News

The 12th International Conference on Structures in Fire (SIF2022)

The 12th International Conference on Structures in Fire (SiF 2022) has been successfully held in PolyU campus from 29 November 2022 to 2 December 2022. The conference including a one-day workshop and three-day hybrid presentation sessions was organised by Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) with huge support from Faculty of Construction and Environment, Croucher Foundation and Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE). The main focus of the SiF series of conferences is to provide an opportunity for researchers, practitioners and engineers to share and discuss their research related to structures in fire with their peers in an open, international forum. SiF2022 adopted a hybrid mode including online and in-person presentation at PolyU for broader access. In SiF2022, 226 abstracts were received and 115 papers after the review were presented by more than 110 researchers from more than 20 different countries. More details of SiF2022 including the conference proceedings, photos, and follow-up updates can be found at the conference website: www.sif2022.org. After the conference, many delegates have highly praised the arrangement of SiF2022 to the chairs of local organising committee: Professor Asif USMANI (Head of BEEE) and Dr Liming JIANG (Assistant Professor of BEEE). On behalf of the organising committee, they would like to thank all the in-person and online delegates of SiF2022 and the enormous support from the SiF Steering Committee, SiF2022 Local Organising Committee, SiF2022 Scientific Committee and particularly the BEEE General Office, and all the SiF2022 volunteers!

13 BEEE Scholars Ranked World’s Top 2% Scientists Released by Stanford University

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is proud to announce that 13 BEEE academic staff are among the world’s top 2% of scientists in their main disciplines, according to the recently published index compiled by Stanford University.   The latest release of the Stanford University-led compilation of citation indicators is prepared by a team of experts led by Professor John loannidis of Stanford University. The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by a composite score or a percentile rank of 2% or above in 176 sub-fields of 22 scientific fields. The publicly available database provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator. The list can be found here.   BEEE Top 2% Scientists in the Global List  Name Subject Field (Top-Ranked Science-Metrix Category (Subfield) for the Author) Professor Asif Sohail Usmani Civil Engineering Ir Professor Christopher Chao Building & Construction Professor Chen Qingyan Building & Construction Ir Professor Niu Jianlei Building & Construction Ir Professor Wang Shengwei Energy Professor Yan Jinyue Jerry Energy Ir Professor Lu Lin Vivien Energy Ir Professor Mak Cheuk Ming Acoustics Ir Professor Mui Kwok Wai Horace Building & Construction Professor Xiao Fu Building & Construction Ir Professor Yang Hongxing Energy Ir Dr Wong Ling Tim Building & Construction Dr Huang Xinyan Energy   Congratulations to our top scientists on their amazing achievements!

PolyU Info Day 2022 - BEEE Activities on 8 October 2022

The 2022 PolyU Info Day held on 8 October 2022 in hybrid mode was a huge success. The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) actively participated in the Info Day to provide prospective undergraduates with the most up-to-date information of BEEE programmes and curriculum.   Head of Department, Professor Asif USMANI, and Associate Heads, Ir Dr LAI Hung Kit Joseph, Ir Professor MUI Kwok Wai Horace and Ir Dr WONG Ling Tim were more than happy to welcome the students, parents and members of the public.  The Senior Management’s Tour commenced in the morning.   The Info Day was featured by a wide variety of events including programme information seminars, exhibition booth and guided laboratory visits, which deepened visitors’ understanding of BEEE programmes.   The exhibition booth aimed to showcase BEEE programmes and the unique features in teaching and learning, invention of BEEE, student activities such as WIE and student exchange programme, and facilities in BEEE to the public.   Two information seminars were held in the morning and afternoon sessions. Interested parents and students were provided with in-depth idea of the Department, building sciences and engineering and our programme. The professionalism and career prospects were also highlighted in the presentation.   Following the BEEE introduction by Ir Dr LAI Hung Kit Joseph and Undergraduate Programme Leader Ir Dr WONG Ling Tim, our guest speakers Ir Dr Tsui Suk Chong Fiona and Ir YEE Kwong Fai were invited to share their perspectives on BEEE as department excellent graduates. They were keen to point out the challenging career prospects of BEEE and illustrate the excitement in university life. Information related to admission arrangements was provided to our visitors who were mostly secondary school students and their parents. Enquiries about admission were also addressed on the spot at the seminars.   Physical guided BEEE laboratory tours were also arranged to demonstrate laboratory equipment for the interest of the public.   We would like to express our greatest gratitude and appreciation to all colleagues, alumni, guests and student ambassadors for their enthusiastic participation in the Info Day. We believe that the PolyU Info Day has successfully facilitated prospective students’ understanding of our Department and academic programmes. We look forward to welcoming them to join our programme in the near future.  

