The New Southbound Talent Development Program of AU Wins the Biggest National Financial Support !
The Ministry of Education (MOE) published the results of the 2020 New Southbound Talent Development Program recently. Asia University (AU) was granted seven projects (the most projects approved by the MOE), and the approved amount is 2.51 million NT dollars, maintaining No. 1 among 32 universities in Taiwan.
Furthermore, AU gains 2.88 million NT dollars of the 2020 Talent Development Program from the MOE, ranked the third in Taiwan. AU will sponsor 55 students for internships overseas by these two programs.
Dean of the International College of AU, Prof. Ying-huei Chen, said that AU is granted seven projects of the New Southbound Talent Development Program this year, including a project for each of Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, and two projects for Indonesia.
Moreover, the students of AU can choose the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Spain, and other corporate institutions for internships for training international competitiveness through the 2020 Talent Development Program as mentioned above.
Prof. Chen also said that in May of this year, AU first applied to the MOE Overseas Internship Programs, and received a total of more than 19 million NT dollars, ranked No.1 in Taiwan. The program will offer scholarships to 340 students of AU to go abroad for internships as exchange students. By the approved projects in 2019 and 2020, AU sponsors a total of 395 students to go abroad, expanding the students’ international perspectives and enhancing their international competitiveness.
Dean Chen emphasized that due to the impact of the COVID-19, Europe, the United States, and the New Southbound countries have adopted entry control, resulting in the majority of AU students unable to study abroad, to participate in internships, and to become an exchange student on scheduled this year. There are also many students in the university who use the online digital learning model of “The New Normal” to study first, and then go abroad to complete their degrees after the epidemic is relieved.
In addition, the MOE agreed that the funds can be retained until the end of next year. The New Southbound countries will open their control entries when there is a vaccine to prevent the epidemic. At that time, AU will be able to sponsor the students to finish overseas studies.
AU Wins Four National Innovation Awards This Year
Asia University (AU) comprehensively promotes AI teaching and research in recent years. The teachers and students have achieved outstanding results in AI biotechnology and medical technology. They have won ten National Innovation Awards in four years. Specifically, this year they won four National Innovation Awards. On December 1, the President of AU, Prof. Jeffrey J. P. Tsai, led the team to accept the award at the 17th National Innovation Awards Ceremony.
According to the President Tsai, the 3D Printing Center and the Food Safety and Inspection Center of AU, which are engaged in the research of AI, blockchain, and medical technology respectively, won four National Innovation Awards this year. The awarded research results include the techniques of “Inspection Chip for Food Security,” “Chip for Temperature Control” developed by the Food Safety and Inspection Center, the “New Technique for Artificial Leather Creation” by the 3D Printing Medical R&D Center of China Asia Associated University (CAAU, the union of China Medical University and Asia University), and the “the patient-specific biofabricated cancer-on-a-chip system for medical prediction” by the CAAU jointly.
The R&D team of Prof. Yu-Cheng Chuang, the director of the Food Safety and Inspection Center at AU, won two National Innovation Awards by the techniques of “the development and application of wireless energy transmission real-time temperature monitoring semiconductor chips in food safety” and “the development and application of probiotics and pathogenic bacteria gene probes, primers and biochips” last year. In this year, Prof. Chuang cooperated with Prof. Ke-Horng Chen (from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at National Chiao Tung University) and a semiconductor company to strive for excellence and improve the detection technology, yielding the aforementioned “Inspection Chip for Food Security” and the “Chip for Temperature Control” which won the National Innovation Awards as said above.
The 3D Printing Medical R&D Center of CAAU won a 16th National Innovation Award by the “Innovative cell blocks for 3D artificial dermis development technique” last year. In this year, they worked hard and developed a new innovative technique, namely, a new artificial dermis made of “fibroblasts combined with three-dimensional collagen” which is close to human skin. Put on the mouse, the artificial dermis can recover after about two weeks, and there will be no traditional artificial skin contracture with no wrinkles. This technique won the 17th National Innovation Award this year.
Prof. Ta-Cheng Chen, the vice president of AU, pointed out that the 3D Printing Medical R&D Center team in which he participated won a National Innovation Award this year. The awarded research result was developed using the cancer chip which is made from the patient’s own cancer tissue cells. The result can be applied to evaluate the patient's medication strategy to help achieve precision medicine effects, hoping to lead the world with this technique in the precision medicine field. This is the newly developed precision medical technique, “the patient-specific biofabricated cancer-on-a-chip system for medical prediction,” which we mentioned previously.
