Awards and Achievements

Five PolyU researches honored Guangdong Province Science and Technology Award

PolyU researchers shine in the 2019 Guangdong Province Science and Technology Award, grabbing two first class prizes on natural science, one second class prize on natural science and two second prizes on scientific and technological progress. Seven out of 179 researches on the award list are from Hong Kong universities, including five researches from PolyU, one from CUHK Faculty of Medicine and one from Hong Kong University, covering the areas of new materials for 5G technology, environmental science and biomedical science. Congratulations to Professor Dai Jiyan of the Department of Applied Physics snatching the first class prize on natural science.

Prof. Kinor Jiang recipient of Leonardo da Vinci International Award

ITC academics are often recognized for the high calibre of their work and their creative talent. Recently, Prof. Kinor Jiang, Professor of ITC, was awarded the "Leonardo da Vinci" International Award for Design (2nd prize in the Fashion & Jewellery Design Category) at the12th Florence Biennale which took place from 18 to 27 October 2019. The winning design is called "Watch" which is a dialogue between tangible and intangible elements, highlighted with black and white in abstract lattices of dots and shapes . The focus is on the abstract texture rather than concreteness when one approaches the design for a closer view. In doing so, the viewer will gain an awareness of lapses in time and changes in space. The "Leonardo da Vinci" International Award for Design is conferred to the best exhibiting designers for their works on show in each category including: Architecture & Town Design, Industrial & Product Design, Interior Design, Fashion & Jewellery Design, Communication & Graphic Design, Technology & Game Design.  Florence Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition in Florence, Italy, and regarded as an outstanding showcase of international contemporary art production.  Since its establishment, the Florence Biennale has been a free, independent, and innovative 'platform' for contemporary art. Thousands of artists from over a hundred countries have exhibited their works atFlorence Biennale, which have defined the main art forms and disciplines.  

Prof. Jason Choi produces top cited papers in Production and Operations Management Journal

We are proud to announce that Prof. Jason Choi has been recognized by Wiley-Blackwell Publishers for two top cited papers in the Production and Operations Management journal, which is a "UTD-listed FT50" premier business journal of the Production and Operations Management Society in the United States. Prof. Choi has received a certificate of achievement from Wiley-Blackwell in recognition of his work. Wiley-Blackwell stated that "amongst articles published between January 2018 and December 2019, these two articles received some of the highest count of citations", which means that the "articles generated immediate impact and helped to raise the visibility of Production and Operations Management". The first paper focuses on luxury fashion business operations with discussions on optimal advertising decisions. The Nobel prize winning mean-variance theory in finance is applied to generate managerial insights, which include scenarios and formats of optimal budget allocation plans for advertisements of luxury fashion that would take social influences between different consumer groups into account. One interesting implication is that luxury fashion brands should focus on a single consumer group (e.g., the fashion leader) if their goal is to maximize profits. Moreover, luxury fashion companies should not penalize their marketing managers if they are underspending their allocated budget because "over-advertising" can have negative effects in luxury fashion. The second paper discusses how big data can be used in business operations by examining different techniques and strategies for big data analytics. Several big data architectures have been developed for companies to consider when they make plans to implement big data analytics. Real world cases on big data applications, including those from fashion brands such as LV and Nike, are reported. The findings provide important guidance to companies, including fashion enterprises, on the proper use of big data analytics for their operations analyses. These two top cited research papers (corresponding author*) are: Chiu, C.H., T.M. Choi*, X. Dai, B. Shen, J.H. Zheng. Optimal Advertising Budget Allocation in Luxury Fashion Markets with Social Influences: A Mean-Variance Analysis. Production and Operations Management, 27 (8), 1611-1629, 2018. Choi, T.M.*, S.W. Wallace, Y. Wang. Big Data Analytics in Operations Management. Production and Operations Management, 27 (10), 1868-1883, 2018.

Prof. John Xin receives China National Science and Technology Progress Award

Prof. John Xin, Chair Professor of ITC, and his research team were the Second Prize recipients of the China National Science and Technology Progress Award 2019 for their work entitled "Key Technologies and Industrialization of Digital Printed Colours on Textiles" (紡織面料顏色數字化關鍵技術及產業化). The work is a collaborative effort between PolyU, Luthai Textile Co., Ltd., Donghua University and Zhejiang University. Prof. Xin is the primary contributor among the collaborators of the awarded work. One of the fundamental technologies that led to this recognition is an imaging color measurement (ICM) system developed by Prof. Xin and his team at ITC and supported by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textile and Apparel(HKRITA). Prof. Xin (middle) and his team working on the ICM system. The award demonstrates the significance of the ICM system, which is based on software and hardware that measure colour with disruptive digital imaging technology, to the fashion and textile industries, as well as many other different industries in which accurate colour measurements and colour quality control are important. Using the right colours is always a challenging task for textile and garment manufacturers. The ICM system developed by Prof Xin and his team has ultra-high precision and capable of accurately measuring the color of each pixel on textile fabric, which can be yarn dyed fabric, printed fabric, or even a piece of lace with multiple colours and textures. The complexity of these different colours cannot be measured with conventional colour measurement instruments. The digital ICM system has the ability to measure different complex colours with just one click of a mouse without the need for contact with the measured object. This is indeed a significant advancement in colour measurement and colour quality control. The highly accurate ICM system effectively eliminates conflict between textile and garment producers and buyers in terms of colour consistency, reduces the product development lead time, and lowers cost as there are fewer colour samples needed and sample delivery from producers to buyers can be eliminated. The ICM system is also a very useful tool for designing, developing and visualizing coloured products,  all of which can provide a wide range of benefits not only to the textile and garment industries, but also to many other industries that offer coloured products.

