City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has honoured one of its researchers for his work on a scheduling system designed to help ensure the smooth operation at Chek Lap Kok. Dr Chun Hon-wai, associate professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering at CityU, was commissioned by the Airport Authority to design and develop a new stand allocation system to cope with the airport's dynamicchanges in operational needs and make efficient use of resources. Dr Chun, Hong Kong's leading expert in scheduling and resources management systems, has managed numerous scheduling projects for the Mass Transit Railway Corporation and Hong Kong International Terminals. As Chek Lap Kok is one of the world's busiest for both passengers and cargo, scheduling and managing all aircraft parking and ground movements is essential for it to handle 35 million passengers and three million tonnes of cargo annually. Dr Chun spent four months developing the new stand allocation system which manages all aircraft arriving and departing from the airport. It is a CORBA-compliant real-time 24x7 system with three-tiered client-server architecture and multi-user capabilities. The system is used for planning and operations and provides dynamic reactive scheduling to cope with real- time changes such as flight delays, rotation changes, returns or weather diversions. Dr Chun told Campus Post that the system was designed to maximise the utilisation of stands and thus permit additional flights during peak hours and provide better service and comfort to passengers. It can automatically generate a daily stand allocation plan based on user-customisable hardware and software constraints and performs real-time problem-solving and reactive scheduling whenever conflicts occur. 'Since the airport is a 24- hour one, stand allocation planning should be performed at the same time as normal operations and the ability of the scheduling system to co-ordinate multiple sets of data within a multi-user environment is also very important,' Dr Chun said. 'A stand allocation plan must be designed to finely balance the objectives of the airlines and handling agents, the convenience of passengers, and the operational constraints of the airport.' CityU presented him with an 'Excellence in Applied Research Award' for his achievement in applying advanced research to solve practical problems and in recognition of his contribution and efforts in applied research. CityU is one of the few local organisations that were awarded a contract to develop a mission-critical system for the new airport. Dr Chun said local universities had taken their roles in encouraging research staff to co-operate with commerce and industry by applying technological knowledge to local needs. He believed the work of research would promote technology and academic knowledge transfer and result in mutual benefit to the university and the business community.