[Poly U MSc in BSE] Subjects Description

[Poly U MSc in BSE] Subjects Description

The programme content is structured to provide flexibility for students to choose a combination of subjects reflecting several focuses depending on the professional background of the student, namely, Building Electrical Services Focus, Energy Efficiency Focus and Building Environmental Quality Focus. Apart from the compulsory core subjects for both PgD and MSc levels, students will have the flexibility to choose a range of core / elective subjects provided under the above focuses (subject to availability on a first come first serve basis). Students are advised to stipulate an agreed programme of study with the Programme Leader upon enrollment during the first semester of study.

Enrolment

Enrolment to the programme typically takes place at the beginning of the first semester of an academic year. Each taught subject is equivalent to 42 hours of class contact plus approximately 100 hours of student centred study. Taught subjects are of one semester duration (currently 14 weeks). Meetings between class tutors and programme participants may be on a weekly basis of approximately three hours per week, or they may be scheduled for more intensive periods of learning over weekends. Formal assessment of each subject is typically through a combination of coursework assessments and a final examination.

BSE511 - Lighting Engineering

To provide students with up-to-date knowledge of lighting technologies and practice. The emphasis will be on the importance of lighting in relation to health, safety, and well-being; economics and energy conservation; and human productivity and creativity.

Photometrics of various kinds of lamps and luminaries as well as electrical characteristics of various lamp and ballast systems are examined. Lighting objectives of various types of buildings and outdoor spaces are identified and various design techniques and calculations are examined. The balance between performance, comfort and energy consumption are also examined.

In addition to lectures and guided reading, students are required to do an evaluation of a lighting scheme and present their work in seminars.

BSE512 Engineering Intelligent Buildings

To provide practising engineers with enhanced knowledge of specialist electrical system design and operation.

The emphasis will be on design methodology and the troubleshooting of operational problems. A critical review of current practices with a view to developing a total systems design approach, with integration and co-ordination aspects will be emphasised.

BSE 515 - Electrical Installations in Buildings

To provide practising engineers with thorough knowledge and critical appreciation of electrical installation design and operation in modern, large high rise buildings and complexes.

The emphasis will be on design methodology for safe and economic system performance, and the troubleshooting of operational problems. A critical review of current practices with a view to developing a total systems design approach, with integration and co-ordination aspects will be emphasised. The subject will place emphasis on efficient supply, distribution and utilisation of electrical energy in buildings.

BSE521 - Air Conditioning Control and Operation

To provide practising building services engineers with enhanced knowledge and critical review of technical, environmental and economical aspects of air conditioning systems critically.

The theme is on system control and operation, aiming to evaluate air conditioning system operation and performance with respect to the indoor environmental conditions and energy requirement.

It provides a structured summarised course on air conditioning systems for graduates working in BSE but lack of previous formal learning of air conditioning. Fundamentals will be covered by brief review and self-study guides. Enhanced materials will be covered in lectures. Tutorial time slots will be arranged within lectures wherever appropriate to allow free discussion and clarification of queries. Workshops and student seminars will be organised to facilitate findings that may not be readily appreciated from books and sharing of experience gained from work.

BSE522 - Building Energy Simulation

To enable students to critically examine and apply mathematical and computer modelling techniques in the formulation of simulation models for thermal systems and components related to modern buildings.

The subject contents emphasise on the application of principles of heat and mass transfer and air-conditioning and refrigeration engineering in establishing numerical simulation models for the prediction of heat transport in buildings, energy consumption of buildings for air-conditioning and the performance of air-conditioning systems.

BEng graduates and MEng students of this University will find the subject an extension of the subjects HVACR Services I & II, HVACR Systems Analysis and Design Simulation Software in the BEng and MEng courses. The subject also helps students to integrate their knowledge in building heat transfer and HVACR systems with their mathematics and computing techniques.