BEEE’s Undergraduate Student Awarded the HKIE Scholarship 2020/21

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to report that our undergraduate student, Ms. SHMIDT Arailym was awarded The HKIE Scholarship 2020/21.    Below please find a sharing video prepared by the student illustrating her involvement in the HKIE activities in the past year. 

BEEE’s Associate Professor Appointed as Limin Endowed Young Scholar in 2022

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to report that Dr. Tommy WEI has been appointed as Limin Endowed Young Scholar in Colour and Imaging Science in 2022 to recognise his outstanding achievements in responding to societal needs through knowledge transfer.   Limin Endowed Young Scholar positions were established with donations from PolyU Technology and Consultancy Company Limited. The Chinese characters “Limin” (利民), literally “to benefit the people”, are taken from PolyU’s motto “To learn and to apply, for the benefit of mankind 開物成務 勵學利民”. The naming thus reflects the University’s objective to benefit society through knowledge transfer.   The PolyU Endowed Young Scholars Scheme aims to partner with our donors to identify young scholars with great potential in order to ensure their innovative research can be realised. The annual funding provided by the Scheme not only supports the research and scholarly activities of Dr. WEI, but also serves as seed funding for the pursuit of preliminary stage research projects, helping to elevate the impact of research on society.   Dr. WEI has strong interest in researching the fundamentals of colour science, revealing the underlying mechanisms in the human visual system in response to light and colour stimuli. His significant research findings gave rise to collaborations with world-leading high-tech companies to develop solutions and algorithms applied to imaging systems, lighting systems and metaverse-related systems. Many of his research outcomes are used in production lines and turned into real products on the market, greatly enhancing the daily life of the people at large.   For details, please to the University’s web stories at Two Endowed Limin Young Scholars contribute to society through research breakthroughs and Limin Endowed Young Scholar in Colour and Imaging Science.   Congratulations to Dr. WEI for his achievement and the Department wishes Dr. WEI every success.  

BEEE’s PhD student selected for the FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses 2021/22

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to report that Dr LIU Jia, our PhD student who is under the supervision of Prof YANG Hongxing, has been selected for the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses 2021/22 on account of the excellent quality of PhD thesis and outstanding performance in the oral presentation.   To recognize outstanding PhD students in the FCE who have distinguished themselves with the quality of their theses for the PhD degree at PolyU, the Faculty has established the ‘FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses’.   Only full-time and part-time PhD students registered under FCE whose PhD theses’ overall quality were rated as “excellent” by the Board of Examiners (BoE) concerned and whose degrees have been ratified by the Graduate School Board (GSB) between 1 July of the preceding year and 30 June of the application year are eligible to be nominated for the academic year concerned.   In the thesis, Dr LIU developed new robust energy planning and optimization approaches of renewable energy and electric energy (RE-EES) systems for residential buildings. A novel EMS and design optimization framework is proposed for a real PV-battery system and experiments on a PV-battery system are conducted for model validation. A novel TOU grid penalty cost business model is proposed to improve grid flexibility and economy for NZE communities with RE-EES. In addition, innovative P2P energy trading management and optimization platforms of hybrid RE-HV-BV systems are developed for diversified NZE communities with new peer trading price models, improved trading strategies and trading optimizations. This study on hybrid RE-EES systems for both a single building and communities provides significant guidance to develop RE in integrated building and transport sectors for achieving carbon neutrality within urban contexts.   The Department would like to congratulate Dr LIU on the excellent achievement. We wish him continued success.

BEEE is going to receive two high quality PhD graduates from leading Chinese Mainland universities under Hong Kong Scholars Program

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to report that Prof Linda XIAO and Prof YANG Hongxing are going to receive two high quality PhD graduates from leading Chinese Mainland universities under Hong Kong Scholars Program.   Jide NIU who will be under the supervision of Prof YANG received his BSc at North China Electric Power University and MSc and PhD at Tianjin University.  He is currently working as the Assistant Researcher at Tianjin University.  His research interests include robust optimization design method of building energy system under uncertainties, hierarchical dispatch and control optimization of building energy system based on model prediction and demand response.   Dr LI Yanxue who will be under the supervision of Prof XIAO received his BSc at Qingdao University of Technology, MSc at Tianjin University and PhD at the University of Kitakyushu. He is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Architectural Design & Research Institute of Tongji University (Group) Co., Ltd. His research interests include building energy flexibility, demand response, zero-energy building and building carbon emission reduction.   Prof XIAO’s and Prof YANG’s research projects are Development of Smart Building Management Technologies Towards Carbon Neutrality and Development of hybrid renewable energy systems with energy storage in buildings towards carbon neutrality respectively.   The “Hong Kong Scholars Program” is jointly launched by the Society of Hong Kong Scholars and the China National Postdoctoral Council under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. It aims at effectively pooling talent and research resources of Hong Kong and the Mainland to train outstanding postdoctoral fellows. Selected “Hong Kong Scholars” (i.e. the postdoctoral fellows) will come to Hong Kong to commence postdoctoral research work under professors at various universities in Hong Kong. This Program will help professors of Hong Kong solicit high quality PhD graduates from leading universities on the Mainland, thus promoting academic and scientific exchanges and collaboration between the two places.   The Department wish the research projects of Prof XIAO and Prof YANG every success.

