News

BSE Mentorship Programme 2016-17 Kick-off Meeting on 3 February 2017

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) held its Mentorship Programme 2016-17 Kick-off Meeting on 3 February 2017. A total of 47 mentees and 14 mentors enthusiastically participated in the event. The Head of Department, Prof. Asif Usmani extended a warm welcome to all mentors (practitioners from the BSE industry) and mentees (BSE students) at the beginning of the meeting. To begin with, a concise introduction of the programme was given by Prof. C.M. Mak, the leader of the BSE Mentorship Programme.   The Mentorship Programme has been established since 2002 in the BSE Department. The programme aims to allow each full-time BSE student to have the opportunity to learn from a mentor, who is a mature, wise and sensitive practitioner. Mentoring is a structured relationship between the mentee and the mentor, such mentor-mentee relationship is expected to last until the graduation of the mentee. The kick-off meeting gave a good chance for mentees and mentors to have face-to-face interaction. Certainly, the regular and constant contacts between the two parties were also encouraged in future.   The objectives for such interaction are: • to foster a caring and supportive relationship • to encourage the mentee to develop to his/her fullest potential • to help the mentee develop his/her vision and aspiration for the future • to help groom the mentee to be a "preferred graduate"   To express gratitude for the mentors’ support to the Mentorship Programme, Prof. Usmani presented the souvenirs and certificates of appreciation to the mentors as recognition of their contribution and efforts to the programme. Immediately after presenting the certificates, a lively sharing session was held between the mentors and mentees. The mentors shared their valuable learning and working experience. The mentees showed strong interest in knowing more about the challenges that they might encounter in the work place.   BSE would like to take this opportunity to thank all parties for their contribution to the Mentorship Programme and their support in the kick-off meeting.

Mainland High School Students Demonstrated Strong Interests to BSE on 16 January 2017

A group of students from several high schools in Guangzhou visited the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) on 16 January 2017. The high schools included The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University (華南師範大學附屬中學), Guangdong Experimental High School (廣東實驗中學), Guangzhou Zhixin High School (廣州市執信中學) and Zhuhai No. 1 High School (珠海市第一中學). Around 80 students and teachers joined the visit.   The Associate Head of BSE, Prof. S.K. Tang, warmly welcomed and showed a brief introduction of the Department to the visit group, after which BSE’s programmes were presented by the Associate Professor of BSE, Dr. Vivien Lu. Prof. Tang and Dr. Lu introducing BSE to the high school students The students were very attentive. They showed a strong interest in BSE's undergraduate programmes, raised meaningful questions regarding course structure and career prospect in the building services engineering industry in the Q&A session. Students from Mainland High Schools in Guangzhou BSE and Mainland high school representatives exchanged souvenirs to express thanks. Exchanging Souvenirs The visit group further explored BSE in a guided laboratory tour led by our technical officer, Mr. Michael FUNG. Experimental set-ups and laboratory facilities were demonstrated. Mainland students actively participating in the guided laboratory tour BSE believes that the visit has successfully deepened the Mainland students’ understanding about BSE and its academic programmes. We look forward to seeing them again in the near future.

Outstanding Student Award 2016, Department of Building Services Engineering 3 January 2017

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to announce that BSE student Miss Li Xinchang has been selected to receive the Outstanding Student Award 2016, BSE under the PolyU’s Outstanding Students Award Scheme. The Scheme carries the objectives to motivate students to excel in both academic and non-academic pursuits while they are studying at PolyU, and to help cultivate a campus culture and communicate a public image favourable to the development of all-round graduates. The Outstanding Student Awards Presentation Ceremony will be held on 21 February 2017 at the Chiang Chen Studio Theatre. Miss Li will be awarded a certificate and a cash prize of $2,000 from Professor Timothy W. Tong, President of PolyU. The Outstanding Student Awards are given annually to full-time final-year students in recognition of their outstanding academic achievement, strong leadership ability, active involvement in extra-curricular activities, substantial community service experience and exposure, and good personal qualities. Miss Li is the awardee of the Departmental Entry Scholarship for Non-Local Students and the Dean’s Honours List 2013-15 in recognition of her excellent academic achievement during her studies in PolyU. She leads in various academic projects, competitions and campus-wise student development programmes. She also takes profound interests in theatre and performing arts: has co-directed and performed in multiple productions from PolyU English Drama Club, Students’ Union Choir and Illini Student Musicals (during her exchange study in UIUC). Besides her personal development, she also shows care to the community by actively participating in voluntary services for ethnic minorities, PolyU freshmen, non-local and exchange students. She was featured in PolyU SPECIAL Portfolio of Student Achievements 2015 for her extensive engagement in ethics and moral education activities. BSE would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Li on her academic success and achievement on winning the award.

