News

RILS project on rainfall characterisation awarded Public Policy Research Funding

Dr WANG Shuo, Member of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, has been awarded a funding of HK$470,350 in the 2022/23 Public Policy Research Funding Scheme for the project titled “Incorporating Spatial Heterogeneity of Rainfall Response to Climate Change into the Design of Slope Drainage Provisions in Hong Kong”. The project aims to enhance the rainfall intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) curves currently adopted in Hong Kong by capturing and incorporating the changes in the spatial distribution of rainfall in response to climate change. The IDF curves are mathematical functions which show the relationship between the intensity, duration, and frequency of rainfall. The distribution of rainfall has been shown to be highly variable due to the intensifying global water cycle under global warming. The existing rain gauge-specific IDF curves adopted in Hong Kong are derived from measurements on rain gauges at predefined locations. The curves should therefore not be applied to nearby ungauged areas in Hong Kong; otherwise, the results can be unreliable or even misleading. The project will create grid-based IDF curves, i.e., new curves with higher grid resolution, increase the accuracy and reliability of IDF curves. The new curves will be created based on urban climate simulation to better capture the heterogeneous spatial distribution of rainfall, thereby increasing the applicability of IDF curves for the ungauged areas in Hong Kong. The research outcomes will facilitate the policy-making in addressing the challenges of climate-induced extreme rainstorms, as well as the planning and development for climate-resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure in Hong Kong.

RAIoT's research project granted the fifth batch of Smart Traffic Fund

Dr Ivan Ho, Member of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things and Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, was awarded over HK$1.3 million in the fifth batch of Smart Traffic Fund for his project “Channel State Information-Learning-based Passenger Counting System on Public Transport Vehicles”.   More: PolyU Two Projects Granted the Fifth Batch of Smart Traffic Fund | Research and Innovation Office

RILS scholar wins in the first round of Public Policy Research Funding Scheme 2022/23

The project led by RILS' member, Dr Xiaolin ZHU, Assistant Professor of Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), has been awarded a funding of HK$281,060 from the first round of the Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme, managed by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office. This project is one of the only two projects receiving funds out of 27 applications.   Illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) materials can lead to severe environmental issues (e.g., destroyed wetlands), life and property risks (e.g., landslide), hygiene problems (e.g., clogging waterways), public health hazards (e.g., breeding germs), and urban planning issues (e.g., seizing public lands). Illegal dumping has become the third-largest source of pollution complaints in Hong Kong since 2020. With the anticipated saturation of the landfills’ capacity, public concern for illegal dumping becomes even more intensive. Illegal dumping of C&D tends to be stealthy, concealed and scattered, making it difficult to track the activities over a large area. Therefore, the capability for detecting illegal dumping should be enhanced urgently to maintain a clean and healthy city environment and to construct a liveable and competitive city.   Dr ZHU’s project provides not only an overview of the suspicious illegal dumping activities in Hong Kong, but also an effective approach to deploy manpower optimally across the relevant government departments for illegal dumping management. The departments can also determine their responsibilities based on the geographical distribution of the illegal dumping activities and other complementary data, such as land use maps. This project will not only contribute to detection of occurrence of illegal activities for the early warning but also to assessment of recovery works after a site is destroyed by illegally deposited C&D, as an essential part of illegal dumping management.   Please click here for more information about the research reports under PPR Funding Schemes.

MHRC Associate Director receives funding to develop digital platform for pandemic support

Congratulations to Prof. Hector Tsang, Associate Director of the Mental Health Research Centre, Chair Professor and Head of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, for receiving HK$500,000 from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Trust - COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund 2.0! The fund aims to provide fast-track grants to NGOs for offering quick, specific and innovative services to people hard-hit by the pandemic and fostering mutual help in the community to fight against the pandemic. In view of the rapid and serious fifth wave of the COVID-19 since early this year, the Hong Kong Government has tightened the social distancing measures and raised the response level to Emergency, people who are financially deprived and from vulnerable or disability groups are seriously affected. The funded project titled “Development of a digital platform (Electronic Mental Evaluation, Resources and Information Toolkit; e-MERIT) for pandemic support on the mental health of the vulnerable groups” aims to provide imminent support in mental health context for the betterment of local vulnerable communities. It is our great pleasure to join hands with the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Trust to fight against COVID-19! We wish the mental health digital platform every success! 

Mental Health Research Centre develops mobile game for patients with cognitive impairments

Cognitive functions play a causal role in eliciting psychiatric symptoms. Team members of the Mental Health Research Centre has developed a mobile game in response to the living needs of patients with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer's disease. The application integrates life scenes into mobile game, perform training in familiar virtual environment, and AI automatically adjust difficulty, making the game more challenging. It is effective in maintaining the patient’s brain functions, such as calculation and decision-making ability, and improving their safety awareness, thereby improving their mental health and reducing the chance of depression and anxiety disorders.The project has been granted HK$1.9 million from the Innovation and Technology Fund for Better Living under the Innovation and Technology Bureau earlier to promote R&D and application.   

