FEATURES

An Interview with Director of the NTU Press: Paving the Path Toward the Academic Excellence

Three years ago, Professor Chun-Che Chang, former Chair of NTU’s Department of Entomology, resigned from his position as a Chair to join the National Taiwan University Press. Since 2020, Chang has served as the Director of the NTU Press. “The work at the NTU Press is closely aligned with the academic research on campus. I love to read, buy books, write, and publish,” said Chang, “there is not just pleasure but also meaning in my work.”

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Taking Courses into Your Own Hands: Design Your Program

In an age of exploration, innovation, and design, it is crucial that learners can spend their time on campus experimenting with their options and future. To promote a learner-centered “open university,” NTU is now launching a University-Level Individually Designed Bachelor’s Degree to offer students the chance to design their own courses and make new discoveries through interdisciplinary studies.

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honor

ORD Vice President Pai-Chi Li Wins IFMBE’s Otto Schmitt Award

Pai-Chi Li, Vice President of NTU’s Office of Research and Development and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, received the Otto Schmitt Award. The Otto Schmitt Award is presented by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) to honor biomedical engineers who make exceptional contributions to the advancement of medical and biological engineering. Its nomination criteria include success in innovation, leadership, and seminal contributions. In addition, the nominee must come from an organization that is affiliated with IFMBE.

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Dean Wen-Chang Chen of College of Engineering to be Awarded an Honorary Doctorate by UGA

Dean Wen-Chang Chen of NTU’s College of Engineering was notified by Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) on June 22 that he would be awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of his long-term dedication to both NTU and UGA, as well as his groundbreaking research in recycled materials that are sustainable and green at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS). Additionally, he has made outstanding contributions to international cooperation and academic exchanges. This honor is expected to be delivered by the spring of 2023, and Dean Chen will be the first Taiwanese scholar to be awarded this honor since UGA was founded.

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Prof. Katherine A. Kim Honored with Power Electronics Education Award

The IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) Award for Achievements in Power Electronics Education was established to recognize the work of engineers who have exhibited a major impact on education in the field of power electronics. This year, the award was given to Associate Professor Katherine A. Kim of NTU’s Department of Electrical Engineering.

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GLOBAL OUTLOOK

NTU x Israel Partners Matchmaking Workshop

NTU’s Office of International Affairs hosted the NTU x Israel Partners Matchmaking Workshop on May 18, 2022, with President Chung-Ming Kuan delivering the welcome speech. The Representative of the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei, Omer Caspi, Taiwan’s representative to Israel, YaPing Lee, as well as the Vice Presidents of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), Tel Aviv University (TAU), and Israel Institute of Technology also joined the workshop and gave warm speeches.

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International Students Explore the Potential of the Great South

During May 13-15, 2022, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at NTU led 35 students from over 18 countries, including France, Japan, Korea, India, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala, and Paraguay, on a tour of industrial sites in central and southern Taiwan. This tour offered the international students a precious opportunity to observe how multiple industries in diverse fields have been thriving in southern Taiwan, spurred by the government’s Great South, Great Development policy in recent years.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

Predicting Cancer Metastasis Through 3D Genome Organization

Cancer metastasis is when cancer cells travel from the initial site to other tissues or organs of the body, forming new tumors. Metastasis is responsible for the great mortality rate in cancer patients and has always been one of the greatest challenges in oncology. The ability to predict metastasis risk would aid early intervention and timely treatment. Though many studies have tried to predict cancer metastasis based on the expression of specific genes, these methodologies are often either not holistic enough or inapplicable to a pan-cancer setting.

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Yushan Visiting Professor Proposes a Technique to Detect New Ultralight Bosons around a Black Hole with Gravitational Waves

Yushan Visiting Professor Daniel Baumann of NTU’s Department of Physics asserted that if the new ultralight bosons exist and form a cloud around a rotating black hole, the presence of such boson clouds would affect the dynamics of the black hole’s binary inspirals and their associated gravitational waves (GW) signals. Published on June 2 in Physical Review Letters with a synopsis, the research was conducted in collaboration with his team at the University of Amsterdam and Harvard University.

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New Algorithm Developed to Improve Short-Term Weather Forecasting in the UK

Recently, Assistant Professor Li-Pen Wang of NTU’s Department of Civil Engineering collaborated with an international team of researchers from Imperial College London, KU Leuven, and a UK startup Rain++ to develop a new object-based radar rainfall nowcasting system for the UK Met Office. As the Scientific Lead of the project, Prof. Wang guided the team to develop and prototype the core nowcasting algorithms. The team has devised a new algorithm that can better isolate and associate convective rainfall entities and deliver reliable and detailed motion estimates. This system will be used by the UK Met office's forecasters in predicting the movement of convective rain cells in real time.

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TEACHING & LEARNING

Abandoned Space Renovated into the New Generation Sensory Training Classroom

NTU launched the “New Generation Sensory Training Classroom” project in December 2020, providing a new direction for academic research and enhancing the practical application of industry-academia collaboration through scientific sensory training methods. The well-designed classroom is equipped with high-tech equipment. Not only does it support such functions as teaching, analysis, and scientific training to complete the tea making scent map, but it also further integrates an electronic nose system to make the tea making process predictable and stable, eventually setting accurate and objective flavor standards for tea products.

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PEOPLE

NTU Gamelan Gita Lestari Performs at Bali World Culture Celebration

NTU Gamelan Gita Lestari joined the first Bali World Culture Celebration at the invitation of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture. The festival, held during July 14-25, 2022, drew a total of 30 Gamelan art communities from around the world. Due to the pandemic, the mesmerizing performances were presented through pre-recorded videos and broadcasted online.

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Theory to Practice: Plant Doctors from NTU Plant Teaching Hospital Have Their Feet Planted Firmly on the Ground

Have you ever wondered how plants receive medical treatment when they are ill? Professor Ting-Hsuan Hung of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology has the answer. As the President of the NTU Plant Teaching Hospital, he trains the next generation of plant doctors by making sure that the students are taken into the fields by the faculty to offer medical treatment to plant “patients” all over Taiwan.

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Ambience Contaminated: An Analysis of the Elusive Characteristics in Contemporary Religions

The appearance of religions in modern society is a question that always attracts much interest. Living in the 21st century, we may observe that religions today appear to be increasingly more complex and fluid, making it difficult to decode them with traditional theories. Although they still attract many devout believers, the “religions” that rely on clearly-defined institutions, specific rituals, and clear symbols seem increasingly distant from us. In contrast, the religious or spiritual experiences that cannot be clearly separated from our daily life seem to be closer to the contemporary mind. How can we understand this shift and its implications?

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