Mr. Stephen Au-Yeung completed his MPhil degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2015. The topic of his MPhil thesis is Flume Investigation of Run-up Mechanisms of Granular and Water Surge Flows Impacting a Rigid Barrier.

In his MPhil research, he used flume experiments to test the impact behavior of sand and water (separately) on a rigid barrier, analysing the impact mechanisms of debris flows through the Froude Number (Fr).  Fr captures the most dominant forces in open channel flow which influences both the flow dynamic and impact mechanisms.  If flows are supercritical (Fr > 1), flows impact a rigid barrier with a vertical jet run-up mechanism, whereas if they are subcritical (Fr < 1), they impacts a rigid barrier with a reflective wave mechanism.

Mr. Stephen Au-Yeung is married with one daughter.  He is currently working at SMEC Asia Limited as Principle Engineer.  He is currently pursuing a PhD degree in HKUST, also related to debris flows.