ME Retreat in Aug 2022

The staff retreat of the Department took place on 15 Aug 2022 at Hotel ICON. The retreat kicked off with the Head Prof. Su Zhongqing’s welcoming remarks to the newly joined colleagues. We were thrilled to have the young and promising talents on board. They are Dr Cheng Song, Dr Ma Yuen, Dr Wu Maochun and Dr Zhang Xiao.   The agenda of the ME retreat included an overall review of the Department’s performances, strategies and challenges. Prof. Su started with the introduction of departmental KPI performance, budget and funding issues, review on staff appraisal criteria.  Following that, the Associate Head (Research) Dr Tang led a discussion of the new research postgraduate allocation mechanism and formulated a plan for the next Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2026. Taking the opportunity, the Department paid tribute to Chair Prof. Chen Guohua and Prof. Zhou Limin and Dr Zhang Peng.  Prof. Su expressed the greatest gratitude for their dedication and contribution to the department. The morning session concluded with the heartfelt valedictory speech by Prof. Chen, Prof. Zhou and Dr Zhang. In the afternoon, Prof. Cheng Li, Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, shared his seasoned experience in preparing General Research Fund (GRF) proposals. Admission status updates and future plans were reported by programme leaders, namely Dr An Liang and Dr Ruan Haihui (BEng in Mechanical Engineering), Dr Randolph Leung and Dr Eunice Tam (BEng in Product Analysis and Engineering Design), Dr Jiao Zengbao and Dr Zhang Xiao (MSc in Mechanical Engineering). After that, the Associate Head (Teaching & Learning) Dr Yao Haimin led a discussion about teaching and learning, quality assurance, accreditation, scholarship and new scheme update. Besides, Dr Curtis Ng (Space Allocation Committee Secretary) bought up the space issue. Dr Tracy Choy (Publicity Committee Chairman) reported the local and non-local student recruitment publicity as well as the ME 85th Anniversary Alumni Homecoming Day and celebration activities. Dr Eunice Tam (International Exchange Officer) updated the current outbound and inbound student exchange participation, and elaborated the challenges in expanding global learning experiences. At the end of the retreat, Prof. ZQ Su led an open forum. Over 30 staff members joined the retreat and found it being insightful and constructive for the year to come. More photos on PHOTO GALLERY

ME research reported in Nature Material and National Science Review

The research group, led by Chair Prof. L. Cheng in ME, has made good progress in the development of acoustic/elastic/mechanical metamaterials. Recent research results are published in prestigious journals like Nature Materials, National Science Review, Journal of Mechanics of physics and Solids, Acta Materialia and Physics Review applied etc. Their latest work on programmable gear-based mechanical metamaterials was published in the latest issue of Nature Materials (21, 869-876, 2022, IF 47.656) as cover story. The new design leads to unprecedented tunability and programmability based on gear clusters embracing traditional Chinese Taiji pattern. The work was also reported by Nature (606, 2022) as research highlight, which states “Sheets of connected gears made from various materials can morph from soft and deformable to extremely stiff, all while bearing heavy loads … Such clusters of gears could be a way to make machine parts that have controllable elasticity but are still strong. For example, robots with appendages that soften and stiffen on demand would be able to jump and grab objects easily”. The paper was the fruit of the research work of Dr Fang Xin, Hong Kong scholar in ME under the supervision of Prof. Cheng, in collaboration with National University of Defense Technology and Fraunhofer for Mechanics of Materials, Germany. Meanwhile, significant progress has been made on the topological design of metasurface for acoustic and elastic wave manipulation. In particular, the group proposed a systematic inverse design paradigm, which leads to a new class of metasurfaces allowing for various exotic wave functionalities (steering, focusing, levitation). They reported the combined effects of topology-specific internal resonances, bi-anisotropic and multiple scattering, which lead to record-breaking broadband and achromatic material properties. The work was online published in National Science Review (IF 23.178) with Dr. Dong Haowen as the leading author, who is another Hong Kong scholar working with Prof. Cheng (2019-2020). Other related works on broadband pentamode metamaterials and elastic waves have also been published in prestigious journals like Journal of Mechanics of physics and Solids 2020, 2021), Acta Materialia (2019) and Physical Review Applied (2022).   

