Events

Women in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (WiEEE) Gathering for Postgraduate Students and Research Staff

The Women in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (WiEEE) Gathering for Postgraduate Students and Research Staff was held by the Department at the PolyU Staff Club Restaurant, U.Green, on 22 March 2024. This activity brought together over 40 participants, including female postgraduate students, academic and research staff.   The event featured guest speakers Prof. Winnie Ye, Professor at Carleton University and Chair-Elect of IEEE Women in Engineering Committee, and Dr Qian Li, Associate Professor and Deputy Dean of School of Electronic and Computer Engineering at Peking University. Prof. Ye and Dr Li shared their experiences as women engineers and the professional paths in academia. Their insights provided valuable inspiration for the participants in developing their careers in research and engineering.

Seminar on "Emergence of Cooperation via Reinforcement Learning in Multiagent Systems " by Prof. Zhihai Rong

Date: 22 March 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: CD634, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Zoom Meeting ID: 955 7075 2299 Password: 123456 Speaker: Prof. Zhihai Rong, Donghua University, Shanghai   Emergence of Cooperation via Reinforcement Learning in Multiagent Systems Prof. Zhihai Rong, Donghua University, Shanghai   Abstract: Evolutionary game theory provides a powerful framework to investigate the decision process and the emergence of cooperation among rational agents in populations. The learning process is the core of evolutionary game theory. The celebrated replicator dynamics characterizes agents’ strategy evolving and learning processes, and highlights the influence of selection in populations game through a continuous differential equation, whose stable equilibrium points correspond to evolutionary stable states. Multi-agent reinforcement learning is another effective computational method to study evolutionary games theory. The trial-and-error learning process in reinforcement learning is similar to the evolutionary process in biology. The classical Q-learning algorithm can built a bridge between the exploitation-exploration mechanism of reinforcement learning and the selection-mutation mechanism of evolutionary game theory. In this talk, I will analyze the nonlinear dynamics of Q-learning like algorithms through the perspective of evolutionary dynamics, and reveal the potential learning mechanism to promote the emergence of cooperation in infinite and finite populations with memory strategies, which may yield some insight into achieving cooperative machine agents and understanding the evolution of machine behavior.   Speaker’s Bio: Dr Zhihai Rong obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology and Ph.D degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University, all in Control Science and Engineering. He was a Hong Kong Scholar with PolyU. Now he is a professor in the Department of Automation, Donghua University, Shanghai. His research interests include complex networks, evolutionary game dynamics and mechanism design. He is the author of over 60 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals and international conferences, including IEEE Tran. CAS-II, IEEE Tran. Cybernetics, Automatica, Physical Review E, Europhysics Letters (EPL), Chaos, ISCAS and IFAC, received more than 3000 citations with h-index 29.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: http://cccn.ee.cityu.edu.hk/webinar/

Seminar on "Intelligent Perception and Trustworthy Navigation for Ground Vehicles in Challenging Environments" by Dr Rui Song

Date: 15 March 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: CD634, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Zoom Meeting ID: 383 735 6917 Password: 274320 Speaker: Dr Rui Song, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University   Intelligent Perception and Trustworthy Navigation for Ground Vehicles in Challenging Environments Dr Rui Song, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University   Abstract:The advancement of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology, along with the measurement technique, has greatly enhanced the applications of Autonomous Driving and Unmanned Ground Vehicles in modern society. However, the current strategy faces challenges when operating in some complex environments, particularly those with uneven terrain and sparse features. In this talk, the latest developments will be reviewed with an emphasis on the environment perception approach and an integrated navigation system framework. After that, some of our recent works on LiDAR-based perception and Kalman filter-based estimators will be presented, so as to improve the estimation accuracy of vehicle states and navigation trustworthiness. In addition, simulation and field tests were implemented to validate the effectiveness of the methods. In the future, the designed framework will be extended to encompass V2X applications and address safety concerns within digital twin-based systems.   Speaker’s Bio: Rui Song is currently a post-doctoral research associate at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received the Ph.D. degree in Instrument Science and Technology from Southeast University in 2018. He was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Birmingham, U.K. from 2016-2017. His research interests include multi-sensor fusion and intelligent navigation for unmanned systems.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: http://cccn.ee.cityu.edu.hk/webinar/

Seminar on "What Contributes More to the Robustness of Heterophilic Graph Neural Networks?" by Mr Junyuan Fang

