CIVL Graduates Win Best Final-Year Environmental Project Competition
Mr. Cheung Howard Yau Ming and Mr. Cheng Ming Yeung Roland, BEng graduates from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, have won the Champion Prize and the 2nd Runner-up Prize respectively in the 2024/2025 Best Final-Year Environmental Project (Individual Project) Competition, organized by the Environmental Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE). The two prize-winning projects were supervised by Ir Prof. Irene Lo, Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at HKUST.
The Best Final-Year Environmental Project Competition recognizes final-year students who have completed high-quality final-year projects and encourages them to further advance environmental engineering practice as future professional engineers. The prize-giving ceremony was held on 27th February 2026 at The Cityview. The awards were presented by the Chairman of The HKIE Environmental Division, Ir Prof. Kaimin Shih.
Howard’s final-year project, entitled “Novel PEC/Chlorine System with BiVO4-based Photoanode for Efficient Degradation of PPCPs and Disinfection of Drinking Water”, developed a PEC/Chlorine system for drinking water treatment to simultaneously achieve effective pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs, a category of persistent organic pollutant) removal and bacteria inactivation while delivering safe drinking water to the consumer end. The operation of the PEC/Chlorine continuous-flow treatment further provided valuable insights into the scalability and practicality of PEC technology, paving the way towards the potential industrialization of PEC-based water treatment.
Roland’s final-year project, entitled “Development of a novel Ov-Fe2O3@BiVO4 photoanode for efficient organic compounds removal in real saline sewage coupled with green H2 generation”, achieved superior performance in organic removal in saline wastewater with considerable H2 generation, while recording a significant reduction in operational carbon emission compared to conventional biological treatment. Owing to the developed Ov-Fe2O3@BiVO4 photoanode’s capability of intrinsically activating chloride for decontamination, the PEC technology demonstrates strong potential for sustainable saline wastewater treatment in Hong Kong.
Congratulations to Howard, Roland, and Prof. Lo!
From left to right: Howard Cheung, Ir Prof. Kaimin Shih of HKIE Environmental Division, and Roland Cheng
