News

Gold Medals for BSE Researchers

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.

The President’s Awards for Excellent Performance/ Achievement 2017/18

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.

HKIPM Project Management Achievement Awards 2018

The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) welcomes the appointment of Prof. Jin-Guang Teng, a Vice-President, Dean of the Graduate School, and Chair Professor of Southern University of Science and Technology, to be the next President of PolyU from 1 July 2019. Prior to his current role, Prof. Teng spent more than 2 decades of his academic career at PolyU since joining it in 1994. He is well qualified to lead the University in the next chapter of its development, having served it in various leadership positions, including Associate Vice President (September 2006 – June 2010), Dean of Faculty of Construction and Land Use/Faculty of Construction and Environment (September 2007 – June 2013) and Director of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (January 2012 – June 2018). Prof. Teng feels deeply honoured to be appointed as PolyU’s next President, pledging to work closely with various stakeholders of the University to turn its education and research vision into reality. In addition to providing the best holistic education for students and supporting colleagues to realise their potentials, he will strive to enhance the academic standing and the impact of PolyU in Hong Kong and the world. He will also ensure that the University will be a world leader for a significant number of disciplines and will develop strong education and research programmes in emerging areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence. Establishing a foothold in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) will be one of his priorities as PolyU President. A distinguished scholar in the field of structural engineering, Prof. Teng has been a recipient of numerous accolades. He was elected in 2017 as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is the highest academic title in the field of science and technology in China, a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015, and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences in 2013. He won the State Natural Science Award of China (Second Class) in 2013 and the PolyU President's Award for Excellent Performance /Achievement (Research and Scholarly Activities) in 2015. With such stellar accomplishments, Prof. Teng looks forward to leading the University to further achievements on multiple fronts in the years ahead.

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019

In the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject 2019, the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) has 2 disciplines in the top 20. The ranking for Architecture/ Built Environment was in 20th place, while Civil and Structural Engineering was in 15th place. Locally, PolyU still leads in the subject of Civil and Structural Engineering. QS uses 4 criteria for its ranking system – Academic Reputation, Employer Reputation, Citations per paper, and H-index, which measures both the productivity and impact of a scholar’s publications. The relative weightings of these criteria vary from discipline to discipline. For Architecture/ Built Environment, the weightings are 70% Academic Reputation, 10% Employer Reputation, 10% Citations, and 10% H-index. Those for Civil and Structural Engineering are 40% Academic Reputation, 30% Employer Reputation, 15% Citations, and 15% H-index. The ratings reflect the academic peers’ and employers’ opinions of the Faculty, as well as the achievements of academic staff in research (citations and impact). In terms of Citations per paper and H-index, PolyU is ahead of other world-leading universities in both Architecture/ Built Environment as well as Civil and Structural Engineering. For 2019, PolyU has obtained overall scores of 80.3 for Architecture/ Built Environment and 85.7 for Civil and Structural Engineering respectively, demonstrating its all-rounded accomplishments.

PolyU Counsellors Days 2019

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.  

Outstanding Professional Services Awards 2018

A presentation ceremony for the Outstanding Professional Services Awards 2018 was held on 4 March 2019 at the Silverbox Ballroom in Hotel ICON. Dr Miranda Lou, Executive Vice President of PolyU and Chairman of its Technology and Consultancy (PTeC) Co. Ltd., delivered a speech and presented Departmental Awards to the Department of Building Services Engineering (BSE) for winning in the category of Maximum Staff Participation. Merit Awards in the same category were given to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI). In the last 3 years, one of the departments of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) has always won for Maximum Staff Participation. Likewise, this is the fourth consecutive year that CEE has received a Merit Award for the Most Active Department with the second highest aggregate invoiced value during the financial year for consultancy projects undertaken via PTeC. Individual Awards were presented by Prof. Philip Chan, PolyU’s Interim President. Prof. Shengwei Wang of BSE received a Merit Award for Most Active Consultant, while Dr Charles Wong of LSGI received a Merit Award for Highest Growth Consultant. Prof. Wang also received a Merit Award for Most Active Consultant last year. The awards received by colleagues and departments of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) are testimony of their research impact and efforts in knowledge/ technology transfer.

