News

Dr. George Liu Appointed as Scientific Advisor to Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)

Recently Dr. George Liu, a professor at the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was appointed as a Scientific Advisor by the Director of the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO). Scientific Advisors are expected to help the HKO maintain an active link with the scientific community, advise HKO on long-term scientific and technical development strategies, and provide guidance on research studies and operational applications in specific scientific disciplines. As the Government Department responsible for monitoring and forecasting weather as well as issuing warnings on weather-related hazards in Hong Kong, HKO has contributed significantly to the meteorological services in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and the Mainland China. The HKO is well recognized internationally for its professional work and plays an important role in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Over the past decade, Dr. Liu has developed a close collaboration with the HKO and made significant contribution to the meteorological research in Hong Kong and internationally. Dr. Liu and HKO scientists successfully collaborated in six General Research Fund projects funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and jointly published a number of peer-reviewed papers. Currently, Dr. Liu is collaborating with HKO scientists on transforming the Micro-LARGE Lab research outcomes to HKO’s daily weather forecasting work, aiming to enhance HKO’s Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) performance. In the past many years, Dr. Liu and his students at the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE) have dedicated to atmosphere observation and modeling using both satellite-based sensors and ground-based in-situ instruments. The advanced algorithms developed at the Micro-LARGE Lab have remarkably improved the observation accuracy of global water vapor from many different satellites – the largest greenhouse gas and an atmospheric constituent playing a critical role in weather change and climate monitoring. Arguably the accuracy of satellite water vapor data produced by the Micro-LARGE represents the world’s highest level of its kind. The sheer amount of high accuracy global water vapor data from different satellites is expected to significantly contribute to global NWP, climate change, hydrology, and many other applications. In addition, Dr. Liu is also Life Member and an Executive Committee member of the Hong Kong Meteorological Society.

Inauguration of Endowed Professorships and Endowed Young Scholars

The Endowed Professorship Scheme was established by PolyU in 2012 to honour distinguished scholars for their outstanding academic and research achievements. LSGI is proud to have two academics bestowed the honours at the Fourth Inauguration of Endowed Professorships cum the First Inauguration of Endowed Young Scholars held on 31 August 2022. The current Endowed Professors at LSGI are as follows. Prof. John Shi Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Endowed Professorship in Urban Informatics (Video Introduction) Prof. Bo Wu Fiona Cheung Endowed Professorship in Spatial Science (Video Introduction) Being appointed as an Endowed Professor or an Endowed Young Scholar is a joint recognition from the University and the wider community of an academic’s outstanding contributions in their respective fields of research. It also represents immense support and faith that the academic’s research endeavours will advance the frontiers of knowledge and benefit both society and the world at large.

Long-serving staff of LSGI

An instructor of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), Mr On Wa Lam, has retired after 27 years of service at PolyU. He served the University from October 1995 to September 2022. On his last day of service, a souvenir was presented to him by the Faculty Dean, Prof. Xiang-dong Li, as a token of appreciation.   (Photos and source from FCE e-bulletin issue 143)

LSGI Alumnus Interview - Sr Tsui Hoi Yuen Paul

Sr Tsui Hoi Yuen Paul, Master of Philosophy (MPhil) alumni of LSGI, was interviewed by PolyU Graduate School. The feature story of Sr Paul Tsui was published in the latest GS News, Sep 2022. Sr Paul Tsui is currently the CEO of Esri China (Hong Kong). He is actively taking an interdisciplinary approach to land surveying and information technology during his MPhil study at PolyU and post-study development. He is an advocate of new applications and practical solutions in geographic information systems (GIS), which create, manage, analyse, and map all types of spatial data. He demonstrated his expertise and innovative mindset to expand the scope of GIS applications and cultivate future GIS professionals. During the interview, Paul shares his study at LSGI and career development after graduation. Paul also shares his view on the discipline and industry. GIS is a fundamental building-block technology for smart cities. It is widely used to understand patterns and relationships in geographical contexts, which benefits communication efficiency and decision making. Among its applications are the COVID-19 Local Situation Dashboard and combatting air pollution. This technology not only works on land but also in the sea and in space. PolyU’s recent accomplishment in the Nation’s mission on Mars is an excellent illustration of the massive power of spatial science. Paul wants to take GIS to a new level by integrating the technology with building information modelling in land surveying to expand the scope of GIS applications. As an external advisory member of university departments, Paul is taking the lead in his professional network to propose an increase in admission quotas for land surveying in tertiary education. This is necessary to meet the surging demand for professional spatial data scientists and expedite the innovative development of smart cities. We look forward to the visionary applications and positive impacts that GIS can bring to the world with Paul’s inspiration.   Below is the abstract from GS News, Sep 2022.

FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series by Prof. Qihao WENG

Prof. Qihao WENG, Chair Professor of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), was invited to give the fourth online lecture of the FCE Chair Professor Lecture Series, entitled “Where does Remote Sensing Belong: Technology, Science, AI, or …?”, on 27 September 2022. After an introduction and warm welcome by Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty, Prof. Weng gave presentation on how remote sensing has become a vital geospatial science and technology for understanding the Earth and managing human-environment interactions, including the latest interplay between remote sensing, image/signal processing, AI, computer vision. The event ended with Q&A session that interactive discussion on various issues, such as the challenges of applying up-to-date remote sensing technologies in urban environmental research and policy, and the formation of new paradigms and future trends of the discipline of remote sensing as technological advances continue between speakers and participants. There are around 280 staff, students, alumni and members of the public joined the fruitful online lecture.   (Photos from FCE e-bulletin issue 144)

LSGI scholar receives CPGIS Young Scholar Award

Dr. Yang Xu has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 CPGIS Young Scholar Award from the International Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Sciences. The award seeks to recognize young "rising stars" for research contributions to GIScience. In particular, this award is to recognize Dr. Xu's impressive research output in combining geospatial technologies, big data, and computational methods to advance understanding and modeling of human activities in urban contexts. CPGIS Announcement: https://www.cpgis.org/News/ShowContent.aspx?ID=5073

LSGI PhD Received the Faculty Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis

We are pleased to share that LSGI PhD graduate Dr. Jia He, Gail received the “Faculty Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis” by Faculty of Construction and Environment (FCE) in 2022. Under the supervision of Prof. George Liu, Dr. He completed her PhD with thesis “Enhancing the accuracy of water vapour retrieval from remote sensing observations using ground-based GNSS data” in 2021 at the Micro-Laboratory of Atmospheric Research and Geomatics Engineering (Micro-LARGE), the Department of Land Surveying & Geo-Informatics (LSGI). Dr. He focuses on developing cutting-edge techniques to calibrate the atmospheric water vapor products from various remote sensing satellites. Her novel algorithms are arguably the first of its kind to beautifully link ground-based GPS/GNSS water vapor data with satellite-based remote sensing ones. The accuracy of remote sensing satellites’ water vapor products is remarkably improved, after being calibrated by using the non-physical model developed. For instance, her verification in North America (a large geographical area) shows that the root-mean-squares error (RMSE) of water vapor products calculated from MODIS/Terra satellite has reduced by 48.12% to 2.362 mm when using two-channel ratio transmittance and has reduced by 50.74% to 2.243 mm when using three-channel ratio transmittance. The algorithm and model Dr. He developed is accurate, reliable, and robust. It has been extensively validated with multi-year water vapor data collected from China, Australia, and North America from different satellites, covering both North and South Hemispheres. The scientific impact and practical value of Dr. He’s work is significant. The atmospheric water vapor is the largest and the most important greenhouse gas (GHG) source in the atmosphere, accounting for about two-thirds of the GHG effects (much larger than the well known CO2). The water vapor is critically important in meteorology and many other areas. Water vapor arguably lies at the heart of all key terrestrial atmospheric processes. It plays a significant role in studies such as weather forecasting, hydrology, climate change, atmosphere science, GPS/GNSS/Beidou satellite positioning and navigation, InSAR satellite remote sensing, and many satellite-based Earth Observation Systems (EOS), to name a few. Without the correction of water vapor effect, all the satellite-based systems such as GPS/GNSS/Beidou, InSAR, and others EOS would suffer a large error in their results, e.g. an error up to a few meters in the GPS/GNSS/Beidou positioning and navigation. FCE annually awards the outstanding thesis according to the research impact. Dr. He published five journal papers in peer-reviewed top international journals with an average impact factor of 9.27 (as of September 2022). Dr. He is the 6th recipient from LSGI since this award was established in 2011. She is also the 3rd recipient from the Micro-LARGE Lab supervised by Prof. Liu. Congratulations Dr. He!

