Postgraduate Courses

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To understand the ubiquitous presence of uncertainties in engineering systems.
• 2.
  To learn to describe common random variables.
• 3.
  To learn advanced reliability methods to support engineering design and codes of practice.
• 4.
  To learn risk analysis methods to support engineering decision and policy making.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Explain the essential issues in infrastructure development and management.
• 2.
  Analyze risks in infrastructure project finance and development.
• 3.
  Conduct value for money assessment for public-private partnership projects.
• 4.
  Perform project appraisal from financial and economic perspectives.
• 5.
  Design and analyze concession agreement.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand the principles of building information modeling (BIM) and the current related technologies for BIM.
• 2.
  Leverage software for building information modeling and project management.
• 3.
  Model and represent various kinds of information in the construction industry.
• 4.
  Perform data processing and mining for knowledge discovery.
• 5.
  Design and leverage database systems for managing information and supporting construction management.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Describe the key features in the interactions of engineering, business and society.
• 2.
  Conduct financial and economic analysis of engineering investments.
• 3.
  Analyze the financial statements of engineering and technology companies.
• 4.
  Evaluate the financial management performance of engineering and technology companies.
• 5.
  Evaluate the operational management performance of engineering and technology companies.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand emerging sensing technologies in structural health monitoring.
• 2.
  Understand the fundamentals of fiber optic sensing technologies.
• 3.
  Understand the basic principles of vibration based structural health monitoring.
• 4.
  Understand the basic concepts of machine learning.
• 5.
  Understand the basic concepts of state estimate.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To comprehend the fundamental concepts and theories of numerical optimization.
• 2.
  To understand how to formulate structural optimization problems, including defining appropriate design variables, constraints, and objective functions.
• 3.
  To acquire classical mathematical programming techniques and evolutionary metaheuristic algorithms for solving unconstrained and constrained optimization problems.
• 4.
  To apply advanced optimization algorithms for element sizing and topology design of tall building structures.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Identify the basic bridge types and their defining characteristics.
• 2.
  Formulate the proper actions, loads and load combinations on bridges according to EC design codes.
• 3.
  Calculate and use influence lines/areas for the design of bridges.
• 4.
  General models of different fidelity and complexity to examine the dynamics of bridges.
• 5.
  Perform seismic response analysis of typical bridges.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Conduct the dynamic analysis of structural systems.
• 2.
  Analyze the response of structures to earthquake ground motions.
• 3.
  Use seismic spectra for the analysis of seismic actions.
• 4.
  Apply the seismic design concepts and methodology to concrete structures.
• 5.
  Conduct seismic design of concrete members and buildings.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Describe the structure of typhoon and characteristics of boundary layer wind, and perform typhoon wind field modelling and extreme wind analysis.
• 2.
  Identify the key factors of alongwind and crosswind forces, and formulate building aerodynamic equations and excessive response mitigations.
• 3.
  Define the principles of wind tunnel tests and perform tall building aerodynamic designs using various methods.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Comprehend the fundamental theory and assumptions of the Finite Element Method (FEM).
• 2.
  Formulate the governing FE equations for systems governed by partial differential equations.
• 3.
  Identify and use the basic finite elements (truss, beam, frame, and plane elements) for structural engineering and for heat transfer applications.
• 4.
  Apply the finite element method (modeling, analysis, and interpretation of results) to realistic engineering problems using a commercial general-purpose finite element code.
• 5.
  Develop a basic understanding of the limitations of the FEM and identify the possible error sources in its use.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Acquire advanced knowledge in the Principles of physical-chemical treatment for removing contaminants from drinking water and municipal wastewaters.
• 2.
  Develop an ability to identify physical-chemical problems and phenomena in water and wastewater treatment and propose feasible treatment components and alternatives, with an appreciation of their underlying assumptions, constraints, and technical limitations.
• 3.
