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PolyU receives the most postdoctoral fellows in Hong Kong Scholars Program for the twelfth consecutive year

In the 2022 Hong Kong Scholars Program, 50 high-quality postdoctoral fellows under the age of 35 were selected from leading universities in Mainland China. PolyU has admitted 19 of them, accounting for the largest share of recruitment among the participating Hong Kong universities in the program. Since the first round of this program in 2011, PolyU has recruited the most fellows for the twelfth  consecutive year. This program  is jointly launched by the Society of Hong Kong Scholars and the China National Postdoctoral Council under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. It aims at effectively pooling talent and research resources of Hong Kong and the Mainland to train outstanding postdoctoral fellows, particularly in experimental science and engineering disciplines. Shortlisted fellows are required to be present in Hong Kong on or before 28 February 2023 to undertake research work with their supervisors. 19 academics  of PolyU will serve as supervisors to nurture the solicited fellows for two years to carry out high-level research work. The research projects cover various areas: mathematics, mechanical engineering, physics, materials science and engineering, electrical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, medical technology, surveying and mapping science and technology, chemical technology, and management science application. List of involved PolyU scholars and projects: Supervisor Project Title Prof Qiao Zhonghua Department of Applied Mathematics High order numerical methods for solving gradient flow problems Prof Dai Jiyan Department of Applied Physics Advanced energy storage thin film materials Prof Cheng Li Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Engineering Acoustic/structural wave manipulation and control for vibration/noise abatement and structural health monitoring Applications Dr Choy Yat Sze Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Aircraft engine noise control using thin and smart material Dr Tang Hui Associate Head (Research) and Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Machine Learning for Fluid Mechanics Prof Yan Feng Department of Applied Physics High-performance optoelectronic devices based on novel perovskite materials Prof Or Siu-wing Derek Department of Electrical Engineering Advanced Functional and Smart Materials for Emerging Sensing, Absorption, Catalytic, and Energy Applications Dr An Liang Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Electrochemical energy systems Prof Xiao Fu Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering Associate Dean (Partnership) of the Faculty of Construction and Environment Development of Smart Building Management Technologies Towards Carbon Neutrality Prof Xu Zhao Department of Electrical Engineering Control and analysis of future power systems under dual carbon transformation Prof Chai Yang Department of Applied Physics Associate Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Science Two-dimensional materials for nanoelectronics applications Ir Prof Yang Hongxing Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering Development of hybrid renewable energy systems with energy storage in buildings towards carbon neutrality Prof Tao Yu Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Innovative hybrid structures incorporating fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites Prof LIU Zhi-zhao George Associate Head (Partnership), Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics Understand the Water Vapor Characteristics during Typhoon using Beidou and GPS Satellite Observation Techniques in Support of Weather Forecasting Prof Dan Tsang Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Food waste upcycling into value-added products Dr Zhen Leng Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Critical Solutions to High-Performance Recycling of Various Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement Mixtures Containing Modifiers Prof Wang Tao Chair Professor of Atmospheric Environment, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Field and laboratory investigations of reactive bromine gases and their impact on winter air quality Prof Jing Cai Department of Health Technology and Informatics Cancer Radiotherapy Big Data Multi-omics Analysis Prof Ye Hengqing Department of Logistics & Maritime Studies Management science application to healthcare service (According to List of Hong Kong Scholars Program 2022)

China Merchant Group (CMG) Visited PolyU to Explore Collaboration in Innovation and Technology

On 6th Sept 2022, the delegation team of China Merchant Group (CMG) led by Mr. Deng Renjie, Executive Vice President, visited PolyU. Prof Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation) warmly welcomed Mr Deng and other senior management from CMG. He also introduced the research focus areas of PolyU and started a fruitful discussion with CMG to explore in-depth collaboration on innovation and technology, youth development as well as entrepreneurship. Prof Chao said, "PolyU continues to strive for impactful research to address societal challenges by cooperating with local, regional and global partners. It is anticipated that PolyU and CMG could further collaborate and contribute to the development of Hong Kong SAR into an international innovation and technology hub." CMG Delegation team then visited the Chinese National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Centre (Hong Kong Branch), the Chinese National Engineering Research Centre for Steel Construction (Hong Kong Branch) and the Laboratory for Smart City and Spatial Big Data Analytics to understand more about the research advancement of PolyU in smart rail technologies, high-strength steel construction projects and smart city solutions.  