Welcome Message from Department Head

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) was officially established in December 1981 (formerly referred to as the Department of Building Services Engineering). We have been serving Hong Kong’s building services engineering industry ever since, promoting sustainable, efficient and healthy indoor and urban living environments in one of the world’s greatest cities by providing world class teaching and conducting internationally leading research.  BEEE is one of the constituent departments of the Faculty of Construction and Environment, and offers a full range of taught and research based study programmes leading to awards from Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) to Masters (MSc and MEng) right up to Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).   Among many challenges confronting the world, perhaps the most critical is to provide high quality living environments to rapidly urbanising and ageing populations under the creeping threat of a worsening climate and increasing environmental pollution. UN forecasts that the world's population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. 70% of the people are projected to live in urban areas, placing enormous strain on cities and the environment. To deal effectively with these challenges, future building engineers will need to be data savvy and work in interdisciplinary teams to deliver optimal solutions enabling smart urban environments incorporating elements such as vertical farms; renewables driven integrated buildings and transport systems; citywide recycling and so on for a sustainable planet and a smart and resilient built environment. In order to promote this vision, we have designed state of the art study programmes providing the best possible training to our students in designing high performance buildings and building systems through judicious exploitation of the sciences and contemporary technologies such as sensor and comms networks, AI and IoT techniques, data science and programming, BIM and digital twin systems etc. This is consistent with our mission, stated as, to imagine, engineer and promote sustainable, salutogenic and safe environments for human habitation.   BEEE full-time academic and teaching staff members engage in a wide range of research activities organized in the following three research themes:   Building Energy: Energy issues in buildings are addressed in the context of both demand and supply to improve the sustainability of the built environment. Building Environment: Optimisation of buildings and built environments for thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual/spatial and vibration/acoustic aspects to improve occupant health and productivity. Building Safety and Resilience: Protection of building occupants from hazards such as fire and lightning to improve safety and resilience of communities, buildings and built environments.   I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in our department and programmes and hope you’ll join us in learning to promote smarter urban environments for a better and more sustainable future for humanity and our planet.   Prof. Asif Usmani Head of Unit Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering

BEEE’s Associate Professor Awarded RMB 2 million from the National’s 2022 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau)

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to report that our Associate Professor, Dr Wei Minchen Tommy was awarded a total amount of RMB 2 million from the National’s 2022 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau).   Dr Wei has been continuously conducting research on fundamental colour science, and the research outcomes have contributed to the further understanding of human visual system and mechanisms, in order to investigate and improve the quality of lighting and imaging systems. The awarded project he led, namely “Colour Appearance Model and Colour Space”, aims to investigate colour appearance and difference under complicated conditions. The research findings can be used for various imaging systems, such as cameras, displays, smartphones, tablets, drones, and metaverse-related systems, which will be of great scientific and practical importance for colour science and industry.   Under the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) aims to support young scholars (under the age of 38 for male or 40 for female) who have attained achievements in basic research and conducted innovative research in their chosen fields, fostering them to be internationally leading scholars.   The Department would like to congratulate Dr Wei on the excellent achievement. We wish them continued success.

A Research Project Led by BEEE’s Assistant Professor was Successfully Supported by Smart Traffic Fund

The Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is pleased to announce that a research project led by our Assistant Professor, Dr Sunliang Cao (PI), with our Professor, Prof. Hongxing Yang, Dr Yang Xu (LSGI/FCE) and Dr Kai Pan (LMS/FB) as Co-Is, was successfully supported by the HKSAR Government’s Smart Traffic Fund during the fourth batch out of three awarded projects. Dr. Cao’s project is also the only “Pure Research Project” being supported during the fourth batch. The total funding of this research project is around HK$ 2.5 million.   The Smart Traffic Fund aims to provide competitive funding to support both “Pure Research Project” and “Research and Application Project” in the fields of smart traffic with the objectives of enhancing commuting convenience, enhancing efficiency of the road network or road space, and improving driving safety.  For more details about the Fund, please click HERE.   Dr Cao’s project is entitled “The smart charging development of zero-emission autonomous electric vehicles by the X2V and V2X technologies with respect to the dynamic traffic, grid and energy information”. The primary objective of the project is to develop a smart charging energy management system and associated smart business models, which can guide the decision-making process to optimally determine where, when and how to charge the electric vehicles. The Department and the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) will be continuously dedicated to the high-level research in the field of smart traffic and smart transportation.   The Department would like to congratulate Dr Cao and his team on the success for this project application, and wish them continued success.