News

RCRE: The interdisciplinary solid waste recycling research centre for carbon neutrality technology and policy

The Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality (RCRE) is PAIR's constiutuent research unit for cutting-edge technology and policy research in solid waste recycling issues, a critical area in achieving carbon neutrality to tackle climate change. RCRE will focus its efforts on four research directions, including policy and society, environmental and economic impact, waste-to-resource technology, as well as recycling and sustainable construction. Let's click this link to check out the vision, research directions and mission of this newly established Research Centre!  

PolyU develops seamless urban navigation system

Professor Chen Wu, PolyU’s Associate Director of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things and Head of Department of Land Surveying and Geo- Informatics, led a research team to develop a Seamless Urban Navigation System. Applying this novel system, the positioning accuracy is within 10 metres for smartphones. To achieve high precision positioning, researchers integrated measurements provided by multiple GNSSs - China’s BeiDou, the US’s GPS, Europe’s Galileo and Russia’s GLONASS.  The system also won a Silver Medal in the Special Edition 2021 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Days - Virtual Event and a Hong Kong Smart City Award (Smart Mobility Category) in 2018. Please click here to view more detail about the report.  

New far infrared fibre with great potential for functional and healthcare textiles developed

Prof. Lilly Li, a member of Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems and PolyU’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing, has developed a new way of producing fibres that can absorb and emit far-infrared (FIR) radiation more efficiently than conventional methods. The novel technology can be used to produce high-quality, functional apparel and healthcare products. Unlike the traditional method, Prof. Li’s innovative approach is chemical-free. It is more eco-friendly and cost-effective than the traditional one. It works by modifying the structure of the cross-section of man-made fibres from a conventional circular shape to a triangular one, which is significantly better at both FIR absorption and emission.   The innovation has won Prof. Li a Gold Medal and a Special Merit Award (the Best International Invention, National Research Council of Thailand) at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva 2019 and a Gold Award at the 4th China (Shanghai) International Exhibition of Invention and Innovation 2021.    Please click here to view more detail about the report.

Monitoring medical conditions from inside the body with optical fibre microsensors

Professor Tam Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute, Chair Professor of Photonics and Head of PolyU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, has led a research team to develop novel fibre optic microsensors, which can be implanted into people’s bodies to enable more accurate medical surveillance for surgery and treatment. The research team used an advanced plastic material, ZEONEX, to develop the microsensors, while they also added a ‘side hole’ inside the optical fibres to enhance their sensitivity. Named the “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors”, the microsensors are biocompatible, supple and extremely sensitive to very small pressure changes inside human bodies. It can be made as small as a few micrometres and their sensitivity to pressure is 20 times that of traditional optical fibre sensors. Also, as the microsensors are humidity insensitive, shatter-resistant, chemically inert and biocompatible, they can potentially be used for a broader range of medical applications. The “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors” research findings were published in 2021 in US-based The Optical Society’s Optics Letters. Some of the applications jointly developed with other universities have already been granted patents. Please click here to view more detail about the report.

Chief Executive visits PolyU’s space and advanced materials laboratories

The Chief Executive of the HKSAR Mrs Carrie Lam visited PolyU to learn more about its research projects. Mrs Lam toured the Precision Robotics Laboratory of the Research Centre for Deep Space Exploration (RCDSE) and the University Research Facility in Materials Characterization and Device Fabrication (UMF). https://polyu.hk/GNCiN  

Knowledge transfer gains HK$800M for PolyU

According to the Annual Reports on Knowledge Transfer for the year 2020/21 of the publicly funded universities published recently by the University Grants Committee, the total income generated from knowledge transfer of six out of the eight institutions amounted to about HK$5.31 billion, representing an increase of 15.9% compared to last year.    At PolyU, the income from knowledge transfer increased to HK$800 million from HK$690 million last year, also representing a 15.9% increase compared to last year.  Besides, PolyU has achieved excellence in IP licensing, with an accumulated total of 148 by far.

PAIR director shares his vision in PolyU publication

Professor Chen Qingyan, Director of PAIR, is featured in the latest issue of Excel x Impact published by PolyU sharing his story and vision in driving interdisciplinary research for societal impact. Read the full story: https://polyu.hk/OPhMl 

Prof. Jiannong Cao, Director of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), named the Fellow of China Computer Federation

Prof. Jiannong Cao, Director of Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Things (RIAIoT), Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Professor in Data Science and Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing, has recently been named the Fellow of China Computer Federation (CCF). Professor Cao’s research interests cover parallel and distributed computing, big data and machine learning, wireless networking and mobile computing, and cloud and edge computing. On top of five co-authored and nine co-edited books, he has published over 500 papers in major international journals and conferences. His outstanding researches have made him one of the most decorated scholars in his field, and the honour from CCF further reflects Prof. Cao’s outstanding accomplishments in the field of computer science for the advancement of public benefit. Congratulations to Prof. Cao on attaining this honour!  

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

PAIR Director’s research team can accurately simulate SARS-COV-2 transmissions and infections on airliner flights

On 20 January 2022, Wiley, a multinational publishing company, issued the following press release about recent work conducted by Professor Chen’s team. A study published in Indoor Air simulated the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on a flight from London to Hanoi and on another flight from Singapore to Hangzhou. When simulating the dispersion of droplets of different sizes generated by coughing, talking, and breathing activities in an airline cabin by an infected person, researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 virus contained in such droplets traveled with the cabin air distribution and was inhaled by other passengers. The scientists counted the number of viral copies inhaled by each passenger to determine infection. Their method correctly predicted 84% of the infected/uninfected cases on the first flight. The team also found that wearing masks and reducing conversation frequency between passengers could help to reduce the risk of exposure on the second flight. “We are very pleased to see that our model validated by experimental data can achieve such a high accuracy in predicting COVID-19 transmission in airliner cabins,” said corresponding author Dayi Lai, PhD, Associate Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Architecture, School of Design of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in China. “Also, it’s important to know that wearing masks makes a significant impact on reducing the transmission.” This study was published in Indoor Air. To view the journal article, please click this link.  Please refer to the following links for the media interviews:  Science Daily Daily Mail EurekAlert Archyde The Jerusalem Post News Wise Eminetra Canarian Weekly News Medical Life Sciences Medical Xpress Opera News SC Online News