AU and the University of Victoria in Canada Hold Jointly an Online Conference for Degree-offering Cooperation
AU and the University of Victoria discussed the details and schedules of the dual- degree cooperation to consolidate the cooperative relationship of the two universities.
The College of the Management at Asia University (AU) and the University of Victoria (UVic) in Canada signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in July this year, and this gave a new opportunity for dual-degree cooperation between the two universities. Due to the impact of COVID-19, the two universities held a cross-border online meeting on October 16 to continue to discuss the details and schedules of the dual-degree program.
The dual-degree program discussed in this multinational online conference is based on finishing the courses required by the UVic for two years at AU, and a study at the UVic for two years; and the students will obtain the degrees from the two universities after graduation. This program provides more opportunities for the students of AU to study for dual degrees.
The dean of the International College, Ying-Huei Chen, said that the dual-degree program from the two universities is a part of the One-stop International Talent Cultivation Project of AU, for famous international schools of the project such as the UVic in Canada; Western Sydney University in Australia; San Francisco State University, California State University in San Bernardino and Northern Illinois University in America; Montpellier Business School in French; Massey University in New Zealand; the Business and Hotel Management School (BHMS) in Switzerland, etc. About cooperation with high schools, the project have already signed MOUs with Kaohsiung Municipal Girls' Senior High School, St. Dominic Catholic High School, and Washington High School. This project seeks the assistance of AU and China Medical University to connect to famous schools in Europe, America, New Zealand and Australia; and helps the domestic high schools to promote the 3 plus 2 plus 2 dual-degree program, opening up a new path for overcoming the declining birthrate environment in Taiwan.
In order to promote the 3 plus 2 plus 2 dual-degree program of the two universities and consolidate the cooperation relationship, the Management College of AU invited the representative of the UVic, Prof. Sheri Yasue and Prof. Brian Leacock, to hold a transnational online conference about the details of the program. At the same place, the conference invited the faculty members of the College of the Information and Electrical Engineering and the College of the Humanities and Social Sciences to participate to expand more cooperation.
Prof. Yasue introduced the school's geographical location, living environment, local advantages, and school-running characteristics at the conference. In addition to providing basic information about the UVic and explained the details of the relevant fees, university admission requirement, and registration time for the dual-degree program. About the tuition fees, the original tuition fee was 112,000 Canadian dollars (NTD 2,464,000) within four years, but a student of the dual-degree program needs to pay just half of the cost and spends two-year time to finish the course to get the dual degree from a prestigious international school. This is attractive to AU students or high school students who will study at AU in the future.
Prof. Yasue also shared the information that since last year, if the English score of a student is close to the required threshold (such as TOEFL 575), the student can conditionally enter the UVic and only has to pass the English test of an additional course. A student who is interested in studying for a dual degree at the UVic has to pay attention to the prerequisite courses before enrolling the program and contact the International College or the College of the Management for details. Furthermore, after graduating from a master's degree, the student has the opportunity to apply for a work permit and works in Canada for three years.
AU Holds an Exhibition of AI Application and Teaching Achievements
Asia University (AU) held an “Exhibition of AI Application and Teaching Achievements” from September 16 for three days, incorporating AI keynote speeches, teaching accomplishment demonstrations, barrier-breaking activities, experiencing tours of the AI library. A total of 600 freshmen came to visit the event on the first day. The President of AU, Prof. Jeffrey J. P. Tsai, the Vice President and Dean of the AI College, Prof. Shian-Shyong Tseng, the Dean of the College of Nursing, Prof. Hua-Shan Wu, and the Head of the Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Prof. Anthony Y. H. Liao, etc. visited the event site and interacted with the freshmen and exhibitors at the site in an enthusiastic atmosphere.
Prof. Shian-Shyong Tseng, the Vice President of AU and Dean of the AI College, said that the “AI Application and Teaching Achievement Showcase and Breakthrough Activities” are a combination of the teaching accomplishments of the six colleges of AU and the research results of the project, “Achievements of Smart Breeding,” of Prof. Charles C. N. Wang at the Department of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering. There are a total of 33 AI-related teaching and research results completed by the involved teachers and students. Through barrier-breaking activities, some freshmen of AU can enhance their understanding and application capabilities of AI achievements in various fields through interaction, question-and-answer (Q&A), and operation experiences.
