News

Congratulations to The Hon. Alfred Sit Wing-hang, JP, Secretary for Innovation and Technology as one of the recipients of Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award (OPAA)

Launched in 1996, the biennial OPAA is jointly organised by PolyU and the Federation of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Alumni Associations. This year marks the 13th award presentation and more than 80 distinguished alumni in various professions have been honoured in past years.   Ir Alfred Sit was awarded in recognition of his dedication to promoting Hong Kong’s future by spearheading innovation and technology development. Being the current Chairman of the Departmental Advisory Committee, we appreciate Ir Sit’s contribution in giving valuable advices on various aspects of the Department’s development.   More about the award of recipient, please click here.

Supervised by Prof. Changyuan Yu, a team of students and graduates from the MSc in EIE and PhD programmes attained the First Prize in the 6th IoT Technology and Application 3S Competition for University Students in China.

Supervised by Prof. Changyuan Yu, a research team comprised of Mr Jianxun Yu (MSc in EIE student), Ms Shuyang Chen (PhD student), Dr Fengze Tan (PhD graduate), Ms Jiaqi Qu (PhD student) and Mr Weimin Lyu (MSc in EIE graduate) attained the First Prize in the 6th IoT Technology and Application 3S Competition for University Students in China. The competition was hosted by the Chinese Institute of Electronics and the Chinese Institute of Communications in Nanjing in December 2020. It aims to encourage innovation and development of Smart Service System (3S) in the areas of Internet of Things (IoT) and communications. The winning project “Smart Health Monitoring System for Automobile Drivers Based on Optical Fiber Interference Sensing” developed an optical fiber interferometer for embedding in car seat cushions. This system can monitor the real-time heart and respiration rates of drivers in a contactless and non-invasive way in order to avoid traffic accidents caused by drivers with health issues.

The paper published by Dr Liang Liu and his Research Associate, Mr Zhaorui Wang, in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications journal was listed as an Essential Science Indicators (ESI) Hot Paper on the Web of Science.

The paper “Channel Estimation for Intelligent Reflecting Surface Assisted Multiuser Communications: Framework, Algorithms, and Analysis” published by Dr Liang Liu and his Research Associate, Mr Zhaorui Wang, in the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications journal in October 2020 was listed as an Essential Science Indicators (ESI) Hot Paper on the Web of Science. Hot papers are papers that receive a large number of citations soon after publication, relative to other papers of the same field and age. They are papers published in the past two years that received a number of citations in the most recent two-month period that places them in the top 0.1% of papers in the same field. In intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted communication systems, the acquisition of channel state information is a crucial impediment for achieving the beamforming gain of IRS because of the considerable overhead required for channel estimation. A novel three-phase pilot-based channel estimation framework for IRS-assisted uplink multiuser communications was proposed in this top-performing paper.

A research team led by Prof. Gang Li invented a novel stretchable Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) device with a surface-texturing substrate delivering a comparable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.5% comparing 20.8% for the rigid device.

A research team led by Prof. Gang Li invented a novel stretchable Organic Photovoltaic (OPV) device with a surface-texturing substrate delivering a comparable power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 20.5% comparing 20.8% for the rigid device. The texturing stretchable substrate provides a new direction for achieving high performance and enhanced light utilization for the stretchable light-harvesting device, which is suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications. As the first author, Prof. Li’s PhD student, Jiaming Huang, has published a paper “Stretchable ITO‐Free Organic Solar Cells with Intrinsic Anti‐Reflection Substrate for High‐Efficiency Outdoor and Indoor Energy Harvesting” on the top-tier materials science journal, Advanced Functional Materials (2019 Impact Factor of 16.836) about this invention. This journal reports breakthrough research in all aspects of materials science, including nanotechnology, chemistry, physics, and biology every week. The paper can be read online at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202010172.

Mr Gary Leung, our EngD student, won the Gold Medal together with Dr Daniel Lun and Dr Ivan Ho in the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva

Mr Gary Leung, our EngD student, won the Gold Medal together with Dr Daniel Lun and Dr Ivan Ho for the invention “Dolphin – Effective Indoor Positioning Service” in the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva which held was online in March 2021. The exhibition is a major global event devoted exclusively to inventions. “Dolphin” uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and mobile phones with a location algorithm and a co-operative positioning algorithm developed by PolyU to provide indoor positioning and navigation. The present technologies for location tracking include the use of BLE, Wi-Fi or magnetic field together with positioning algorithms to determine target node positions in indoor environments. However, due to different limitations in some technologies and effectiveness of the algorithms employed, the performance is not good in terms of location accuracy and user experience. The aim of the winning invention is to provide a cost-effective Indoor Positioning System (IPS) solution to event organizers and visitors with unique features, like improving positioning accuracy in areas with insufficient beacon signal, in various indoor sites such as exhibition centers, shopping malls, universities, smart cities, hotels, car parks and theme parks, etc.

