A licensed technology of an early heat-stress warning system that was developed by the Construction Health and Safety Research Group, Division of Urban Infrastructure of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), PolyU and incorporated into SmartWorks, an end-to-end solution provided by Smartone Mobile Communications Ltd. to promote and manage worksite safety, has won the 1st Prize of the CIC Construction Innovation Award 2019 in the category of Construction Safety. Led by Prof. Albert Chan, Associate Director of RISUD and the Group Leader of Construction Health and Safety Research Group, his research group pioneered the early-warning system to monitor the heat strain levels of workers when they are performing their tasks in hot weather. An indispensable component of SmartWorks is the Heat Stress Artificial Intelligence Engine, which integrates technologies with 5 key smart services, namely, Smart Helmet, Smart Health Station, Environment Station, Dump Truck Management and Danger Alert & Access Control. It is a prime example of what can result from a close collaboration between academe and industry. The Construction Innovation Award was organized by the Construction Industry Council (CIC) on a biennial basis since 2015, with the aim to spearhead the development, promotion and implementation of new construction materials, methods, technologies for enhancing the competitiveness of the construction industry. The same research group won the Local Grand Prize of the Inaugural Construction Innovation Award in 2015 for their innovative development of anti-heat stress uniforms, which have been adopted as a standard work wear for construction workers in all government funded projects since 2017.
