Dear Colleagues,

The results of the GRF (General Research Fund) grants for the 2010/11 round were announced on 30 June 2010. I would like to begin by congratulating those colleagues who were successful in securing a GRF grant in this round. I also appreciate the efforts made by all colleagues who have submitted a proposal.  As the Engineering Panel of RGC has moved more towards funding a smaller number of highly-rated projects with larger amounts, more colleagues have been disappointed by this year’s results. Given the present funding policy and expected future development, it is essential for all of us to work even harder in preparing proposals for the forthcoming round to maximise our success.

In this short note, I would like to share with you some brief analyses of our records in securing CERG/GRF funding. I trust that you will be interested in examining the data presented below and will agree that we need to work very hard to ensure that we will continue to perform well in this important area of our activities.

Comparison between FCLU Departments
In the latest round, CLU colleagues submitted 81 proposals to the Engineering, Physical Sciences, and Humanities Panels of RGC, and 17 of them were funded.  Further details are given in Table 1.  In terms of the amount won per academic staff member (only eligible staff members are counted), which is the most important performance indicator in my view, the rankings of our four departments are: LSGI, CSE, BRE and BSE. A comparison of departmental performance over the past 9 years using this indicator is shown in Figure 1.

Table 1: GRF Funding Won by FCLU Departments in the 2010/11 Round

 
Figure 1: Comparison of Amount of GRF Funding per Eligible Staff Member between Departments

Comparison with Other Faculties in PolyU
A comparison of the amount of GRF funding per eligible staff member between different Faculties/Schools within PolyU is given in Figure 2. During the past 9 years, FCLU was in a leading position for several years, but has been behind FAST since 2009/10.  This year, both FB and FH also recorded a significant increase in terms of the amount of GRF funding per staff member.

Figure 2 Comparison of Amount of GRF Funding per Eligible Staff Member between Faculties/Schools

Comparison with Other Universities
In the Civil Engineering, Surveying, Building and Construction (CESBC) disciplines of the Engineering Panel, PolyU has ranked number 1 over the past 7 years in terms of both the number of CERG/GRF grants won and the total amount of funding received, securing consistently more than 40% of the total number of CERG/GRF grants allocated in these disciplines. The distribution of the amounts of GRF funding in the 2010/11 round among different universities is shown in Figure 3. In this round, the Faculty won 17 grants (or 43%) out of the 40 grants awarded in the CESBC disciplines. Therefore, within the broad field of construction and land use, we are leading all other universities by a big margin. Of course, we also have a much larger number of academic staff in the field. A comparison based on the amount of GRF funding per staff member has not been attempted, as there are difficulties involved in obtaining the accurate numbers of eligible staff members of other institutions.

 
Figure 3 Distribution of GRF Funding in the CESBC Disciplines among Institutions in the 2010/11 Round

Jin-Guang Teng (Prof.)
Dean (CLU)

Prof. Teng presenting a tailor-made souvenir to Prof. Ko

Prof. Ko addresses the dinner assembly

Prof. Ko with his guests

The Faculty of Construction and Land Use (FCLU) staged a Farewell Dinner on 31 May 2010, at Regal Kowloon Hotel, in honour of Ir Prof. Jan-ming Ko, Vice President (Special Duties) and Chair Professor of Structural Engineering. Prof. Ko will be retiring in October 2010, after having devoted himself to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) for 31 years.

The dinner kicked off with Ir Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, Dean of FCLU addressing a full house of more than 200 staff, alumni and good friends of Prof. Ko. He took the opportunity, on behalf of the Faculty, to express gratitude to Prof. Ko for his dedication and leadership in the Faculty over the years. Prof. Ko has successfully built up a Structural Health Monitoring research team at PolyU which is now well recognized and highly regarded worldwide. Under his leadership, the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (CSE) as well as FCLU have made great strides in advancing their research capability and academic reputation.  PolyU now boasts a Faculty FCLU with strong academic departments of international repute in areas related to the construction discipline.

