Media

HKU Engineering Professor Ron Hui named a Fellow
by the UK Royal Academy of Engineering

20 Oct 2016

 

Professor Ron Hui, Chair Professor of Power Electronics and Philip Wong Wilson Wong Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong, has been named a Fellow by the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K., one of the most prestigious national academies.

Over the last 20 years, Professor Ron Hui has focused his research on environmentally friendly technologies. His ground-breaking research focuses on Power Electronics, with emphasis on energy saving and reduction of electronic waste. Besides publishing extensively in top-tier research journals in power electronics, he has over 55 patents adopted by industry. His achievements Planar Wireless Power Transfer and Sustainable Lighting Technology have been previously recognised by the Institute of Electical & Electronic Engineers (IEEE) USA, Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) UK and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering.

Professor Hui's inventions have underpined the key features of the World’s 1st Wireless Power Standard "Qi", launched by the international Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) in 2010. Noting the surge of mobile phone chargers and their e-waste problem in early 2000's, he has pioneered a series of “Planar Wireless Charging technologies” covering (i) free-positioning, (ii) localized charging and (iii) load identification. Such user-friendly technologies have been adopted into “Qi” by the WPC, now comprising over 200 companies worldwide.

Professor Hui raised the electronic waste issues arising from electronic lighting products in early 2000. He has championed the concept of “Sustainable Lighting” that incorporates not only energy saving (as adopted in Energy Star), but also long product lifetime and recyclability of product components. He invented sustainable ballasts/drivers that outperform conventional ones with improved energy efficiency, lifetime and recyclability. He designed the world’s first passive LED driver that has designed lifetime (>10 years) exceeding that of the LED devices. (now in production for street lighting). In 2009, he published the Photo-electro-thermal Theory for LED Systems, unifying the interactions of light, heat and power. Such theory has been adopted into the Industrial Electronics Handbook.

Professor Hui’s achievements in Planar Wireless Charging Technology have been independently recognised by both of IET (UK) and IEEE (USA) with their “most prestigious awards” in Power Research:

• 2010    The IET Crompton Medal for achievements in Power
• 2015    IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award (IEEE Technical Field   Award – the highest honour in              Power Electronics by the IEEE Award Board)

Moreover, he received the IEEE Rodulf Chope Research & Development Award (for Sustainable Lighting Technology) in 2010, and was honoured a Fellow of the Austrialian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering in the same year.

Presently, Professor Hui and his team are engaged in several exciting research ideas. He is studying new omnidirectional wireless power transfer (for 3-dimensional wireless charging) and electric springs (for stabilizing power systems with increasing renewable energy generation).

Professor Hui's photos in the ceremony will be uploaded later today.

For media enquiries, please contact: Ms Melanie Wan (Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2600/ email: melwkwan@hku.hk; or Ms Esther Lau, Faculty of Engineering, HKU, tel: 3917 1924 / email: estherlc@hku.hk.