PolyU has been awarded about 45% of the Research Impact Fund 2019/20, the largest share among the local universities. Of the 5 projects received by PolyU, one was led by Dr Bo Wu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), with co-principal investigators from the University of Hong Kong, collaborators from Europe, as well as partners from mainland China and local institutions. Entitled “Mapping and characterization for optimized evaluation of potential landing sites on the moon and Mars to support future missions,” the 4-year project will receive HK$4,469,360 from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, which funds 70% of the project cost, with the remaining 30% from the university and other partners.

The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased that 8 of its academics have been exceptionally successful in their applications for the General Research Fund (GRF) from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) over the past a few years. They were congratulated in a recent letter from PolyU’s Vice President (Research Development), Prof. Alexander Wai, who said that their personal achievements had enhanced PolyU’s reputation for research and set high standards for other colleagues to follow. Following are the details:

A licensed technology of an early heat-stress warning system that was developed by the Construction Health and Safety Research Group of 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, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), 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.

On 22 January 2020, a workshop on strategies for applying for research funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) was held in the Faculty. After an opening speech from Prof. You-Lin Xu, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), Prof. Tao Wang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) shared his successful experience in writing proposals for the Major Research Plan Programme. Dr Minchen Wei of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) and Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), also shared their experiences of proposal-writing for the Young Scientists Fund and the NSFC General Programme respectively. Their presentations were followed by views from Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), who spoke from his perspective as a panel member. The workshop was well received with more than 40 participants. Much discussion was generated by the workshop, which ended with a closing speech from Prof. Xiangdong Li, Associate Dean (Research).

Dr Minchen (Tommy) Wei, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE), has been elected Vice President of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) Hong Kong. He has also been nominated to represent Hong Kong in CIE Division 1 Color and Vision and Division 8 Image Technology as a voting member. As the international standardizing body in the fields of light and lighting, CIE publishes international standards and technical reports for fundamental knowledge and applications in the relevant fields.

At the annual general meeting of the Hong Kong Meteorological Society on 20 January 2020, Dr George Liu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) was elected one of its executive committee members. He has published extensively on water vapor observation and modeling. His research lab, the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE), has developed novel algorithms to calibrate the water vapor data of remote sensing satellites using ground-based observations, leading to an accuracy improvement of 15-22%. In 2017, his lab won the Zhu Kezhen Prize from the Hong Kong Meteorological Society, the first time for PolyU. In 2014, Dr Liu was nominated by the Hong Kong Observatory for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Norbert Gerbier-MUMM International Award for 2015 for his article on a method to evaluate the absolute accuracy of water vapor measurements.

A recipient of the 2011 Outstanding PolyU Alumni Award, Ir T.K. Tsui, has donated HK$1 million to support students from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) to gain first-hand study experience outside Hong Kong. He hopes his donation would help PolyU in its mission of educating students to be productive and caring citizens.

Ir Tsui graduated more than 50 years ago with a Diploma in Building from the Hong Kong Technical College, a predecessor of PolyU. He started his career at the Public Works Department of the Hong Kong Government and the China Light and Power Co. Limited before setting up his own development consulting firm in 1973. He is well known for his philanthropy in local charities and higher education. A founding member of the PolyU Development Foundation, he has sponsored many fund-raising events of the university and supported its students with numerous bursaries over the years.

Another donor recently also gave HK$1 million to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), with HK$250,000 for entry scholarships for outstanding local secondary students and the rest for sponsoring student activities such as study tours, international competitions etc.