In appreciation of Prof. Ko’s tremendous contributions, the Faculty presented him with two tailor-made souvenirs: The first was a photo slide show which captured the significant moments of his time at PolyU. The second was a crystal photo frame featuring his key research projects - the Tsing Ma Bridge, the Guangzhou TV Tower, and the PolyU building. At the time of the presentation, the photo frame was entrusted with the photographs of four of FCLU’s past and present Deans – respectively Prof. Michael Anson, Prof. Ko himself, Prof. Andrew Baldwin, and Prof. Jin-Guang Teng – to represent the Faculty’s illustrious tradition under different competent leaderships.

The high regard in which Prof. Ko is held is not only reflected in how well the dinner in his honour had been attended. Colleagues, both from the four departments of the Faculty, and from other departments of PolyU too, had not only showered Prof. Ko with good wishes, but had also chosen to separately present him with souvenirs, to betoken their sincere appreciation for the personal warmth which he always radiated, and his unfailing willingness to nurture others. Prof. Ko received gifts from Dr O’Brien, Director of Industrial Centre; Prof. Peter Yuen, Director of Public Policy Institute (PolyU), and his team; and Prof. Wallace Leung, Director of Research Institute of Innovative Products and Technologies.

Prof. Ko – as well as his guests - were clearly impressed by some of the souvenirs that were characterized by their unique thoughtfulness. Prof. Kim-tam Chau of CSE presented a plaque with a few poetic lines which he had specially chosen for Prof. Ko. Prof. Geoffrey Shen of Building and Real Estate (BRE) captured the happy faces of all his staff on a card; the dinner assembly roared with hilarity when Prof. Shen additionally presented to Prof. Ko a `magic jacket’ with the letters ‘JM’ (Prof. Ko’s initials) on it which, Prof. Shen said, would enable Prof. Ko to gain access to all of BRE’s facilities simply by donning it.  Then again, Prof. Ko was clearly delighted to see the oil painting of himself against the background of PolyU, presented to him by the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, just as he was very pleasantly surprised by the drawing done of him by Prof. Kim-tam Chau of CSE. Such was the high esteem which Prof. Ko enjoyed that Mr. Ng Wing Hong, one of the first graduates of PolyU’s oldest predecessor – the Government Trade School, and now in his nineties, was also present at the occasion to present a tie to Prof. Ko. 

In his address to the dinner assembly Prof. Ko expressed his immense pleasure to have been at PolyU for so many years. He mentioned in particular his gratitude to colleagues who had worked closely with him in his various capacities, at different times at PolyU; it was on account of their unflinching support that life on a day-to-day basis had always run so smoothly. He concluded by raising toasts to his guests in appreciation of their support over the years.

A farewell dinner, no matter how pleasurable an event it might have been, is conventionally a time to say goodbye. However, to colleagues, friends, and students of Prof. Ko, the whiff of sadness which often lingers after the event itself should be partially dispelled by the good news that the Senate had recently approved the conferment of the title of Emeritus Professor (Structural Engineering) on him. Moreover, Prof. Ko will also be staying on at PolyU, and will be affiliated to the Faculty to continue contributing his expertise to the forthcoming establishment of a research institute for sustainable unbanization. This is indeed wonderful news to all of us who know Prof. Ko, as we look forward to the conferment of his Emeritus Professorship, and offer him our heartiest congratulations.

Under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Government and the City Government of Geneva, the 38th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva was held from 21 to 25 April 2010. The event this year was unique, in that it took place against the standstill in air traffic arising from the volcanic eruption in Iceland. The exhibition hence recorded a drop in visitors by 15% to 52,000, as compared to 72,000 visitors last year, in the wake of cancellation of innumerable flights. PolyU researchers who had originally planned to attend the event had been likewise affected. It is therefore particularly heartening to know that those who managed to go have brought home six awards: two Gold Medals, three Silver Medals and one Bronze Medal. Amongst the awardees was Professor Niu Jianlei, of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), who won a Gold Medal with Jury’s Commendation, for his project "Micro-Encapsulated Phase Change Material (MPCM) Thermal Storage System".

