Strength and Collaboration

The Smart UWSS project is a pioneering undertaking that represents the shared vision of a group of outstanding researchers from HK, China, USA, Canada, NZ and Italy and the HK WSD. This is also HK’s vision - a directive to create a “Water Intelligent Network (WIN)” was highlighted in the Chief Executive Policy Agenda of 2015 and the HK WSD has already implemented a real-time pipe network monitoring pilot experiment in North Point. The broad spectrum of application of Smart UWSS/WIN is matched to the proven expertise of researchers in the team that spans hydraulics and fluid mechanics; waves in pipes and their usage for condition assessment; signal processing and wireless communications; structural mechanics; numerical modelling and inverse methods. The Smart UWSS vision is strongly shared among the team members who regularly employ theoretical, experimental and field approaches in their research. Our combined research strengths and the full support from WSD will allow us to examine UWSS from an entirely new perspective, with potential paradigm changing outcomes.

The team consists of internationally recognized experts. Honours and awards that have been bestowed on our team members include over 15 prestigious prizes, over 10 Fellows of engineering academies and learned societies (e.g. ASCE, IEEE, RAE, HKIE, HKES, AAAS, IET, Royal Aeronautical Society, Royal Academies, Acoustical Society), over 30 editorial roles (Editors in Chief, Editors and Associate Editors) in leading international journals; and over 20 Vice-Presidents/Chairmanships of leading professional organizations. The HKUST team draws on the strength of the CIVIL and ECE departments, which have recently been ranked 12th and 11th in the world according to the 2013 QS World University Rankings. The members of the water engineering group at HKUST are world leaders who have won prestigious awards including the Arthur Thomas Ippen Award, International Association for Hydro-Environmental Engineering and Research (IAHR), the Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize (ASCE). They served/are serving as Editors/Associate Editors of the most prestigious water journals, and also in key offices (e.g., Vice-President) in IAHR, which is the premier learned society in water engineering. The HKUST ECE members consisting of 4 IEEE Fellows whose work has attracted over 25,000 citations, served/are serving as Editors for over 12 prestigious journals and have won numerous best paper awards. They also hold over 35 patents and have an outstanding record of commercialisation of technologies including start-ups.

PC-Ghidaoui MS is an internationally recognized hydraulics expert with emphasis on transients and defect detection in pressurized systems. He received prestigious research awards from ASCE, IAHR and others. His most recent award (2007) is the Arthur Thomas Ippen Award – a prestigious IAHR international award. He is currently the Chair of the IAHR fluid mechanics division, Associate Editor of 4 leading water engineering journals, and managed over HK$30 million in research funds. All Co-PIs are distinguished researchers in fields critical to the Smart UWSS.

There are strong and proven records of collaboration among team members. Examples include the organization of the International Symposium of Environmental Hydraulics (1998, 2004), Shallow Flows (2008), International Conference on Asian and Pacific Coasts (2011); IAHR World Congress (2013); joint research projects; the offering of continuing professional development (CPD) courses to government water engineers; co-founding the HK Chapter of IAHR in 1997; and launching the Elsevier Journal of Hydro-environment Research (supported by Korean Water Resources Association) in 2007—which became an SCI Journal in 2010. The local ECE team members have collaborated on wireless systems for high speed communications; data acquisition issues in Big Data systems; and RF Identification. Ghidaoui MS, Karney BW, Brunone B, Lee PJ, Meniconi S, Duan HF, and Xu K have long-standing research collaboration which has led to numerous joint publications and research grants.