Issue 1

2 Scientists from the Faculty received 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. From the Faculty, we have 2 young scientists receiving the Fund to conduct pioneering research in Hong Kong over a period of three years.

Dr An Liang, Associate Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering, is one of the awardees. With his research titled “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 Ray Yang, Assistant Professor of Department of Computing has secured the grant 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.

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. It is encouraging to see that young scientists from the Faculty is acclaimed by the Nation to further develop scientific research in cutting-edge technologies.