Thermal storage systems are commonly found in modern buildings and skyscrapers. Such systems typically use inexpensive off-peak electric power, solar energy or waste heat, or cooling tower to meet energy storage requirements. With the sophisticated use of "New Thermal Energy Storage (TES) material" replacing water or ice-slurry, Prof. Niu and his team have greatly improved the performance of modern thermal storage system and thus achieve a higher level of energy efficiency.

The MPCM Thermal Storage System developed by Professor Niu thrives on the use of a nanotechnology-based thermal energy storage material known as the "Micro-Encapsulated Phase Change Material". When it is mixed with water, milky slurry is formed, which can function as thermal energy storage and heat transfer working fluid to replace plain water or ice-slurry now commonly used in building cooling systems. Depending on local climatic conditions, the new material can also eliminate the use of electricity-driven chillers, which consume the most electricity in current air-conditioning systems.

This breakthrough invention is the fruit of interdisciplinary research collaboration amongst BSE, Institute of Textiles and Clothing of PolyU, Tsinghua University, and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. This research is supported in Hong Kong by the Government’s Innovation and Technology Fund and Competitive Earmarked Research Grant of the Research Grants Council.

Dr Patrick Fong, Associate Professor of the Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), has been chosen as an awardee in the category of papers which qualified as ‘Highly Commended’ at the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2010. This is on the merit of  his article entitled "Acquisition re-use and sharing of knowledge in property management firms" published in Facilities, Vol. 27, Issue 7/8, 2009 (a PolyU’s Grade A journal) 

Every year, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, a leading independent publisher specializing in business management and research, would invite the editorial teams of  different journals in the related fields to nominate what they believe to have been the most outstanding paper and up to three ‘Highly Commended’ papers from the previous 12 months in respect of the awards. Dr Fong’s paper was included for consideration for the latter category, on account of the fact that the editorial team of Facilities, made up of eminent academics or managers, regarded it as one of the most impressive pieces of work it had seen throughout 2009.

Warmest congratulations are extended to Dr Fong by the Faculty.

MSc PM graduate (Mr CHING Kong Ngai - middle) receiving CIOB Certificate of Excellence, as presented by Prof. Geoffrey Shen (Head, BRE - right) and Dr Patrick Lam (Award Co-ordinator - left)

Dr Aron K.Y. Kwok

The Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Academic Programme Development is a formal recognition for the outstanding achievements of academic staff of the Faculty of Construction and Land Use (FCLU) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, for their outstanding contributions in developing, promoting and/or managing academic programmes.  In order to qualify for the award, a staff member should have demonstrated outstanding contributions in at least one of the following areas in the three consecutive academic years immediately before the year of the award:

• Initiation and/or management of the development of an academic programme.
• Successful development of new subjects or enhancement of subjects that help to enhance an academic programme.
• Pro-active promotion of academic programmes to potential students.
• Successful implementation / development of innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

The following have been selected to receive the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Academic Programme Development 2010:

Team Award:
MSc/PgD Project Management (Taught mode & online mode)
Department of Building and Real Estate

Individual Award:
Dr Aaron Kwok, Programme Leader
BSc(Hons) Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health
Department of Civil of and Structural Engineering

Each individual or team award includes a cash prize of HK$10,000. Award certificates will be presented at the Faculty Congregation and Prize Presentation Ceremony 2010 in November.

Team Award: MSc/PgD in Project Management
This postgraduate programme has been on offer for over 10 years with strong demands from applicants.  The programme has always been well managed by a dedicated team of academics and support staff, with very encouraging feedbacks from students, graduates as well as both local and overseas external examiners.  It was accredited by three professional bodies, both locally and overseas, including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) in the UK and the Hong Kong Institute of Project Management.   Specifically, the CIOB has awarded a total of 3 QEII Jubilee Scholarships to students since 2005, and a Certificate of Excellence to yet another. 

Most of the programme’s core subjects are delivered during the weekends on a full-day basis. Properly formatted study guides written in-house and reading materials (with copyright clearance) are provided to students enrolled on core subjects, either in the form of hard copies or on-line. In addition, there is also a wide range of elective subjects offered by BRE or its sister departments in the Faculty, from which students can choose.