  Develop technical competency to design physical-chemical water and wastewater treatment processes and systems, and to predict the process behavior with an in-depth understanding of the principles behind the modeling methodologies.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Acquire the advanced knowledge in the biological waste treatment, including carbon, nutrients removal and sulfur cycle in biological wastewater treatment processes, biological solid waste treatment, and resources recovery from waste streams.
• 2.
  Acquire the advanced knowledge in biology that governs plant-wide waste treatment process design and modification for both engineering application and research.
• 3.
  Acquire an ability to judge the quality of a published research work with reasonable justifications.
• 4.
  Acquire an ability to search the cutting-edge knowledge and technologies for waste treatment and predicate its potential development.
• 5.
  Develop an ability to formulate problems and propose feasible solutions to apply biological wastewater treatment principles in real projects and research topics.
• 6.
  Develop an ability to plan a long-term research project independently and ethically.
• 7.
  Develop an ability to introduce a subject or research plan, communicate and present ideas effectively, including oral, written, and technical writing skills.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Provide with the fundamentals of chemistry regarding the chemical reactions affecting the distribution and fate of chemical compounds in aquatic situations from an engineering point of view.
• 2.
  Develop technical competency in understanding the nature of water chemical pollution and the chemical aspects of water and wastewater treatment.
• 3.
  Analyze some local and global issues in water quality and water treatment from a chemical point of view.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To comprehend the regulations for contaminated land management in HK.
• 2.
  To analyze contaminant fate and interactions in the subsurface environment.
• 3.
  To assess the potential risks associated with land contamination and identify the problems.
• 4.
  To evaluate and compare the applications of cutting edge remediation technologies.
• 5.
  To experience real applications from case studies.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To understand the current solid waste recycling, treatment and disposal systems and identify their potential environmental problems in HK.
• 2.
  To appreciate the importance of an integrated solid waste management for sustainable development.
• 3.
  To assess the advantage and disadvantages of various thermal technologies such as waste-to-energy incineration.
• 4.
  To understand the design concepts and the principles behind the design methodologies of a landfill based on fundamental principles of water and mass balance, hydrogeology, soil mechanics, and environmental engineering.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Teach some advanced treatment processes and mathematic modelling approach.
• 2.
  Require students to conduct treatment process design for particular type of industrial wastewater they prefer as an independent project report and presentation.
• 3.
  Conduct comprehensive independent literature review by students to master various treatment processes and their key design elements.
• 4.
  Through learning sampling and analytical techniques to enable them to identify complex treatment solution.
• 5.
  Offer computer based soft ware modelling to design typical industrial wastewater treatment plant.
• 6.
  Familiarizing students by teaching leading-edge treatment technologies whenever necessary.
• 7.
  Invite students to present their to learn planning, reporting, and and communication skills.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Develop intuitive understanding about probabilities and statistics, especially in a direct context of hydroclimate studies.
• 2.
  Explore, analyze and investigate data using robust methods.
• 3.
  Carry out the analysis using programming language efficiently and effectively.
• 4.
  Interpret analysis results in the hydroclimate context for a better physical understanding.
• 5.
  Present and explain their data analysis results using the right statistical and physical language.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Formulate hydrosystems engineering problems using mathematical expressions.
• 2.
  Analyze the uncertainty and reliability of hydrosystems and their individual components.
• 3.
  Apply mathematic knowledge and technique to obtain optimal solutions for hydrosystems engineering problems.
• 4.
  Appreciate a broad impact of hydrosystems engineering on global environment change.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Summarize features of different turbulent flows and distinguish them.
• 2.
  Explain the principle of turbulence modelling and judge their applications for real engineering problems.
• 3.
  Apply mathematic knowledge and technique to solve turbulence problems.
• 4.
  Appreciate a broad impact of turbulence on engineering designs and hydrosystems.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Acquire advanced knowledge in mathematics and science on which fluids research and practice are based.
• 2.
  Develop an ability to identify and model fluid problems, and propose feasible solutions with an appreciation of their underlying assumptions, uncertainties, constraints, and technical limitations.