LSGI undergraduate students receive HSBC Scholarships 2021/22

Since 1965, the HSBC Scholarships have been supporting tertiary students in Hong Kong through different scholarship schemes, so as to help them unleash their potential and contribute to the society. Among the 26 PolyU undergraduate students who have been awarded scholarships under the HSBC flagship scholarship schemes 2021/22, two are from LSGI. The awardees are recognised not only for their outstanding academic performance, but also for their substantial community service and strong leadership ability. The LSGI awardees are: Scholarship scheme Awardee HSBC Hong Kong Scholarship 2021/22 Yi Nam Xu, BSc (Hons) Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics HSBC Vocational Education Scholarship 2021/22 Ka Wai Wong, Higher Diploma in Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics   (Photos and source from FCE e-bulletin issue 142)

People's Republic of China Ten Thousand People's Scheme

Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Faculty of Land Science & Technology of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (CUGB) have succeeded in acquiring a collaborative project under People’s Republic of China Ten Thousand People’s Scheme 2021 (萬人計劃) from Ministry of Education to promote and advance the undergraduate and master education, research interests as well as collaboration between the two universities. Prof. George LIU and Dr. Xiaolin ZHU officiated the online opening ceremony on behalf of LSGI on 2 Aug 2022. The weeklong online seminars on 2 to 6 Aug 2022 covered public talks by Ir. Dr. Wallace Wai Lok LAI, Dr. Xiaolin ZHU, Dr. Xintao LIU, Dr. Shuo WANG, Dr. Wei YAO, Dr. Yang XU and Mr. Nelson CHAN from LSGI which attracted more than 2,800 audiences through Zoom and Bilibili. LSGI also took the change to introduce our BSc and MSc programmes. The Ten Thousand People's Scheme provides experiential learning opportunities for students from the Mainland China and Hong Kong.  Through short courses, research projects, internships, academic competitions, service learning activities and visits, the scheme seeks to promote exchanges between higher learning institutions of the two places and enhance their students’ understanding of the country. On the last day, students from these two universities gave presentations on what they have learnt and gained in the past five days and shared their research projects. With our deepest gratitude to CUGB, the scheme has provided a notably eye-opening experience to all the participants. After this fruitful journey, we look forward to exploring more collaborations with mainland professionals.

LSGI Orientation Day 2022

On 24 August 2022, LSGI Orientation Day was held successfully for all undergraduate and master programmes freshmen of LSGI in face-to-face format. Prof. Wu Chen, Professor and Head of LSGI, welcomed the students and gave introduction of department, as well as introduced our academic, teaching and supporting staff to all the students. The orientation day was held online for the last two years due to the epidemic. This semester, face-to-face classes will resume at PolyU and we have chance to meet our students in person. To have a good starting for the new semester, in addition to programme introduction by co-responding programme leaders, we also invited representatives from Library and office of general university requirement to give sharing for students. Miss Deana Xu, our BSc Year 4 student, shared some tips for new students on how to utilize different resources and enjoy their fruitful university time. Bachelor degree’s students also met their academic advisors at the break-out session. We hope all students received this useful information to plan their study ahead, so as to enjoy a wonderful university life at PolyU.