Since 2006/07, the programme team has comprised of 31 academic and support colleagues with 19 staff members bearing designations as subject leaders or similar roles.  As team teaching is adopted, co-ordination at the subject and programme levels is very important.  

Apart from day-to-day teaching, colleagues involved in the programme also take an active part in programme promotion activities, including the Postgraduate Info Day, briefing seminars, exhibitions and talks on the Chinese mainland.  

Individual Award: Dr Aron KWOK
Five years into the launching of the BSc in Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health  (EOSH) - a special featured degree programme in the Department of CSE, Dr Aron Kwok, as its pioneer programme leader, still has vivid memories of the hurdles he had had in finding employment for the programme’s first batch of graduates. This was despite the society’s growing emphasis on occupational safety and health. One of the initial setbacks was employers’ unfamiliarity with the degree programme, and they were used to recruiting only diploma and certificate holders to fill their safety and health vacancies.  Dr Kwok found himself involved in prolonged, face-to-face explanations with potential employers, to make them see the cost-effectiveness of recruiting degree holders.

The EOSH has come a long way since 2005. In a recent PolyU-wide study, Outcome-based Assessment Project: Employer Survey on Student Learning Outcomes in Science, Engineering and Technology Disciplines, one of the responding employers claimed that ‘Graduates from PolyU’s featured programme, such as environmental and occupational safety and health, have dominated the corresponding job market.’ EOSH graduates have been able to find suitable jobs, even in a period of economic downturn. This is not an easy accomplishment, and additionally marks the programme’s success in bridging CSE-PolyU and industry in promoting occupational safety and health in Hong Kong.

Dr Kwok is justifiably proud of the programme’s achievements, which he has attributed to the efforts made by practitioners in the field, and his fellow teaching staff who have designed both an ‘outcome-based learning approach’, used in conjunction with a student-centred approach. In real terms, this means that both academic and practical competencies are required of the students. Relevant generic competencies are presented to them to benchmark a proper level of performance both for their university study and for their summer work placement. As part of the process of integrated learning, outside experts in the field are invited to seminars to give advice and comment on topical environmental and occupational safety issues. The students’ conceptual horizon is further broadened by visits to construction sites and utility plants. In 2006, the ‘Venture Track Programme’ was set up, to enhance the students’ outreach to outside organizations.

Dr Kwok’s Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Academic Programme Development testifies to EOSH’s scholastic standing, and its recognition by experts in the field, and by students. It also testifies both to Dr Kwok’s success as a programme leader and his experience as a teacher. In a personal statement on the EOSH, Dr Kwok has spoken of his insistence on an ‘ideology of teaching’, but modestly did not claim a lot of success for his ‘student-orientated approach’, precisely because he recognized that no two persons were the same. This has made him careful not to assert too strongly his own viewpoint, sometimes at the risk of making the students feel unsure what he has actually wanted them to do. Despite this ‘dilemma’, he has resolved not to be a ‘traditional teacher’. It was a delicate balance, to ask of the students to follow him, to do ‘what is told but not copying’. To Dr Kwok, the most gratifying moments were those when his students, without even being too conscious of it, demonstrated their own initiations in their class activities.

Dr Kwok still regularly gets postcards from students as they travel. Some of them have also invited him to their wedding banquets. Although he jokingly said he has found such invitations a financial burden, as is always the case, it is the kind of burden that only a teacher well loved by his students has the privilege of shouldering.

The conference organized by a group of 13 postgraduate students from the Faculty of Construction and Land Use (FCLU) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) was held on 1 to 2 June on PolyU Campus. With support from an Advisory Committee formed by academic staff, and assistance from the faculty office, the conference was to provide a forum for postgraduate students working in the areas of infrastructure and environment to exchange their findings, and to develop friendship and to form potential collaboration.

Since 2006, the FCLU had been organizing a local version of this conference in Hong Kong. Last year, however, it was decided that the boundaries be extended so that the conference could become international. This year, the Second International Postgraduate Conference on Infrastructure and Environment attracted some 180 participants from 40 universities in 15 countries around the world. These figures are significant increases as compared with those of last year when the international conference was first launched, and are encouraging indicators that the conference could in time become a leader of its type in the years to come. 

