News

Prof. Johan Hoorn won Huibregtsen Prize 2020 with his robotics research project ‘Alice’

We are proud to announce that Prof. Johan Hoorn received the Huibregtsen Prize 2020 at the award ceremony that took place on 5 October 2020 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, with a live stream available to the guests. Prof. Hoorn successfully outcompeted other scholars who perform scientific research on different social concerns, including COVID-19 new treatment options, malaria vaccine, adolescent overweight, and nitrogen threats to nature. He shared the honour with Prof. Elly Konijn of Vrije University Amsterdam for their robotics research project ‘Alice’. Social loneliness is a major problem in an ageing society. Prof. Hoorn and Prof. Konijn have therefore developed ‘Alice’, a robot girl that helps to cope with loneliness among older adults. ‘Alice’ is regarded as an electromechanical grandchild. She relieves loneliness and improves the quality of life by being a companion to older adults, chatting with them and responding empathically. Can robot friendship replace the human counterpart in a social relationship? How will people respond to an artificial object while they know it is not a real human being? What does a robot need to understand others and how to show empathy? Which social role should a robot play to counter loneliness among the elderly? How do we make a robot understand social-emotional language instead of just following instructions? These questions also are investigated in the project ‘Alice’. “As is, Alice’s performance is based on a mix of artificial intelligence and remote-controlled human interference when a conversation goes astray. Currently, we work on language understanding rather than processing,” said Prof. Hoorn. “Over time, we hope such robots can be used for many social challenges in healthcare, education, and services.” The special feature of ‘Alice’ is highly recognised by the jury of the Huibregtsen Prize. In the Jury Report, “The jury unanimously opted for an innovative approach with an impressive result. An integral success story. The particularly passionate approach to a pressing problem. An impressive combination of in-depth, fundamental research and application of knowledge with global impact. Teamwork that outside the scientific comfort zone answers questions and raises others. This scientific and social project is based on an impressive combination of disciplinary expertise and raises deep questions about possible relationships between humans and machines, but also about empathy and moral reasoning. ‘Alice’ is the product of team science, which stimulates the social discussion about social robotics with the use of citizen science and the impact on politics and business. Deep fundamental questions, a highly relevant application, and brilliant science communication.” Prof. Hoorn started his research in the humanities, focusing on fictional characters. After he joined the Department of Computer Sciences of Vrije University Amsterdam, he ventured into avatars and game characters. He later turned to social robots as the universal interface between the digital and the analogue world after implementing several cognitive models in artificial systems. At PolyU, Prof. Hoorn furthers the Robot Brain Server, which handles data, data security, artificial intelligence, and cloud access to make the robot a safe and trustworthy confidante to its user. The Huibregtsen Prize was established in 2005 by the board of the Stichting De Avond van Wetenschap & Maatschappij (The Evening of Science & Society Foundation) in The Netherlands and named after Ir. Wouter Huibregtsen. All public organizations for scientific research in The Netherlands are invited to submit entries. A minimum of four and a maximum of six projects are selected to enter the final stage annually and the prize ultimately goes to a recent groundbreaking research project that combines scientific quality and innovation with clear social relevance. [From Department of Computing]

Campus Reports PolyU researchers’ smart pavements won two awards at iCAN 2020

PolyU and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT) collaborated in contributing to an EU-funded project entitled Urban Nature Labs (UNaLab) led by a consortium comprising 29 partners from 15 countries. As part of the UNaLab project, PolyU researchers, led by Professor 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. For more details of the system, please click HERE To access a brief of the H2020 Project UNaLab, please click HERE [From PolyU Campus Reports]

Four PolyU young researchers receive China's Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2020

