City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has secured major Ministry of Education awards for research cooperation on geotechnical structures in hydraulic engineering and another on video coding technology. At the Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards, the two projects received First Class and Second Class awards in the Natural Science category, respectively (Science and Technology).
Professor Wang Yu of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering and his colleagues won the First Class Award for their project “Uncertainty Analysis and Reliability Control of Geotechnical Structures in Hydraulic Engineering. The research team is interested in the dependability and safety of dams and reservoirs, with an emphasis on the various structures in mainland China connected to water conservation and hydroelectric engineering, commonly known as hydraulic structures. The team has developed quantitative and extremely efficient characterization and simulation techniques for uncertainty in subsurface rocks and soils after more than ten years of hard work.
They created guidelines and design methods for increasing the safety and dependability of hydraulic systems by considering the influence of these geotechnical uncertainties. Their study contributes to the development of novel ideas and methods for the analysis of uncertainty and the control of dependability. They’ve also offered the theoretical foundation as well as technical assistance for relevant assessment, design, and safety control.
Five of their project’s academic papers have been highly cited in the Web of Science Core Collection, and the findings have been praised by eminent scholars all over the world, winning the Sloan Outstanding Paper Award from the international journal Computers and Geotechnics as well as the Best Paper Award from Georisk.
Professor Sam Kwong Tak-wu, Chair Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science (CS), Professor Wang Hanli from Tongji University, Professor Pan Zhaoqing from Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Professor Zhang Yun from Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Zhang Yun from Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences won the Second Class Award for their project “High-efficiency Computing Theory and Method for Video Coding.”
Professors Wang, Pan, and Zhao are all CS Ph.D. grads, while Professor Zhang formerly worked as a research assistant in the department. Video coding transforms the original format into a version that is easier to store and transmit via compression. With the advent of live broadcasting, online learning, self-driving cars, and other new technologies, the video data flow is predicted to increase dramatically in the multimedia big data age. The team has contributed to the ultra-high-definition video industry by developing new theories and methods for improving the algorithm efficiency for video coding on three key issues: optimal mode decision, sparse transformation quantization, and motion estimation optimization, after more than ten years of extensive research.
The team’s 59 academic publications, which were published in Science Citation Index journals, have been referenced favorably by over 50 IEEE and Association for Computing Machinery colleagues, as well as fellows of academies of science and engineering throughout the world. Individuals and units of higher education institutions receive the Ministry of Education’s Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) for their outstanding contributions in the areas of scientific discovery, technological invention, promotion of scientific and technological advancement, and implementation of patented technologies.