This subject is also offered to MSc students who are electrical or mechanical degree holders with some knowledge and/or experience in air-conditioning systems. This group of students will find the subject a supplement to their knowledge in the field and to their understanding of the theoretical background of building and system simulation software they may come across with in their professional practice.Teaching and learning activities embrace formal lectures, computer workshops, case studies and student presentations.

BSE531 - Computational Fire Modelling for Building Design

To equip the students with the basic theories and techniques in computational fire modelling for evaluating and improving active control and passive fire design of buildings.

BSE532 - Fire Engineering Systems

To equip the students with an in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of fire engineering systems associated with the building services industry, based on a rational and critical analysis of the systems.

BSE533 - Fire Dynamics

To provide students a detailed theoretical base of fire dynamics, active and passive fire control design of buildings.

To study the burning properties of materials and fire design.

The study will emphasise the theoretical fire extinguishing mechanism and appraisal of applications of active fire protection systems, and detail fire behaviour of materials.

The subject also includes the investigation and appraisal of current development and research in building fires and services systems. The syllabus will always be revised and up-dated in conjunction with the development and needs of fire services.

BSE534 - Legislation Aspects of Fire Safety Management

To equip the students with knowledge of the Legislation Aspects of Fire Safety Management.

The purpose is to provide the students with legislation knowledge with respect to fire safety management, so that they can learn about the regulations in relation to the fire services installation and the recommended practices for buildings of different uses; and integration with the fire safety for the building as a whole. Comparison with the overseas regulations and the use of fire statistical records to improve the fire safety provisions and management strategies will also be discussed.It will be at the level of practising building services engineers who are working in the area of fire engineering or interested to learn more.

BSE535 - Design Considerations for Fire Safety Management

To provide fire protection engineers with appropriate design knowledge for fire safety management.

To review the design criteria in various fire safety design.

To review main performance characteristics, limitations and applications of existing fire safety systems.

BSE541 - Building Acoustics

To extend knowledge of students on acoustics, noise and vibration control to acoustical design of special rooms and the practices of noise and vibration control, and to enable graduates to become specialists of their design office.

To train students in greater breadth and depth to achieve a satisfactory acoustical environment.

The subject will start with a discussion on indoor noise and vibration sources and their effects on human beings.

Acoustic design needs of various indoor environments will be identified. Noise and vibration control methods will be discussed and examined.

Instrumentation, measurement techniques and acoustic application software will be examined and discussed. The use of equipment will be demonstrated.

Seminars will be used for the introduction of concepts and fundamentals of the subjects. Tutorials will be conducted to supplement the lectures for the application and better understanding of complex engineering theories. Students are required to read and discuss course materials and relevant publications at seminars and to prepare alternative solutions to problem

BSE542 - Energy Efficient Buildings

To provide students with an overall view of energy use patterns in buildings, particularly large air-conditioned buildings, taking account of environmental and economic factors.

To enable students to understand the processes of energy audit and survey, including the use of appropriate instrumentation, in order to identify opportunities for energy conservation and demand limitation in existing buildings and in new designs.

To enable students to integrate and to apply their knowledge of efficient operation of building services systems, to upgrade existing buildings and improve designs for new buildings.

The focus is on the design, operation and maintenance of existing buildings, to examine practices which lead to efficient or inefficient performance, and to quantify performance for benchmarking and comparison purposes. The subject will include mini-projects such as surveys of existing buildings and practices. The subject will discuss country-wide, system specific and building specific approaches to upgrading performance, such as embodied in US EPA energy star type programmes, ASHRAE and CIBSE guides, etc.

The teaching will be conducted by a combination of lectures and student seminars, roughly in equal proportions. Students will be required to actively contribute to the development of the subject by conducting surveys and bringing forward data on various buildings.

BSE543 - Building Environmental Performance

To enhance the awareness of environmental issues and the impact that buildings have on the environment,

To evaluate the ability of new and existing buildings to meet a range of environmental performance criteria

Students are provided with a number of documents relating to the environmental performance of buildings. These generally comprise the background information provided in HK-BEAM documents. Students are required to deliver seminars and review papers on the various topics. Suitability of the environmental assessment criteria and consideration of further criteria are investigated.