Four young researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have been awarded funding from China's Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2020. Each researcher will receive RMB1.2 million to conduct pioneering research in Hong Kong over a period of three years. Under the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund has been extended to young scientists in Hong Kong and Macau for applications from eight designated universities since 2019. It aims to support young scientists (under 38 for male and under 40 for female) who have attained outstanding achievements in fundamental research to pursue innovative research in areas of their choice, fostering them to be internationally leading scholars in their respective fields. List of the funded projects is as follows. Researcher Department Research title Research summary Dr Xiaolin ZHU, Assistant Professor Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics Remote Sensing: Time Series Image Processing Dr Zhu has developed a series of advanced technologies for processing satellite images, which improve the ability and accuracy of time-series remote sensing for monitoring land surface changes. This project will further develop the framework and model for multi-dimensional data fusion, a technology needed for integrating data from multiple satellites in the near future. Dr AN Liang, Associate Professor   Department of Mechanical Engineering Flow and Heat/Mass Transfer in Electrochemical Energy Systems Dr An has systematically studied the characteristics of flow and mass transport in a complex microporous structure in which electrochemical reactions occur, and achieved a number of innovative results. The primary objective of this project is to investigate key issues related to flow and heat/mass transfer in electrochemical energy systems at different scales. Dr ZHOU Chao, Assistant Professor Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Unsaturated Soils and Problematic Soils This project aims to improve the fundamental understanding and modelling capability of unsaturated loess behaviour under cyclic thermo-hydro-mechanical loads. The success of this project will help engineers to improve the design of pavement and railway embankment in the loess region. Dr YANG Lei Ray, Assistant Professor Department of Computing Battery-free Internet of Things This project proposes an efficient and large-scale battery-free Internet of things (IoT), which aims to harvest energy from ambient electromagnetic waves for wireless communication and sensing. This project works towards the key theory and technologies of the new generation IoT, facilitates the coexistence and the fusion of multi-protocols, multi-target and multi-networks, and finally promotes its application in industry.   It is encouraging to see that more young scientists from PolyU are supported by the Nation to further develop their research. China’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund not only reflects the Nation’s substantial support to Hong Kong’s scientific research, but also encourages local young scientists to pursue excellence in basic research and research in cutting-edge technologies. [From PolyU Media Release] Related News Articles: 香港理工大學四位學者獲2020年度國家優秀青年科學基金項目資助 [香港新聞網 (Hong Kong China News Agency)] 理大4位青年科學家獲2020年度國家優秀青年科學基金 [香港商報 (Hong Kong Commercial Daily)] 香港理工大学四位学者获2020年度国家优秀青年科学基金项目资助 [中国新闻网 (chinanews.com)]  

Dr Ray Yang awarded NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2020

We are pleased to announce that Dr Ray Yang has secured a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) 2020 for his research project titled "Battery-free Internet of Things". As the fundamental infrastructure, the Internet of Things (IoT) has developed rapidly in recent years. However, the existing Internet of Things is powered by batteries. Once the nodes run out of power, the whole network is broken down. This project proposes an efficient and battery-free IoT, which can harvest energy from ubiquitous electromagnetic waves for wireless transmission and sensing. Dr Yang joined COMP in 2016 and he is currently an Assistant Professor. Dr Yang focuses on the research areas of IoT, Wireless and Backscatter Communication, Mobile Computing, and AI-enabled Wireless Sensing. He has published over 50 research papers and received the Best Paper Award in several international conferences, including IEEE SECON, ACM MobiCom and ACM MobiHoc. The NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund supports young scholars with good achievements to conduct innovative research in the areas of their own choice. It aims at promoting fast growth of creative young talents and fostering a number of outstanding researchers on the frontiers of international science. [From Department of Computing]   Related News Article(s): 港大七青年科學家獲優青基金 [大公報 (Ta Kung Po)]

Update profile to stay connected amidst distancing

Dear FENG alumni, Alumni Affairs Development Office invites update of profile to stay connected with the University amidst distancing. Please act now! https://alumportal.polyu.edu.hk/en-US