The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Electronics Division, will organize the Hong Kong Electronics Symposium 2021 : Heading Towards Smart City Blueprint 2.0 on 19 April 2021. EIE is one of the supporting organizations of the event.

The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Electronics Division, will organize the Hong Kong Electronics Symposium 2021 : Heading Towards Smart City Blueprint 2.0 on 19 April 2021. EIE is one of the supporting organizations of the event. Please find details of the Sympoisum below.   Hong Kong Electronics Symposium 2021: Heading Towards Smart City Blueprint 2.0 The aim of the HKES2021 is to promote the benefits of smart city development and how electronics engineering enable our city to head towards the vision laid down in the newly published Smart City Blueprint 2.0. Presentations and panel discussion will cover the views of speakers on the drive required to accomplish the initiatives in the Blueprint 2.0. We also aim to uplift the awareness and knowledge of various enabling technologies of the Hong Kong people and nurture engineers and students to effectively use and apply innovative technologies to improve the quality of life.   Date (Hong Kong): 19 April 2021 (09:00-17:00) Format: Live Webinar Registration Fee: Free Event link:  http://en.hkie.org.hk/en_it_events_inside_Upcoming.aspx?EventID=386&&TypeName=Events+%2f+Activities Online registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmFffTXOgj9EIpmHYpZdPHbcN0woRZJRB0kF_TwpYwNpIHBA/viewform?gxids=7628

EE Alumni’s achievements - Ir Prof Ken CN Cheung

We would like to congratulate our EE alumnus Ir Prof Ken C N Cheung CMgr FCMI CEng FIET FHKIE R.P.E. on being elected to the Fellowship of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). This honour recognises his work and contributions to the engineering industry and the learned society. The HKIE Fellow is one of the most prestigious honours in the engineering industry, and is bestowed upon to senior members of the profession who are in a position to make major contribution to the affairs of the Institution on issues in the public interest, in the learned society, and in the setting of standards for qualification. Ir Prof Cheung is a keen mentor nurturing with younger generation, ranging from potential candidates of professional engineers, fresh graduates and students. He is also active in supporting the learned society activities, as well as serving the community for over 15 years. He is currently the Deputy Chairman of the HKIE Nuclear Division, International Professional Registration Advisor of the IET and Adjudicator of the Immigration Tribunal for the HKSAR government respectively. He is an Adjunct Professor of College of Engineering in City University of Hong Kong working with universities to deliver lectures for students. He is also a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), as well as a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).  

Award of Silver Metal by Professor Eric Cheng

Professor Eric Cheng is one of the awardees of Silver Metal Award in the Inventions Geneva.  His project is “A Smart All-electric Antilock Braking System (ABS)”.  There are also many PolyU awardees as listed here. For details, please visit the official website: www.inventions-geneva.ch.

The EIE Microcontroller Application Design Contest (2020-21) will be held on 8 Feb, at 4:30 pm-7:30 pm via MS Teams (https://polyu.hk/XYmcX).

𝐄𝐈𝐄 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 (𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎-𝟐𝟏)  The Contest aims to promote students’ interest in microcontroller-based electronic product design and to provide a platform for students to exercise their creativity and innovation through teamwork. Join the event via MS Teams to see the presentation of our students' hard work and creativity!  Date: 8 February 2021 (Monday) Time: 16:30 – 19:30 Join via MS Teams: https://polyu.hk/XYmcX  Venue: Room CD634, PolyU   * 𝐼𝑛 𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑂𝑉𝐼𝐷-19 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑐, 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑣𝑖𝑎 𝑀𝑆 𝑇𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠. For more details about the Contest, please visit: https://www.eie.polyu.edu.hk/event/madc2020-21/.

Professor Changyuan Yu received the Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award

Many congratulations to Professor Changyuan Yu for winning this award! The "Faculty of Engineering Research Grant Achievement Award" has been set up by the Faculty Research Committee since 2003, with a view to recognizing the outstanding performance of FENG academic staff members in securing external competitive research grants.