Happy new year greetings from BSE Department Head on 1 January 2017

Dear BSE colleagues, students and friends, I would like to wish you a very happy new year! I was told that that it is a tradition for the head of the department to offer a message to all members of the department for the new year. It reminded me of the Christmas message that the British Queen delivers in the UK every year in a time-honoured tradition, so I sort of liked the idea! Humour aside, I feel that this BSE tradition offers me an excellent opportunity to write to all of you as members of one large and happy family in an informal and personal manner. It has been over four months since I joined BSE and took on the responsibility of leading it to greater heights. It is a tribute to all staff and students of department and the able leadership of Prof Chow and the previous management team that this department has been very successful in creating a brand which is highly valued and admired as any of our alumni, who form the backbone of the BSE profession in Hong Kong, will tell you. However, success does not allow us to rest on our laurels, in fact it is quite the opposite, we must strive ever harder to maintain and further improve our standing once we have set high standards. It requires constant reflection and reevaluation of our priorities, strengths and weaknesses. This is especially true in the context of our uncertain and changing world where emerging social, environmental, demographic and infrastructural challenges will require innovative solutions through the genesis and exploitation of new and disruptive ideas and technologies. It is therefore a serious responsibility to provide an exciting vision, astute direction and effective leadership that will build substantially upon our previous success. This will not be an easy task given the highly competitive university sector of Hong Kong and the growing competition from our regional and international peers. We will not just have to work harder but think harder and work smarter in order to deliver the highest quality teaching and research in our field. I and my management team (Prof Tang, Prof Du and Dr Lee) would be looking for your active assistance and cooperation so we can all work together as one team and lead BSE to greater future success in the year 2017 and beyond. While you will no doubt work hard, please also try and maintain a better work-life balance this year for a happy, prosperous and successful 2017. Best wishes, Asif Usmani Head of Department

BSE Assistant Professor and His Team Members Were Granted the Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance/Achievement 2015/16

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was pleased to announce that Dr. Chan Ming Yin and his team members were granted the Faculty Award for Outstanding Performance/Achievement 2015/16 in recognition of his team’s outstanding performance and achievement in Services for their project titled “Maintain Thermal Comfort Using Box Fans in an Energy Saving Project”.   The project was developed by Dr. Chan Ming Yin, Ir Vincent Luk and Ir Jeffrey Wong of Facilities Management Office. This was a self-initiated project done by Dr. Chan Ming Yin for a better and greener campus. He made use of his expertise in thermal environment to formulate an investigation on the subject. The project was about the use of box fans to maintain thermal comfort in lecture theatres while a higher indoor temperature setting was adopted. According to the Award System of the University, in order to motivate staff members to excel in their work performance and give recognition to those with distinguished achievements, academic/teaching/clinical staff in Faculties (or academic units not affiliated with the Faculties) with outstanding performance/achievement will receive the Faculty/School Awards for Outstanding Performance/Achievement, which will be conducted annually. The Department would like to congratulate Dr. Chan and his team members for their accomplishments.

Certificate of Appreciation to Mr. Sam Cheung on 23 November 2016

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was pleased to announce that the Information Technology Services (ITS) Office paid tribute to Mr. Sam Cheung, Technical Officer of BSE in recognition for his contribution in the set-up and implementation of the first Virtual Laboratory (vLab) in PolyU. Based on the latest Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology, the BSE vLab is one of the University’s initiatives to support digital workspaces that meet the smarter, more agile and anytime-anywhere work practices of the PolyU community. vLab is a Windows desktop environment that is stored remotely on servers of the PolyU Data Centres, rather than on one’s local PC, for day-to-day BSE student teaching, project work and self-study.

New Assistant Professor Announced – Dr. Koo Choongwan

Dr. Koo Choongwan Assistant Professor Department of Building Services Engineering The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) is pleased to announce that Dr. Koo Choongwan has been appointed the new Assistant Professor of BSE, starting in mid-November 2016. Dr. Koo received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Seoul, South Korea. He obtained his PhD degree in Architectural Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea in 2014. Dr. Koo has a good mix of academic and industrial experience. Before joining BSE at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dr. Koo served as a Research Professor in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Yonsei University, South Korea, and as a Visiting Scholar in the Division of Construction Engineering and Management at Purdue University, USA from 2015 to 2016. Also, he worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Architectural Engineering at Inha University, South Korea in 2014 and gained professional industrial experience during his work in the HanmiGlobal Co. Ltd. of South Korea from 2007 to 2010, which is an international construction engineering and management company. Dr. Koo has an expertise in the areas of sustainable facility engineering & management (more specifically, urban building energy performance) and intelligent decision-support system. In particular, he has strong knowledge and skills in the predictive and prescriptive analytics and the visualization technique (e.g. big data analytics, data-mining techniques, geographic information system, life cycle assessment, simulation modeling techniques, and computer programming language). Dr. Koo has strong track records of more than 50 SCI publications in high-quality peer-reviewed international journals, over 30 conference papers (including articles), and more than 10 patents. Furthermore, he has been listed in the Marquis Who's Who in the World® 2016 (33rd Edition). Dr. Koo is recently interested in the research of a real-time energy demand-side management in the building sector from a city’s point of view, which focuses on monitoring, diagnosing, and retrofitting the building energy performance with the concept of “dynamic approach” under the new paradigm of an “urban organism”.

