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The Annual Conference of the MI Division was held on 28 October 2020. The Conference was co-organised by the IVE Engineering of Vocational Training Council and Manufacturing, Industrial, Logistics, Enterprise and Systems Alumni Association of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
To cope with the current COVID-19 restrictions, the Conference was held in a hybrid mode for the first time. Most of the speakers joined physically in a conference room at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi) while the other participants attended via the internet. Over 250 engineering professionals and practitioners were attracted.
Ir Dr Eric Liu, Chairman of the MI Division, started the Conference with a welcome address. Ir Prof P L Yuen, President of the HKIE and Ir Dr The Hon W K Lo, Representative of the Engineering Functional Constituency of the Legislative Council, extended a warm welcome in the opening address.
Two keynote speakers, Mr Peter Lam, Chairman of The Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors Ltd and Mr Gary Yeung, President of Smart City Consortium, were invited to share insights on engineering digitalisation design and smart city development.
Three other speakers discussed technology applications and standards involved in engineering digital transformation. Prof Jack Cheng, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, explained the BIM blockchain, and then Ir C K Ng, CEO of dRoW Ltd, explained the ISO standard in digital construction. The final presentation on digital twin was given by Mr Stephen Au, Managing Director of MTECH Engineering Co Ltd.
The Conference concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Ir Francis Leung, Chairman of The Hong Kong Institute of Building Information Modelling. The fruitful discussion provided a platform for panelists and participants to exchange views and explore the possibilities for overcoming challenges in the digital transformation process. In line with the Construction 2.0 outlined by the HKSAR Government, it was agreed that construction digitalisation is in great demand and should be further promoted with collaboration among the government, industry and the education sector.
According to the post-conference survey, most respondents were highly impressed by the informative sharing of the speakers and enjoyed the interactive panel discussion session.