This year, the conference’s opening ceremony was graced by the presence of the President of PolyU, Prof. Timothy Tong, who kindly welcomed all participants and highlighted PolyU’s commitments through its research activities to protect the environment. Dr Kitty Poon, the Under Secretary for Environment of Hong Kong was invited to deliver the opening speech in which she introduced the various measures taken by the Hong Kong Government to achieve environmental protection targets emerging on both the local and the global levels.

Prominent keynote speakers addressed the audience with state of the art, motivational and role model lectures. They were, Prof. Nigel J.D. Graham of Imperial College of London, UK,; Prof. Shuoxian Wu of South China University of Technology, China,; and Prof. Yeong-Bin Yang, President of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, China.

The conference was also characterized by thought-provoking debates, which had been inspired by high quality oral and poster presentations. Thanks to the sponsorship by Atkins China Limited, three Best Presenter Awards were delivered in recognition of the winners’ excellent performance. The Faculty also recognized the first three runner-ups with Merit Awards for Presentation.

At the conference’s closing ceremony, Prof. J.G. Teng, Dean of FCLU announced that the Third International Postgraduate Conference would be held in 2011 and encouraged the return of all the participants for the event.

Interested parties in the conference can visit the website below for more detailed information:

http://www.polyu.edu.hk/fclu/ipc2010/Site/Home.html

The Joint International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science, organized by the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) and International Geographical Union (IGU) was successfully held at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) from 26 to 28 May 2010.  It was co-hosted by PolyU, Hong Kong Baptist University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars and professionals from the international community of GeoSpatial Information Science (GISc) to present the latest achievements and to share experience in GISc research. The conference featured keynote speeches delivered by leading GISc scholars, technical sessions with reports of the latest research outcomes, a student forum which facilitated the students to meet with icon figures in GISc, and a commercial exhibition on the latest development in GISc technology.

The conference was marked by a good start. In the morning of 26 May, more than 300 researchers and over 150 local government officers congregated at the Jockey Club Auditorium to hear a few wonderful welcoming addresses, which included amongst them one by Prof. Timothy Tong, PolyU President, and another one by Mr Cheuk Fai Leung, Deputy Director of Planning Department of the HKSAR. Five top scientists also gave keynote speeches on the opening day.

The Joint International Conference on Theory, Data Handling and Modelling in GeoSpatial Information Science was a landmark event in the field of GISc, in 2010. This was so as it had joined together the ISPRS Technical Commission II Symposium, the 14th International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, and the conference on Modelling Geographical Systems from IGU, all of which were major events in the discipline. The present conference gathered international experts in the GISc community to present the latest advances in the field. Paper selection was based on a vigorous process of both abstract and full paper peer review.

A 3-day commercial exhibition concurrent with the conference attracted many top companies in GISc, these included Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Leica Geosystems Ltd., Pitney Bowes Business Insight (MapInfo) and Navia Info Corporation Ltd., South Survey and Mapping Instrument, and Taylor & Francis Group. It also attracted the attention of renowned research institutes, including the Institute of Space and Earth Information Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, other than the Department of Land Surveying Geo-Informatics at PolyU.

The Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University was pleased to have students from the Department of Geoinformatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to visit our department as their Global Outreach Event. The visitors arrived on 13^th July 2010 (Tuesday), and included 30 students and 2 lecturers.  Though the visit lasted only one and a half days, both our guests and our students as hosts had thoroughly enjoyed it.

There were presentations from both departments, cultural exchange activities, as well as laboratory and campus tours.  Dr Lilian Pun and Prof. John Shi gave opening speeches and introduced to our visitors our current research projects.  Prof. Mohamad Nor Said, Head of the Department of Geoinformatics at UTM, presented some current GIS and remotes sensing research projects in Malaysia.  The presentations facilitated the students’ better understanding of current GIS applications all over the world.

On the second day of the visit, some cultural exchange activities took place:  UTM students taught our students Malaysian dancing and treated LSGI students to some of their traditional food.  It goes without saying that our students responded with enthusiasm to the dancing lesson, and also introduced their Malaysian counterparts to quite a few of the snacks indigenous to Hong Kong.

