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The Fifth Workshop of HKPolyU-HIT Joint Research Centre for Sustainable Urban Water Environment

The 5th Workshop of HK PolyU‐HIT Joint Research Centre for Sustainable Urban Water Environment (香港理工大學－哈爾濱工業大學可持續城市水環境聯合研究中心) was held in Yixing, a city in Jiangsu Province, on 18th November 2017, at which six researchers from HIT (冯玉杰教授, 李一凡教授, 邢德峰教授, 刘冰峰教授, 李建政教授 and 刘绍琴教授), and six researchers from PolyU (Prof. Xiang-dong Li, Prof. Guo-hua Chen, Dr. Henry Po-Heng Lee, Dr. Ben Shao-yuan Leu, Dr. Yi Qian, and Dr. Wei-zi Cai) presented their recent research achievements in water pollution, wastewater treatment, energy production, resource recovery, and environmental nanotechnology. After the technical sessions, a working meeting of the Management Committee of the centre was held in the late afternoon to summarize the achievements of the centre during the last 5years. Further collaboration between PolyU and HIT in this area as well as the development of the centre was also discussed. The main achievements of the centre were summarized as follows. Six collaborative interdisciplinary research projects were jointly initiated and equally funded by both the State Key Lab of HIT and the RISUD of PolyU Ten joint publications in renowned SCI journals Strengthened exchanges among researchers associated with the centre Joint-supervision of 4 PhD students Five joint workshops conducted in Hong Kong or in the mainland   The members of the centre fully agreed that the past collaborations have assisted both PolyU and HIT to effectively increase their research capability and allowed them to explore new topics of multi-disciplinary research. As the existing agreement will expire soon, both sides agreed that the existing collaboration should be continued and expressed the wish to sign a new agreement to extend operation of the joint centre for another 5 years, with the following three focuses: (1) Development of innovative wastewater treatment technologies to achieve synergy of water reuse, energy generation, and resource recovery; (2) A smart urban water system with the aid of geo-spatial information technologies for pollution monitoring and simulation at a large scale; and (3) Heterogeneous transmission of environmental pollutants from the air phase, or the land/soil phase into the water phase through the interface. Members of the joint centre also had a discussion on a new strategic policy recently released by the Central Government of China which encourages the establishment of new joint state key laboratories in Hong Kong or Macao. As the state key laboratory of HIT and PolyU have had a long history of successful collaboration in sustainable urban water environment, both sides agreed to prepare for the submission of a joint application for establishing this new type of state key laboratory in the near future once the scheme is launched.

RISUD Public Lecture on Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environmental Forensics

RISUD Public Lecture on Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environmental Forensics On 17 November 2017, over 50 local participants attended a public Lecture on “Engineering Applications of Data Science: Spatial Rainfall Characterization & Environment Forensics” delivered by Dr. Chin Man “Bill” Mok. The seminar was jointly organized by three institutions, namely, Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, National Rail Transit Electrification and Automation Engineering Technology Research Center (Hong Kong Branch), and ASCE Hong Kong Section. Dr. MOK is Vice President and Principal Engineer of GSI Environmental Inc, Oakland, California, USA. He is currently Fellow of ASCE, EWRI Fellow, and Rudolf Diesel Fellow of the Technical University of Munich. During this seminar, he introduced two interesting applications of data science techniques to advance engineering practice first. One application is high-resolution rainfall characterization, and the other is environmental forensics. In addition, he also presented several machine-learning techniques, such as cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, principal component analysis, positive matrix factorization, independent component analysis, etc.

RISUD Distinguished Lecture on Multi-Hazard Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Structures in a Life-Cycle Cost Perspective

RISUD Distinguished Lecture on Multi-Hazard Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Structures in a Life-Cycle Cost Perspective Speaker: Prof. Dan M. FRANGOPOL, The Fazlur Rahman Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture; Professor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lehigh University Date: 7 November 2017 (Tuesday) Time: 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (A tea reception will be held at 5:30 p.m.) Venue: Room Y302, 3/F, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y), PolyU Medium: English

RISUD Visiting Fellowship Scheme – Summer 2017 (Sponsored by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation)

