2 colleagues in the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been supported by the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) in 2018/19. Following are the details:

The funding support was 38.9% of the total amount awarded to PolyU ($6,494,800). Environmental conservation will continue to be a major part of FCE’s research efforts in the future.

A new assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Dr Chao Zhou, was allocated $500,000 in start-up funding from CEE, the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), and the University Matching Fund for a project entitled “Sustainable soil treatment using biopolymer.” The 3-year project will (i) study the influence of suction and drying/wetting cycles on mechanical behaviour of biopolymer-amended unsaturated soils with a particular focus on stiffness, dilatancy, critical state and peak shear strengths, (ii) investigate hydraulic behaviour, including the water retention curve and water permeability function, of biopolymer-amended soils at different stress conditions, and (iii) develop a sustainable soil treatment technology using biopolymer.

PolyU was awarded 29 HK PhD Fellowships for 2019/20. The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased to have the following 7 winners (24% of total) for 2019/20. Details are as follows:

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme provides a monthly stipend of HK$25,100 (~US$3,217) plus a travel allowance of HK$12,600 (~US$1,615) per year for attending conferences and research-related events for the entire normal study period. Tuition fees for the same period are also waived by the University.

6 academics in the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have recently been approved for funding from the PolyU Postdoctoral Fellowships Scheme 2018 to engage a postdoc fellow in their research for 2 years. Following are the details:

The research efforts of these scholars are expected to boost the capacity of FCE in knowledge production and technology transfer.

On 28 March 2019, 2 representatives of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, John Feudo, Vice Chancellor of University Advancement, and Prof. Joseph Hartman, Dean of the James B. Francis College of Engineering, visited the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE). They met with Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE, Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), and Prof. Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) to discuss matters of mutual interests, particularly with respect to academic exchanges and research collaboration.

The visitors with Prof. Shen (far left), Prof. Xu (second from right), and Prof. Chan (right)

A delegation from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand, visited PolyU on 18 March 2019 to explore opportunities for academic collaboration. Led by its Vice President of Academic Affairs, Prof. Sivanappan Kumar, the delegation included Prof. Pennung Warnitchai, Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology and Professor in Structural Engineering, Prof. Thammarat Koottatep, Professor in Environment Engineering and Management (Water & Wastewater), and Dr Bhawat Traipattanakul, Special Assistant to the President. In addition to meeting a few senior representatives of PolyU including its Interim President Prof. Philip Chan, Vice President (Student Affairs) Ir Prof. Ben Young, and Associate Vice President (Research Support) Prof. Guohua Chen, they met with Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), and some colleagues of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), including Prof. Kam Tim Chau, Prof. Agachai Sumalee, Prof. Yong Xia, and Dr Yi Jiang, to discuss academic/ research collaboration related to construction, environment, and sustainable development.

PolyU and AIT has a long history of collaboration dating back to the 1990s. All the programmes of study offered by AIT are exclusively at the postgraduate level, with a student population that is 70% international. It is hoped that master graduates of AIT can be recruited to further their studies at PolyU by means of the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme.

The visitors with some representatives of FCE		Prof. Xu (left) presenting a souvenir to Prof. Warnitchai

4 delegates from the University of Waterloo in Canada visited the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) on 13 March 2019. Led by its Associate Vice President, Prof. Ian Rowlands, they met with Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), and Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Associate Dean (Research) of FCE and Director of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, for a tour of the Water and Waste Laboratories. A few CEE colleagues presented their latest research for the visitors, including Dr Shao-Yuan Leu and Dr Yi Jiang. This was followed by demonstrations of some experiments from some postdoctoral researchers and research students. The visit strengthened the existing partnership with PolyU, laying down further plans for possible academic and research collaboration in water-related areas.

Prof. Li (far left) and Prof. Xu (second from right) with the visitors

A 6-member delegation from Hunan Province, China, paid a courtesy visit to the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) on 13 March 2019. Led by Mr Jianyuan Zhou, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of Hunan Province, they met with Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE, Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), and Prof. William Lam, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), to discuss translational research and technology transfer in Hunan Province.

The visitors with Prof. Shen (second from left), Prof. Xu (fourth from left), and Prof. Ding (fourth from right)

53 counsellors from secondary schools in over 20 countries visited PolyU on 22 March 2019 to learn more about the various undergraduate programmes offered by its Faculties and Schools. Representing the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) were Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), Mr Wai Kei Kong of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), Prof. Shiu Keung Tang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), Prof. Anthony Chen of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and Dr Wenbin Xu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI). They were on hand to answer questions about the Faculty and its programmes from the counsellors, who also saw a few demonstrations of some experiments in a subsequent tour of some laboratories, including the Smart City Lab, the Fire Engineering Lab, the Concrete Materials Lab, and the Smart Construction Lab. A mini-fair staffed by some departmental staff provided further information for the counsellors.

