With a history of more than 100 years, National Taipei University of Technology is committed to cultivating industrial talents and establishing close ties with many enterprises. The university has actively innovated its system, including the establishment of a “Frontier institute of research for science and technology” to integrate industry, academia, and research resources, the creation of a “New Engineering Education” by modularizing the curriculum, the opening up of course restrictions, and cross-disciplinary mandatory courses, in order to cultivate forward-looking talents for the future.

National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT), which started Taiwan's industrial education during the Japanese occupation, is still the most popular technical system among enterprises, and is also the cradle of Taiwan's entrepreneurs, which is crucial to the country's economic and technological development. “The biggest advantage of our university is its good location and strong alumni.” Taipei Tech Provost Yuh-Shyan Hwang pointed out that Taipei Tech has long maintained a good relationship with alumni from all walks of life. Alumni are enthusiastically involved in industry-academia cooperation, internships, mentorships, and forums, and are even invited to join in the discussion of course content to keep pace with the needs of the industry and the international pulse.

Collaborate with enterprises to minimize the gap between education and production

Taipei Tech is the only public university of technology in the country to make off-campus internships mandatory. Many listed alumni companies have partnered with Taipei Tech, including a 40-credit or more industrial program with TSMC, and students are given priority access to its Newcomer Training Center for hands-on courses.

“We require students to go on industry internships, visit industry-related exhibitions, and assist in organizing many relevant forums,”Machinery Department Chair Chao-Ching, Ho encourages students to participate in industry activities to understand the realities of the industry and to develop their own professional and career development visions. In the Department of Industrial Design, teachers take the lead in the implementation of cross-domain industrial learning programs, using PBL (Project-based learning) to collaborate with enterprises, including AUO's R&D of self-propelled vehicles, the EPA's revenue vehicle, the Hwa Hsieh Foundation's hearing aids, and NTU's healthcare management system and patient decision-making assistance system, etc., to promote cross-domain learning and communication among students.

In order to satisfy the industry's thirst for talents and effectively enhance the university's research development, Taipei Tech has established the Frontier Institute of Research for Science and Technology-FIRST in line with the national policy of industry-academia cooperation and talent cultivation in key areas. Based on the principle of joint learning and research between universities and enterprises, NTUT has loosened the regulations and systems of related organizations, combined the concept of innovation sandbox, and cooperated with enterprises in a full range of fields, such as energy, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors, in which NTUT excels.

“In the past, it was a case of cooperation between enterprises and a single teacher or laboratory, but now it is from the perspective of the entire national policy and industrial development, and is more forward-looking in laying out the educational environment for future talents.” Yuh-Shyan Hwang pointed out that it is necessary to integrate the resources of industry, government, academia, and research in order to have a chance to solve the problem of manpower shortage in the long run.

Cross-domain Starts with Academic Structure and Teachers

“Cross-disciplinary skills may not give you an advantage when you graduate and seek employment, but it will certainly make a difference in 10 or 20 years.” Yuh-Shyan Hwang explained that future talents do not only need to have profound specialties, but also the ability and flexibility of cross-disciplinary learning, communication, and cooperation. Therefore, for the new students enrolled from the 112th academic year onwards, taking cross-disciplinary micro-credentials has become one of the thresholds for graduation, and in the future, the restrictions on courses will be relaxed, so that students can get a bachelor's degree by means of the “department in, college out” method, eliminating the need for transferring to a different department or wasting credits; it is also planned to launch a “forward-looking bachelor's degree program” focusing on practical fields to cultivate advanced talents who need to cross traditional disciplines and specialties such as AI, electric vehicles, and information security. The college of Design at Taipei Tech participates in and organizes a number of international design workshops every year. Meng-Cong Zheng, Dean of the Department of Engineering and Design, said, “We do not require students to achieve results, but rather the opportunity for cross-disciplinary communication.” Participating students are required to break out of their stereotypes and work with members from different backgrounds/schools/disciplines. He believes that cross-disciplinary dialog is an important skill for the future, “including the ability to talk to machines or AI.”

Taipei Tech has already incorporated programming language into the university's mandatory curriculum years ago, and the introduction of AI into the Liberal Studies curriculum. The School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering has also launched the "New Engineering Education" to modularize the relevant courses of various professional fields. With the theme as the core, it covers three major cross-disciplinary course clusters such as semiconductors, unmanned vehicles, and intelligent energy saving, and invites industrialists to work with the field and practical topics, so that interested students can have a complete learning experience.

“We expect students to be able to study and have fun at the same time!” More than academics, Huang hopes that students can fully grasp the campus life and train themselves. The employment rate of Taipei Tech graduates is over 95%, and he is not worried about students not being able to find jobs, “It is more important for them to be able to face challenges bravely.” Students with critical thinking, communication, expression and teamwork skills are the only ones who can create the future.

Chinese Source：https://www.cheers.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5102774&page=1