PolyU approves funding of over HK$50 million to support eight research centres

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has recently approved a total grant of HKD 50.75m to support eight Research Centres, including five new and three existing centres, to develop new research niche areas and further enhance some focused research areas. Each centre will have one-off funding support of HKD 7.5 million, including matching funds from their departments, schools or faculties for a period of 3 years. The establishment of these new research centres will strengthen the University’s research capacity as well as enhance our research visibility. Prof Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation) and Chairman of the Research Committee, said, “Each of these funded centres has a solid and complementary base of expertise and is committed to conducting impactful research. The newly established centres specialising in different fields will generate innovative solutions that synthesise and address the development needs of the new era. PolyU will continue to spare no effort in supporting interdisciplinary research and expanding our talent pool.” The five newly set up Research Centres (in alphabetical order): Colour, Imaging, and Metaverse Research Centre, led by Dr Minchen Tommy WEI, Associate Professor of the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering It aims to carry out high-impact fundamental research about human vision, colour and imaging science, develop algorithms and solutions for systems, and be a pioneer in exploiting the potential to use metaverse for treatment, rehabilitation, education, and design. Research Centre for Blockchain Technology, led by Dr Xiapu Daniel LUO, Associate Professor of the Department of Computing It is dedicated to tackling fundamental problems at different layers of blockchain systems and cross-layer research issues. It will explore strategic application areas, like blockchain-empowered smart cities, blockchain for finance, and blockchain-enabled digital government. Research Centre for Carbon-Strategic Catalysis, led by Dr Bolong HUANG, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology It aims to offer a comprehensive platform to achieve more impactful outputs on the advanced catalyst design and synthesis for sustainable energy development strategies, with a long-term vision of significantly contributing to achieving carbon neutrality. Research Centre for Future (Caring) Mobility, led by Prof. Stephen Jia WANG, School of Design It represents a vision of cutting-edge “STEAM” (STEM + Art & Design) and an innovative design approach emphasising on living, caring, and wellbeing under various mobility scenarios. It is determined to tackle real-world challenges such as future caring in transportation, automobile cybersecurity, smart city fluidity, and more. Research Centre for Quantitative Finance, led by Prof. Min DAI, Chair Professor in Applied Statistics and Financial Mathematics, Department of Applied Mathematics It will focus on cutting-edge research in three topical areas of quantitative finance, including pricing and hedging of financial derivatives, portfolio management, and financial technology, which are of strategic importance to Hong Kong as an international financial hub. The three existing Research Centres (in alphabetical order): Peking University – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University China Social Work Research Centre, led by Dr Hok Bun Ben KU, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences It focuses on social work, social development, and social policy in the Chinese context. Peking University has awarded it twice as one of the best research centres in social sciences. Four significant policy areas will be examined: Rural Revitalization, Rural-Urban Integration, Made in China 2025, and Belt and Road. Research Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, led by Prof. Qing LI, Chair Professor (Data Science) and the Head of the Department of Computing and Prof. Lei ZHANG, Chair Professor of Computer Vision and Image Analysis, the Department of Computing It aims to develop high-impact and innovative theories and algorithms in fundamental data science and AI technologies, computer vision, natural language processing and data analytics. It will also create three specific strategies applications: event discovery, smart transportation, and the metaverse. Research Centre for Gerontology and Family Studies, led by Dr Xue BAI, Associate Professor of the Department of Applied Social Sciences For the betterment of the ageing society, it focuses on older adults’ social participation, lifelong learning, family functioning, health and quality of later life, etc., aiming to generate effective models and evidence-based practices that can be shared with service providers and policymakers to enhance the relevant services and policies.  

