News

Delegation from Development Bureau and Civil Engineering and Development Department visit SCRI

A delegation led by Mr Ricky LAU, JP, Permanent Secretary for Development (Works) of Development Bureau and Mr Michael FONG, JP, Director of Civil Engineering and Development, visited the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) on 24 November 2023 for exploring potential research collaboration opportunities. During the visit, the delegation was introduced to some of SCRI’s research innovations including the 3D mobile mapping systems and the smart city platform.

Ten PAIR academics recognised amongst world’s most highly cited researchers

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has achieved the third highest number of the world’s most highly cited researchers in Hong Kong in the list of “Highly Cited Researchers 2023” by Clarivate Analytics. A total of 15 PolyU academics (including two former PolyU scholars) have been named on the list, and ten of them are PAIR members. This year, a total of 6,849 researchers from 67 countries and regions across a diverse range of research fields have received the designations. The list identifies the most influential scholars from around the world, determined by their production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for their field(s) and publication year in the Web of Science citation index over the past decade. The named PAIR researchers are as follows: Name Title and Affiliated PAIR Constituent Research Unit Prof. Daniel S.P. LAU Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Management Committee Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. LI Gang Associate Director of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Management Committee Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Prof. LOH Kian Ping Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Prof. Geoffrey Q. P. SHEN Management Committee Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Member of Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI) Prof. WANG Zuankai Member of Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports) Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Prof. WU Tao, Tom Member Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. YAN Feng Associate Director of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) Member of Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology (RISports) Dr ZHANG Xiao Member of Research Institute for Advanced Manufacturing (RIAM) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Prof. YAN Jinyue Jerry Management Committee Member of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE) Dr HUANG Bolong Member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR) Member of Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE)   Further reading: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/en/media/media-releases/2023/1121_15-polyu-academics-recognised-amongst-worlds-most-highly-cited-researchers/

PAIR welcomes new Research Institute Associate Directors

PAIR is pleased to announce the following Associate Directorship appointments in our constituent research units: Prof. ZHAO Xiaolin, Chair Professor of Civil Infrastructure of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed as Associate Director of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS) with effect from 1 December 2023. Prof. Charles M. S. WONG, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Construction and Environment and Professor of the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, and Prof. YU Tao, Associate Director of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations and Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have been appointed as Associate Directors of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) with effect from 1 January 2024.

PAIR to organise distinguished lecture on high performance computing

PAIR cordially invites you to join our Distinguished Lecture on 6 December 2023 (Wednesday) at 10:15am–11:45am (Hong Kong Time) on PolyU campus and via Zoom. The lecture, titled “An Overview of High Performance Computing and Future Requirements” will be delivered by 2021 A. M. Turing Award Laureate Prof. Jack DONGARRA, University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee, USA. In the lecture, Prof. Dongarra will discuss how high performance computing has changed over the last ten years and its future trends. These changes have had and will continue to impact our numerical scientific software significantly. A new generation of software libraries and algorithms are needed for the effective and reliable use of (wide area) dynamic, distributed, and parallel environments. Some of the software and algorithm challenges have already been encountered, such as the management of communication and memory hierarchies through a combination of compile-time and run-time techniques, but the increased scale of computation, depth of memory hierarchies, range of latencies, and increased run-time environment variability will make these problems much harder. Prof. Dongarra specialises in numerical algorithms in linear algebra, parallel computing, the use of advanced computer architectures, programming methodology and tools for parallel computers. He holds appointments at the University of Manchester, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee, where he founded the Innovative Computing Laboratory. In 2019 he received the ACM/SIAM Computational Science and Engineering Prize. In 2020 he received the IEEE-CS Computer Pioneer Award. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and SIAM; a foreign member of the British Royal Society and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Most recently, he received the 2021 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his pioneering contributions to numerical algorithms and software that have driven decades of extraordinary progress in computing performance and applications. Prof. Dongarra is also a Distinguished Fellow of the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research. Don’t miss the chance to learn from distinguished scholar! Find out more and register at: https://polyu.hk/gPLgb

SCRI MC Member receives best paper award at international conference

Congratulation to Prof. LU Haitian, Management Committee Member of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI), for receiving the Best Paper Award for his paper titled “Extracting Scenarios from Autonomous-Vehicle-Involved Crashes” at the 18th International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Knowledge Engineering held in Fuzhou, China on 17–19 November 2023.

MHRC study reveals that apelin mediates the antidepressant effects of physical exercise

Dr Sonata YAU, Member of the Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC) and Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, presented at the annual meeting of The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2023 in Washington DC, United States.  The abstract entitled “Potential role of apelin in mediating the antidepressant effects of physical exercise” was selected by the Society of Neuroscience for press conference this year.  Out of over 12,500 abstracts submitted to the meeting, less than 50 are being offered this prestigious opportunity of speaking directly to the media. The study revealed that apelin, a muscle-secreted peptide, is important for mediating the antidepressant effects of physical exercise. Sarcopenia, a muscle ageing condition, is strongly correlated with geriatric depression, but the exact muscle-brain crosstalk isn’t well understood. Previous research has shown that apelin is linked to sarcopenia, and is also associated with hippocampal neuroplasticity and antidepressant effects. Using a mouse model of chronic unpredictable stress, Dr Yau and her research team showed that stressed mice exhibited decreased apelin expression levels in the hippocampus, which could be restored by 4-week physical running. Knockout of apelin specifically in skeletal muscle reduced the antidepressant effects of exercise, whereas overexpression of muscle apelin elicited antidepressant effects. The research deepens our understanding of the potential role of apelin in mediating the crosstalk of the muscle-brain axis, and holds important implications for understanding stress-related disorders.

