(left to right) Prof. Charles Wong, Prof. Wu Chen, and Dr Xiaolin Zhu showing the LSGI-developed app on their phones

A recent study by the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) has found that contact tracing was an effective measure for reducing local virus spread. To help fight the pandemic, a team of LSGI researchers has developed a mobile app using the Global Navigation Satellite System, Bluetooth Low Energy and Data Analysis Technology. Designed with inbound travellers in mind, the app can record separate locations that its users have visited and also identify whether they have had close contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the last 14 days. Along with social distancing and vaccination measures, Prof. Wu Chen, Head of LSGI, believes contact tracing is key to controlling the spread of the virus when borders reopen. The app provides convenient access to the pandemic information released by the government, and can be incorporated into other apps as an add-on feature. Information recorded by the mobile app is saved in users’ own handsets only. No personal data is required when users download or use the app, and only anonymous data will be shared with other users.

To strengthen local universities’ capability in recruiting outstanding research talent worldwide, the Global STEM Professorship Scheme was launched by the HKSAR government in 2020. The Scheme is expected to build up the universities’ capacities in commercialising and applying their research discoveries, encouraging knowledge transfer and spearheading innovation and technological development in Hong Kong. In its first round, the Scheme has supported 46 nominations from UGC-funded universities. Four of the 14 successful nominations received by PolyU are from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE), including the nominations of Prof. Chen Qingyan and Prof. Weng Qihao. The two leading professors joined the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) and the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) respectively for the new academic year. Prof. Chen is appointed Chair Professor of Building Thermal Science and Director of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research, while Prof. Weng is appointed Chair Professor of Geomatics and Artificial Intelligence.

To support the HKSAR Government’s policy to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, a new University Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE) is established with the support of PolyU’s Areas of Excellence Committee. Promoting Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area as models of resources engineering, particularly in solid waste recycling issues, the research centre aims to be at the forefront of studies related to policies/ social perspectives/ environmental and financial impact of waste valorization technologies for biological wastes, value-added materials derived from construction and demolition wastes, rubberized asphalt, waste incineration residues etc. The centre led by Prof. Chi Sun Poon, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) is interdisciplinary in nature and comprised of academics drawn from CEE and other four units, including the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology (ABCT), the Department of Applied Social Sciences (APSS), the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE), and the Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC).

A paper co-authored by Prof. Hongxing Yang of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) and two of his former research students, Dr Jia Liu and Dr Yuekuan Zhou, has received the Best Paper Award from the 2020 Applied Energy Symposium on low carbon cities and urban energy systems. Their paper was entitled “Peer-to-peer Trading Optimizations on Net-zero Energy Communities with Energy Storage of Hydrogen and Battery Vehicles.”

Organized by the international journal, Applied Energy and Applied Energy Innovation Institute (AEii) and hosted by Sophia University, the virtual symposium provided a forum for stakeholders from academia and industry to share their latest findings in developing intelligent energy solutions for resilient urban systems, particularly the integration of smart technologies in the production and use of energy.

In recognition of their outstanding performance in research and scholarly activities, four assistant professors in the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been selected for the Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Young Researchers.

Selection for the awards is based on the candidates’ research track record, research outputs, potential impact of their research projects, and contributions that enhance the reputation of the Faculty and the department concerned.

The following research students have been selected for the FCE Awards for Outstanding PhD Theses:

Nominated by their respective departments for the awards, the winners were chosen for the significance and innovation of their research, their presentation skills and responses to questions from the Working Group of the Faculty Research Committee, as well as their academic performance and publication track records.

On 16 Aug 2021, Ir Dr Wallace Lai of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) gave a webinar for the continuing professional development (CPD) of industry practitioners at the invitation of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). Over 150 people attended the talk, which was on underground utility surveys based on non-destructive testing, survey and imaging. The main theme was a set of six specifications (pipe cable locating, ground penetrating radar, visual inspection, LiDAR, acoustic leak detection and flow monitoring for drains/sewers) to be used as a basis of HOKLAS accreditation by the Hong Kong Accreditation Services under the ‘Construction Materials’ category.

Prof. Charles Wong (third from left) with Ms Julia Lau (fourth from left) and her team

On 9 September 2021, PolyU Council member Ms Julia Man-kwan Lau, who is a registered architect in Hong Kong and has worked in the local real estate industry for nearly three decades, visited the Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) to keep abreast of the latest developments in the department. She was met by Associate Dean of FCE, Prof. Charles Wong, who introduced some projects to her and her team, including the Jockey Club Smart City Tree Management Project.

Students from the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) and Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) were honoured in a ceremony in August 2021 by the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS). The HKIS Scholarship was first launched in 1988 to recognize the academic achievements of the undergraduates studying their final year of the accredited courses of the HKIS in the previous academic years. HKIS President, Sr Edwin Tang, the Chairman of Research Committee, Sr Dr Mei-Yung Leung, and the Chairman of the Board of Education, Sr Alan Sin, presented the awards to the scholarship awardees at the Surveyors Learning Centre of HKIS.

At the presentation ceremony, LSGI students Mr Vincent C.M. Chong and Ms Cherry C.Y. Chue received Outstanding Final Year Dissertation Awards 2020 in the Land Surveying Division, based on merits in their research as well as the applicability of the research output to the surveying profession.

LSGI students with their awards from HKIS

A project by two students in the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) modeling statues in BIM has been awarded 1st Runner Up in Bentley Institute’s 2021 Student BIM Challenge. Miss SUEN Wun Ki and Miss TAI Kai Wing captured the 3D models of a few statues in BIM with quality and accuracy, including the Piglet Mcdull on the Avenue of the Stars, the LEGORPanda near the K11 MUSEA, and an installation entitled Lining Up near the Hong Kong Cultural Center. For better visualization, the real-world images were downloaded from the Hong Kong Geodata Store and visualized with the models in LumenRT. With statue modeling, the modern artworks can be exhibited anytime and anywhere without limitations even during the epidemic. The team hopes the project can combine technology with modern artworks, so the public can enjoy an enhanced experience of the arts.

Miss TAI Kai Wing and Miss SUEN Wun Ki (from right) with their award certificates from Bentley Institute

Visualizing the models in LumenRT

Visualizing the models with real-world scenes

Dr Ling Jin

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has a new assistant professor. Dr Ling Jin received his PhD in Environmental Toxicology from The University of Queensland. He has been working actively in inter-disciplinary fields of environmental chemistry, toxicology, and microbiology. His ongoing research includes air pollution and human health, airborne and foodborne transmission of antimicrobial resistance and pathogens, and pollution-induced immunosuppression in endangered marine mammals (e.g., Chinese white dolphins). He has published 38 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals and 5 book chapters. His recent work on the toxicity of air pollution attracted the attention of Nature, where he contributed an invited comment on global disparities of air-pollution health effects. The study co-authored by him on airborne transmission of antibiotic resistance genes was recognized as one of the best papers in Environmental Science and Technology Letters in 2018. He is currently an editorial board member of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, a flagship journal of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).