Joint laboratory to explore innovation in autonomous vehicles

PolyU has joined forces with an institute in Guangzhou to conduct research into autonomous vehicles and intelligent navigation systems. Technological advances mean vehicles will soon be able to exchange information with other vehicles and smart devices along roads. To explore innovations in this area further, the University has partnered with the Institute of Software Application Technology, Guangzhou and Chinese Academy of Sciences (GZIS) to create a Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Communication, Navigation, Positioning and Sensing. Dr Hsu Li-Ta, Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Division of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, is leading a team from PolyU to work with GZIS, focusing on intelligent navigation and unmanned vehicle communication and positioning, vehicle networking, and vehicle-road collaborative sensing technologies and equipment. Research from the Laboratory will not only foster the development of Intelligent Connected Vehicles (ICVs) and autonomous driving in Guangzhou, but also across other major Mainland cities, after the central government highlighted its support for the industry in the Strategy for Innovation and Development of Intelligent Vehicles, issued by the National Development and Reform Commission of China earlier this year. [From PolyU Excel x Impact]

Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme 2021/22

(Call for Applications from 1 September 2020, HK Time 12:00 to 1 December 2020, HK Time 12:00) Research Opportunities with Faculty of Engineering

PolyU-XJTU Silk Road International School of Engineering “Belt and Road Advanced Professional Development Programme in Power and Energy 2020” successfully completed Over 200 professionals trained in three years New opportunities opened up for the industry

