News

PRI researchers develop the world’s first optical fibre-based data-driven predictive maintenance system

Tremendous pressure is being imposed on railway operators to enhance service reliability and infrastructure maintenance to reduce disruption arising from train, track and overhead power line failures. This requires condition-monitoring systems that can effectively and continuously monitor mission-critical components to produce big data in respect of railway asset maintenance for the development of advanced fault identification and prediction techniques. The research team led by Prof. Tam Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of the Photonics Research Institute (PRI), developed the world’s first optical fibre-based data-driven predictive maintenance system that enables railway industry to shift from costly and inefficient scheduled maintenance regimes to predictive maintenance. The system identifies defects in rail tracks, overhead power lines, wheel flats, and cracks in bogies and carriages. Five systems were installed in MTR Hong Kong and two in SMRT lines in Singapore in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The system monitors developing faults and had successfully predicted broken power line along the Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport Line in 2015, several weeks in advance. The goal is to herald a safer railway industry with reduced maintenance cost, and high quality of service. Please check the link for his interview with a TV programme :   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POcPJfU8VDc  (Chinese Only)

Webinar on Urban Informatics successfully concluded

The Webinar on Urban Informatics was successfully held online on 7 March 2022, attracting over 175,000 audience from Zoom as well as YouTube and Bilibili live-streaming.  The webinar was jointly organized by the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR), the Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute (SCRI), and the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; the International Society for Urban Informatics (ISUI); and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).  Introduced by Prof. Shi Wenzhong, Director of SCRI, Prof. Michael Batty of University College London, Emeritus Prof. Michael Goodchild of University of California Santa Barbara, Prof. Mei-Po Kwan of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prof. Carlo Ratti of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Prof. Eric Miller of University of Toronto shared their views in urban informatics, urban science, urban big data infrastructure, urban systems and applications, urban sensing as well as urban computing followed by a roundtable discussion. Please find the webinar recording from https://bit.ly/3w5drFM.

PAIR member joins the Experts Committee on Breastfeeding of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)

Prof. Man-sau Wong, Director of Research Centre for Chinese Medicine Innovation (RCMI), Steering Committee Member of Research Institute for Future Food (RiFood), Associate Dean of Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles (Research) at PolyU, has been invited as a Member of the Experts Committee on Breastfeeding of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Division for People recently. The primary purpose of the Experts Committee is to provide technical advice to the Division for People and, in this case, to the Global Breastfeeding Training initiative to strengthen its operations and increase its impact in the communities it serves.

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  

PRI researchers developed optical fibre sensing networks for medical applications

Cochlear implantation surgery is the current standard of care to treat profound sensorineural hearing loss. The quality of hearing restored to a deaf patient vastly depends on accurate positioning of the Electrode Array of the cochlear implant while preserving the delicate cochlear membranes. The research team led by Prof. Tam, Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of the Photonics Research Institute developed optical fibre sensing networks which facilitate medical doctors to monitor and perform surgery. The team developed fabricated novel ZEONEX based polymer optical fibers integrated with these cochlear implants aid in force detection and navigation in real-time during the implantation process. The low stiffness properties of these fibers compared to the widely used glass fibers can be considered as one of the key features that make them excellent candidates for this surgical prosthesis. The ZEONEX based polymeric fibers have also been incorporated in the assessment of femoral fracture recoveries. Femoral fracture is a life-threatening injury where early surgical stabilization is now the standard treatment for this injury to allow mobilization and rehabilitation. The outstanding flexibility of these novel fibers together with biocompatibility and insensitivity towards humidity permit them to be utilized with orthopaedic implants to estimate the recovery of the fractured femurs. This is carried out by observing the strain response of polymer optical fiber sensors to various loading and unloading conditions of the femurs. Please check the link for his interview with a TV programme  :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JED-AmdR10 (Chinese Only)

RI-IWEAR and PRI researchers developed retina-like sensors give machines better vision

Inspired by the human retina, Dr Chai Yang and his research teams at RI-IWEAR and PRI developed devices that can perceive objects in a light-intensity range substantially wider than that of state-of-the-art sensors based on silicon. Such instruments could improve the efficiency and reduce the complexity of machine-vision technology. The research achievement has been published in Nature Electronics and selected as the “Research Highlights” in Nature journal. Please click the following links for details: Nature Electronics: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-022-00713-1 Nature’s Research Highlights: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00360-8

PAIR's members honoured with the President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Knowledge Transfer 2021 of PolyU