PAIR’s research institutes and research centres attain excellent results in the Environment and Conservation Fund 2021-22 research funding exercise

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved excellent results in the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) 2021-22 funding exercise for Environmental Research, Technology Demonstration and Conference Projects. The ECF was set up by the Government in 1994 for funding educational and research projects on environmental and conservation matters. Research and Technology Demonstration Projects awarded by the ECF will contribute in a direct and practical way towards environmental improvement and conservation of the local environment, or promote and encourage adoption of green technologies in Hong Kong. Among the 41 awarded research projects from local UGC-funded universities, PolyU received the highest number of projects awarded and topped the amount of funding granted. In all, the University received a total of HK$10 million in funding from the ECF, supporting 13 research projects ranging from the study of how high purity oxygen could enhance sewage treatment, using remote sensing technology and AI for monitoring oil spills in the sea, producing hydrogen while purifying wastewater simultaneously by solar power, to the development of a smart robot that can pick up and sort litter in difficult terrain automatically.  In which, 10 research projects with the total of HK$8.5 million in funding from the ECF were granted to the following PAIR’s constituent research units:   Project Lead Researcher Funding Amount Related RI/RC Engineering a microbial biosensor for monitoring microplastics pollution Dr CHUA Song Lin Assistant Professor, ABCT HK$499,000 RCDSE Green Conversion of Microalgal Biomass into High Value Products Dr YUNG Ka-fu Associate Professor, ABCT HK$498,000 RISE Optimal design of high performance textile-based solar steam generator by tunable capillary evaporation Dr SHOU Dahua Assistant Professor, ITC HK$485,300 RISE Innovative Bifacial Solar Photovoltaic: from theoretical model to its practical application in Hong Kong Ir Prof. LU Lin Vivien Professor, BEEE HK$494,000 RISE and RISUD World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) VOC Expert Workshop Ir Prof. GUO Hai Professor, CEE HK$500,000 RISUD Study of High Purity Oxygen Aeration for Biological Polishing of Chemical Enhanced Primary Treated Sewage Effluent and Cellulase Production from Sludge Dr LEU Shao Yuan Associate Professor, CEE HK$1,999,800 RISUD and RCRE Recycling yard waste into new-generation biochar adsorbents for CO2 and VOCs removal Prof. Dan TSANG Professor, CEE HK$1,179,557 RCRE Climate-Resilient Planning and Design for Coastal Stormwater Drainage Systems Dr WANG Shuo Assistant Professor, LSGI HK$490,600 RILS A multi-source remote sensing based technique for monitoring oil spills Prof. Charles Man-sing WONG Professor, LSGI HK$1,920,520 RILS Intelligent monitoring and diagnosis platform for second-life battery energy storage systems based on artificial intelligence and internet of things technologies Dr WANG Minghao Research Assistant Professor, EE HK$499,000 RISE Total Funding Amount: HK$8,565,777  

Interdisciplinary research projects under PAIR received huge grant

The Research Grant Committee (RGC) announced the funding results of the Research Impact Fund (RIF) 2021/22, Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) in 2021/22 and Second Round One-off CRF COVID-19 and Novel Infectious Diseases (NID) Research Exercise earlier this year.  Seven interdisciplinary research projects conducted by PAIR’s constituent research units received over HK$36 million grant in total.  Research project Project Coordinator Research Institute / Research Centre involved Amount awarded RGC CRF 2021/22 Research Equipment Grant High performance deep learning clusters for big data analytics Prof. Chen Xiaojun RIAIoT, SCRI and RCSV $3,099,659 Advanced Fourier-transform Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectrometer for Molecular and Nano Functional Materials Research Prof. Raymond Wong Wai-yeung RISE and RI-IWEAR $7,964,914 RGC CRF 2021/22 Research Project Grant Study of Carbon Sequestration in Hong Kong’s Vegetation: from Present to Future Prediction under Climate Change Prof. Charles Wong Man-sing RILS and RISUD $4,949,639 RGC Research Impact Fund 2021/22 Deeper understanding of Color Matching Mechanism for Developing High-quality Lighting and Imaging Systems Dr Tommy Wei Minchen PRI and RISUD   Total amount of $8,800,000 Reliable Multiagent Collaborative Global Navigation Satellite System Positioning for Intelligent Transportation Systems Dr Hsu Li Ta RISUD and RIAIoT Second Round One-off CRF COVID-19 and NID Research Exercise in 2021/22 Is the usual social distance sufficient to avoid airborne infection of expiratory droplets in indoor environments? Prof. Guo Hai RILS and RISUD $4,703,090 Spatiotemporal prediction and real-time early warning of COVID-19 onset risk Prof. John Shi Wenzhong SCRI $6,964,000