Date: 8 March 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: YEUNG Y5-202, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 955 7075 2299 Password: 123456 Speaker: Mr Junyuan Fang, City University of Hong Kong What Contributes More to the Robustness of Heterophilic Graph Neural Networks? Mr Junyuan Fang, City University of Hong Kong   Abstract:In recent years, graph neural networks (GNNs) have gained significant attention due to their outstanding performance on graph-related tasks by utilizing neighborhood aggregation. However, traditional GNNs are primarily designed based on the homophily assumption, which means that they show poor performance on heterophilic networks where dissimilar nodes prefer to connect. To address this issue, several heterophilic GNNs have been proposed that employ techniques such as extending local neighbors and improving GNN architectures. From another perspective, recent studies have shown that, unlike homophilic GNNs, heterophilic GNNs exhibit higher robustness against graph adversarial attacks. In these attacks, the attackers try to inject small perturbations into the graph. Therefore, in this study, we delve into the core designs of heterophilic GNNs, including high-order neighbor, potential neighbor, ego-neighbor separation, and inter-layer combination designs. We further analyze the influence of these key designs on the robustness of GNNs. To compare the impact of different designs on baseline and real-world GNN models, we conducted comprehensive experiments. The findings of this work can serve as a reference for future studies aiming to design more robust and universal GNNs.   Speaker’s Bio:Junyuan Fang received the B.Eng. degree in software engineering from the Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, in 2018, and the M.Eng. degree in software engineering from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, in 2020. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong. His current research interests include robustness analysis and optimization, applications of network science, and graph mining.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: http://cccn.ee.cityu.edu.hk/webinar/

Seminar on "Integrated electricity-gas-hydrogen systems: Techno-economic modelling, challenges, and opportunities" by Prof Pierluigi Mancarella

Date: 5 March 2024, Tuesday Time: 10:00 am Venue: Room CF617, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, PolyU Speaker: Prof Pierluigi Mancarella, University of Melbourne

Seminar on "Unravel the Complex Interplay in Power Networks" by Miss Jade Li

Date: 1 March 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: YEUNG Y5-202, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 955 7075 2299 Password: 123456 Speaker: Miss Jade Li, City University of Hong Kong   Unravel the Complex Interplay in Power Networks Miss Jade Li, City University of Hong Kong   Abstract: Simplicity lies on the other side of complexity. Analyzing the topology of a static network helps uncover fundamental phenomena in these networks. In engineering practice of power systems, though, a demand arises for dynamic and practical system-level analysis that goes beyond static topological approaches. In this presentation, we further adapt complex network methods to the context of power systems, modifying them to better suit the unique characteristics of power systems. We specifically focus on unraveling those complex nonlinear phenomena, such as synchronization and voltage instability problems. The proposed methods have the potential to inspire future research initiatives in power systems as well as other complex network domains.   Speaker’s Bio: Meixuan Jade LI received the B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering and automation from the Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2019. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Her current research interests include challenges faced by modern power systems and the application of complex networks.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: http://cccn.ee.cityu.edu.hk/webinar/  

Seminar on "Using AI to Model Business Growth and Its Implications for Business" by Mr Sean Kong

Date: 23 February 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: YEUNG G7603, City University of Hong Kong Zoom Meeting ID: 955 7075 2299 Password: 123456 Speaker: Mr Sean Kong, City University of Hong Kong   Using AI to Model Business Growth and Its Implications for Business Mr Sean Kong, City University of Hong Kong   Abstract: Statistical modeling of univariate data like business growth could be complex and would be difficult to make use of growth data. This talk aims to show the simplification of such a process by utilizing network sciences to retrieve a simple differential equation to model growth and artificial intelligence to extract useful information from growth data by estimating the parameters of the differential equation. How business owners can use such info to grow their business will be discussed.   Speaker’s Bio: Sean Kong is an undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at CityU. With a remarkable academic record in high school, Sean earned a special admission to the undergraduate program at CityU at the age of 13. His recent interest lies in the practical implementation of AI, computer vision, and reinforcement learning.   WEBINAR WEBSITE: http://cccn.ee.cityu.edu.hk/webinar/

Seminar on "New Energy Science and Digital Energy from Physics First Principle" by Dr. Xiao Yan

Date: 21 February 2024, Wednesday Time: 4:00pm - 5:00pm Venue: Room CF617, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, PolyU Speaker: Dr. Xiao Yan, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Seminar on "Bruce Lee-Inspired Fluid Antenna System for Extreme Massive Connectivity" by Prof. Kai-Kit Wong

Date: 26 January 2024, Friday Time: 4:30pm Venue: Room CD634, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, PolyU Speaker: Prof. Kai-Kit Wong, University College London

Women in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (WiEEE) Gathering 2024

The Women in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (WiEEE) Gathering 2024 was held by the Department at the PolyU Staff Club Restaurant, U.Green, on 18 January 2024 with the support of over 50 participants, including students, teachers and alumni. The event, with the theme “Women's Journey on the Engineering Track: Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Excellence”, brought together a diverse group of women in the engineering field. Nine alumni, including Ms Candice Chow, Ms Catherine Li, Ir Jaimi Siu, Ms So Shuk Mei, Dr Ginny Wong, Ms Gloria Wong, Ms Melody Yang, Ms Gigi Yau and Ir Fiona Yee, generously shared their personal experiences and professional journeys in the industry. The event featured individual sharing, panel discussion, and interactive sessions, providing our female students with valuable insights and networking opportunities to foster a supportive community for women in engineering.