CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT - The Hong Kong Polytechnic ...

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Dean’s Message As many of you are aware, I will have completed my two three-year terms as Dean of the Faculty by June 2013, and the University has formed a Search Committee to find a successor. While I have enjoyed the opportunity and experience of serving as Dean of this great Faculty, the time is ripe for me to hand the torch to a new leader. A well-established system for leadership change at the departmental and Faculty levels is now in place at PolyU. I am a strong believer in this system, as it is in the best interests of both the Faculty/departments and the individual colleagues concerned. In a world-class university, good professors are often more interested in their academic pursuits than administrative roles, but those who have the interest and ability to make a positive change should consider such roles. A rotation system as we now have allows more of these colleagues to contribute in these roles. This way, we will ensure not only a continuous stream of fresh ideas but also ensure the best use of the talents of all colleagues. As a result, our collective potential as a Faculty or University is best realized. As 2012 draws to an end, I have started to reflect on what we have achieved and where we could have done better in the past few years. While I hope to provide a summary of the state of the Faculty in the next issue of the Construction and Environment, I would like to share with you some of my initial thoughts in this regard. First of all, we are a unique Faculty in the local higher education system. But this fact alone does not distinguish us. What have set us apart are our achievements. Over the past 75 years, the Faculty and its predecessors have graduated tens of thousands of students for the construction industry, more than any other local university. It is not unfair to say that our graduates have been a major driving force in building Hong Kong. Our Faculty is also the only one which includes a Chief Executive of Hong Kong as one of its alumni. Internationally, we are now a world-class academic institution of higher learning. There are many indicators that support this claim. The Taiwan rankings of research in civil engineering (broadly defined to cover almost all research areas of the Faculty) have placed PolyU in the top 5 universities in the world in the two rounds of rankings they have conducted so far. Since 1995, we have received about 40% or more of all competitive research funding allocated annually by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council. A significant number of professors in our Faculty are world leaders in their fields of specialization. In Hong Kong, there are eight construction-related departments (excluding the departments of architecture and related disciplines), including four at this Faculty and four at three sister institutions (the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the City University of Hong Kong). In the latest round of competition for the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowships, 10 out of 13 recipients chose to further their studies with us. These recipients are among the best and brightest PhD students all over the world. This is a strong indication of the research strengths and reputation of the Faculty. Indeed, others may agree that we have done well within the limitations we are in, but to further excel we need to overcome these limitations. Some of these limitations such as the smaller number of government-funded PhD studentships allocated to PolyU due to historical reasons are being overcome slowly through policy changes implemented by the University Grants Committee, but we do face two major limitations that have a direct affect on the future growth of our research activities. These are: (a) the lack of space for our laboratories and major facilities, and (b) the inadequacy of government funding for research. Both limitations have been made all the more obvious by the massive investment in mainland China in these two areas. Cross-border comparisons are important, if only because the majority of our research students and research staff are drawn from across the border. Those of us who have been in Hong Kong for a long period can recall that the average size of individual grants from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council has not changed much over the past 20 years. By contrast, the average grant size of the Natural Science Foundation of China has soared from around RMB200,000 in 2002 to around RMB800,000 (HK$1 million) in 2012; the latter figure is significantly larger than the average amount allocated by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council in the same year. The Hong Kong Government needs to step up its support for research so more technologies and expertise could be developed locally but with the mainland Chinese market and the world market in mind. Apart from the two major limitations, there are a number of emerging challenges. These include maintaining the attractiveness of our academic positions to attract and retain faculty members of world-class caliber, continuous improvement of our 4-year educational system for undergraduate programs, revamping our MSc programs to cater for rapid increases in the non-local student population, and the strengthening of multi-disciplinary research of major impact. The recent establishment of the Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development is expected to address the last of these challenges. These are just some of the issues that the next Dean will need to grapple with. 2
3 On a brighter note, the construction industry in Hong Kong is booming and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Across the border, the Chinese mainland has the largest construction industry in the world that will be booming for many decades to come. As Hong Kongs high-density urbanization is at least two decades ahead of that of the mainland, we are in an advantageous position to lead its urbanization, particularly in a sustainable way. The circumstances have created a golden opportunity for the Faculty to further excel. I look forward to the next chapter of the Faculty with optimism. Prof. Jin-Guang Teng Dean of Faculty of Construction and Environment The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 2013 2012 ( ) 1995 ( ) (1) (2) 2002 22 2012 80 (100 ) 2012
Page 1 and 2: CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT The Magazi
Page 3: HKIS 2012 Thesis Awards for Postgra
Page 7 and 8: Outstanding Alumni Awards 2012 What
Page 9 and 10: 7 Research & Technology Transfer Re
Page 11 and 12: 9 No. of Grants per Year No. of Gra
Page 13 and 14: PolyU study raises alert for furthe
Page 15 and 16: Air quality tops research agenda of
Page 17 and 18: Building Information Modeling break
Page 19 and 20: LSGI Prof. receives prestigious awa
Page 21 and 22: FCE’s Outstanding PhD Thesis Awar
Page 23 and 24: Young BRE scholar delivered 2 keyno
Page 25 and 26: HKIS Outstanding Final Year Dissert
Page 27 and 28: 25 Staff News Staff Promotions The
Page 29 and 30: y the Research Grants Council in th
Page 31 and 32: Future Plans: Building on his prove
Page 33 and 34: systems (ITS), particularly on the
Page 35 and 36: Four other scholars joined the Depa
Page 37 and 38: 35 Student News PolyU and Tongji U
Page 39 and 40: PolyU Student Ambassadors 2012/13 T
Page 41 and 42: Scholarship students graduate with
Page 43 and 44: IRE alumnus receives Distinguished
Page 45 and 46: Short course on high speed rail dra
Page 47 and 48: PolyU Education Info Day 2012 The F
Page 49 and 50: Prof. Serji Amirkhanian, Director o
Page 51 and 52: Application Periods * Master's Deg

CONSTRUCTION ENVIRONMENT - The Hong Kong Polytechnic ...

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