29th Congregation of FCE

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2023! The FCE session of the 29th Congregation was held in hybrid mode on 14 and 15 November 2023 at the Jockey Club Auditorium on the PolyU campus. More than 1,600 graduates from the four departments were conferred degrees and awards across four sessions. Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty, presided over the ceremony and encouraged graduates to follow the examples of FCE alumni and make lasting impacts in their chosen paths.

Graduates who could not attend the Congregation in person were presented virtually and live broadcasting was arranged to allow friends and families of the graduates to witness the ceremony online from all over the world. The four departments each invited a guest of honour to share with the graduating class their visions for the future of Hong Kong’s development in construction and environment fields, as well as invaluable life lessons and mottos.

Global rankings reaffirm FCE’s world-class academic standing

In the recently released ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS) 2023, PolyU ranked 2nd globally for Transportation Science & Technology, 3rd for Civil Engineering, 47th for Environmental Science and Engineering and 38th for Remote Sensing. For the first three subjects, PolyU is ranked the highest in Hong Kong.

According to the “Updated science-wide author databases of standardised citation indicators” compiled by Stanford University, PolyU has 19 and 13 of the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists in the fields of Building and Construction, and Civil Engineering respectively, making PolyU the institution with the most top scientists in these two fields around the globe.

These recognitions are a testament to PolyU and FCE’s exceptional research performance and world-leading academic standing. We shall continue to strive for excellence in our research endeavours.

FCE organises workshop to prepare academics for RAE 2026

FCE has been devoting great efforts to prepare the Faculty’s academic staff for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2026, which will be conducted by the University Grants Committee to review the research quality of UGC-funded universities using international benchmarks. To ensure their preparedness and success in this exercise, an RAE Workshop was held on 10 November 2023. Prof. Meng NI, Associate Dean (Research) of Faculty, summarised and shared the recommendations from the external reviewers of the Mock RAE exercise. A total of 154 academic staff attended the workshop. The workshop was enlightening about the noteworthy points for RAE 2026 and was helpful for the exchange of experiences and good practices among departments and academics.

FCE enhances collaborations and exchanges with partners from Mainland China

FCE alumna receives APEC Bio-Circular-Green Award

The Faculty is thrilled to learn that FCE alumna Ms Grace KWOK has been awarded the first-ever Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Award 2023 by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). The good news was announced at the 34th APEC Ministerial Meeting on 14 November 2023 in San Francisco. Ms Kwok was conferred the award for having concretely implemented replicable BCG economy approaches to advance sustainable and inclusive growth across the APEC region.

There are six winners across three award categories of women, youth, and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Ms Kwok is one of the winners in the women category. She is also a recipient of the FCE Outstanding Alumni Award this year.

BEEE research paper provides new insights into building greener data centres

Data centres, as important assets in storing and processing information, consume huge amounts of energy with over one-third of them spent on cooling systems to maintain a low temperature. In order to enhance energy efficiency and develop greener data centres, a research article co-authored by Prof. Shengwei WANG, Chair Professor of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) and Director of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), suggests an alternative to redesigning the servers at data centres to operate at higher temperatures. Particularly, a quantitative target of 41°C, defined as “global free cooling temperature”, is recommended as the most energy and cost effective target for future IT server design and data centre operation. Titled "The global energy impact of raising the space temperature for high-temperature data centres”, the paper recently published in Cell Reports Physical Science reveals the possibility of cranking up the temperature for data centres without degrading their reliability or performance. This could effectively reduce energy consumption in intensive cooling systems. The innovative finding was recognised and featured in numerous renowned scientific news outlets including EurekAlert, ScienMag, Life Technology and ScienceDaily.

The full journal article is available here:
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(23)00444-7

PhD student’s research on impacts of space weather on aviation industry highlighted in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Aviation operations can be significantly disrupted by extreme space weather events like geomagnetic storms and solar radiation storms. These phenomena could cause high-frequency communication blackouts, GNSS-based navigation and surveillance failures, and therefore lead to flight delays, rerouting and even cancellations considering the priority of flight safety. Despite these potential impacts, the examination of economic consequences of space weather events on social and economic activities was rather limited in the past, largely due to the complex relationships between these factors.

The paper “Examining the Economic Costs of the 2003 Halloween Storm Effects on the Northern Hemisphere Aviation Using Flight Data in 2019”, co-authored by Mr Dabin XUE, a PhD student of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) and his cross-institutional research team, was published in Space Weather in March 2023 and was selected as a “research highlight” in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment in October. The research estimated the potential economic impacts of a Halloween-like storm in 2003 on aviation operations and provides new insights into the huge associated economic losses brought by space weather, which fills the gap in the existing literature on assessing economic effects on the aviation industry. The research outcomes serve as an important reference for evaluating the potential consequences of future space weather events and for developing air traffic management strategies to mitigate economic losses in the aviation industry.

The full journal article in Space Weather is available here:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022SW003381

Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment is available here (subscription required):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-023-00496-9

Long-serving staff of FCE

Technical Officer of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Mr Kwok Man LEUNG, retired on 26 November after more than 30 years of service at PolyU. Before his last day of service, he was presented with a souvenir by Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty, as a token of appreciation for his committed service over the years.