UGC Teaching and Learning PALMS Project of Department of Applied Mathematics (AMA) has won 7 International Educational Awards

Dr Fridolin Ting, Teaching Fellow of AMA, and his team of UGC Teaching and Learning Pedagogic and Active Learning Mobile Solutions (PALMS) Project have received 7 international educational awards as recognition for their contributions to innovations in STEM tertiary education. Awards are as follows (arranged in reversed chronological order): The Wharton-Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Reimagine Education Awards & Conference 8-10 December 2019, London, United Kingdom   1.Silver Award Winnerin the"Natural Sciences" DisciplineAward Category for "PALMS Project for STEM Tertiary Education" 2.Bronze Award Winnerin the"Hybrid Learning"Award Category for "PALMS Project for STEM Tertiary Education" 3.Bronze Award Winnerin the"ICT Tools for Learning and Teaching"Award Category for "YoTeach!" The 5the-Learning Excellence Awards at the 18thEuropean Conference on eLearning 2019 7-8 November2019, Aalborg Universitet København, Denmark 4.The 3rd-placewinner for "YoTeach! A Backchannel Chat App with Machine Learning for Symbol and Math Handwriting Recognition for use in STEM and non-STEM Subjects" EduTech Asia Awards 5 November 2019, Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore 5.Gold Awardin "Best Classroom Technology Solution" Category for "PALMS Project" 6.Silver Awardin "Best EdTech Solution" Category for "PALMS Project" 7.Silver Awardin "Ed Tech Leadership in Asia (Tertiary)" Category for Dr Fridolin Ting Details:https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/edutech-asia/2019-Awards-Winners.stm For more information about the award-winning mobile app "YoTeach!", please visit: http://palms.polyu.edu.hk/educational-apps/ For more information about the PALMS Project, please visit: http://palms.polyu.edu.hk/

Dr Chris Lo featured in Journal of Operations Management and international news media

A research paper co-authored byDr Chris Lo, Associate Professor of ITC, andDr Di Fan, ITC alumni and senior lecturer at the Research School of Management of the Australian National University College of Business and Economics has been recently selected as a feature article inJournal of Operations Management (JOM). The findings of this study have been covered by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) morning news, as well as British and Australian newspapers includingThe Guardian,The Sydney Morning Heraldand theBrisbane Times.  This highly acclaimed paper is titled "Deviations from aspirational target levels and environmental and safety performance: Implications for operations managers acting irresponsibly", and explores whether the relative aspirational financial performance of a firm impacts its likelihood of acting irresponsibly. That is, the study explores whether operational slack in the form of capacity, productivity, and inventory attenuates the likelihood of a firm to act irresponsibly when its actual financial performance deviates from its aspirational level (i.e., the industry norm). The findings contradict the popular view that only poor performing firms tend to violate environmental regulations and neglect health and safety factors. Thus, the relationship between performance and breaching is not linear. High-performing firms act just as irresponsibly as poor performing firms because their past successes have rendered them arrogant or they cut corners to maintain performance. The likelihood of irresponsible action in fact depends on the deviation from aspirational performance. The JOM is one of the leading journals in business and operations management. It is ranked number 1 in theOperations Research and Management Sciencecategory and number 6 in theManagementcategory in the Web of Science according to Thomson ISI Journal Citation Reports 2018. Full citation of the paper: Wiengarten, F., Fan, D., Pagell, M., & Lo, Chris K.Y. (2019).Deviations from aspirational target levels and environmental and safety performance: Implications for operations managers acting irresponsibly. Journal of Operations Management. 65(6): 490-516.