2018 State Science and Technology Awards

2 projects led by scholars from the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) have been honoured with the 2018 State Science and Technology Awards. Prof. Yong Xia of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and his collaborators from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and China Railway Bridge Science Research Institute Ltd. were rewarded with a Technological Invention Award (second-class) for their work on safety assessment and precise local damage detection technologies for long-span bridges, while Prof. Xiaoli Ding, Associate Dean (Partnership), and his collaborators from Central South University, China University of Mining and Technology, Guangdong Institute of Geological Survey, and Chang’An University were rewarded with a State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (second-class) for their research on key InSAR technologies for millimetre-level ground deformation monitoring and their applications.  

Ceremony Marks Opening of GIGCAS and PolyU Joint Laboratory

On 28th January 2019, the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (GIGCAS) and PolyU Joint Laboratory of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for the Environment was officially unveiled by representatives from both sides. A welcome speech was delivered by Prof. Philip Chan, PolyU's Interim President. Speeches were also delivered by Mr Jinghua Cao, Director General of CAS Bureau of International Cooperation, who spoke about the 22 CAS joint laboratories with Hong Kong, and Prof. Yigang Xu, Director General of the GIGCAS. Officiating guests also included Ir Prof. Alex Wai, PolyU’s Vice President (Research Development), Mr Xiaonian Zheng, Director General of CAS Bureau of Facility Support and Budget, Ms Fang Fang Li, Director of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Affairs Office of CAS, Dr Gan Zhang, Deputy Director of GIGCAS, Ir Prof. You-lin Xu, Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) at PolyU, Prof. Xiangdong Li, Director of GIGCAS and Associate Dean (Research) of FCE, and Ir Prof. William Lam, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at PolyU. The focus areas of research of the GIGCAS-PolyU Joint Laboratory of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for the Environment will include air quality improvement, environment and health for city clusters, urban land integrated remediation measures for different types of pollution, municipal solid waste and sewage treatment in new rural areas, ecological management in estuary and coastal areas, etc. Harnessing the strengths of PolyU and GIGCAS, the joint laboratory will extend research frontiers, advance knowledge transfer and applications as well as cultivate talents in the field of environmental protection for the development of the Greater Bay Area.

PolyU Reaches Out to Employers

In the first employer engagement function of its kind, PolyU hosted about 220 leading employers of PolyU graduates in a luncheon at Hotel Icon on 18 January 2019. Organized by the Communications and Public Affairs Office and the Office of Careers & Placement Services, the luncheon’s theme was “Partnering with Employers – Shaping Tomorrow’s Talents.” The Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) was represented by Prof. Geoffrey Shen, Associate Dean (Teaching), who served as a host at one of the 4 tables reserved for FCE. VIP guests of FCE were Prof. G.H. Chen and Ir Dr Jonathan Chan. Also present was Ir Dr Anthony Lo of CLP Power Hong Kong Limited, the recipient of the Department of Building Services Engineering’s (BSE) Outstanding Alumni Award 2018, whose success story was featured in a video that was shown at the luncheon. Amongst the table hosts were Prof. Albert Chan, Head of the Department of Building and Real Estate (BRE), Prof. Eddie Hui, Associate Head (Partnership) of BRE, Prof. Asif Usmani, Head of BSE, Prof. Shiu Keung Tang, Associate Head of BSE, Prof. Chi Sun Poon, Associate Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Prof. Yong Xia, Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), and Dr Lilian Pun, Associate Head of LSGI.  

Head of LSGI Appointed in Endowed Professorship Scheme

Prof. John Shi, Head of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), has been appointed Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Urban Informatics under the University’s Endowed Professorship Scheme for 5 years from 2019 to 2023. He is also the Director of the Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics at PolyU. He obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Osnabruck in Vechta, Germany in 1994. Prof. Shi’s current research interests are in the areas of geographic information science (GISci), remote sensing and urban informatics, with a focus on analytics and quality control for spatial big data, object extraction and change detection from satellite images and LiDAR data, integrated indoor mapping technology, 3D and dynamic GISci modelling, and Smart City applications. He has published more than 250 journal articles (with 190 SCI papers) and 15 books. He is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including an award from the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and a Natural Science Award from the State Council of China. An initiative of PolyU to honour distinguished scholars for their outstanding academic and research achievements, the Endowed Professorship Scheme provides philanthropists with the unique opportunity to advance scholarly endeavours in a discipline of their choice for the benefit of the community.