Professor Su Zhongqing elected Distinguished Fellow of IIAV

Prof. Su Zhongqing, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has recently been elected a Distinguished Fellow of the International Institute of Acoustics and vibration (IIAV). IIAV Distinguished Fellowship is awarded to individuals with distinguished careers in acoustics and/or vibration. IIAV is an international society with members from all over the world. The purpose of the IIAV is to advance the science of acoustics and vibration by creating an international scientific society that is responsive to the needs of scientists and engineers in all countries whose primary interests are in the fields of acoustics and vibration. IIAV organizes an annual premier world event, the International Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV), which combines all areas of acoustics, noise and vibration. PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering was the host of the 8th edition of the ICSV in 2001.

Professor Chen Guohua elected Chairman of World Chemical Engineering Council

Prof. Chen Guohua, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart and Sustainable Energy, Chair Professor of Energy Conversion and Storage, has been elected the Chairman of the World Chemical Engineering Council (WCEC) in recognition of his distinguished achievements in serving the Council with top quality engineering expertise. Prof. Chen has been the Vice Chairman of WCEC since 2017. WCEC is the international organization coordinating the academic exchanges among chemical engineers world-wide. It is composed of representatives of the World's leading Chemical Engineering Societies from countries including China, USA, Japan, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Africa, and regional confederations including Asian-Pacific Confederation of Chemical Engineering, European Federation of Chemical Engineering, Inter-American Confederation of Chemical Engineering. Professor Guohua Chen is an outstanding chemical engineer, a renowned expert in electrochemical technologies for sustainable development, a highly successful mentor and university administrator. He leads the commercialization of proprietary technologies for energy storage applications, with world leading performance. He has published over 300 journal papers with very top academic impact. He is an assiduous advocate for global collaboration, serving on a number of international councils and editing for prestigious journals, including CanJChE, CJChE, SEPPUR and PSEP. He is a fellow of AIChE and HKIE, respectively. He works enthusiastically in increasing chemical engineering impact globally. Learn more about World Chemical Engineering Council.

Success in securing GRF/ECS 2022/23

In the 2022/23 results of grants from the Research Grants Council’s General Research Fund (GRF) and Early Career Scheme (ECS) announced in June 2022, ME’s success rate was 29% in 2022/23 exercise.  Seven of our GRF/ECS proposals were funded. Congratulations to the following colleagues who were successful in securing a GRF/ECS grant in this round. Principal Investigator Co-Investigator Project Title Prof. Cheng Li Dr Zhang Xiaoqi (Wuhan University of Technology) Dr Yu Xiang (Institute of High Performance Computing, A*Star ) Sonic Black Holes in a Perforated Boundary-modulated Retarding Structure Prof. Fu Mingwang Nil Multiscale defects in metal additive manufacturing and their avoidance via defect and part size scale oriented process control and optimization Dr Li Mengying Nil Novel Hybrid Approach for High-fidelity Intra-hour Forecasting of Directional Solar Irradiance Dr Ma Yuan Nil Re-inventing Surface Haptics for Robust Human-Machine Interactions: from New Modelling to Psychophysical Evaluation Dr Ruan Haihui Dr Huang Bolong (ABCT) Modeling of pyrolysis towards precision glassy carbon geometry: an endeavor for high-temperature precision glass molding Prof. Su Zhongqing Prof SOHN Hoon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Fully Non-contact, Micron-scale 3-D Imaging of Stacked Systems Using Femtosecond-laser-induced Thermoelastic Wave and Its Instantaneous Perturbation to Full-field Optical Polarization Dr Wu Maochun Prof Zhao Tianshou (HKUST) Bubble Dynamics and Mass Transport in Tri-electrode Zinc-Air Flow Batteries

ME PhD students clinch Top Awards in Faculty 3MT Competition

Terrific! Two research students representing the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) won the Champion, First Runner-up and People’s Choice Award in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition 2022 organized by the PolyU Faculty of Engineering. 3MT® celebrates the exciting research conducted by research postgraduate students. Developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, the competition cultivates students’ academic presentation and research communication skills, and supports their capacity to effectively explain their research and its significance in three minutes, in a language appropriate to non-specialist audiences. 3MT® is now a globally recognized competition that has been held in over 900 universities across more than 80 countries worldwide. On 30 June 2022, the PolyU Faculty of Engineering held the 3MT Competition. Seven affiliated departments nominated their research students to participate in it. The participants each delivered a high-impact brief presentation within 3-minute. Most of them demonstrated good academic pitching skills. A panel of judges by representatives from the seven affiliated departments was formed and selected the best presenters. Winners of the 3MT Competition 2022 Champion: ECCEL VELLWOCK Andre Department of Mechanical Engineering  First Runner-up: LABAZANOVA Luiza Department of Mechanical Engineering Second Runner-up: LYU Cheng Department of Electrical Engineering  People’s Choice Award: (by audience ballot)  ECCEL VELLWOCK Andre Department of Mechanical Engineering We are very proud of the outstanding performance by the PolyU ME PhD students, ECCEL VELLWOCK Andre and LABAZANOVA Luiza, stood out from the rest, triumphed in the competition.  Andre is currently a PhD student in ME under the supervision of Dr Yao Haimin. “Anything fishy?” is the title about his research project for this competition. Luiza is a PhD in ME supervised by Dr Navarro-Alarcon David. The title about her research project is “Self-Reconfigurable Soft-Rigid Robots with Variable Morphology”.