RISUD Visiting Fellowship Scheme – Summer 2017 Sponsored by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation According to the wishes of Dr Samuel Yin of the Ruentex Group, part of the annual donation of HK$ 1 million made by the Kwang-hua Education Foundation to RISUD for scholar activities should be used to support a Visiting Fellowship Scheme to enhance scientific exchanges and research collaborations with researchers from the following five partner universities designated by the Foundation: National Taiwan University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Tongji University and Tsinghua University (Beijing). In the summer of 2017, 6 scholars visited RISUD with the awarded Fellowship. Their visits were each proposed and hosted by a member of RISUD. Apart from other exchange activities, each Visiting Fellow delivered a research salon organized by RISUD to stimulate collaborative research. Visiting Fellow Hosting member of RISUD Research Salon Topic Prof. Zhishan SU / Professor, Sichuan University Dr Dan TSANG (Division of Urban Environment) Applications of Computational Chemistry in Asymmetric Catalysis Prof. Huizhao TU / Professor, Tongji University Dr Tony N.N. SZE (Division of Urban Systems) Connected Vehicles for Weight-based Traffic Safety Risk Assessment Dr Fulin WANG / Associate Professor, Tsinghua University Prof. Hong-xing YANG (Division of Green Buildings) DC Power and Distributed Power Storage in Buildings Dr Xiangdong XU / Associate Professor, Tongji University Prof. Anthony CHEN (Division of Urban Systems) Valuation of Travel Time Uncertainty: A Bridge between Scheduling and Reliability Models Prof. Hongrui ZHAO / Professor, Tsinghua University Prof. Xiao-li DING (Division of Urban Infrastructure) Experiments and Discussion of Urban Scaling Law in China Dr Xingyi ZHU / Associate Professor, Tongji University Dr Yu-hong WANG (Division of Urban Systems) Sustainable Materials for Smart Road   Prof. Zhishan SU, Dr Fulin WANG, Dr Xiangdong XU and Prof. Hongrui ZHAO and their hosts had a lunch with Prof. Jin-guang TENG, Director of RISUD and Prof. Xiangdong LI, Associate Director of RISUD on 1 September 2017. This photo was taken after the lunch gathering.

RISUD Annual International Symposium 2017 (RAIS 2017) – New Frontiers in Urban Development

The RISUD Annual International Symposium 2017 (RAIS 2017) – New Frontiers in Urban Development   It was held on 24 – 25 August 2017 at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Organized by the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), the symposium attracted 118 participants for Day 1 and 173 participants for Day 2. Participants included 18 PhD students from three of the partner institutions of RISUD (National Taiwan University, Tongji University and Tsinghua University (Beijing)), members of the University-Government-Industry Consortium (UGI Consortium) for Sustainable Urban Development, representatives from the industry and PolyU staff and students. On Day 1, six plenary presentations were delivered by distinguished research leaders in areas closely related to sustainable urban development. Ir Dr Andrew K.C. CHAN, Chairman of Arup Group Trusts; Prof. Xiao-li DING, Coordinator of Division of Smart Cities of RISUD and Chair Professor at PolyU; and Prof. Jin-guang TENG, Director of RISUD and Chair Professor at PolyU chaired the plenary sessions respectively. The plenary presentations were very well received by the participants. Three workshops addressing three frontier topics of significant importance were held in parallel on Day 2: (1) Urban Simulation, (2) Industrialization of Construction and (3) Very Large Floating Structures. Prominent researchers from Hong Kong and outside gave presentations at the workshops. The presentations generated many lively discussions and helped lay strong foundation for future research in these important areas. We are very grateful that, with the financial support from The Ove Arup Foundation and the Kwang-hua Education Foundation, the symposium was held with success despite the arrival of typhoon Hato on the day before the symposium. We thank every participant, particularly the overseas speakers and participants, for trying their utmost in attending the symposium under the severe weather condition.

RISUD Research Salon on Urban Simulation – Part II

RISUD Research Salon on Urban Simulation – Part II Introduction RISUD has identified “Urban Simulation” as a major strategic focus area (SFA) for development and launched a research programme on this topic. The research programme will be overseen by a small steering committee chaired by the Director of RISUD. At this research salon, three potential Co-PIs of this research programme each gave a 15-minute presentation on their potential contribution to the programme during the initial 3-year period. Speakers:Prof. Anthony CHEN, Professor (CEE); Prof. Edwin H W CHAN, Professo (BRE) & Prof. Xiao-li DING (LSGI) Date:19 May 2017 (Monday) Time: 12:00 n.n. – 2:00 p.m. Venue: Room ZS1215, 12/F, South Tower, Block Z

RISUD Research Salon on Urban Simulation – Part I

RISUD Research Salon on Urban Simulation – Part I Introduction RISUD has identified “Urban Simulation” as a major strategic focus area (SFA) for development and launched a research programme on this topic. The research programme will be overseen by a small steering committee chaired by the Director of RISUD. At this research salon, three potential Co-PIs of this research programme each gave a 15-minute presentation on their potential contribution to the programme during the initial 3-year period. Speakers: Prof. Wu CHEN (Professor, LSGI); Prof. Wen-zhong SHI (Chair Professor, LSGI) & Prof. Tao WANG (Chair Professor, CEE) Date:15 May 2017 (Monday) Time: 12:00 n.n. – 2:00 p.m. Venue: Room ZS1215, 12/F, South Tower, Block Z

RISUD Research Salon on The Thinking of Circular Economy

RISUD Research Salon on The Thinking of Circular Economy Speaker: Prof. MA Hwong-wen, Professor, Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering Date:19 April 2017 (Wednesday) Time: 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Venue: Room ZS1201s

The 8th International Conference on Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE 2016)

The 8th International Conference on Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE 2016) Date: 14-16 Dec 2016 Venue: PolyU

RISUD Annual International Symposium 2016 - Smart Cities (RAIS 2016)

RISUD Annual International Symposium 2016 - Smart Cities (RAIS 2016) Date: 23-24 Aug 2016 Venue: PolyU