The “Belt and Road Advanced Professional Development Programme in Power and Energy” (the Programme), organised for the third consecutive year by the Silk Road International School of Engineering (SRISE) in partnership with power corporations from Mainland China and Hong Kong, was successfully completed yesterday (2 September). Nearly 150 participants from 26 countries/regions joined the online closing ceremony officiated by Mr Matthew CHEUNG Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and senior executives of the co-organisers, to witness the fruitful results achieved over the last three years. SRISE was set up jointly by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) in 2017, with a view to promoting collaboration in higher education and scientific research among the Belt and Road countries and regions, Mainland China and Hong Kong, and to nurturing diversified talents for global development. Since 2018, SRISE has been partnering with the State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) and The Hongkong Electric Company, Limited (HK Electric) to organise annual programmes. This cross-regional and multi-cultural university-industry collaboration, being the first-of-its-kind in Mainland China and Hong Kong, has attracted more than 200 industry professionals to participate in its three years of operation. The theme for this year’s programme was “High-quality, Sustainable, Resilient Power Grid for Green and Smart Living”. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, a series of web-based activities including talks and interactive webinars hosted by experts from State Grid, XJTU, PolyU and HK Electric were launched in mid-August to replace field trips and seminars held before. Even though participants were unable to visit the power facilities in person, they could benefit from the convenience of the internet to connect and interact with speakers and participants, and to share the latest industry knowledge of power and energy. A total of 12 talks and webinars were held during the eight-day training, attracting a record of nearly 150 industry professionals from 26 countries/regions, including senior executives from enterprises and government agencies, as well as veteran academics and researchers. Since all activities were held online, we were able to accommodate more participants this year than in the past. Countries/regions that they are represent include: Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau; participants from European countries included in the Belt and Road initiative, such as Romania, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Ukraine, as well as Brazil, Chile, Panama, Russia, South Africa and Nigeria also joined the event via the internet. In addition to Mr Matthew CHEUNG Kin-chung, other officiating guests at the closing ceremony included Professor H.C. MAN, Dean, Faculty of Engineering of PolyU; Professor XI Guang, Vice President, XJTU; Mr CONG Yang, Executive President, State Grid of China Technology College, and Mr WAN Chi-tin, Managing Director of HK Electric. In his video message, Mr CHEUNG said he was truly impressed by the overwhelming response that the Programme has received despite the global challenges of COVID-19. Energy partnership is a key area for the Belt and Road Initiative development and Hong Kong’s power sector plays an important role. “In Hong Kong, electricity supply has been safe, reliable and affordable. With professional services of world-class standards and rich experience in city management, Hong Kong is well placed to contribute in terms of professional collaboration and capacity building by enhancing the professional knowledge and experience of Belt and Road partners in areas such as clean energy and sustainable development,” he noted. “Indeed, Hong Kong enterprises and professionals have been participating in a number of Belt and Road energy projects, both in the traditional electricity generation sector as well as in renewable energy production and smart grid. We are keen to see more of our city’s multi-talents joining hands with their Belt and Road counterparts. We are confident that there are ample opportunities of collaboration in the energy services sector and in the wider context of capacity building.” Professor H.C. MAN, Dean of Faculty of Engineering of PolyU, concluded the three-year programme stating, “Electricity is one of our major energy sources; it is pivotal for a country or region to maintain its sustainability and stability. At PolyU, we are committed to combining the expertise and industry experience of universities in Mainland China and Hong Kong, working towards effective knowledge transfer. As PolyU excels in the engineering discipline, we are honored to be able to contribute our expert knowledge to support the training of professionals from the Belt and Road countries/regions. We look forward to future collaboration with the higher education sector and industry partners, so as to create further opportunities for knowledge exchange and to nurture future talents for the industry.” Professor XI Guang, Vice President, Xi'an Jiaotong University remarked, “‘The Belt and Road Advanced Professional Development Programme in Power and Energy’ was the debut university-industry collaboration project coordinated by the Silk Road International School of Engineering. Over three years, more than 200 professionals in power and energy sector across the globe have been trained in both theory and practice. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to State Grid and HK Electric for making this university-industry collaboration possible.” Mr CONG Yang, Executive President, State Grid of China Technology College, said, “The influence of the programme has continued to grow since its inception in 2018. This year, we have overcome the negative impacts of the pandemic by moving our activities online. We have placed more emphasis on sharing and interactions among participants, and the feedback was remarkably positive. Going forward, we will keep up our joint efforts to sustain the vitality of the programme and to contribute to a better future for the Belt and Road Initiative.” Managing Director of HK Electric, Mr. WAN Chi-tin, said, “HK Electric has been committed to providing customers with safe, stable and reliable power supply. We have maintained our outstanding track record in supply reliability, achieving a world class rating of over 99.999% for the 23rd consecutive year. To combat climate change and promote a green future for Hong Kong, HK Electric will build 3 new gas-fired generating units with the first one already commissioned earlier this year. Besides, we have launched a ‘Virtual Reality Training Centre’ which simulates real working environment by using virtual reality technology. I am very pleased that our engineers could learn and share their experiences with industry counterparts from Belt and Road countries and regions through this year’s theme talks held online.” “The Belt and Road Advanced Professional Development Programme” aims to support the Belt and Road Initiative and respective policies of the Nation and Hong Kong by strengthening relations, knowledge exchange and collaboration among the Belt and Road countries/regions; serving as a platform for technology exchange between industry professionals and researchers, and as a driving force to foster collaboration between governments and enterprises; as well as helping to enhance the electricity infrastructure of the Belt and Road countries/regions so as to promote integration with international standards. In 2018 and 2019, 30 and 25 participants respectively graduated from the programme. Nearly 3,800 contact hours were generated through talks, seminars and field trips held at different locations, during which participants were able to interact with each other, and visit various high-end power facilities including the State Grid’s Ultra High Voltage Experimental Base in Beijing and various training facilities in Jinan, the State Key Lab of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment in Xi'an, as well as the System Control Centre and Lamma Power Station of HK Electric in Hong Kong, to learn about cutting-edge technologies and modern management theories. They also had the chance to gain practical knowledge and experience from experts from PolyU, XJTU, State Grid and HK Electric. The three-year programme has generated over 5,300 hours of interaction, establishing a communication platform which connects power and energy managers from among the Belt and Road countries/regions. Additionally, the programme has contributed to nurturing future industry leaders, and has facilitated the urban development of the countries/regions involved. [From PolyU Media Release]

PolyU researchers collaborate with international institutions to enable the next generation of batteries and energy systems

