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The captioned Symposium was held on 20 October 2022. It is the signature annual function for electrical engineers and our fellow professional friends in Hong Kong. Like last year, the Symposium was conducted in hybrid mode, with more than 350 participants attending on-site and online.
This year marked the 40th Anniversary of the Annual Symposium since the first one was held in 1983. As part of the celebrations, a special logo was designed embedding the number “40” which carries a double meaning of “for zero” that matches the symposium theme of “Co-Innovation for Zero”.
The theme of the Symposium focused on new initiatives and the application of electrical engineering to obtaining carbon neutrality in response to Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050 which aims to reach Zero-carbon Emissions by mid-century to combat climate change.
Ir Raymond Poon, JP, Deputy Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services Department launched the Symposium with an Opening Address which was followed by a Keynote Speech by Ir Prof Christopher Chao, Vice President (Research and Innovation), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Ten technical papers were presented by speakers from the public and private sectors, academic institutions, power utilities and mass transit in different sessions. Our President, Ir Aaron Bok, concluded the Symposium with a Closing Address which ended the event on a high note.
The Division would like to express our gratitude to all parties including paper authors, speakers, sponsors, the working team and liaison committee members for their contributions as well as the support from participants. Their concerted efforts and support made the Symposium this year another success.
Becoming a professional electrical engineer is one of the milestones in the career development of an engineer. This year, the EL Division continued to organise a series of "Inspire the Next" workshops including one to introduce the competence-based professional assessment system and provide guidance and inspiration to young members applying for HKIE Corporate Membership.
This workshop was held on 29 October 2022 and attracted 16 young members with electrical engineering backgrounds. We were honoured to have Ir Tony Yeung, Head of Construction and Maintenance of The Hongkong Electric Company Limited, Ir Mandy Leung, Deputy Director - Asset Development at CLP Power Hong Kong Limited and Ir Simon Chung, Director of SC Consultants Limited, to give a detailed introduction on the application procedure and share the competency requirements for professional assessment by the HKIE.
Ir Yeung introduced the competence-based assessment system and explained that candidates are required to meet competencies in four broad areas. These included “applying engineering knowledge”, “developing technical solutions”, “managing engineering work” and “upkeeping professional acumen”. He also discussed the HKIE Corporate Membership application and professional assessment process.
Ir Leung elaborated on the requirements for six of the competencies and provided associated examples. She said that candidates should show clearly the logical flow of their problem solving and demonstrate their working experience and engineering judgement in tackling challenges they had encountered in their previous projects while also emphasising their personal contribution to the desired outcome.
Ir Chung discussed the other six competencies and shared some examples of good evidence to demonstrate how candidates fulfilled the required competencies. Ir Chung further encouraged young engineers to grab any chances they had to work on different projects and learn from engineers with different backgrounds to become all-round professional engineers.
Participants were then divided into small groups for an intensive question-and-answer session with the speakers. They sought professional advice on their different circumstances. The speakers shared their experiences in preparing for the professional assessment interview. The workshop was well received.