Prof. Ding introducing FCE		Some counsellors touring the Fire Engineering Lab

On 19 March 2019, a distinguished lecture entitled "Effects of configuration of tall and super-tall buildings on building aerodynamics and pedestrian-level wind characteristics" was delivered by Prof. Yukio Tamura of the School of Civil Engineering at Chongqing University in China and Professor Emeritus/ Honorary Director/ Program Coordinator of the Wind Engineering Joint Usage/Research Center of Tokyo Polytechnic University in Japan.

Professor Yukio Tamura has been dedicated to structural wind engineering research for many years. He has conducted long-term, systematic and in-depth research in all aspects of wind-resistant design of building structures, including basic theory of bluff body aerodynamics, rational determination of design wind speed, provision of structural wind loading and calculation of structural equivalent static wind loading, evaluation of structural aerodynamic stability, compilation and revision of the wind resistant design code for building structures, wind hazard mitigation and so on.

He is a member of the Engineering Academy of Japan, a foreign fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering since 2013, an honorary fellow of the Indian Society of Wind Engineering since 2013, and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering since 2017.

Li Hin Lau, a student in BEng (Hons) in Building Services Engineering, wants to keep in touch with PolyU. He hopes to learn what other students are doing after graduation. He has a lot of experience and memories from PolyU that he would like to share. He plans to become a chartered engineer.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) welcomed a new Honorary Professor in March 2019. Ir Chi-keung Hon was Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) of the Hong Kong Government from April 2015 until his retirement in October 2018. With more than 30 years of experience in various public works and engineering, he was awarded a Gold Bauhinia Star to cap off an illustrious career in public service. Prior to his appointment as Honorary Professor in CEE, Ir Hon was Chairman of its Departmental Advisory Committee for 3 years from 2016 to 2018, helping to launch a new BEng (Hons) programme in Sustainable Structural and Fire Engineering for 2019/20 and the land search for its laboratories. He is a fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Prof. Roderick Smith, ScD, FREng., is currently Royal Academy of Engineering Network Rail Research Professor of Railway Engineering, Imperial College and Chair of the Future Railway Research Centre. He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at Central Queensland University, Australia & of the Academy of Railway Science of China and York and City universities in the UK. He is Vice President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He was previously a lecturer in the Cambridge University Engineering Department (1980-88) and Professor of Mechanical and Process Engineering, University of Sheffield (1988-2000), including a period as Head of Department (1992-95). He was Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College (2000-2005). Professor Smith has undertaken consultancy work for Tech Director, British Steel plc (1987-90), and has worked for the Board of British Rail (1992-96) and as an expert witness in many legal cases. He has also worked in Japan with universities, Japanese railway organisations and manufacturers. He has published widely and is frequently invited to address international meetings and conferences.

Ir Chiong has extensive practical experience in the design, planning, construction, repair, maintenance and project management of private and public building developments. He is also involved in experience sharing sessions of the BD on policy formulation for control of buildings, the drafting of work practices and internal manuals of the BD on the design and construction of foundations and superstructures, and the review of various codes of practice issued by the BD.

A 2013 BSc (Hons) graduate of the Building Engineering and Management programme, Miss Julia Mengpei Chen, is set to continue her studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) later this year. She has been awarded the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) Young Engineers Scholarship, the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Fellowship and the LGO Merit Scholarship to support her further education there in a unique Engineering-MBA dual degree programme.

Julia won the Outstanding Student Award of both the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) and the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) in 2012. Under the supervision of Prof. Meng Ni, she also won the Best Dissertation Award from the HKIE Building Division and had her paper published in Energy and Buildings.

After earning her bachelor’s degree from PolyU, Julia worked on 2 major projects, the Express Rail Link West Kowloon Terminus and the M+ Museum of the West Kowloon Cultural District, before taking up her current role as a senior project manager for the largest data center for construction in Hong Kong. Working on construction sites inspired her to pursue development opportunities with a focus on technology, operational science, and business execution. She hopes her learning experience at MIT will enable her to lead transformative initiatives for project delivery in Hong Kong and around the world.