• 3.
  Develop in-depth understanding of the fundamental principles that underlies fluid flow phenomena.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Analyze the network traffic flow problem based on the user equilibrium concept.
• 2.
  Look at choice of travel modes, the distribution of trips among various possible destinations, and the choice of route between an origin and a destination in congested urban transportation networks.
• 3.
  Use computer program for traffic impact study in a transportation network through a course project.
• 4.
  Understand the formulation methods and common solution techniques, and to interpret model results of network traffic flow problems.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Overview of transportation planning process; population/employment forecasting techniques; sequential demand forecasting models.
• 2.
  Discrete travel choice models and simplify transportation demand models.
• 3.
  Understand the mathematical and econometric models for travel behavior analysis and demand estimation.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Analyze principles involved in the design of traffic control.
• 2.
  Apply traffic control principles to model signalized junctions.
• 3.
  Design signalized junctions based on the Hong Kong practices.
• 4.
  Develop advanced control methods based on dynamic traffic flow fundamentals.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Obtain fundamental knowledge in mathematics and science, and learn in-depth knowledge in discrete choice analysis and how to apply discrete choice experiment design method and stated choice data analysis method to multiple areas, such as transportation engineering, health services, marketing, tourism, etc.
• 2.
  Apply modern engineering tools, and learn how to use professional software N-gene/SAS to design discrete choice experiments, work with stated choice data in Python, and learn how to use visualization tools and data mining techniques.
• 3.
  Formulate problems and propose feasible solutions, learn how to design a research question, methodology and data approach for a real problem, and apply project design and data analysis methods to real problems with real data.
• 4.
  Stay abreast of contemporary issues and learn how to collect stated choice data and develop models to solve current real-world issues and propose policy implications.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Learn advanced knowledge in mathematics and science on which geotechnical engineering research and practice are based.
• 2.
  Identify and formulate geotechnical engineering problems, and propose feasible solutions with considering assumptions, uncertainties, constraints, and technical/financial limitations.
• 3.
  Develop technical competency to analyze and design geotechnical engineering components and systems, with an in-depth understanding of the principles behind the design methodologies.
• 4.
  Acquire cutting edge knowledge for geotechnical engineering analyze and design.
• 5.
  Develop an ability to teach, communicate and present ideas effectively among teams with a variety of backgrounds and interests.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand the current practice of foundation engineering in Hong Kong and around the globe;.
• 2.
  Learn principles and analysis methods for the design of common foundations including shallow and deep foundations, deep excavation, soil nail or tieback systems, and offshore foundations.
• 3.
  Learn modern foundation construction techniques and quality assurance.
• 4.
  Understand deterministic and reliability-based design methodologies and guidelines.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand advanced knowledge in mathematical and computational modeling of soils and geotechnical engineering.
• 2.
  To acquire ability and advanced skills to develop and apply modern computer programming and popular software to effectively and efficiently modeling and analyzing soil behavior pertaining to various practical conditions in geotechnical engineering.
• 3.
  To develop an ability to identify and formulate mathematical models, and to propose feasible analytical and/or numerical solutions with understanding of their underlying assumptions, uncertainties, constraints, limitations, and technical connections with others civil engineering components including structural, hydraulic and environmental engineering.
• 4.
  To develop technical competency to analyze and design geotechnical engineering components and geo-systems, based on an in-depth understanding of the principles of soil mechanics and computational mechanics behind the design methodologies.
• 5.
  To contribute cutting edge knowledge in soil mechanics, constitutive modeling and computational geomechanics and demonstrate the ability to evaluate one’s own contribution to the field.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To acquire advanced knowledge in engineering seismology, and understand scientific basis for earthquake mechanism and wave propagation in geologic media.
• 2.
  To apply modern numerical methods to simulate response of soil grounds and soil-structure interaction under earthquake loading.
• 3.
  To develop the ability to identify geotechnical problems associated with earthquake hazards, and propose feasible solutions for hazard mitigation.
