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Three CEE Scholars named “Highly Cited Researchers 2020"

Three CEE Scholars named “Highly Cited Researchers 2020” Congratulations to Prof. Kwok-Wing Chau (Engineering), Prof. Shun-cheng Lee (Cross-Field) and Dr Daniel CW Tsang (Environment/Ecology) for being listed as Highly Cited Researcher 2020 by Clarivate Analytics. It identifies researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Of the world’s scientists and social scientists, Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers are truly one in 1,000. This is definitely a recognition to their high quality publication and scientific impact in the fields.   Prof. Kwok-Wing Chau was awarded a BSc in civil engineering with First Class Honours from the University of Hong Kong, an MSc in civil engineering with distinction from the University of Hong Kong, and a PhD from the University of Queensland in Australia.  He is very active in undertaking research works and the scope of his research interests is very broad, covering numerical flow modeling, water quality modeling, hydrological modeling, knowledge-based system development and artificial intelligence applications. Prof. Chau has published over 250 Science Citation Index journal papers and the total number of non-self citations is over 10,000. He acquired many prestigious research awards: 2008 Natural Science Class 1 Award conferred by Ministry of Education in China, 2009 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Publication Achievement (Overall performance in citation in the past 10 years), 2009 National Natural Science Class 2 Award, Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Publication Achievement (Highly-cited papers) in various years, and 2018 – 2020 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics.   Prof. Shun-cheng Lee earned a Doctorate in Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley in 1994. His research focus includes chemical characteristics, sources, vehicle emission profiles, indoor cooking, carbon aerosols, and toxic gaseous pollutants. He has completed the comprehensive emission inventory and source emission profiles of vehicles, cooking, ships, and household cleaners in Hong Kong. He has published 308 papers in the international journals, being cited by SCI in total of 19,161 times (h-index: 78). He was awarded as Highly Cited Researcher (cross-field) by Clarivate in 2018 – 2020. In 2019, he was awarded as Fellow of Asian Aerosol Research Assembly (AARA).  Prof. Lee is the Associate Head and Odour Lab In Charge at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of PolyU.     Dr Daniel CW Tsang is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. He was Visiting Scholar at Ghent University in Belgium and Stanford University in the US, Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and Post-doctoral Fellow at Imperial College London in the UK. Dan’s research group strives to develop low-carbon solutions to ensure sustainable development and circular economy. Dan has published over 400 research articles in top 10% journals (54 highly cited papers, 4 hot papers, 10000+ citations) and served as Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of various environmental science and engineering journals. Dan is the Chair and Organizer of many international conferences such as 5th Asia Pacific Biochar Conference (APBC2021).  

New Patent Certificate issued by CNIPA

Congratulations to Prof. Yi-Qing Ni and members of Hong Kong Branch of National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center (CNERC-Rail) for receiving a patent certificate issued by National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC, together with National Central University and Sheng Wei Science Co. LTD. The new Chinese patent is called “一种光纤布拉格光栅角度传感器”. More details of the patent can be found here.     

Four CEE research projects awarded funding in NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme 2020/21

In 2020/21 Exercise of the National Natural Science Foundation of China/Research Grants Council (NSFC/RGC) Joint Research Scheme, the RGC and NSFC have agreed to fund a total of 30 research projects, out of 213 eligible applications, for a total sum of HK$34.7 million. PolyU submitted 48 preliminary proposals and 16 full proposals, of which 10 full proposals are successful with a total awarded amount of HK$11.571 million (i.e., 33.35% of total awarded funding) and four of them are from CEE Department.   This is the best funding results in NSFC/RGC Joint Research Scheme attained by PolyU since the implementation of this funding scheme. PolyU has also attained the largest number of funded projects and grant amount among UGC-funded universities in 2020/21 Exercise.   Congratulations to PolyU and CEE Principal Investigator and research team of the following projects!   Principle Investigator Project Title Funding Period (months) Amount Awarded by RGC (HK$) Prof. Hai Guo Organic Aerosols in Offshore Marine Atmosphere of Eastern and Southern China: Sources, Chemical Ageing, and Climate Consequence 48     1,154,954   Dr Zhen-Yu Yin Study of Multi-Physics Coupling Mechanism of Deep Sea Pipeline and Soft Marine Organic Deposits Interaction Considering Time and Temperature Effects 48 1,154,954 Prof. Jian-Guo Dai Research and Development on Waste Ash/Slag-based Artificial Aggregates for Applications in Concrete 48 1,154,954 Prof. Kwok-Fai Chung Research on Structural Behaviour of Stainless-Clad Bi-Metallic Steel Welded Connections and Joints under Monotonic and Cyclic Actions 48 1,158,329

Chair Prof Series - Nov

Last two lectures of the Chair Professor Series: Online Lecture were successfully held. Similar to the past lectures, Prof. Poon and Prof. Wang’s sessions also received high enrollment. Great thanks to all Chair Professors for their contribution and all attendees for their active participation.  If you failed to register or would like to revisit them, please refer to https://www.polyu.edu.hk/cee/news-and-events/useful-links-for-current-student/seminars-talks/.   

