A presentation ceremony for the President’s Awards for Excellent Performance/ Achievement 2017/18 was held on 10 April 2019 at the Chiang Chen Studio Theatre. Presenting the awards were Interim President of PolyU, Prof. Philip Chan. Among those honoured for their excellent performance/ achievement were Prof. Tao Wang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Prof. Shengwei Wang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE). Prof. Tao Wang received the President’s Award for his research and scholarly activities, while Prof. Shengwei Wang received it for his services. Both had received Faculty Awards in the same categories: Prof. Tao Wang in 2016/17 and Prof. Shengwei Wang in 2017/18. Recipients of the biennial President’s Awards are mostly selected from awardees of Faculty Awards in the last 2 years.

Sharing the pride and joy of the award winners were the Deans of the various Faculties/ Schools, including Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), as well as their colleagues and students.

At the presentation ceremony

At the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva held from 10 to 14 April 2019, Prof. Hong-xing Yang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) and his teams received 2 gold medals for their inventions. One was for an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) for efficient energy recovery. Consisting of alternating dry and wet channels, the IEC uses exhaust air and water evaporation to pre-cool fresh air for central air-conditioning systems of buildings. His research team included Dr Yi Chen and Ms Yunran Min, a PhD student in BSE.

The other gold medal was from a consultancy project to develop a prototype for the third generation in-building hydropower system. Not only was the hydraulic design of the hydro turbine improved to enhance efficiency, the new system also features magnetic coupling for transmission and sealing, which does not require external power source, minimising the likelihood of wear-and-tear. His team for this project included Dr Jiyun Du and Mr Zhicheng Shen.

2 alumni of predecessors of PolyU have been honoured with PolyU’s Outstanding Alumni Awards on 30 April 2019. They are Sr Ping-cheung Lau, GBS, JP, a 1974 Higher Diploma graduate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic in Quantity Surveying, and Mr Alex Lui, a 1964 Higher Certificate graduate of the Hong Kong Technical College in Building.

Sr Lau, a respected figure in the field of surveying, has served many public boards and government advisory committees related to a range of issues, from economic development, land and housing, education to integration of Hong Kong with the Mainland. Currently a PolyU Council Member, he also serves on the University’s Governance Committee and Campus Development Committee. His extensive social commitments were rewarded with the Silver Bauhinia Star in 2004, Justice of the Peace in 2016, and the Gold Bauhinia Star in 2017.

The Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award was first launched in 1996 and this year marks the 12th award presentation. So far, more than 70 distinguished alumni in various professions have been honoured.

Prof. Hong-xing Yang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) has been awarded HK$2,389,700 from the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) for a 2-year project entitled “Research and Development of a Novel Inline Bidirectional Turbine for Water Supply Pipes.” His 4-member research team includes three co-investigators with expertise in mechanical engineering and fluid-dynamic engineering, namely PolyU postdoctoral fellow Dr Jiyun Du, Dr Jian Chen of the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, and Dr Xiaoxia Gao of North China Electric Power University, who all received their PhD degrees under Prof. Yang’s supervision.

To boost its research capacity, the FCE Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme has approved funding for the following projects led by FCE academics. Following are the details:

Following the visit from the accreditation team of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) at the end of last November 2018 to review 4 bachelor’s degree programmes respectively in Building Engineering and Management, Building Services Engineering, Civil Engineering, as well as Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development, 8 representatives of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) visited the headquarters of HKIE in Causeway Bay on 16 April 2019 to present their responses to the HKIE report resulted from its previous visit. Led by Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE, they included Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), Prof. Michael Yam, Acting Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), Dr Wai-Ling Lee, Associate Head (Teaching) of BSE, Dr Horace Mui, Programme Leader of the BEng in BSE, Prof. William Lam, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and Prof. Kwok-Fai Chung, Associate Head (Academic Development) of CEE.

A conference cum signing ceremony for 10 major projects in the Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was held in Hong Kong on 17 April 2019. Organized by the provincial government of Hunan, the event facilitated collaborations among Hunan Xiangjiang Intelligent Technology Innovation Center, Changsha Technology Research Institute of Beidou Industry Safety, and PolyU to promote the innovative use of Beidou in smart cities and intelligent systems, including unmanned aerial vehicle systems, intelligent network navigation systems and vehicles. Together, they signed an agreement to jointly build the Beidou Intelligent Trusted Navigation (Hong Kong) Research Institute. In particular, the new area of Xiangjiang Smart Valley earmarked for the exclusive development of artificial intelligence has attracted widespread attention.

