structures, and smart sensors for structural health monitoring. Dr Xiang has joined us on 29 Aug 2022.