The visit concluded happily with Prof. Mohamad Nor Said presenting gifts to our Department and students, in appreciation of the warm reception and of our having organized the event.

Geomatics plays an increasingly important role in modern life and our society’s development. All the key technologies behind vehicle GPS navigation to Google maps, with which many of us are familiar, have been developed by geomatics engineers and scientists. As the only university department in Hong Kong that offers geomatics programmes at Higher Diploma, Undergraduate degree and Master’s levels, the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has deemed it necessary to increase the awareness of the Modern Geomatics Technologies among the younger generation and the public in general. Hence, LSGI hosted on 2 July 2010, a fully scheduled one-day event entitled ‘Modern Geomatics Technologies in Our Daily Life’.

The programme attracted 23 Form 5 to Form 7 students from 10 different secondary schools across Hong Kong. In this full-day event, the students had the opportunity to be exposed to modern geomatics technologies through laboratory visits, seminars, instructor demonstrations, hands-on participation, and visiting geomatics-related government departments. The students were delighted by the exposure to the various activities, and especially by the hands-on learning opportunities. They were impressed by the wide range of applications geomatics engineering technologies have played in Hong Kong and beyond.

We were also delighted to have two presenters from the geomatics-related government sectors to give talks to the students. They were Mr So Wing Yeung, Senior Land Surveyor, from the Lands Department and Mr Ng Tak Wah, Senior Town Planner, from the Planning Department.

The day’s events concluded with a visit to the Hong Kong Planning and Infrastructure Exhibition Gallery of the Planning Department. There the students were informed of  the extensive uses of geomatics technologies in urban planning, and the latest update on planning and infrastructure developments in Hong Kong.

This full-day event also allowed the high school students to sample their future university life, since they were given the chance to listen to instructors, to do field geomatics experiments on PolyU campus, to have lunch and chat with our teaching staff in the student cafeteria, and to visit geomatics-related government departments. All of us at PolyU were very pleased to hear that some students indicated PolyU as their first choice of university.

The Faculty is pleased to announce the promotions of the following staff members:

Promotions to Professors

• Prof. Bo Sin Tang (BRE)
• Prof. Kwok Tai Chan (BSE)
• Prof. Shiming Deng (BSE)
• Prof. Kwok Wing Chau (CSE)
• Prof. Siu Seong Law (CSE)
• Prof. Yiqing Ni (CSE)
• Prof. Baki Iz (LSGI)

Promotions to Associate Professors

• Dr Daniel Wai Ming Chan (BRE)
• Dr Mingli Chen (BSE)
• Dr Nai Kong Fong (BSE)
• Dr Horace Kwok Wai Mui (BSE) 

The Faculty would like to extend the warmest congratulations to all members of staff on the promotion list, who have gone from strength to strength.

Prof. Su-Seng Pang, Prof. Jin-Guang Teng and Prof. Guoqiang Li (from left to right)

Prof. Deric John Oehlers

Prof. Gangbing Song

Prof. Joost Walraven

The Faculty of Construction and Land Use was honoured to have the following speakers giving seminars at PolyU:

Professor Su-Seng Pang, Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Jack Holmes Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University; and Professor Guoqiang Li, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University; gave a seminar on "Overall review of education evaluation by the US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and US Accreditation Evaluation for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools". (24 May 2010)

Professor Deric John Oehlers, Professor of Structural Engineering at the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at The University of Adelaide, Australia; was speaker at a seminar on "Our obsession with curvature in reinforced concrete". (11 June 2010)

Professor Gangbing Song, Director of the Smart Materials and Structures Laboratory, and Professor of both Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Houston; gave a seminar titled "Piezoceramic Based Smart Aggregates: a Distributed Intelligent Multi-purpose Sensor Network (DIMSN) for Civil Structures". (25 June 2010)

Professor Joost Walraven, Department of Design and Construction, Structural and Building Engineering, Concrete Structures, Delft University of Technology; gave a seminar on "The 2010 fib Model Code for Concrete Structures: a New Approach to Structural Engineering". (9 July 2010)