Frontier Institute of Research for Science and Technology, National Taipei University of Technology
Gather energy from all walks of life and Strengthen industrial competitiveness

With the efforts and support of President Sea-fue Wang, National Taipei University of Technology established the "Frontier Institute of Research for Science and Technology (FIRST)", which is a first-level unit officially included in the organization's Articles of Association. The three major research centers of “Energy”, "Artificial Intelligence" and "Semiconductor", as well as the "International R&D Alliance", were established to create a scientific research industrialization platform driven by education to drive industry-academia research and development, so that high-quality resources and industry teachers can enter the campus to jointly cultivate advanced scientific and technological talents, and achieve the goal of "strengthening the competitiveness of national key industries".

The close link between industry and academia

"The industry-academia collaborations R&D model in the past is also very good, but it lacks close interaction on the R&D site. Therefore, our goal is to enable people in various fields to fully communicate." Chaochin Su, the director of Frontier Institute of Research for Science and Technology, said that "academic breakthrough and technology landing" is the responsibility of the University of Science and Technology. However, that is easier said than implemented, especially the difficulty of technology landing.　In order for professional research to be truly implemented in the industry and become a commodity or service with output value, it is required the cooperation and efforts of many parties in the process.

Therefore, Director Su defined FIRST as a platform for "collaboration or cooperation regardless of work, learning, and research", and invited well-known top companies such as Delta Electronics, Acer, AUO, Elan, etc. After the discussion directly with the academic team of National Taipei University of Technology, and carrying out the actual operation, the results were achieved marvelously.

FIRST thinks out of the box and replaces previous single-point model with team networking for industry-academia collaborations. After the industry raises questions or makes needs, the school quickly takes stock of resources to form a research team, and invites industry representatives to join the team. The two sides communicate directly and resolve the differences. For instance National Taipei University of Technology and Pili puppet theater cooperated and developed of a biomimetic Robotic Fish, or the R&D center in cooperation with Chicony electronics manufacturers. These are the best examples.

Attracting internationally famous universities

"The goals of the FIRST are industry-academia research and development, talent cultivation, and international chaining. All three goals have been achieved well." Director Su pointed out that FIRST has planned a few master's degree programs such as smart railways, artificial intelligence, and information security in order to attract outstanding graduate students at home and abroad. The international part is even more exciting, including the well-known American Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, Penn State University, University of Cincinnati, UT-Arlington and other schools. All of them have been cooperated with FIRST, and Iwe believe there will be more good news in the future.

From the standpoint of education, FIRST of National Taipei University of Technology makes efforts of linking both of academic and industry, empowering R&D energy, developing batches of international talents, and assisting in industrial upgrading and transformation. Looking into the future, Director Su said optimistically, "Even traditional puppet shows can achieve the goal of digital transformation through our technology, and other industries will certainly be able to." With strong R&D energy, the Frontier Institute of Research for Science and Technology (FIRST) of Taipei Tech is bound to become a world-renowned industry-government academia-research cooperation platform.

Chinese Source：https://www.cheers.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5100527

Taipei Tech Post Issue 54：https://www-en.ntut.edu.tw/p/404-1006-121129.php?Lang=en