Professor Chen Guohua elected into the Canadian Academy of Engineering

Prof. Chen Guohua, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Smart and Sustainable Energy, Chair Professor of Energy Conversion and Storage, has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). The announcement was made by President Yves Beauchamp of the CAE at its Annual General Meeting on June 13, 2022. Prof. Chen is among 54 new Fellows elected into the academy this year. Election to the Canadian Academy of Engineering is one of the highest honours in engineering. Fellows of the CAE are nominated and elected by their peers, in view of their distinguished achievements and career-long service to the engineering profession. Chen’s CAE citation reads: “Professor Guohua Chen is an outstanding chemical engineer, a renowned expert in electrochemical technologies for sustainable development, a highly successful mentor and university administrator. He leads the commercialization of proprietary technologies for energy storage applications, with world leading performance. He has published over 300 journal papers with very top academic impact. He is an assiduous advocate for global collaboration, serving on a number of international councils and editing for prestigious journals, including CanJChE, CJChE, SEPPUR and PSEP. He is a fellow of AIChE and HKIE, respectively. He works enthusiastically in increasing chemical engineering impact globally.” The Canadian Academy of Engineering – Media Release: Learn more

ME Staff Honoured for 2021 Long Service Award

Colleagues of the PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) have always been devoting themselves to the development of ME. This year, the Department Head Prof. Su Zhongqing, on behalf of the University, paid tribute to long-serving staff members for their loyal and committed service over the years. Congratulations to the awardees and heartfelt thanks for their years of dedication and devotion which have marked the achievements of the Department. Long Service Award 2021 Award Recipients Length of Service 　Name   　Post Title 15 years 　Prof. Fu Mingwang 　傅銘旺 　Associate Director of Research Institute for     Advanced Manufacturing, Professor 20 years 　Ir Elsa Tang 　鄧慧芳 　Senior Instructor

Professor Fu Mingwang elected to 2022 SME College of Fellows

The Department is proud that Prof. Fu Mingwang has been elected to the 2022 SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) College of Fellows. This year, only eight individuals were elected to the 2022 SME College of Fellows. Prof. Fu has been the senior member of SME since 2000 and he was the only individual outside of the United States elected to the 2022 SME College of Fellows. Since 1986, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) College of Fellows has honored those members who have made outstanding contributions to the social, technological and educational aspects of the manufacturing profession. This is a highly prestigious honor that can only be earned through years (20 or more) of dedication and service. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers is the world’s leading professional society advancing manufacturing knowledge and influencing more than half a million manufacturing practitioners annually. SME's communities connect manufacturers to their peers by discipline, industry, or geographies – enabling powerful collaboration, strengthening networks, fostering research, surfacing experts, and enhancing knowledge. Election as an SME Fellow is limited to a select group of individuals each year, making it one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by SME. Learn more about SME College of Fellows.

Dr An Liang Appointed Subject Editor of Prestigious Elsevier Journal

Dr An Liang, Associate Professor of PolyU Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed as Subject Editor by the Editor-in-Chief of Applied Thermal Engineering, Elsevier, which is a peer-reviewed academic journal with an impact factor of 5.295 and rankings of 6/60 in “Thermodynamics” Subject Category and 13/135 in “Mechanics” Subject Category in 2020 JCR Science Edition. Applied Thermal Engineering disseminates novel research related to the design, development and demonstration of components, devices, equipment, technologies, systems and, in general, solutions involving thermal processes for the production, storage, utilization and conservation of energy, with a focus on engineering application. It is noted that papers concerned with the development and/or characterization of materials are only within scope if they include content relating to the implications of the employment of these materials in engineering applications, e.g., by considering their operation and/or performance within components, devices, equipment, technologies and/or wider thermal systems. For more information, please refer to https://www.journals.elsevier.com/applied-thermal-engineering.