Civil Engineering

Overview

A candidate for a PhD degree is expected to demonstrate mastery of knowledge in the chosen discipline and to synthesize and create new knowledge, making an original and substantial contribution to the discipline.

Research Foci

GREAT Smart Cities

One major research focus of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at HKUST is on GREAT Smart Cities. The acronym GREAT stands for:

• Green: cities planned with due considerations for life-cycle environmental impacts, natural resources consumption (e.g. air, water, energy, materials) and wastes generation and treatment;

• Resilient: cities developed with infrastructure capacities and system redundancies to manage disruptions without severely affecting their essential functioning;

• Empowering: cities designed for people, empowering well-being, efficiency, innovation, and productive partnerships;

• Adaptable: cities designed with their infrastructure and systems adaptable to changes in new technology (e.g. autonomous vehicles) and global warming; and

• Transformative: cities designed for empowering their institutions and citizens to define and reposition their growth directions and strategies.

Our objectives are to develop and apply smart tools for the context of GREAT infrastructure planning and development. Through the establishment of a broad platform for developing large-scale projects and inter-disciplinary collaborations, jointly we will do GREAT things for future cities.

Next Generation Infrastructure

Building information modelling (BIM), modular structures, robotically constructed and 3D printed structures, green bio-composite structures, sensors and smart structures for resilience, smart and sustainable built environment, building-system design and analysis, monitoring and analysis of highway bridges, wind and seismic engineering, geotechnical engineering, transportation system modeling and operation, integrated risk and reliability assessment, and infrastructure system enhancement.

Slope Safety in Changing Climate

Slope failure mechanisms, multi-scale numerical methods, green risk mitigation measures, AI assisted monitoring system, landslide risk analysis and management, and landslide early warning.

Green Building and Intelligent Construction Materials

Green building design standards, eco-friendly materials and technologies, cement-based functional materials, recycling of construction materials, green retrofit and renovation technologies, optimization of energy and water usage, and nanotechnology in concrete design.

Environmental, Water Resources and Energy Studies 

Innovative physical, chemical and biological water and wastewater treatment processes, environmental quality management, remediation of contaminated soils and groundwater, mixing and transport phenomena of pollutants in natural and man-made systems, water resources management and engineering, stochastic optimization of water quality and resources and environmental fluid mechanics.

Climate change modelling, carbon zero, decarbonization, energy harvesting, and clean energy.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the PhD in Civil Engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology , graduates will be able to:

• Acquire advanced knowledge in mathematics and science on which civil engineering research and practice are based;
• Acquire the ability to independently and ethically plan and conduct experiments, produce original experimental data and analyze and interpret the results;
• Acquire and further enhance an ability to develop and apply modern engineering and IT tools effectively and efficiently for engineering analysis, design, research and communication;
• Develop an ability to identify and formulate civil engineering problems, and propose feasible solutions with an appreciation of their underlying assumptions, uncertainties, constraints, and technical limitations within a multidisciplinary research environment;
• Develop technical competency to analyze and design civil engineering components and systems, with an in-depth understanding of the principles behind the design methodologies;
• Contribute cutting edge knowledge in at least one major area of specialization within civil engineering and demonstrate the ability to evaluate one’s own contribution to the field; and
• Develop an ability to teach a subject, communicate and present ideas effectively, including oral, written, and technical writing skills, and to function effectively within and among teams with a variety of backgrounds and interests.