As society becomes more mobile, rechargeable batteries have become essential for a wide range of applications in strategic industries such as automotive, power grid, aerospace, robotics and consumer electronics. Such increasing societal dependence makes battery safety, reliability and performance essential. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has joined an international research team led by Collège de France, together with The French National Centre for Scientific Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dalhousie University, to enable the next generation of portable energy storage systems by injecting smart sensing and monitoring functionalities into the dynamic electrochemical devices in a cost-effective and scalable way. Their study, titled “Operando decoding of chemical and thermal events in commercial Na(Li)-ion cells via optical sensors” (link), was published in the high-impact international journal Nature Energy this week. The research team has achieved a breakthrough by incorporating optical fibre “Bragg” grating (FBG) sensors within 18650 format cells (a standard for commercial batteries) which enables twofold enhancement. Firstly, the use of optimised internal structures in the FBGs allow for the collection of clean, high-resolution optical signals from the sensors. Secondly, advanced signal analysis is employed to decode the thermal and chemical events taking place within the battery as never seen before. “Currently, commercialised battery ‘packs’ are equipped with temperature sensors positioned at the module level (set of cells) and not directly at each cell. The conventional configuration leads to very conservative and ultimately inefficient battery management systems (BMS) since the actual sensors do not inform us what is really happening within the batteries, especially in terms of thermal/chemical events,” explained Prof. Jean-Marie TARASCON, Professor at the Collège de France and senior author of the study. By optimising the positions of three optical sensors, it is possible not only to obtain the internal and surface temperatures, but it further enables direct calculation of battery heat generation and transfers with unprecedented accuracy. Consequently, new BMS systems optimised with optical fibre sensors might be capable of bringing the world one step closer towards the common goal of reaching the theoretical limits of energy storage systems. The FBG sensors, one of the key components of the battery management system in this study, were developed in the Photonics Research Centre at PolyU by researchers of the Department of Electrical Engineering, namely Chair Professor of Photonics and Head Prof. Hwa-yaw TAM, Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Julien BONEFACINO and Associate Professor Dr Steven BOLES. Under the direction of Prof. Tam, the Photonics Research Centre has been investigating FBG sensors for around 30 years and has had great success in the past few years with deploying them in regional infrastructure projects (for example, Tsing Ma Bridge) and with international railway transportation companies (such as MTR, SMRT). For this cross-institutional research project, the team developed and fabricated a new type of “microstructured” FBG which is paired in tandem with a traditional FBG. The novel approach of putting multiple sensors together, each with a different sensitivity to the external environment, allows for the decoupling of temperature and pressure signals in real-time inside a battery. This precision monitoring can then be used to decipher key aspects of battery operation and degradation. For example, the decomposition of battery electrolyte was investigated with unprecedented resolution during real-world operation. “The technical and scientific advances highlighted in this project have been made possible by the convergence of battery science and optical fibre sensor engineering,” said Prof. Hwa-Yaw TAM who is renowned for his work in the area of FBGs. “The superb chemical stability and ease of scaling/expansion make FBGs ideal for deployment in new applications in the energy industry.” There is great potential for the extension of this approach in future applications. The team has already started to look to other energy storage devices, such as alkaline batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors, as well as other important applications, such as catalysis and water splitting for the production of hydrogen. [From PolyU Media Release]   Related News Articles: 理大研發新便攜儲能系統 [星島日報 (Sing Tao Daily)]

【#WeArePolyU】Serving society is a responsibility of all citizens.

As chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers – Student Chapter (HKIESC), Sum promoted the passion and commitment to serving society among engineering students. Together with other members of the Student Chapter, he organised an electrical installation inspection service programme to check the safety of domestic electrical system and appliances for the elderly living alone or low-income families in Hong Kong. Through the programme, participants not only learnt professional knowledge and skills about electrical appliances, but also helped others in the community. More: https://polyu.hk/dmwnI Sum Chan | Outstanding Student 2019 (Faculty of Engineering) [From PolyU Facebook]