Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Doctor of Philosophy / Master of Philosophy

Jan 2024 Entry

Introduction

Introduction


The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is dedicated to conducting fundamental and application-oriented research to develop scientific, engineering and management solutions that are appropriate to sustain the urban development in densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong, those in Mainland China and other major cities in Asia. We have a strong team of faculties and have achieved an excellent research and publication track record in civil engineering.

 

The Research Postgraduate Programmes offered by CEE are a combination of coursework and independent research leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). All of our academic staff are actively engaged in research activities through a range of funding from UGC, RGC, ITF and other sources. The principal research areas in CEE include: Environmental Engineering & Science; Geotechnical Engineering; Coastal & Hydraulic Engineering; Structural Engineering and Construction & Transportation.

Research Areas

Research Areas


Coastal and Hydraulic Engineering

Coastal Disasters, Ocean Wave & Offshore Wind Renewables, Nonlinear Water Wave Mechanics, Multi-Scale Ocean Wave Modelling, Computational Fluid Dynamics

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Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Coastal Circulations, Biofluidmechanics, Experimental Fluid Mechanics, River Morphodynamics

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Urban Water System & Hydraulic Engineering, Coastal Urban Flooding, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Wave Analysis & Application, Computational Fluid Dynamics

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Construction and Transportation

Construction Project /Program Management, Sustainable Construction, Infrastructure Systems, Sustainable Infrastructure, Pavement Engineering 

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Machine Learning in Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Construction Informatics, Life-cycle Assessment of Infrastructure Systems, Circular Economy in Cities

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Sustainable and Smart Paving Materials and Technologies; Nondestructive Evaluation of Transportation Instractruture; Pavement Life Cycle Management

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Transportation Network Modelling, Data-driven Modelling, Machine Learning and Data Mining in Infrastructure Systems, Urban Computing, Smart Cities

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Transportation Systems Modelling and Analysis, Transportation Network Reliability Analysis, Non-motorised Transportation Modelling, Path Flow Estimator and Planning Applications, Applied Optimisation to Civil Infrastructure Problems

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Innovation Management and Performance Evaluations; Data-driven Multi-criterion Decision-making; Smart Transportation Management Systems; System Dynamic Modeling Supporting Public Policy Making; Pedestrian and Crowd Simulations for Smart Infrastructure and Urban Planning

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Environmental Engineering and Science

Accident Prediction, Injury Prevention, Applications of Statistical Model for Safety Analysis, Human Behaviour for Safety Studies and Safety Policy and Regulation

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Atmospheric Chemistry, Air Pollution Meteorology, Instrument Development, Field Measurements and Data Analysis 

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Atmospheric Chemistry, VOC Photochemistry, Transmission and Infection of Bioaerosols, Acidic Ultrafine Particles, Organic Aerosols, Indoor Air Chemistry

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Biofuel, Biorefinery, Bio-polymers, Lignocellulosic Biomass, Biological Processes

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Circulate Economy, Resource Recovery, Carbon Neutrality, Green Chemistry, Sustainable Engineering

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Eco-friendly Construction Materials, Concrete Technology, Waste Recycling and Management 

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Environmental Health, Air Pollution, Antimicrobial Resistance, Environmental Microbiome, Ecotoxicology

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Environmental Nanotechnology, Aerosol Technology, Advanced Water Treatment, Environmental Sensing, Environmental Chemistry

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Environmental Nanotechnology; Sustainable Energy Driven Water Production; Atmospheric Water Harvesting, Resource Recovery from Wastewater, Brine, and Seawater, Zero-liquid-discharge Brine Treatment

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Indoor Air Pollution, Toxic Air Pollutants, Emission Source Characterisation, Carbonaceous Aerosol Characterisation 

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Sediment Quality Assessment, Urban Environmental Geochemistry, Phytoremediation of Contaminated Land, Air Pollution Monitoring and Assessment, Hazardous Waste Treatment

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Geotechnical Engineering

Advanced Constitutive Modelling of Soils, Microstructure and Micromechanics of Soils, Multiscale and Multiphysics Modelling in Geotechnical Engineering, Practice of Artificial Intelligence in Geotechnical Engineering

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Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical Behaviour of Soil, Constitutive Modelling of Soil, Energy Foundation, Methane Hydrate Bearing Soil, High-speed Railway Embankment

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Pile Group/Piled Raft Optimisation, Interaction between Foundation and Superstructure, Optical Fibre Strain Sensing, Spatial Variability of Soil Properties, Ground Improvement

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Rock mechanics, Experimental rock physics, Digital rock physics based on micro-CT technology, Non-destructive testing and characterization of geomaterials, Application of geophysical methods in engineering and environmental problems