PolyU Two Projects Granted the Fifth Batch of Smart Traffic Fund

The Transport Department announced that the Management Committee on Smart Traffic Fund approved the fifth batch of four projects, of which two projects led by researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) were awarded a total amount of HK$2.66 million. Channel State Information-Learning-based Passenger Counting System on Public Transport Vehicles By Dr Ivan HO, Associate Professor of the Department of Electronic and Information Engineering This project aims to develop an efficient and robust passenger counting system via the deep learning of Channel State Information (CSI) data on public transport vehicles. Development of an Augmented Reality-Assisted Head-up Display (AR-HUD) mechanism for recommending driving strategy By Dr ZHENG Pai, Assistant Professor of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering This project aims to develop an augmented reality-assisted head-up display (AR-HUD) mechanism for driving strategy recommendation by recognising driving scenes using a visual reasoning-based approach. The Smart Traffic Fund has approved 21 projects since its commencement, 9 of which were from PolyU. Project Title  Principal Investigator Channel State Information-Learning-based Passenger Counting System on Public Transport Vehicles Dr Ivan HO, Associate Professor, Department of Electronic and Information Engineering Development of an Augmented Reality-Assisted Head-up Display (AR-HUD) mechanism for recommending driving strategy Dr ZHENG Pai, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering Smart Assessment of Bridge Deck Efficiency and Safety in Hong Kong Prof Tarek ZAYED, Associate Head (Research), Department of Building and Real Estate The smart charging development of zero-emission autonomous electric vehicles by the X2V and V2X technologies with respect to the dynamic traffic, grid and energy information Dr CAO Sunliang, Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering Prediction of Traffic Speed and Volume considering Malfunctioning Detectors using Deep Learning Prof. Edward CHUNG, Department of Electrical Engineering Development and Deployment of an AI-enabled Parking Vacancy Prediction Framework using Multi-source Data Dr MA Wei, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Road Safety Assessment using Advanced Driving Simulation Approach with 3D Geo-spatial Model  Dr SZE Nang Ngai, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Network-wide Traffic Speed-Flow Estimator  Ir Prof William Lam Hing-keung Investigation of an online data-driven intelligent automation platform for drivers considering the psychological condition instability and behaviours for a sustainable and safe transportation system Dr Ng Kam-hung, Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering  

PolyU hosted Academic Symposium on Carbon Neutrality and Smart and Healthy City to foster research collaboration between Hong Kong SAR and China

Aiming at enhancing the scientific research collaboration between Hong Kong SAR and China, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) held the 2022 Academic Symposium on Carbon Neutral and Smart and Healthy City on 29-30 August 2022. The event is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Beijing-Hong Kong Academic Exchange Centre (BHKAEC). Academic exchanges have been taken place to establish future research directions and explore innovative solutions in achieving carbon neutrality and building a smart healthy city. The two-day hybrid symposium gathered 33 renowned scientists from 16 universities in Hong Kong and China to share research findings in 5 major areas including "Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Development", "Low Carbon Land and Urban Development", "Key Technologies for Smart and Energy-flexible Buildings in High-density Cities towards Carbon Neutrality", "Towards Future Smart Cities", and "Carbon Neutral Construction Materials". Top researchers also discussed strategies for reducing carbon emissions, accelerating the transformation of energy systems towards smart and zero-carbon healthy city, thus supporting the Nation’s achievement of the “dual carbon goals” with technological measures on energy system transformation, energy conservation and reduction of industries’ energy consumption and emission, strategic technology planning, and carbon capture.  Professor Jin-Guang Teng, President of PolyU, addressed on the opening ceremony that PolyU established PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) in 2021 to facilitate interdisciplinary research and provide innovative solutions to global challenges such as climate change, population aging and food shortage. In order to achieve carbon neutrality, advanced technology and excellent talents are essential. Professor Teng hoped that the presentations and sharing of scholars from both sides in the two-day symposium would bring new ideas and thoughts to the development of "Smart Zero Carbon Emissions City". Mr. Zhang Yongtao, Officer of the Office of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Affairs of the NSFC remarked, “The symposium provides a platform for experts from Hong Kong and the Inland to exchange scientific progress and showcase their research results around the major strategy of carbon neutrality, and explore the hot issues at the forefront of a carbon-neutral smart and healthy city, and to build scientific consensus.” He also pointed out that NSFC attaches great importance to the scientific cooperation and exchange between the Inland and Hong Kong, and introduced the channels for Hong Kong researchers to receive direct support from NSFC in 2022.  The Symposium is co-organised by the PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR) and Research and Innovation Office (RIO). RIO, as a forward-looking department in the University, is devoted to propelling the University’s technology development and advances to benefit the society by providing all-rounded support to facilitate research endeavours within the PolyU community, and foster partnerships among universities, industries, governments, supranational bodies, and the public. PAIR is a central research platform consisting 16 research institutes and research centres which aspire to be a world leader in providing inter-disciplinary solutions for major social challenges. Among those, 5 research institutes have actively involved in facilitating carbon neutrality and smart healthy city, namely, Research Institute for Land and Space, Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Smart Cities Research Institute, Otto Poon Charitable Foundation Research Institute for Smart Energy and Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality.

