Built Environment & Energy Laboratory

2025 News
Jun 27, 2025: Prof. Chun Chen received research funding from Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong through the General Research Fund (GRF): "Development of pollution-level-responsive air filters based on liquid crystal elastomers and thermoplastic polyurethane nanofibers for improved sustainability", No. 14203225, HK$1,169,801, 01/2026 to 12/2028.

Jun 19, 2025: Houhua Wu successfully passed the CE written and oral exam. His thesis title is "Multi-strategy for particle loading management in nanofiber air filters".

Jun 18, 2025: Chengzhong Deng successfully passed the CE written and oral exam. His thesis title is "Long-term personal air cleaning in large indoor environments".

Jun 09, 2025: Prof. Chun Chen, Dr. Kangqi Guo, Can Xiao, Houhua Wu, and Chengzhong Deng attended the Healthy Buildings 2025 Europe Conference (HB2025 Europe) in Reykjavik, Iceland. Kangqi, Can, Houhua, and Chengzhong gave oral presentations during the conference.

Jun 06, 2025: Prof. Chun Chen attended the 15th Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations (REHVA) World Congress (CLIMA 2025) in Milan, Italy, and gave a presentation.

Jun 06, 2025: Prof. Chun Chen received The University of Toronto - The Chinese University of Hong Kong Research Fund: "Opportunities and challenges for air filtration for the control of infectious disease, HK$85,000, 06/2025 – 05/2026." The U of T PI is Prof. Jeffrey Siegel.

May 23, 2025: Kangqi Guo has successfully passed her Ph.D. defense. Her Ph.D. thesis title is "Controlling Airborne and Surface Bioaerosols with Far-UVC in Indoor Environments". Congratulations to Dr. Guo!

May 02, 2025: Our paper "Wu, H., Niu, Z., Chen, C.* (2025). Toward understanding the interaction between wetting liquid aerosols and metal organic framework-embedded nanofiber air filters." has been accepted by Building and Environment. Congratulations to Houhua!

Feb 25, 2025: Our invention "Chen, C., Niu, Z., Bian, Y., Zhang, L. Electrospinning method for fabricating nanofiber air filter with minimized pressure drop" has been granted a U.S. non-provisional patent, US 12,180,613B2, December 31, 2024. Congratulations to Zhuolun and Ye!

Jan 10, 2025: Prof. Chun Chen attended the International Workshop on Building Energy Efficiency and Indoor Environmental Quality in AI Era at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and gave a talk entitled "Energy-Efficient Control of Indoor PM2.5 and Thermal Comfort using Deep Reinforcement Learning".

Jan 26, 2025: Our paper "Deng, C., Niu, Z., Chen, C.* (2025). Personal air cleaning by a user-tracking robot equipped with a nanofiber air cleaner in a large work space." has been accepted by Indoor Environments. Congratulations to Chengzhong!
