PolyU projects receive the RGC Theme-based Research Scheme funding

Two research projects led by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have won close to HK$100 million funding from the Research Grants Council’s Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) 2023/24 to foster sustainable development for the city.

Prof. Yi-Qing NI, Chair Professor of Smart Structures and Rail Transit in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, leads the project “INTACT: Intelligent Tropical-storm-resilient System for Coastal Cities,” which has been awarded funding of HK$48.293 million.

Addressing the challenges posed by extreme winds and complex urban environments, Prof. Ni’s project aims to mitigate the risk of tropical storms for high-rise building clusters in coastal cities by developing a real-time early-warning and resilience system. Enabling development of a sustainable environment is the ultimate research goal, which is one of the TRS designated research themes.

Prof. CAO Jiannong, Chair Professor of Distributed and Mobile Computing in the Department of Computing, leads another project “High-performance Collaborative Edge Computing Enabling Smart City Applications: Framework and Methodologies,” which has received funding of HK$50.821 million.

Pushing forward the development of smart cities, Prof. Cao’s research aims to meet the requirements of advanced applications such as autonomous vehicles, industrial IoT and the metaverse, by developing a collaborative edge computing framework. The project has been funded under the designated research theme of advancing emerging research and innovations important to Hong Kong.

Prof. Christopher CHAO, PolyU Vice President (Research and Innovation) said, “PolyU is dedicated to transforming research excellence into impactful and practical innovations through multidisciplinary collaborations. This remarkable funding achievement is encouraging and highlights PolyU’s strategic importance in driving Hong Kong’s long-term development. Moving forward, we remain committed to providing all-round and in-depth support to our scholars, enabling them to address global challenges.”

The TRS aims to focus the research efforts of UGC-funded universities on themes of strategic importance to the long-term development of Hong Kong. The maximum duration of a funded project is five years.