PolyU Scientist Dr Ren Jingzheng Wins the 2022 APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education

Dr Ren Jingzheng, Associate Professor of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), has been selected as the only winner of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (ASPIRE Prize), in recognition of his scientific contribution commitment to excellence in scientific research and spirit of cooperation with scientists from other APEC member economies under the 2022 ASPIRE Prize theme of “Innovation to achieve economic, environmental, and social goals”. PolyU is the only higher education institution in Hong Kong to have had two young scientists honoured with this prestigious award in a decade. Prof Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation), congratulated Dr Ren and remarked, “PolyU is dedicated to conducting cutting-edge research to achieve sustainable development. As a member of PolyU’s Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality, Dr Ren has greatly contributed to sustainability through his influential research, promoting the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. We are proud of our young scholars who are pioneering and applying innovative solutions to bring advancement to society, the Asia Pacific, and the world.” Dr Ren stood out among the 13 remarkable nominees this year and was well recognised by the APEC Policy Partnership on Science, Technology, and Innovation (PPSTI) representatives. The award ceremony was held on 21 August in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Dr Ren mainly focuses on waste-to-energy, circular economy, industrial ecology, and process systems engineering. As the originator of “sustainability-oriented decision-making and optimisation” that simultaneously considers economic, environmental and social goals, multiple research outcomes from him and his team have attracted the attention and interest of academics and industries and have been applied in various fields, such as sustainable design and optimisation of complex industrial systems, energy conservation and emissions mitigation of the wastewater treatment processes, valorisation of medical waste and sewage sludge, and converting agricultural waste into energy or value-added products. “It is my great honour to win this prize. I appreciate the support of my colleagues, my department and PolyU. This good news heartened me, and I know I should insist on what I am working on-using systems thinking to solve energy and environmental problems in industrial systems and using innovative ways to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability simultaneously.” Dr Ren said. Besides the broad collaborations with scientists from other APEC member economies, he also plans to promote the new concept proposed by him, “scientific decision-making for the colocalisation of the complex industrial system”, and the waste-to-energy processes to energy-intensive industries and waste recycling industry of APEC member economies for a more sustainable future, as well as helping to achieve a successful transition to the Bio-Circular-Green economy. Dr Ren talked about his future target, “I am more enthusiastic about combining “hard technologies” with “soft science” organically to innovatively break through the limitations of the traditional thinking of industry, namely developing carbon-neutral and zero-waste oriented multi-scale global decision-making methodology to promote achieving zero carbon emission and 100% waste recycling in industrial systems.” Outstanding academic performance is one of the requirements. Dr Ren has published more than 180 journal papers, authored a book, and eleven of his papers have been rated as the ESI top 1% highly cited papers. After joining PolyU, he was ranked in the World’s Top 2% Scientists on Stanford University List in both 2020 and 2021. The ASPIRE Prize is an annual award which recognises young scientists who are under the age of 40 and have demonstrated a commitment to both excellence in scientific research, as evidenced by scholarly publication, and cooperation with scientists from other APEC member economies, including inclusive and interdisciplinary collaborations. 

PolyU Young Scholar’s Research Helps to Identify Children with Developmental Language Disorders in Early Stage Awarded MOST Major Project on Brain Science

To help identify children with developmental language disorders in the early stage and to reveal the impact of sleep activities on language development, a project led by Dr Zhang Caicai, Associate Professor of the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), has been awarded funding from the National programme Sci-Tech Innovation 2030 – “Brain Science and Brain-like Research” Major Project (Young Scientist category), with a total amount of RMB 5M.  This is the only project in Hong Kong supported by this programme in the area of brain cognition mechanisms this year. Dr Zhang's research team has conducted extensive work in the research fields of language acquisition, language disorders and neurolinguistics in children and achieved fruitful results. She also has formed an international cross-disciplinary team led by PolyU with the participation of Georgetown University, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, including experts in neurolinguistics, speech therapists, pediatric brain imaging specialists, psychologists and geneticists. The awarded project is entitled “Neurocognitive markers for typical language development and language disorders in children: A longitudinal study based on long-term memory, sleep and brain development”.  This project will adopt a longitudinal approach to track 100 physiologically healthy Cantonese-speaking children in Hong Kong from the age of three to seven years old for five years, assessing their long-term memory, language and sleep activities every year, including language assessments and diagnoses of language disorders.  Dr Zhang remarked, "The age of three to seven is not only an important stage for children's speech, language and literacy development but also a golden time for diagnosing developmental disorders of speech and language, stuttering, and dyslexia.” This project will introduce novel sleep research to reveal how long-term sleep quality and post-learning brain oscillatory activities contribute to declarative and procedural memory consolidation and the development of these memory circuitries over time.  Dr Zhang said, "Sleep plays a vital role in children's cognitive development, including long-term memory and language development. Our team hopes this research can inform educational policies such as the optimal sleep duration during childhood. By tracking the development of children’s brain function and structure, this project will generate a new model of the development of brain circuitries subserving long-term memory, depict the dynamic development of brain anatomy and structural connectivity, and create a database of child brain growth. These outcomes will shed light on the optimisation of language assessment, diagnostic tools, and evidence-based language interventions for children. Launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the "Brain Science and Brain-like Research" Major Project involves five research areas and 59 topics with total funding beyond 31 billion.

