Development & (school, college, department)

I. Interaction with the industry

NCUT has promoted various activities positively to facilitate industry-academy exchange and cooperation, including cooperative education, industry-academy cooperation, extension education, industry-academy conference, off-campus internship, and College of Continuing Education, etc., and has established a stable and close relationship with the industry.

In addition to cultivating students to become talents for the industry, the Department has also conducted certain indicative activities in cooperation with establishments in the industry. The activities are summarized as follows:

1. Night Division (Program) of Continuing and Extension Education:

The Division, cooperating with the government to upgrade industries and effectuate its policy for technical and vocational education, aims to cultivate students to become technical talents needed by local enterprises. It has been 16 years since NCUT Night Division was approved to establish the two-year in-service junior college program in 1982 and allowed to recruit students to the two-year technical program since August 2000.

The Department mainly recruits in-service youths graduating from high schools, vocational schools and junior colleges in the central region, and has worked hard to cultivate mid-level technical and management talents for engineering and management that are required by enterprises in Great Taichung.

2. Business of Extension Education:

In the 1995 academic year, the NCUT Internship and Career Services Office started to promote extension education. 15 classes were established for the 1996 academic year and the total income was NT$1975910. As NCUT was aware of the demand for training and education in Great Taichung, NCUT therefore established Extension Education Center to be fully responsible for development of extension education on August 1, 1997.

23 classes were established for the 1997 academic year and the total income was NT$2660135.

It was a new era in the 1997 academic year for NCUT in promoting extension education. In addition to 27 classes established for traditional courses of extension education, generating a total income of NT$4638569, NCUT also cooperated with Taichung County Government, Central District Employment Service Center, and Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training, Council of Labor Affairs to provide courses. A training program for 600 hours during the day was also established additionally.

As for cross-school cooperation, the Center and the Extension Education Division, College of Management, Nanhua University to set up an allied teaching center in teaching for extension education for undergraduates and graduate students.

In terms of internationalization, NCUT cooperated with Chung Hua University to organize a study tour to University of California, Berkeley and a study tour to Columbia University in late May 1999.

To cooperate with Ministry of Education to promote lifelong learning, establish the learning society and promote recurrent education, the Department has already established a program providing courses of 16 credits for students to passing skill tests, an in-service program and a program providing courses of credits in partner relationship.

3. Internship and Cooperative Education:

NCUT has actively established relationships with the industry, the government and the academia in recent years and has achieved outstanding results. In 1996 and 1998, NCUT was assessed by Chinese Institute of Engineers to be one of the top 10 schools for the performance in cooperative education. In addition to entering into contracts with entities in the central region for cooperative education, NCUT has also continued to work with the Central District Vocational Training Center to establish the “program under the cooperative education” with the industry, the government and the academia. The program has been highly recognized by entities and students.

4. Innovation Incubation Center:

“The Small and Medium Enterprise Innovation Incubation Center”, founded by the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, combines the space available to NCUT with NCUT teachers, students, key laboratories, equipment, administrative support and systems to provide small and medium enterprises a quality training environment.

It has been over 40 machinery and various entities in NCUT Incubation Center since the Innovation Incubation Center was established in February 1998.

For the graduate institute, NCUT Innovation Incubation Center is a very good mechanism integrating research with practice. Through the projects developed by graduate students, the counseling is upgraded to the stage of research, development and innovation. It is helpful to the upgrading of industries and benefits the industry and the academia.

5. College of Continuing Education:

The College of Continuing Education was established in the 1998 academic year. At first there were only Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Electronic Engineering. In the 1999 academic year, Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Information Management, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Department of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, and Department of Distribution Management were added. Besides, Department of Mechanical Engineering entered into the cooperative education with the Central District Vocational Training Center to recruited 4 classes of students, through review and selection procedures, in the program under the cooperative education. The cooperation is based on preliminary partnership.

