Chinese Society of Engineers recently held an awards ceremony at the 2018 Joint General Meeting and the Engineer’s Day Celebration Conference of Chinese Society of Engineers and Specialty Association of Engineers. Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology won the “Best University of Industrial-Academic Cooperation Award” for the eighth consecutive year.

【Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology won the “Best University of Industrial-Academic Cooperation Award” Chinese Society of Engineers for the eighth consecutive year】

Over the past decades, Chinese Society of Engineers has been promoting cooperation between industries and universities in order to promote and implement the engineering technology and management standards in the Chinese-speaking area. It has been able to develop engineering and technical manpower in accordance with the needs of national economic development and social development. With remarkable results, the society has spared no effort in promoting the cooperation between industries and universities.

【Chairman Wei-Fu Yang (Center) of the Chinese Society of Engineers, Director Jing Li (left) of the Research and Production Department of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and representatives of winning universities】

Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, which has always positioned itself as the Best Partner for Industries and Enterprises, has been repeated awarded the Best University of Industrial-Academic Cooperation by Chinese Society of Engineers since the year of 2004 to 2018. The affirmation of being the "Best Performance University" means that its academic performance has continued to grow year after year. To solve the problem that companies are often confronted with cross-cutting issues, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology has always encouraged teachers to form teams and share R&D knowledge and technology, strongly supported the provision of funds to purchase valuable R&D equipment, and set up R&D centers to meet the needs of the industry. R&D technology is the core of all industries. Through the strength of teacher teams, it provides complete solutions required by the company. At present, 10 unique technical R&D centers have been established, of which the “Electro-optical and Integrated Circuit Failure Analysis Center” has offered assistance to more than 10 listed companies, such as New Century Optoelectronics, Epistar Technology, and Wonder Photo Optoelectronics, in the breakdown analyses of optoelectronic components and materials. This has substantially increased the product yield of manufacturers and the amount of cooperation between industries and universities, with a total amount that has exceeded NT$ 30 million dollars.

In order to bridge the gap between industry and education, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, on the other hand, adopts another more distinctive production-learning cooperation strategy. It introduces resources—such as industry funds, equipment or professional manpower—into the campus, and cooperates with the research center of the university to form an industrial-academia structure. Technology Research and Development Center invests resources in the development of key technologies for the industry to solve the technical bottlenecks faced by the industry, which has now been quite effective. Southern Taiwan University Science and Technology has invested in the VR digital content for it to spread throughout Taiwan, Germany, Spain, the United States, Australia, and Japan, offering large-scale somatosensory devices to theme parks with somatosensory VR contents. So far, STUST has established 6 industry-university technology research and development center, including “Extreme Power Technology R&D Centers,” “Functional Health Care Materials R&D Center,” “Innovative Medical Materials and Care Technology R&D Centers,” “Sensory Content Intelligence Center,” and “Senior Care Research Center.” By inducing such resources as industry funding, equipment, or manpower to SMEs, STUST can help them transform and improve in technology, while creating a seamless environment for teachers and students to create a win-win situation.

Director Jing Li of the Research and Production Department said that Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology has obtained a R&D fund of $NT 20 million dollars through the "New-style Production, Learning, Research and Linkage Plan—Value Creation Project" by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the year of 2017. After receiving the honor of the “University Incubator of the Year” Award by the American InBIA, the Innovation and Incubation Center was re-evaluated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ SME Department in the year of 2017. The Innovation and Incubation Center, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, has proved to effective in reducing talent gaps, enhancing industry-academia interaction and service effectiveness in the talent cultivation, teacher-company relations, production and research R&D, and system adjustment practices, and enhancing the value of teachers' R&D achievements industrial applications Accelerated the implementation of the 5+2 innovation industry and reached the “Best Partner Technology University of Industrial Cooperation.”

President Deng-Maw Lu of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology pointed out that the key to the steady annual growth of industry-academia performance lies in the fact that STUST rewards teachers for cooperation in production and learning and establishes a good environment for pro- and productive education. In recent years, the proportion of teachers in practice, production, and education has surpassed the proportion of papers for the sake of promotion, and that has reversed the traditional that universities stress on academic research much more than industrial-academic cooperation. In recent years, STUST has successively built "University Union Building for Technology and Practice" and "Cross-School Learning Space for Green Energy Power Regulator and Seamless Integrated Production Line." Together with the "Automation Center" donated by Innolux Corporation and EPSON Corporation and the "Electro-optical and IC Failure Analysis Center" under the support of the Southern Science Park's optoelectronics and IC industry, STUST has established a perfect environment for industrial and academic cooperation.