On 28 February and 1 March 2019, Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) welcomed a delegation from Surveyor Board Malaysia as part of the accreditation activities for its BSc programme. Impressed by the research of LSGI, its teaching and research laboratories, and the international outlook of its students, the delegation has subsequently confirmed its accreditation of the LSGI programme.

To further promote its BSc programme, Dr Wallace Lai of LSGI visited Kuala Lumpar and talked to some 200 Malaysian diploma students on 24 March 2019, encouraging them to further their studies with LSGI.

The Malaysian delegation with some staff of LSGI

To promote education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the engineering profession, the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) held the HKIE Engineer Day at PolyU on 13 April 2019. Co-organized by the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) and the Faculty of Engineering (FENG), the event consisted of competitions, game booths, lab demonstrations, and lectures for students of primary and secondary schools. Officiating guests of the opening ceremony were Mr Kevin Yeung, JP, Secretary for Education of the Hong Kong Government; Ir Ringo Yu, President of HKIE; Ir Prof. Eric Ma, Chairman of the Organizing Committee; Ir Prof. Kenneth Lam, Associate Dean of FENG; and Ir Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of FCE. After an opening speech from Ir Prof. Lam and a presentation of souvenirs to sponsors and booth subscribers by Ir Yu, there was a tour of the exhibition on game booths and competition exhibits for the guests before a series of STEM lectures.

Among those delivering lectures were Dr Matthew Pang, Scientific Officer in the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), who talked about developing Hong Kong as a world-leading smart city; Ir Prof. Shengwei Wang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), who introduced smart and green buildings today and for the near future; Dr Tony Sze and Ir Prof. Yiqing Ni of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), who lectured on smart urban transportation and structural health monitoring of railway systems respectively.

In the closing ceremony, speeches were delivered by Organizing Committee Chairman Ir Prof. Eric Ma and FCE representative Ir Prof. Michael Yam. The latter also presented prizes to primary school students in the smart city model-building competition. Prizes for secondary school students in the STEM product proposal and design competition were given by HKIE’s President.

Special thanks go to Organizing Committee member Dr Andy Leung of CEE for his time and efforts in making the event a great success.

In a virtual reality (VR) competition to raise awareness of PolyU’s proposal for a green deck over the toll booth of the Hung Hom Harbour Tunnel, PolyU students had the opportunity to express their ideas of how to make the best use of the green deck area. Attracting 15 teams of students from different departments, the competition came to an end on 3 April 2019, when students presented their designs to the judging panel. A 4-member team of students from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) became the Champion with their design of a solar road. The winning students were Ka Yee Cheung, Sing Ko, Hoi Yik Wan, and Tze Hin Wong, who suggested forming a comprehensive community of amenities to accommodate different needs of society, adopting greening on building surfaces and solar cells on pathways to reduce energy consumption, and providing an enclosed and air-purified lobby for passengers waiting for buses. The 1st Runner Up was a team of 2 students named Hon Fung Tsang and King Chi Lo, also from BRE. Their design was for a jogging path “dragon” planted with a maze of trees, from bauhinia to rhododendron to blue jacaranda and golden trumpets. There would also be solar panels and windmills to generate renewable energy as well as an indoor farm to maximize the greenery.

The winning entries are on display in the exhibition area (P/F) of the Library until the end of May 2019. They can also be seen on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2KrseEi, Instagram: https://bit.ly/2G7z38J, and
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PolyU_Library/status/1116676793065361408.

The Champion team receiving their award		The 1st Runner Up team receiving their award

From 4 to 8 March 2019, 8 undergraduates and 3 PhD students from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) participated in a joint workshop with 16 students from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). Led by Dr Patrick Fong, Associate Professor of BRE, the students travelled by high speed rail to Wuhan and attended a briefing for a project on Tongxingli, a historical district at Hankou, which they later visited. Their mission was to collaborate with the HUST students in designing solutions to preserve the old district. They presented some interesting solutions on the last day before returning to Hong Kong.

Some students of BRE and HUST