RILS project supported by CEPU’s Public Policy Research Funding Scheme

A project led by Prof. WANG Yuhong, Member of the Research Institute for Land and Space (RILS), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy (RISE), Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD) and Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE), was awarded a funding of HK$775,100 under the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPRFS) 2023/24 (First Round) of the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit (CEPU). The project “How to Effectively Implement Nature-Base Solutions (NBS) in Urban Development and Urban Renewal – A Comparison Study of Policies between Hong Kong and Leading European Cities” lasts 23 months and is granted the highest funding amount in this cycle. The PPRFS aims to support projects of smaller scale and shorter duration that that will inform the Government’s policy making process, drive changes, keep up with national development and international trends, and contribute to policy development. Reports from supported projects may be used as reference by relevant policy bureaux or departments in policy formulation and review process. Online coverage: Oriental Daily News - https://polyu.me/3ue9BLo (Chinese only)

PAIR to organise research seminar on Chinese medicine

PAIR cordially invites you to join our PAIR Seminar on 1 December 2023 (Friday) at 3:00–4:30 p.m. (Hong Kong Time) at AG204, PolyU campus or via Zoom. The seminar, titled “Challenges and Opportunities for Chinese Medicine Research”, will be delivered by Prof. CHE Chun-Tao, Harry H.S. Fong Professor of Pharmacognosy in the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine. In the Seminar, Prof. Che will share on the scientific challenges in Chinese medicine development in relation to the quality, safety, and effectiveness of herbal products, and how some of these difficulties present opportunities for international collaborative research to help meet the demands for high-quality Chinese medicine products. Prior to joining UIC, Prof. Che was the Director of the School of Chinese Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Trained as a pharmacognosist, Prof. Che has a broad background in botany, chemistry and pharmacology of herbal medicines. During the 40 years of career as a researcher and educator, Prof. Che has focused his research interest in the discovery of potential pharmaceutical substances from natural sources, including the isolation, structural elucidation and modification of biologically active substances from medicinal plants, as well as the analysis, quality assurance, and standardisation of plant-based preparations. Over 340 scientific papers have been published to his credit in the areas of pharmacognosy, natural products and Chinese/herbal medicines. Don’t miss the chance to learn from PAIR’s distinguished scholar! Find out more and register at: https://polyu.hk/eJZdY

MHRC members join healthtech project to improve mental health care

A healthtech project joined by three members of the Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC), titled “Integrated innovative artificial intelligence, and genomic and biomedical technologies in healthcare: Objective diagnosis, personalised therapy and determination the etiology of major mental disorders”, was awarded HK$37 million funding from the Strategic Topics Grant 2023/24 of the Research Grants Council (RGC).   The five-year project is led by Prof. ZHANG Weixiong, Chair Professor in Bioinformatics & Integrative Genomics in the Department of Health Technology and Informatics and the Department of Computing. The research team is joined by three MHRC members from the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences: Associate Professor Dr Sonata YAU is the Co-Principal Investigator, while Assistant Professors Dr Georg KRANZ and Dr Jessie LIN are the Co-Investigators. The project aims to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), genomic, biomedical and neuroimaging technologies to provide an innovative and integrated strategy for the diagnosis, treatment planning and understanding of major mental disorders. The AI-based, data-driven solution to be developed from the project will help improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment planning in mental health care. Further reading: https://polyu.hk/zoBrw

Two PAIR scholars win BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize

Two PAIR scholars have been awarded the BOCHK Science and Technology Innovation Prize (STIP) for their outstanding contributions to the scientific and technological innovation and transformation in Hong Kong. The two PAIR awardees are: Prof. Benny CHEUNG Chi-fai, Associate Director of the Research Centre for SHARP Vision (RCSV), Management Committee Member of the Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE) and Chair Professor of Ultra-precision Machining and Metrology—prize winner in the “Advanced Manufacturing” field; and Dr Daniel LUO Xiapu, Leading Member of the Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT) and Member of the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI)—prize winner in the “Fintech” field.   PolyU press release: https://polyu.hk/Prext   Online coverage: Sing Tao Daily - https://polyu.me/3MrOXOe Headline Daily - https://polyu.me/40iqvEI Wen Wei Po - https://polyu.me/3sfLICy Hong Kong Commercial Daily - https://polyu.me/3sg4mdz Economic Digest - https://polyu.me/47iK5mF Dot Dot News - https://polyu.me/40iQfAE Hong Kong China News Agency - https://polyu.me/46VlkwM RTHK - https://polyu.me/3SkwZ3Z Bastille Post - https://polyu.me/3MoG3AQ