BSE Research Team Received the Excellent Product Award in China Hi-Tech Fair 2016

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was pleased to announce that Prof. Yang Hongxing’s research team received the Excellent Product Award in China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) 2016 held from 16 to 21 November 2016 in Shenzhen. Each year, CHTF is co-hosted in Shenzhen by Ministries and Commissions of the national government and Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government. Currently, it is the largest and the most influential scientific and technological fair in China and is renowned as “the No.1 Technology Show in China”. The awarded product was a highly dispersed nanocomposite paste for self-cleaning photovoltaic panels, which was developed by Prof. Yang Hongxing, Dr. Lu Lin and Dr. Wang Yuanhao from the Renewable Energy Research Group of BSE. The developed low-cost, environmentally friendly and highly transparent nano paste can be coated on different kind of surfaces including solar panels and curtain walls and protect them from organic and inorganic dirt under sunlight activation and rainwater brush. It can significantly reduce 70% cleansing cost as well as increase the average output power of solar panels up to 11.7%. This highly transparent, robust and multifunctional coating also protects the surfaces from corrosion of the sandstorm and acid rain so that their life span can be greatly extended.   The Department would like to congratulate Prof. Yang and his research team members for their accomplishments.

BSE Seminar: Heat and Moisture Exchangers for Energy-Efficient Buildings on 14 November 2016

The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was pleased to have invited Prof. Carey Simonson to deliver a CPD seminar on Heat and Moisture Exchangers for Energy-Efficient Buildings on 14 November 2016. This seminar attracted over 90 current students and professionals in the industry. Dr. Linda Xiao, Associate Professor of BSE, gave a welcome speech introducing and expressing thanks to Prof. Simonson.   Prof. Simonson discussed Heat and Moisture Exchangers for Energy-Efficient Buildings. Energy-efficient buildings are important because the heating and cooling of buildings accounts for 30% to 50% of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries. Furthermore, the demand for cooling is expected to increase by 30 times over this century due to climate change and increased demand in developing countries. Although this a major topic with major R&D efforts around the world, Prof. Simonson’s niche is moisture transfer in energy exchangers, which is important for frosting in cold climates and for cooling of buildings in warm and humid climates. The presentation covered some of the recent research supervised by Prof. Simonson at the U of S, including research on membranes and liquid desiccants for HVAC applications, frosting in heat and moisture exchangers, fouling of energy exchangers and solid desiccants for energy wheels.   Towards the end, the participants took the opportunity to raise meaningful questions during the Q&A session and provoke further discussions. Prof. Simonson is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) in Saskatoon, Canada. He received Bachelor’s (1991), Master’s (1993) and Doctoral (1998) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the U of S and has been a professor at the U of S since 2001. In 2007/08 and 2014/15, he was a visiting professor at the University of Oulu in Finland. Prior to becoming a faculty member at the U of S, he spent 4 years at the Technical Research Centre of Finland. Prof. Simonson is a Fellow of ASHRAE, an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal Thermal Science and Engineering Applications and an editorial board member of Energy and Buildings and the Journal of Building Physics. In February 2015, he received the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Synergy Award for Innovation, which “recognize examples of collaboration that stand as a model of effective partnership between industry and colleges or universities”. The nomination was titled “Venmar and University of Saskatchewan – Research and Development of a New, Revolutionary HVAC system”.

PolyU Education Info Day 2016 - BSE Activities on 8 October 2016

The 2016 PolyU Education Info Day held on 8 October 2016 was a huge success. The Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) actively participated in the Info Day to provide prospective undergraduates with first-hand and comprehensive information of BSE programmes and curriculum.   The Faculty Opening Ceremony commenced at Podium FG Wing in the morning. Professor Asif Usmani, Head of Department, joined the ceremony on behalf of the Department.   Prof. Usmani, Prof. S.K. Tang and Dr. Linda Xiao discussed our BSE programmes with the Faculty Dean Prof. You-Lin Xu. The Info Day was featured by a wide variety of events including programme information seminars, exhibition booth, consultation session, game and guided laboratory visits, which deepened visitors’ understanding of BSE programmes.   The exhibition booth aimed to showcase the BSE Department programmes’ content and unique features in teaching and learning, invention of BSE, student activities such as WIE and student exchange programme, and facilities in BSE to the public.   Two information seminars with the theme “Building Services Engineering: A Bridge to a Lifelong Exciting Career” were held in the morning and afternoon sessions for interested parents and students to acquire a better understanding of the admission arrangements and requirements through JUPAS, at the same time to counsel students in deciding their JUPAS programme choices.   Following the BSE introduction by Prof. Usmani and Undergraduate Programme Leader Prof. S.K. Tang, our guest speakers Mr. Ben Ngai and Mr. Alex Fung shared their perspectives on BSE as a branch of study and their personal experience during their study in the Department. They were keen to point out the challenging career prospects of BSE and illustrate the excitement in university life. Information related to admission arrangements was provided to visitors who were mostly secondary school students and their parents. Enquiries about admission were also addressed on the spot at the seminars.   We would like to express our greatest gratitude and appreciation to all colleagues, alumni, guests and student ambassadors for their enthusiastic participation in Info Day. We believe that the PolyU Education Info Day has successfully facilitated prospective students’ understanding of our Department and academic programmes. We look forward to seeing them in the near future.