ICE Communication Competition 2020 - 2021

If you are interested in participating in the Communications Competition 2020-2021 organized by Institution of Civil Engineers Hong Kong Association Graduates and Students Division (ICE HKA G&S), please team up with other passionate engineering students and submit your application at https://forms.gle/wny9V1cpCde1M2Nk8 by 29 Nov 2020. Application Deadline: 29 Nov 2020 (Sunday) Date of final (mock public consultation meeting): 6 Feb 2021 (Saturday) Should you have any enquiry, please do not hesitate to contact Athena CHAN at athena.chanheitung@gmail.com /gs.hka@ice.org.uk  or on +852 6978 1990.

CEE Scholar to Receive Prestigious International Prize

Dr Peng Wang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has been chosen for the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) in the category of alternative water resources. A scientific prize with a focus on innovation, the award was established in 2002 by HRH Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz to recognize the efforts made by scientists, inventors, and research organizations around the world that contribute to the sustainable availability of potable water and the alleviation of the escalating global problem of water scarcity. He will receive his prize in an award ceremony at the United Nations’ headquarters in New York early next year.

Chair Prof Series - Oct

Over 300 participants joined each of the three Chair Professor Series: Online Lectures in October 2020. If you failed to register or would like to revisit them, please refer to https://www.polyu.edu.hk/cee/news-and-events/useful-links-for-current-student/seminars-talks/.   

PolyU researchers’ smart pavements won two awards at iCAN 2020

As part of an EU-funded project entitled Urban Nature Labs (UNaLab), PolyU researchers, led by Prof. Yuhong Wang from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Dr Ivan Wang-Hei Ho from the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, developed “A smart integrated road pavement and drainage system for stormwater storage, de-icing, dust suppression, and cooling”. This project aims to develop integrated pervious concrete pavement systems and their components as part of the nature-based solutions (NBS), and to selectively adopt UNaLab NBS and implement them locally through “living labs”.   This system has won two awards: the Canadian Special Awards and the Organizer’s Choice Awards in the International Invention Innovation Competition in Canada (iCAN 2020). The project, with its innovative designs to change the urban road, aims to make roads more environmentally friendly and to tackle significant challenges brought about by climate change.   The UNaLab consortium is coordinated by VTT, and the research components led by VTT have been funded through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research Scheme, while the research components PolyU is responsible for, were funded separately by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.   Congratulations to Prof. Wang, Dr Ho and the team! For more details of the system, please click HERE. To access a brief of the H2020 Project UNaLab, please click HERE. (This news was originally published at PolyU Campus Reports.)

Congratulations to PolyU

Congratulations to PolyU for being ranked the 3rd best universities for Civil Engineering in the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities Rankings 2021. Read more about this ranking at https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/civil-engineering.

New Joiner - Dr Liu Siwei

Dr Siwei Liu Research Assistant Professor   Dr Liu obtained his PhD from CEE of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and BEng from Sun Yat-Sen University.   His research mainly focuses on computational structural engineering, steel structures, steel and concrete composite structures, and applied research in structural engineering.   He has published 60 academic publications, including over 30 papers in high-quality refereed journals. He has received a Grand Award in Research in 2020, a Commendation Award in Research in 2018 by HKIE, a Grand Award in Research in 2016 by HKIE and IStructE, and an Outstanding PhD Thesis Award in 2014 by PolyU. He serves as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Advanced Steel Construction. Prior to joining CEE, he was an Associate Professor at Sun Yat-Sen University and a Visiting Faculty at Bucknell University.   He has co-developed several structural analysis and design software for commercial, research and educational uses, such as RCD2016 & NIDA10, and Mastan2-v5 used by several leading research groups in the US and Italy. He has developed a tapered element analysis method for the successful design of the longest single layer dome at MGM, Macau in the world. He has over 12 years of practicing structural engineering experience in the design of steel structures in Hong Kong and Macau, and particular expertise in complex steelwork design, composite construction design and nonlinear finite element analysis.   Dr Liu has joined us on 2 Nov 2020.