Known for its academic excellence in field of aerospace, NCKU has joined hands with the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) in collaborative effort between academia and industry to train high-level global talent. On May 21, the President of NCKU Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su andChairman of ADIDC Anson Liao jointly signed a memorandum for a global talent training collaboration in AIDC Sha Lu Complex. This is the first time one of Taiwan’s joint academic-industrial collaborations has extended to the international arena. Both institutions will select outstanding students from NCKU and the US’ top universities to participate in joint Master’s degrees or joint PhD programs. NCKU will launch an international academic program and AIDC will provide scholarships to support students and their studies. Summer internship at AIDC will also be offered in this dual degree program. On the same day, representatives from NCKU and AIDC also jointly signed two letters of intent for academic-industrial collaborations, one for a research project on Measurement of cosmic rays using ASTRA from AIDC and the other for the R&D and manufacture of the supporting structure for the STAR forward tracking detector.
In 2018, NCKU was officially named by the Ministry of Education as a “Global Taiwan” university for its global competitiveness. The NCKU Office of International Affairs have been engaging in active dialogues with US top-tier universities in setting up dual degree programs in the engineering field with the core aim of integrating academia and industry to cultivate global talent. In addition to conferring dual degrees, professors from both Taiwan and the US will jointly design the program’s curricula and advise on research projects. In terms of admissions, the program will accept students from Taiwan or other countries. The students in Taiwan who are selected by NCKU and AIDC will be sent to top-tier universities in the USA during their latter part of the program to receive high-level training before being conferred their dual degrees. Once conferred, students will be granted the status of having graduated in a US university. This status enables students to apply for practical training visas and work in the US to gain experience and raise their global competitiveness. By leveraging this level of education and work experience, individuals coming out of this program may be given the opportunity to work as a transnational high-level researcher at AIDC and as a bridge between academia and industry in the international arena. The memorandum to train global talent that was jointly signed by NCKU and AIDC is estimated to renew in three years’ time.
Those in attendance at the signing on May 21 were the NCKU Vice President for Office of International Affairs Yueh-Min Huang, Vice President for Office of R&D Sun-Yuan Hsieh, the Dean of the College of Sciences Shu-Hui Chen, the Dean of the College of Engineering Woei-Shyan Lee, Physics Department Chair Chin-Chun Tsai, Aerospace Department Chair Wei-Hsiang Lai, Mechanical Engineering Department Chair Tian-Shiang Yang, President of AIDC N. J. Lin, and AIDC VP Paul Ho and VP Bird Du.
NCKU President Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su expressed her gratitude to AIDC for their many years of collaboration of foundational research: “This will attract outstanding talent and show them where all the opportunities are.” The NCKU president explained that NCKU is a complete a comprehensive university with nine colleges (e.g. the College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the College of Computer Science) and was the first academic institute in Taiwan to establish an AI service and data center (AIS&D). The developments in various fields coupled with outstanding talent bring NCKU limitless possibilities. The NCKU President emphasized the increased appeal for more collaborations between academia and Taiwan’s domestic industries: “Now that we have taken a step forward and signed onto an academic-industrial collaboration with AIDC to produce global talent, I trust that our relationship will be long-lasting and bring both sides benefits and further developments.”
Throughout the many years of academic-industrial partnership, AIDC and NCKU have engaged in foundational research on high-end technologies and raised professional design and manufacturing technologies. With all these developments and the recently signed collaborative global talent training memorandum, AIDC Chairman Anson Liao believes that there will be more opportunities for collaboration and exchange in the international arena. AIDC hopes to be able to develop a pipeline for global talent for Taiwan’s aerospace industry from the pool of international students and talent that come out of the global talent training program.
Professor and Head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University and a distinguished graduate of NCKU’s Department of Mechanical Dr. Tom Shih, who was in the US at the time, was also in attendance via teleconference at the May 21 memorandum signing and engaged in exchanges with Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su and Anson Liao who were in Taiwan. Shih acknowledged NCKU and AIDC’s concerted efforts to cultivate global talent from top-tier universities and build up Taiwan’s aerospace industry.
Dr. Tom Shih mentioned that Purdue University may be one of the schools sponsored by scholarships provided by AIDC to students pursuing graduate level studies. With financial support from AIDC, students will be able to delve into high-impact research topics and have the opportunity to become a researcher at AIDC upon graduation. Shih later shared some words of wisdom: “NCKU and AIDC’s partnership is crucial and necessary. It makes sense that universities and industry should work together since the development of talent relies mainly on the industry. It is through the output and operation of the industry that the ideas and innovations at academic institutions can be made into a reality.”