• 4.
  To develop technical competency to analyze seismic hazard, characterize ground motions, perform site response and slope stability analysis, assess soil liquefaction, and evaluate seismic performance of geotechnical structures.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  To understand fundamentals of engineering geology, particularly geological conditions in Hong Kong.
• 2.
  To get familiar with geotechnical site investigation procedure and practices.
• 3.
  To learn state-of-the-art geotechnical investigation methods, including drilling and sampling, soil and rock description, cone penetration test, standard penetration test, pressuremeter test, dilatometer test, geophysical methods, permeability test, and field performance monitoring.
• 4.
  To learn modern geostatistical data interpretation methods.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Enable students, researchers and engineers to understand the fundamental principles and advanced concepts of unsaturated soil mechanics.
• 2.
  Teach the students about the applications on geotechnical and geo-environmental engineering problems such as landfill and pavement, and forensic studies such as slope failures.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Learn advanced knowledge in mathematics and science on which geotechnical engineering research and practice are based.
• 2.
  Identify and formulate geotechnical engineering problems, and propose feasible solutions with considering assumptions, uncertainties, constraints, and technical limitations.
• 3.
  Develop technical competency to analyze and design geotechnical engineering components and systems, with an in-depth understanding of the principles behind the design methodologies.
• 4.
  Acquire cutting edge knowledge for geotechnical engineering analyze and design.
• 5.
  Develop an ability to teach, communicate and present ideas effectively among teams with a variety of backgrounds and interests.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand fundamental concepts in continuum mechanics.
• 2.
  Familiar with the formulation of problems in structural mechanics and various solution techniques.
• 3.
  Demonstrate ability to apply basic concepts to the analysis of structural components.
• 4.
  Demonstrate ability to apply handbook equations to practical design with sound judgments.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Identify and describe the key chemical reactions involved in the manufacture and hydration of Portland cement.
• 2.
  Characterize the nano- (or molecular-) and micro-structures of cement hydration products.
• 3.
  Analyze the effect of common concrete ingredients, such as aggregates, supplementary cementitious materials (SCM), and chemical agent on the properties of fresh and hardened concrete.
• 4.
  Acquire basic knowledge on typical non-destructive testing technologies and material characterization methods for concrete.
• 5.
  Assess the long-term deformation (e.g. shrinkage and creep) and durability of (reinforced) concrete.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Understand fundamental concepts behind degradation of concrete structures and approaches for predicting steel corrosion initiation.
• 2.
  Understand major issues related to the appraisal and repair of concrete structures.
• 3.
  Demonstrate the ability to specific non-destructive testing techniques for various purposes and properly interpret the results.
• 4.
  Demonstrate ability to analyze and design fiber reinforced polymer components for enhanced durability.
• 5.
  Demonstrate ability to design reinforced concrete members strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer sheet.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Identify a research or industrial problem related to civil and environmental engineering.
• 2.
  Apply the knowledge learned through the program to analyze and solve the identified problem.
• 3.
  Integrate theoretical principles and practical skills to solve the defined problems.
• 4.
  Demonstrate effective communication skills with the supervisor and scientific writing skills in the thesis.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Acquire a comprehensive set of discipline-specific professional skills and knowledge for their personal growth and career development.
• 2.
  Describe the new development in their field.
• 3.
  Explain their career choice in academic and non-academic fields.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Acquire a comprehensive set of discipline-specific professional skills and knowledge for their personal growth and career development.
• 2.
  Describe the new development in their field.
• 3.
  Explain their career choice in academic and non-academic fields.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Analyze and evaluate the selected topics of current interest which may not be covered by existing courses.
• 2.
  Identify the updated development in the emerging area and apply the knowledge accordingly.
• 3.
  Develop research topics which are in line with the current developments and trend in the area of civil engineering.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Design, develop and conduct a research proposal in their research area.

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• 1.
  Design, develop and conduct a research proposal in their research area.