PolyU Joins Innovation Hub@HK to Promote Commercialisation and Technology Transfer to the Industry and the Greater Bay Area

Organised by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), the launch ceremony of the Innovation Hub@HK website was held on 18 Aug 2022.  As one of the participating research institutions, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is honoured to take part in this campaign jointly with other top-notch research institutes to showcase the Research and Development outcomes to facilitate commercialisation and technology transfer to the industry, the Greater Bay Area, and beyond the longer term. PolyU President Prof Jin-Guang Teng, Vice President (Research and Innovation) Prof Christopher Chao, and PolyU experts were invited to join this festive launch ceremony. This dedicated website will act as an access for the industry to discover and explore more about the deliverables of the applied research work of Hong Kong’s top researchers. It also marked the beginning of further collaborations among the quangos and universities.  A wide range of incredible innovations developed by PolyU could be found on the following website:  https://www.innovationhub.hk/

PolyU Scholar’s Pioneering Efforts in Colour Science Awarded China’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund

Dedicated to pioneering works in the field of colour science, Dr Tommy Minchen Wei, Associate Professor from the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has been awarded funding from the National’s 2022 Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) with a total amount of RMB 2 million.  Dr Wei has been continuously conducting research on fundamental colour science, and the research outcomes have contributed to the further understanding of human visual system and mechanisms, in order to investigate and improve the quality of lighting and imaging systems. The awarded project he led, namely “Colour Appearance Model and Colour Space”, aims to investigate colour appearance and difference under complicated conditions. The research findings can be used for various imaging systems, such as cameras, displays, smartphones, tablets, drones, and metaverse-related systems, which will be of great scientific and practical importance for colour science and industry. Under the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau) aims to support young scholars (under the age of 38 for male or 40 for female) who have attained achievements in basic research and conducted innovative research in their chosen fields, fostering them to be internationally leading scholars.  

PolyU Joins a World-leading Catalysis Research Consortium to Accelerate Carbon Neutrality

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) joins a world-leading catalysis research consortium launched by Johnson Matthey (JM), together with Fudan University (Fudan), Xiamen University (Xiamen), and University of Oxford (Oxford), working in partnership to accelerate global carbon neutrality goals using a novel formic acid strategy. Through the collaboration, PolyU hopes to bring formic acid to a cutting-edge solution for sustainable chemical processes and provide a new level of innovation, focus and ambition to confront challenges in green catalysis and sustainable chemistry. The consortium is a world-leading catalysis and chemistry group with each member’s specialities, working together on scientific research focussed on how CO2 can be used in green bulk chemicals production.  Dr Mark Su, President – China at Johnson Matthey, said, “We know we can only accelerate progress through strategic partnerships. By working with world-leading universities, collectively we will be able to acquire and leverage technological capabilities which can help to provide the low carbon solutions that help China achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.” PolyU team led by Dr Molly Li, Assistant Professor of the Department of Applied Physics, proposed using carbon and hydrogen atoms from green formic acid to facilitate a heterogeneous hydroformylation route and deliver industrially important substances without using any fossil fuel sources. Dr Li remarked, “Leveraging PolyU’s expertise in surface science and in-situ spectroscopy, as well as our strength in advanced characterisation facilities, we will pave the way toward new class of heterogeneous catalysts to make industrially important chemical processes clean and green.”    About Johnson Matthey (JM) JM is an international chemical manufacturing company founded almost 200 years ago in London. As a global leader in sustainable technologies, JM has applied cutting-edge science to create solutions with a worldwide customer base through continued investment in sound research and development. JM has been leading this field to apply unrivalled scientific expertise to enable cleaner air, improved health and more efficient use of natural resources.    About PolyU Department of Applied Physics (AP) PolyU AP has long been engaging in top-notch scientific research activities, which is well-equipped with more than 30 laboratories and has benefited from the world-class research facilities in various university-managed research facilities. To pursue world-leading research and innovations that impact the scientific community and regional industries, the researchers are also actively involved in industrial collaborations and consultancy projects, contributing to the technological development.