Congratulations to the following research team leaders and team members from PAIR’s Research Institutes and Research Centres for honoured with the President’s Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Knowledge Transfer 2021 of PolyU! Category Project Leader and Members Related RIs/RCs Individual Awards in Knowledge Transfer: Industry Prof. Bo Wu RCDSE Ir Prof. Yongping Zheng RISA     Team Awards in Knowledge Transfer: Industry Prof. Tam Hwa-yaw Ir Dr Lee Kang Kuen Dr S.Y.M. Liu Dr Stephen Cho Mr David H.Y. Au PRI   Prof. Tao Xiaoming Prof. Xu Bingang Dr Hua Tao RI-IWEAR Prof. To Chi-ho Prof. Carly S.Y. Lam Dr Dennis Tse Yan-yin RCSV Ir Prof. Wang Shengwei Prof. Xiao Fu Dr H.X. Li Dr Shan Kui RISE Ir Prof. K.L. Yung Mr Ko Sui Man Mr Sam C.W. Lam Dr Kwan Folk Year Mr Chan Chi Leung Dr James Foster Mr Tang Jing Jung Ms Nicole Chan Chi-wa Mr Eno Ho-yat Lam Mr Michael Lok Ching-ho Mr Sky Tam Ms Joanne Wong Mr Choi Sheung Wai Ir Dr Robert W.M. Tam Mr Kong Kang Hoi Ir Juliana M.Y. Tam Mr Chan Kwan Yau Mr Chang Ka Ho Mr Cheung Cheuk Kin Mr Dragon Li Yan-lung Mr Wan Chan Tong Mr Yu Tin Lun Mr Tang Wing Lok Mr Wan Chin Ting Billy Mr Ho Yiu Cheong Mr So Kin Tak Mr Chan Chi Keung Mr Man Chan RCDSE            

PAIR's members won the Faculty/School Awards 2021 in Knowledge Transfer of PolyU

Congratulations to the following award recipients of the Faculty/School Awards 2021 in Knowledge Transfer of PolyU! Category Faculty/School Sub-category Project Leader and Team Members Related RIs/RCs Individual Awards FAST Industry Prof. L. Li RI-IWEAR FAST Dr Liu Rong Sally RI-IWEAR FB Industry Dr Yong Jimmy Jin RiFood and RIAIoT FCE Industry Prof. Bo Wu RCDSE FENG Industry Ir Prof. Yongping Zheng RISA SD Society Ir Prof. Kin Wai Michael Siu RISUD Team Awards FCE Society Prof. John W.Z. Shi Dr Zhang Anshu Dr Zhang Min SCRI FENG Industry Prof. Tam Hwa-yaw Ir Dr Lee Kang Kuen Dr S.Y.M. Liu Dr Stephen Cho Mr David H.Y. Au PRI Ir Prof. K.L. Yung Mr Ko Sui Man Mr Sam C.W. Lam Dr Kwan Folk Year Mr Chan Chi Leung Dr James Foster Mr Tang Jing Jung Ms Nicole Chan Chi-wa Mr Eno Ho-yat Lam Mr Michael Lok Ching-ho Mr Sky Tam Ms Joanne Wong Mr Choi Sheung Wai Ir Dr Robert W.M. Tam Mr Kong Kang Hoi Ir Juliana M.Y. Tam Mr Chan Kwan Yau Mr Chang Ka Ho Mr Cheung Cheuk Kin Mr Dragon Li Yan-lung Mr Wan Chan Tong Mr Yu Tin Lun Mr Tang Wing Lok Mr Wan Chin Ting Billy Mr Ho Yiu Cheong Mr So Kin Tak Mr Chan Chi Keung Mr Man Chan RCDSE FHSS Industry Prof. To Chi-ho Prof. Carly S.Y. Lam Dr Dennis Tse Yan-yin RCSV

RISUD's director receives Clair C. Patterson Award for outstanding achievements in environmental geochemistry

Professor Xiang-dong LI, Dean of Faculty of Construction and Environment and Director of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), was honoured with the Clair C. Patterson Award 2022 in recognition of his innovative and dynamic work in environmental geochemistry, including research in the fields of regional contamination, urban air PM2.5 pollution, and the origin and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance. The Clair C. Patterson Award is presented to only one recipient annually by the Geochemical Society for an innovative breakthrough in environmental geochemistry of fundamental significance within the last decade, particularly in service to society. Congratulations to Prof. Li ! Please click here for more details.