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Structural Engineering

Cold-formed Steel Structures; High Strength Steel Structures; Stainless Steel Structures; Aluminium Structures; Fire Resistance of Metal Structures

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Emerging Structural Materials and Systems, Retrofit and Construction of Structures with FRP Composites, Seismic Assessment and Retrofit of Structures, Life-Cycle Structural Engineering, Steel Structures, Thin-Walled Structures 

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Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites for Construction, Durability and Life Cycle Management of Marine Concrete Structures; Multi-functional Coating for Concrete Structures, High Performance Fibre-Reinforced Cementitious Composites, Geopolymer Concrete,  Prefabricated Construction

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Infrastructure Applications of Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites; Hybrid Tubular Structures; Strengthening of Concrete and Steel Structures; Non-linear Finite Element Analysis of Complex Structures; Life-Cycle Structural Engineering

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Multi-hazard and Climate Change Adaptation, Life-cycle Management and Decision Making, Physics-guided Machine Learning for Predictive Modeling and Analysis, Risk and Resilience, Smart City

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Smart Materials and Structures, Non-linear Dynamics, Noise Control and Mitigation, Thermo-acoustics and Structural Vibration Control

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Smart Materials and Structures; Structural Vibration Control; Earthquake Engineering; Structural Health Monitoring; Wind Energy; Construction Vibration Impact

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Steel Structures; Computational Structural Engineering; Direct Analysis Method; Composite Structures; Soil-Structure Interaction

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Steel Structures, Steel-concrete Composite Structures and Cold-formed Steel Construction, Code Development, Fire Engineering and Fire Protection, Fire Resistant Design, Development of Steel Building Products, Bamboo Structures 

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Structural Health Monitoring; Machine Learning Methods; Substructuring Methods; Structural Dynamics

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Structural Health Monitoring, Structural Dynamics and Control, Monitoring and Control in Rail Engineering, Smart Materials and Structures, Sensors and Actuators

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Sustainable and High-Performance Construction Materials; Floating Structure Technology; Steel Structures; Steel-Concrete-FRP Hybrid Construction; Modular Construction

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Tubular Structures; Steel Structures and Steel-Concrete Composite Structures; Earthquake Engineering

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Research Facilities

Research Facilities


The Department manages 29 laboratories and 2 workshops (mechanical and electronic) to provide a controlled environment to support teaching, research and services to the community. The Department has the following laboratories and workshops under different units.    

 

Construction and Transportation Unit

 

  • Road Research Laboratory
  • Transport and Highway Engineering Laboratory

 

Environmental Engineering Unit

 

  • Advanced Environmental Microbiology Laboratory
  • Air Pollution Laboratory
  • Atmospheric Research Laboratory
  • Bioenergy Research Laboratory
  • Carbon Analysis and Filter Handling Clean Room
  • Environmental Chamber
  • Environmental and Energy Materials Laboratory
  • Laboratory for Advanced Environmental Studies
  • Materials and Structures Durability Laboratory
  • Noise and Safety Laboratory/ Semi-anechoic Chamber
  • Odour Research Laboratory
  • Water and Waste Teaching Laboratory
  • Water and Waste Research Laboratory
  • Water Analysis Laboratory

 

Geotechnical Engineering Unit

 

  • Geology Laboratory
  • Rock Mechanics Laboratory
  • Smart Geotechnology Laboratory
  • Soil Mechanics Laboratory

 

Hydraulic Engineering Unit

 

  • Hydraulics Laboratory

 

Structural Engineering Unit

 

  • Concrete Materials Laboratory
  • Concrete Technology Laboratory
  • Engineering Materials Micro-Mechanics Laboratory
  • Functional Construction Materials Laboratory
  • Light Structures Laboratory
  • Structural Engineering Research Laboratory
  • Structural Dynamics Laboratory
  • Smart Structures Laboratory

 

Workshops

 

  • Electronic Workshop
  • Mechanical Workshop

 

Others

 

  • Computer Room

Other Information

Other Information


No information is available at present.

Supporting Documents

Supporting Documents


Academic Referee's Report

Compulsory - Two Academic Referee's Reports are required (applicable to applications for the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, PolyU Presidential PhD Fellowship Scheme, 3+1 Top-up Funding Scheme)

Research Proposal

Compulsory - A standard form must be used for the submission of research proposal.  Please click here to download the form.

Transcript / Certificate

Compulsory - 

  • Certificate(s) of the Bachelor's/Master’s degree.
  • Transcript(s) of the Bachelor's/Master’s degree. It must contain all pages including the explanatory notes and the grading system. For graduates, transcripts should be the final version with the graduation date. For current study, the latest transcript or testimonial issued by the institution should be provided.