Dr Daniel Tsang of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) has been awarded $1,993,916 from the European Commission/ Research Grants Council (EC/RGC) Collaboration Scheme. He will be conducting a holistic investigation of fate and behavior of emerging contaminants in complex environmental matrices with Prof. Stuart Harrad of the University of Birmingham for 33 months.

Dr Minchen Wei of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) has been awarded $306,691 from the Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme to study the possibility of reducing illuminance level by using LED lighting products with high colour rendering index for energy reduction in green buildings. The project will last for a year.

The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) is pleased to have the following winners of the HK PhD Fellowship for 2018/19:

5 academics in the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have recently been approved for funding from the PolyU Postdoctoral Fellowships Scheme 2017 to engage a postdoc fellow in their research for 2 years. Following are the details:

On 16 March 2018, 5 members of the PolyU Council, namely Ir Dr James Lau, Ms Julia Lau, Ir Dr Humphrey Leung, Mr Stephen Liu, and Mr Alex Wong visited the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) to learn more about its research and programmes. Joining them were PolyU’s Executive Vice President Dr Miranda Lou and Vice President (Campus Development and Facilities) Mr Andy Tong. They were all welcomed by Prof. You-lin Xu, Dean of FCE, who gave a detailed presentation introducing the Faculty, including its research impact and knowledge transfer activities in several areas. In attendance were Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership); Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching); Prof. Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE); Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE); Prof. William Lam, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE); Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI); and Prof. Chi-Sun Poon, Associate Head (CEE).

Subsequently, the visitors toured a few research facilities of FCE with Prof. You-lin Xu. They met with Prof. Chi-Sun Poon at the Concrete Materials Laboratory, Prof. Asif Usmani and Dr Xinyan Huang at the Fire Engineering Laboratory, as well as Prof. John Shi at the Laboratory of Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics. It was a great opportunity for FCE to showcase some of its research achievements and impress the visitors, who noted the inclusion of two new programmes, namely the BEng (Hons) in Sustainable Structural and Fire Engineering and the BSc (Hons) in Urban Informatics for Smart Cities, in the University’s 2019-22 Triennium Planning Exercise Proposal to the University Grants Council. They also noted the collaboration between LSGI and the Planning Department of the HKSAR Government in the development of a web platform for various smart city applications.

The council members with some senior management of PolyU

At the Concrete Materials Lab		At the Fire Engineering Lab		At the Smart City Lab

To mark the opening of the Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics on 20 March 2018, a summit on the future of smart city was held that day. Officiating at the opening ceremony of the laboratory was Prof. Timothy W. Tong, President of PolyU. The Under Secretary for Innovation and Technology of the HKSAR Government, Dr David Chung, was the guest-of honour. He delivered an opening address before Prof. John Shi, Director of the Lab for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics as well as Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), introduced the state-of-the-art lab.

Organized into 3 sessions, the summit covered themes ranging from Smart Government to Smart Living and Smart Environment to Smart Mobility. Keynote speeches in each of the sessions were respectively delivered by 3 Distinguished Chair Professors of LSGI, namely Prof. Michael Goodchild from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Prof. Michael Batty from University College London, and Prof. Mei-po Kwan from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A panel discussion moderated by Prof. John Shi followed each speech, which were all well received by over 200 participants, including government officials, practitioners, and researchers.

The issues addressed by the summit will no doubt help the new laboratory accomplish its mission of developing key technologies for Smart City, providing smart city solutions for Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, as well as related consultancy support for the local government.

At the opening ceremony for the laboratory

At the summit

To explore future collaboration between PolyU and universities in Pakistan, a delegation led by Lt Gen (R) Muhammad Asghar of the Higher Education Commission and former Rector of the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Pakistan visited PolyU on 26 and 27 March 2018. The 3 visitors toured a few lab facilities of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) on the second day of their visit, meeting Dr You Dong of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) in the Structural Dynamic Laboratory, Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), and Prof. Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE) respectively, in the Collaborative Working Laboratory and the Smart Construction Laboratory, as well as Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), and his colleague Dr Charles Wong in the Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics. They were further introduced to FCE by its Dean, Prof. You-lin Xu, and Associate Dean (Partnership) Prof. Xiaoli Ding, in the Ng Wing Hong Lab for Sustainable City, where a discussion on research collaboration was held with respect to infrastructure, smart city, geo-informatics, resilient/ disaster governance. Areas of mutual interest such as talent mobility and research attachment for both faculty and students, dual degree programmes at MS and PhD levels, student recruitment etc. were discussed. The delegation also had a chance to meet with several graduates of NUST who are currently undertaking PhD studies in FCE. It was a rewarding visit for all concerned.

The delegation from Pakistan with some students and senior staff of FCE		Exploring areas of mutual interest in the meeting

The PolyU Counsellors Days were held from 21 to 23 March 2018 to introduce the range of programmes available at the Schools and Faculties of the University. Secondary school counsellors from about 23 countries attended the event, which was an excellent opportunity for the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) to showcase its programmes and facilities to the local and foreign visitors. Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), gave a presentation introducing FCE, while Dr Patrick Fong, Associate Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE); Prof. S.K. Tang, Associate Head of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE); Ir C.L. Kwan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE); and Dr George Liu of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) were on hand to answer programme related questions.

In addition, tours of the Smart City Laboratory, the Fire Engineering Laboratory, the Transport and Highway Engineering Laboratory, and the Smart Construction Laboratory were provided for the counsellors. The Counsellors Days concluded with a mini-fair where departmental representatives promoted their respective departments and passed out programme leaflets/ souvenirs to visitors.

Prof. Ding introducing FCE		A lab tour for some counsellors		At the mini-fair

At the presentation ceremony for the Outstanding Professional Services Awards on 2 March 2018, several academics from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) and 2 of its departments were honoured by PolyU’s Technology and Consultancy (PTeC) Co. Ltd. for their consultancy activities. Following a toast to all the winners, departmental and individual awards were presented by Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President of PolyU and Chairman of PTeC, while team awards were presented by Ir Prof. Alex Wai, Vice President (Research Development).

The winner for the Maximum Staff Participation Award was the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), with the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) receiving a Merit Award in the same category. CEE also won a Merit Award in the category of Most Active Department in terms of aggregate invoiced value of its consultancy projects undertaken via PTeC.

Prof. Shengwei Wang of the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) received a Merit Award in the category for Most Active Consultant, while Dr Dan Tsang and Prof. Chi-sun Poon of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) also received a Merit Award in the Most Valued Project category. The winners for the Multi-departmental Participation Award were Prof. Kwok-Fai Chung of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Prof. Michael Yam of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE).

Representatives of CEE at the award ceremony