Macronix Innovation Center and School of Computing established at National Cheng Kung University

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) –The founder and chairman of Taiwan’s Macronix International Co. (旺宏電子), Miin Wu (吳敏求), recently announced he would donate NT$420 million (US$13.3 million) to National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to help establish the new Macronix Innovation Center and “School of Computing."

The university held a ceremony on Wednesday (Aug. 28) on its campus in Tainan to express gratitude for the generous donation and to herald the opening of Taiwan’s first such computing school at a major university. Wu is himself an alumnus of NCKU, having graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1970 and from the department’s graduate program in 1973.

The university and tech company are teaming up to boost AI-related research and development at the Macronix Innovation Center while also working to streamline cooperation between the field of computer science and key technological industries in Taiwan. Based in Hsinchu, Macronix is a leading company in the manufacture of integrated memory devices, including hard drives and flash drives, with products specially designed and manufactured for use across a wide range of industries.

By partnering with NCKU, one of Taiwan’s top educational institutions, Macronix hopes to integrate smart technology into a number of different disciplines taught at the university to boost innovation. In line with the goals of the Ministry of Science and Education, both NCKU and Macronix are dedicated to promoting industrial innovation and encouraging entrepreneurship and collaboration among Taiwan's talented young engineers, developers, and scientists with support from the country’s top academic institutions and business leaders.

The new innovation center and its academic programs will provide Taiwan with a major platform to do just that. At NCKU, the Global Research and Industry Alliance (GLORIA) was established to help integrate tech research and development at the university with the international market to spur the growth of enterprises. Likewise, Macronix established the Macronix Educational Foundation in 2011 to encourage outstanding technological and scientific achievements among young scholars with annual awards ceremonies.

Together, Macronix and NCKU envision the Macronix Innovation Center as a future hub for talent cultivation as Taiwan prepares to become a significant force in the era of artificial and assisted intelligence technologies. Modeled after the College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the innovation center’s School of Computing will expand NCKU’s offerings in key developing fields.

It is hoped that the Macronix Innovation Center will become a key component of innovative cross-disciplinary research at NCKU, and help to propel NCKU into the ranks of the world’s top universities.

(Taiwan News)