The two-year technical program is approved to recruit students for the 2002 academic year. The system of extension education at NCUT therefore became more complete.

6. Partnership with External Organizations:

In the 1999 academic year, Department of Mechanical Engineering and many other departments submitted subprojects for partnerships to NCUT and completed the scheduled milestones within the time limit.

In 2000, Department of Mechanical Engineering submitted a project again to enrich the content of the partnership, and also submitted a project jointly with Department of Industrial Engineering to make the partner cooperation more complete.

NCUT, which was originally a teaching unit instead of a complete learning organization, hopes to achieve the objectives of contributing to the society, teaching and lifelong learning through the establishment of partner relationships. With technology research and development, NCUT further improves the technical level of the companies in the central region and achieve its purpose of cultivating students to become technical and R&D talents through technical and vocational education.

The things that small and medium enterprises in Taiwan lack most now are not funds or premises, but the technical talents that an enterprise may rely on and that are able to lead an enterprise to continuous innovation of new products and best management strategies.

The educational partnership project involves key associations, training centers, research institutions and enterprises in traditional industries in the central region and promotes the upgrading and global prosperity of the mold, manufacturing, machine tool and other industries, in hopes to achieve the development objective of the educational partnership project.

II. R&D in Industry-Academy Cooperation

The product life cycle becomes shorter because consumers always pursue new and innovative projects. Companies have therefore produced diversified products in a small quantity. Traditional hand-painted product design and experience-oriented design process are gradually replaced by CAD/CAM/CAE and CAID, concurrent engineering, reverse engineering and automation technology.

Therefore, the quality and quantity of orders received overseas have increased gradually in recent years. According to the data, Taiwan has become one of the major exporters of products.

Continuous competition in politics and economy in the world has contributed to the continuous growth and innovation of high technology. Especially for industrial technology, the combination of information technology, management technology and traditional manufacturing technology has facilitated rapid development of advanced manufacturing technology.

All technologies, including management technology and production technology, are enhanced through educational training. Constant cooperation with academic research institutes may guarantee advanced technology and success of enterprises.

In fact, the academia may also increase practical experience through interaction and partnership with enterprises, enrich themes for research and teaching, and enhance the research and teaching ability. At the same time, students can participate in and increase their practical ability to become reserve talents for the enterprises.

1. Training of Technical and Development Talents:

The Department works with the industries of product modeling development, molds and machine tools in the central region, and cooperates with the educational partners, including Taiwan Mold and Die Industry Association, the Central District Vocational Training Center, Council of Labor Affairs, Executive Yuan, and Taiwan Development Institute, to upgrade technologies, facilitate global prosperity of enterprises, and establish long-term partnership to implement the following three projects, which are the objectives they are working for:

Close cooperation between school education and enterprises: Properly adjust the content of school education to fit the need of the changeable industry, knowledge of technology and skills, and shorten the gap between the school education and the real needs of enterprises.

Opportunities provided for students to learn in the workplace: Enable NCUT and its learning partners to support each other in terms of teachers, equipment and places, and provide opportunities for students to receive workplace training, off-campus internships and special projects to have them be adapted easily to the work environment in the future.

Environment established for employees to receive education and training: Apply various support inside and outside NCUT to assist enterprises in establishing an employees’ training system, eliminate barriers to training, improve the educational environment, establish a certification system for learning results, and develop diverse educational partner cooperation.

2. Overall Benefits of R&D in Industry-Academy Cooperation:

Have NCUT and the association, research unit, enterprise or training institution become educational partners, fully take advantages of educational resources of both sides, jointly create more opportunities for education and training, and strengthen the recognition and transformation of learning results of both sides. NCUT can save funds for professional equipment and sites, and use the saved funds for other necessary software and hardware to improve quality of teaching facilities and supplement teaching equipment.

Ensure the technological knowledge and professional technology provided by NCUT fit the needs of enterprises, so as to enhance students’ competence through recurrent education and facilitate industrial upgrading and competitiveness.