Prof. Jason Choi publishes in Journal of Operations Management

Green supply chain management (GSCM), in fashion apparel and beyond, is a popular research topic. The last decade has witnessed a trend of heightened environmental awareness and protection in China. GSCM is considered to be an effective tool for mitigating the negative effects of firms on the environment. However, the extent to which GSCM pressure influences GSCM practices, and whether and how GSCM practices affect GSCM performance are topics that remain underexplored. As a well-established researcher in both sustainable fashion supply chain management and quick response (QR) operations, Professor Jason Choi, Professor of ITC, together with his co-authors in China and the US have addressed the above GSCM issue with special emphasis on the role played by QR technology. Combining the institutional theory, Resource Based View (RBV) theory, and the literature on GSCM, the study by Prof. Choi sheds light on the relationship among GSCM pressure, practices, and performance under the moderating effect of QR technology. After carrying out a statistical analysis of the collected data and case studies of companies in China, several findings have emerged. First, among the different types of GSCM pressure, pressure from the market and pressure to export have significant impacts on GSCM practices, whereas pressure of cost does not significantly influence GSCM practices. Second, internal improvement practices exert a significant impact on GSCM practices, while external improvement practices negatively affect positive economic performances. In addition, industrial ecology practices have significantly influenced environmental, positive economic, and operational performances. Third, QR technology suppresses the positive effect between internal improvement practices and negative economic performances. A multi-methodological approach is used in the study, and two real world case studies are further conducted to verify the findings and generate additional insights. These empirical based findings not only contribute to the literature but also provide important guidance to help governments and companies establish effective and innovative GSCM policies. This research work has been recently published in the Journal of Operations Management, a high impact premier journal that ranks high on all major business school journal lists (The University of Texas at Dallas, Financial Times Top 50 Journals, the Association of Business Schools, etc.). Li, G., L. Li, T.M. Choi*, S.P. Sethi. 2019. Green supply chain management in Chinese firms: Innovative measures and the moderating role of quick response technology. Journal of Operations Management, https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1061.

Prof. John Xin receives First Class Award of Science & Technology Advancement Award of Shandong Province

Prof. John Xin, Chair Professor of ITC, has been recognized with the First-Class Award of the Science & Technology Advancement Award of Shandong Province for the successful digitalization of yarn and fabric colors as well as the commercialization of its core technology in the textile and apparel industry.The work is a collaborative effort of ITC,Luthai Textile Co., Ltd.,Donghua UniversityandZhejiang University. Prof. John Xin is the first contributor among the collaborators of the awarded work. The fundamental technology that has led to this recognition is an imaging color measurement (ICM) system developed by Prof. Xin and his team at ITC and supported by theHong Kong Research Institute of Textile and Apparel. The award demonstrates the significance of the ICM system which has advanced colour measurement technologies for fashion and textile, as well as many other different industries. The ICM system is a cutting edge total color management system that has ultra-high precision with the capability of accurately measuring the color of each pixel on a textile fabric, which can be a yarn dyed fabric, printed fabric, or even a piece of lace with multiple colors and textures. The ICM system is a disruptive technology in the textile industry due to its ability to objectively measure complex colored products with one click without the need for contact. This is a major step forward from current state-of-the-art color measurement instruments which can only measure a single solid color. The ICM system effectively eliminates color quality disputes among textile producers and textile buyers, shortens the product development lead time, and reduces the cost due to fewer sample repeats and elimination of sample delivery. The ICM system has significantly increased the effectiveness of color quality control work and efficiency in product development, which together provide a wide variety of benefits to the textile industry.

Dr. ZHAO Jiong has received China's 2019 Excellent Young Scientists Fund

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has announced the awardees of the Excellent Young Scientists Fund. Dr ZHAO Jiong, Assistant Professor of Department of Applied Physics (AP) has achieved outstanding results in the 2019 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau), as well as will receive a funding of RMB1.3 million to directly support their scientific research projects in Hong Kong to a maximum period of three years. The fund was extended to Hong Kong and Macau for the first time this year exclusively for applications by eight designated universities. It was highly competitive that said 25 projects are funded for Hong Kong and Macau, Dr. ZHAO was one of the young scientist awarded with his project titled "Experimental nanomechanics on two-dimensional materials". In this project, they plan to continue the experimental investigations on the bending, defects, phase transitions, and van der Waals forces/energies of the two-dimensional materials and conduct quantitative mechanical analysis based on a series of atomic-resolution fast imaging approaches developed through the project. Three-dimensional imaging and computer-aided analysis methods will be applied to the two-dimensional materials of atomic thickness, laying a solid foundation for the future applications of two-dimensional materials.

2019 Emerald Literati Awards recipient - Dr Eunsoo Baek

Dr Eunsoo Baek, Assistant Professor of ITC, recently was nominated to receive the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards (Highly Commended) for a paper titled "Managing the visual environment of a fashion store: effects of visual complexity and order on sensation-seeking consumers" that was published in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the visual complexities of a fashion store on consumer behaviour. In considering the environmental order and sensation-seeking tendencies of individuals, the authors examine the effect of visually complex fashion stores on consumers in a more conclusive way to address the inconsistent effects found in previous studies. About the Emerald Literati Awards For over 25 years, the Emerald Literati Awards has celebrated and rewarded the outstanding and impactful contributions of authors and reviewers to scholarly research. The Emerald Literati Awards is one of the largest independent award schemes led by a publisher, which helps to strengthen the impact of the winning research and support the scholarly journey of authors by providing them with recognition and international kudos. Outstanding and Highly Commended papers are the backbone of the Awards which acknowledge the most outstanding published submissions throughout the previous year.