IN FOCUS 12 PhD Research Excellence Showcased Three PhD graduates have had their remarkable accomplishments brought to wider attention as winners of the School of Engineering PhD Research Excellence Awards 2012/13. After much deliberation by the Engineering Research Committee, comprising one faculty member from each of the School’s six departments, Dr Xiaolei Wang, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dr Nan Cao, Computer Science and Engineering, and Dr Qixing Wu, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, were selected to receive the awards. Dr Wang and Dr Cao are 2012 graduates while Dr Wu graduated in 2011. Dr Wang’s research centers on the development of sustainable transportation systems, covering issues such as road space rationing, tradable travel credits, speed limits and parking management. As a PhD student, she had several articles published in international journals. These include three in Transportation Research Part B, the field’s leading journal, two of which were elected among the top 25 hottest articles in 2011 and 2012. Information visualization and explorative visual analysis are the primary interests of Dr Cao, with a special focus on heterogeneous multidimensional data, including social media. Prior to joining the School in 2009, Dr Cao worked at IBM China Research Lab, contributing to two IBM research achievements and more than 10 US patents. The independentminded and highly original researcher also set a record in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering by completing his PhD degree in just 2.5 years. Dr Wu took part in four projects supported by the RGC General Research Fund and one by the Innovation and Technology Fund while studying for his PhD. He specializes in energy and fuel, including direct methanol fuel cells. He has published 16 peer-reviewed journal papers, eight as first author, and serves as a reviewer for International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and Applied Thermal Engineering, among others. At the awards presentation ceremony in May, Dr Wu also gave a talk to current students on how to become a successful and happy researcher. His tips included the importance of building a good relationship between student and supervisor and how to alleviate stress. The School is encouraging sharing sessions among research postgraduates to provide more interaction outside the lab and to broaden the research student experience. The three award-winners are now pursuing academic and research careers in the US and Mainland China. CUS 12 Shenzhen River clean-up. “Being able to assist in large-scale environmental projects locally and internationally is challenging but also really exciting,” she said. “I feel that helping to revitalize waterways and land is a very tangible way to improve people’s lives.” Prof Papadias specializes in spatial and spatio-temporal databases. He has successfully applied spatial database techniques to other areas, in particular skyline computing. “The School has really supported my vision and encouraged me to go the extra step that enables you to make significant breakthroughs,” Prof Papadias explained. “This keeps me energized to move ahead.” Other areas of his research include indexing schemes, processing algorithms and spatio-temporal data warehouses. He has been widely cited and published, and his professional activities include being program chair of SIGMOD 2013, the world’s leading conference on databases. Dean of Engineering Prof Khaled Ben Letaief said that the awardees’ achievements exemplify the School’s drive and impact. “Our faculty members’ research excellence is an invaluable asset to the engineering community and sharpens the competitive edge of our School,” he noted.
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