BSE547 - Indoor Air Quality Engineering

To identify Indoor Air Quality as part of a much broader aspect in building environmental performance.

To acquaint students with indoor air quality issues, the corresponding health impact and health risk. To examine mitigation through good design, operation and maintenance practices. The objective is to allow practitioners to understand the health and comfort issues, health risks and mitigation measures for new and existing buildings.

To realise the importance of indoor air quality management in buildings.

BSE551 - Facility Management: Professional Practice

This subject provides an introduction to Facility Management covering a review of its evolution as a discipline. It examines the role of the Facility Manager in an organisational context and its implications as a distinct professional that has implications on existing traditional professions in the construction and property industry. The practice focus of the subject is to provide a critical review of current practice of the delivery of Facility Management services with a high proportion of professional and academic input from the FM industry inHong Kongand overseas. The subject content looks into the aspects of management leadership; corporate culture; Facility Management organisational framework; the organisation of the function and teams; ethics and accountability; regulatory and legal issues; contracts and contract procedures; quality and design issues.

BSE552 - Facility Planning and Project Management

The practice of FM involves both strategy and implementation. This subject focuses on the context of facility planning and the practice of project management. At a strategic level, facility planning translates business strategy into specific facility plans for implementation. Project management skills are then needed to implement the project within time, cost and quality. The subject content places special emphasis on long range and master planning for facilities; space forecasting, planning and management; design-build cycle; interior design; budget and cost estimation. At the implementation level, techniques of project management and their applications to Facility Management are examined together with risk assessment and disaster planning recovery.

BSE554 - Maintenance Management of Built Assets

The role of physical assets as an enabling resource is not obvious to many owners in both the public and private sectors. Being a durable product with inherent attributes of large financial investments with life-cycle implications during the asset-in use phase in terms of re-investment needed, a comparatively protracted procurement and disposal process, operational buildings require specific skills in optimizing its useful lives. A growing corporate awareness of the need to manage their property assets and occupancy costs has resulted in greater professionalism in the area of maintenance management of built assets.

This subject examines the corporate barriers Facility Managers face in convincing corporate management to invest in protecting the functional value of operational built assets. The subject content covers contemporary issues in maintenance management of built assets, the maintenance management process as part of a whole-life asset management approach, technology impact and tools in demand assessment, prioritizing and budgeting, procurement, performance review and audit.

BSE556 - Building Services Engineering Maintenance Management

To provide the students with a detailed knowledge of the practice of building services engineering operations and maintenance.

To develop a critical understanding of the acquisition, installation, operation, maintenance and disposal of building services systems.

To provide an opportunity for students to critically review standards, practices and procedures for the operation and maintenance of facilities.

BSE562 - Technology Integration for Facility Management

Technology is having a profound impact on everyday business. This has significant impact for the Facility Manager from both an organisational perspective and from the perspective of meeting stakeholder demands. To remain competitive, the Facility Manager must understand both the use of technology and how advances in technology can be harnessed to improve service delivery and client satisfaction.

The focus of this subject is the application and implications of technology for the Facility Manager. The subject examines technology from three separate perspectives embedded technologies (building technology, materials, energy and supporting technologies etc.), Enabling Technologies (those technologies which support the Facility Manager in their work) and Enhancing Technologies (those technologies associated with information management, collaboration and information aggregation including portals, data mining etc.)

BSE574 Research Methods

To develop an understanding of scientific research methods and to critically examine their application in a particular aspect of building services engineering, facilities management, or fire and safety engineering.

To develop sufficient expertise to adopt and use an appropriate research strategy to undertake a dissertation project.

To know the techniques necessary for collecting, presenting, synthesising and analysing data.

To develop a dissertation proposal, suitable methodology and programme to enable an initiation of the integrated research project in building services engineering, facility management, or fire and safety engineering.