Xinyan Receives CI Early Career Award
June 2026
Prof. Xinyan Huang received the 2026 Tsuji Early Career Award from the Combustion Institute. The Hiroshi Tsuji Early Career Researcher Award recognizes excellence in fundamental or applied combustion science research. This award and prize of US $10,000 is annually bestowed upon an early career researcher who has advanced a specific field of research within four to ten years of completing a doctoral degree or equivalent. Congratulations!
PolyU X Fire Group Attends IAFSS at La Rochelle
June 2026
PolyU Fire Lab attended the 15th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, held between June 7 – 12, 2026, in La Rochelle, France. Xinyan served as Symposium Communication Co-Chair and presented at the battery workshop. In total, 6 oral presentations and 8 posters from our group are highlighted in the symposium.
Sainan Receives the Best Fire Image Award
June 2026
The image "Fire suppression by air vortex rings", created by Sainan Quan and Caiyi Xiong (former postdoc), receives the Best Image Award, out of 40 images. This award aims to promote the best fire safety science related image based on originality, scientific significance, and artistic/aesthetic appeal. The selection will be made by the Symposium Delegates.
SFPE HK Student Chapter Receives Gold Award
May 2026
This is the 3rd time for us to win this Gold Award, under the leadership of Yuxin Zhou and Yichao Zhang. The SFPE Board of Directors established ACE (formerly known as the Chapter Excellence Awards) in 2005 to recognize SFPE Chapters that demonstrate excellence in contributing to the needs of their members and the Society. Three levels of recognition are awarded — Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Yifei wins the Sheldon Tieszen Student Award
May 2026
The paper "Coupling computer-vision house fuel load estimation with fire spread simulation in the Wildland–Urban interface", led by Yifei Ding wins the Sheldon Tieszen Student Award. The award consists of US$1,250 cash payment to assist the recipient at the IAFSS Symposium. Recipients must present their papers at the Symposium. The award recipients will be selected by the IAFSS Awards Committee in coordination with the Chair of the FORUM.
Tong Wins a Pioneer Award in BEEE Industry Day
May 2026
Tong LU's research poster on smart evacuation design wins the Pioneer Award for the BEEE Industry Day 2026. The event featured a poster exhibition and award ceremony highlighting the latest capstone projects and research achievements of BEEE research and degree students in the field of Building Sciences and Engineering. Guests were invited to explore the diverse and innovative work presented by students, reflecting the Department’s commitment to advancing excellence in building environment, safety, resilience, and energy.
Xinyan Receives Outstanding AE Award
April 2026
Prof. Xinyan Huang is awarded the 2025 Outstanding Associate Editor Award by the International Journal of Wildland Fire (IJWF). Xinyan has served as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Wildland Fire since 2021. This annual honor, nominated by journal editors-in-chief, is given to only one recipient worldwide each year from a team of 40 associate editors. Prof. Huang has also been a board member of the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) from 2022 to 2024 and was honored with its Early Career Award in Fire Science in 2025.
APSS 2027 to be Held in PolyU
April 2026
PolyU Fire Lab is proud to announce that we will host the 12th Asia Pacific Symposium on Safety (APSS 2027), 20-23 May 2027, in Hong Kong. APSS is an international conference dedicated to advancing industrial safety and disaster prevention. APSS 2027 will feature world-class keynote speeches, technical sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities, fostering collaborations across academia and industry. We warmly welcome researchers, professionals, and students from around the world to join us in Hong Kong in 2027 for this landmark event.
SFPE Performance-Based Design Conference
April 2026
Ho Yin Wong, Wai Kit Cheung, Weikang Xie, and Tong Lu, PhD students from the PolyU Fire Group, attended the 16th SFPE Fire Safety Conference on Performance-Based Design in Singapore in April 2026. This conference brought together global researchers, engineers, and experts to discuss current and future trends in performance-based design and fire regulatory systems. Tong Lu delivered an oral presentation, and Ho Yin, Wai Kit, and Weikang gave poster presentations on the smart evaluation design, effectiveness of dynamic exit signs, exit sign visibility performance in smoke, and LLM-powered fire emergency response.
Group Attend Australia Wildland Fire Conference
April 2026
PolyU Firelab participated in the 8th International Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference held in Tasmania, Australia. Dr. Shaorun Lin, Dr. Yunzhu Qin and Yichao Zhang attended the event on behalf of the team. They exchanged latest research findings on fire behavior, fuel characteristics and wildfire safety. The conference offered a valuable global platform for academic communication, international collaboration and sharing cutting-edge advances.
Shaorun Gave Plenary Talk in National Meeting
April 2026
Dr Shaorun Lin was invited to give a plenary speech at The 11th Young Scholar Meeting on Combustion Research, organized by the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics. The title of his presentation is Smoldering wildfire: Combustion Dynamics and Mechanism. Only 6 young researchers were invited, so it is a highest recognition for young researchers in the combustion domain. Xinyan was invited to give a plenary talk at the 3rd Meeting back in 2017 .
Wai Kit awarded by SFPE and Arup
March 2026
Wai Kit Cheung is awarded SFPE Student Research Grant for his project titled “Extending Visibility in Smoke Model beyond 15 m Range with Experimental and Numerical Approach.” He has also been awarded 3rd place in the Arup Margaret Law Fire Safety Award, a global student award that recognizes innovative and practical research in fire safety engineering. The award is named after Margaret Law MBE, a pioneering fire safety engineer who established Arup’s fire engineering team in 1974.
Team Wins CES Best Innovation Award
Jan 2026
A smart firefighting robot created by a PolyU startup, WideMount Dynamics, co-founded by Meng WANG, Yuxin Zhang and Xinyan Huang, has won the prestigious Best of Innovation Grand Award at CES 2026, Las Vegas. This AI-powered robot can navigate smoke-filled environments, identify fire risks, and extinguish initial blazes autonomously, greatly improving urban firefighting safety and efficiency. It obtained the highest score in the Human Security for All product category at this important global innovation event.
Lessons to be Learned from Tai Po Fire
Jan 2026
On 26 November 2025, a fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong, scaled the bamboo scaffolding and wrapped itself around seven of the eight residential towers undergoing façade repair. It has caused 168 deaths, and all have to learn this fire disaster. Unless fire safety is built into how sustainability is defined and implemented, dense urban renovation will continue to produce large-scale disasters like the Wang Fuk Court Fire as predictable and systemic outcomes rather than rare accidents. See our correspondence in Nature Cities.
Winning 1st prize in Arup Research Competition
Jan 2026
Wai Kit Cheung, Yuxin Zhou, and Lei Zhang, PhD students from the PolyU Fire Group, have been awarded 1st prize in the Arup Research Competition 2025 under the theme “Empowering the future: Energy transition and urban development.” The winning project, titled “Multi-Modal Sensor Fusion for Early Thermal Runaway Prediction in Large-scale Battery Energy Storage Systems”, leverages multi-modal sensing technology to enable early detection of battery thermal runaway.