Project Mingde - An Engineering Experiential Learning Experience

Project Mingde was established in 2004 when an alumnus of the Department of Civil Engineering, Professor Nicolas S.Y. Yeung, contacted the Department and invite our students to design and supervise the construction of a new primary school building in a remote mountainous village in Guangxi Province of China. Mingde, in Chinese, appears in the motto of The University of Hong Kong carrying the meaning of “understanding the human virtue”. Since then, our students have helped many poor remote villages in Asia by designing and building education and transportation infrastructures.

Mingde projects allow students to gain valuable all-aspect experiences from project inception to completion. By participating in these projects, students could interact with different stakeholders, such as project donors, villagers, government officials, architects, contractors and consultants. This active engagement stimulates students’ learning interest and curiosity, broadens their knowledge, and enhances their social skills. In addition to our teachers, the Department is very fortunate to have a group of dedicated alumni to provide professional guidance and mentorship to our students. Project Mingde employs a flexible approach in student assessment. Students could choose to participate in the form of a multi-year credit-bearing course within the engineering programme.

In recent years, Project Mingde has expanded to more locations with projects in Mainland China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Nepal. Also, it has grown beyond engineering education and has ongoing projects with the Faculties of Social Sciences and Architecture. This further enriches the interdisciplinary aspect of our experiential learning activities.

Summer Industrial Training

All civil engineering undergraduate students have to complete at least 4 weeks of summer industrial training as part of the Bachelor of Engineering Civil Engineering degree programme. Most students would take their training in Hong-Kong-based companies while some would work in Mainland China or abroad. They usually work as engineer's assistant with consultant or contractor firms.

Students having summer training at
Jinsha River sites in Mainland China

Site Visits and Field Trips

Students' field trip to the ruins of
5.12 Sichuan Earthquake in China

Students’ field trip to a
dam site in China

Site visit with students to study large-
diameter bored pile construction in
Hong Kong