3. The following objectives can be achieved through R&D in the industry-academy cooperation:

Enhance the management technology of the enterprise.

Enhance the development and production technology of the enterprise.

Enhance the practical experience of school teachers and enhance their teaching and research ability.

Students can increase their practical ability by participating actually, and become reserve talents of the enterprise.

III. R&D of Precision Machinery and Manufacturing Technology

High-tech industries in Taiwan are booming, and the industries have also been aware of shortage of high-tech talents, especially the talents for high-tech product manufacturing and analysis. In the 21st century, the information society is approaching. The first “Science and Technology White Paper” of the R.O.C. has planned for the science and technology development strategy of Taiwan as the basis for the med- and long-term development of the country. The white paper also includes the development of precision machinery and manufacturing technology.

After the establishment of Central Taiwan Science Park, advanced scientific and technological talents are urgently demanded to meet its R&D needs. The central region is the hub of the industries of aerospace, mold, surface treatment and precision machinery. Taichung, Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, Dajia Youth, Dali, Tanzi, Changhua Coastal and Mailiao Industrial Parks are also located in the central region.

With abundant teachers, manpower, equipment and space, National Chin-Yi University of Technology is a national comprehensive institute of technology with practical and R&D abilities in the central region and would like to assume the responsibility of cultivate talents for precision machinery and manufacturing technology industries in the region.

1. Advanced Materials Technology:

As “Advanced Materials Technology” combines theory and application and span engineering and science. With the cross-disciplinary integration, the advanced materials technology plays a significant role in the high-tech industry. Materials technology is the basis of the industries of electronics, information, communications, aerospace and optoelectronics. Successful development of new materials is the key to the breakthrough of many materials. Materials are therefore called the “Mother of Industry”.

In the light of this, materials technology has been designated by the government as one of the four key national technologies, and is greatly related to the upgrading of industries and the economic development of Taiwan in the future.

Due to changeable use of information products, the industry of advanced materials technology has combined multimedia and communication functions as well wafer and thin film process technology, smart advanced materials, micro-electromechanical and optoelectronic components to develop the peripheral and supporting industries.

Basic education for advanced materials technology: Advanced materials are adopted as the key direction for enhancement in terms of teachers, equipment, courses and teaching environments. The content includes the four professional basic courses: information materials, communication materials, energy materials and nano materials. Students are expected to have abilities for strategic and innovative development of peripheral components, wafer and thin-film technology, system construction and new energy materials based on the original basic education for mechanical materials technology.

Information Materials Technology Education: The content focuses on the application of micro-information materials manufacturing technology to the information components teaching. Information component process technology education is also emphasized, to enhance students’ understanding of information component processes in the new era. New experimental courses are also planned and integrated with cross-disciplinary courses for students. Materials Practice and Process includes IC process, low-k film materials, new memory materials, package materials, display materials and other information materials.

Energy Materials Technology Education: It is also the green material technology education, focusing on the application and design of energy materials manufacturing technology, including production and application of new energy materials (such as solar cells), high efficiency and low-power materials, environmentally compatible materials and biotechnology materials.

MEMS Materials Technology Education: It includes the synthesis technique, physical and chemical properties and applications of nanostructure materials, the semiconductor component technology, other technologies concerning filter materials and high frequency components, the introduction to the principle, manufacturing method, technology and procedure of MEMS materials, the introduction to photoresist coating, photolithography, electroless plating, precision electroforming, precision injection, rolling and other technologies.

2. Aerospace Technology:

The teachers in charge of the industrial design and precision processing laboratories of the Department have constantly kept close cooperation with the aerospace technology industry (Thunder Tiger, Hiwin, and AIDC, etc.) for years. Seminars, cooperative education and programs for extension education are developed and provided to cultivate talents required by the industry, and the students graduating from the Department with good performance are also recommended to work in the industry.