The tours of AI library provided services like receiving and guiding guests, providing book consultations, promoting interaction events with intelligent commercial robots Miya and Zenbo, and leading the students into an "AI experience and practice workshop" to understanding the AI teaching applications. The workshop was exhibiting a “Smart Home,” and showed smart devices such as smart lights, TVs, and fans through voice-activated recognition to create a scene of smart life.
Also exhibited was an “AI robotic arm and coffee machine” which used deep learning and identification techniques through 3D cameras and program coding to let the robotic arm making coffee; a “smart factory” which used Lego machinery to display cargos of fully automatic delivery, classification, and transportation, and to simulate the scene of AI entering the industrial generation to build Industry 4.0; and a “smart medical” which used machines of smart muscle strength and gravity balance for patients with strokes, multiple scleroses, muscle atrophy, etc. and healing methods through games to rehabilitate their bodies.
The organizer also held a lot of AI special lectures in the mean time, and lectures on the topics of AI, co-creation, medical treatment, and smart industry with several departments at AU to help the students understand the future courses of learning and development.
The AI-USR project of AU and the AI precision medicine research center held jointly a mid-term presentation of the research results of “Smart Aquaculture Technology Introduction” as well in the workshop. This project is led by Prof. Charles C. N. Wang from the Department of the Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering. Prof. Wang led his team mainly in the Beimen District of Tainan City through the introduction of technology, assisting local aquaculture farmers to increase production by 20% and reduce costs by 10%. AI technology can keep up with the local real estate industry, assist local development, and fulfill social responsibilities. The research results were highly praised by President Jeffrey J. P. Tsai in his speech given in the workshop.
The Dept. of Nursing at AU Is Ranked No. 1 in Competitions of Applications for the MOST College Student Research Projects in Taiwan.
Asia University (AU) has obtained 114 MOST College Student Research Projects, and is ranked No. 5 in Taiwan and No. 3 of the private universities, including a total of 23 projects in four years proposed by the Department of Nursing of AU. The achievement was ranked in the top 3 universities since 2017. Both the achievement of this department and the Department of Nursing at China Medical University are in the first place in Taiwan. Thanks to the teachers and students of the two schools!
It is worth mentioning that Zhao-Yu Li, a student of the second-year graduate of the Department of Nursing at AU, has won a 2018 Student Research Creation Award of the MOST under the guidance of Prof. Hui-Wen Chien, with an academic report of the topic “the significance of pet companionship to middle-aged and elderly people.” Likewise, Siao-Yun Li, a student of the third-year graduate of the same department, has won an identical award in 2019 under the guidance of Prof. Hua-Shan Wu, with a research result the topic “the development and testing of questionnaires on inappropriate behaviors for patients with dementia.”
Hua-Shan Wu, Director of the Department of Nursing at AU, emphasized that the Department of Nursing helps students to apply for the MOST College Student Research Projects, and two students won the Student Research Creation Award of the MOST within four years as mentioned above. This is really an accomplishment standing out from many competitors. Thanks again to the guidance of the teachers.
Sophomores and junior students can apply for the MOST College Student Research Project that aims at cultivating students’ research capabilities. Each of the students of the nursing department who obtained the MOST College Student Research Projects from 2017 to 2020, after joining eight months of research, was encouraged to pursue higher degrees in graduate schools. Among them, Jen-Tzu Hsiao and Hsiu-Chun Chang were admitted to the Institute of Clinical Nursing at National Yang-Ming University, Ting-Ling Chou and Siao-Yun Li were admitted to the Institute of Nursing at Taipei Medical University, Bao-Shin Liu was admitted to the Department of Nursing at Chang Gung University, Jr-Sin Wu was admitted to the Department of Nursing at AU.
Siao-Yun Li said that “I was very surprised to win the Student Research Creation Award of the MOST.” Recalling that when she was first engaged in the project of this topic, she was distressed because there was no relevant preceding research literature to refer to in Taiwan. Now, she realizes the commendable moment of completing the innovative research. Thanks to Dean Hua-Shan Wu for her careful guidance and encouragement!
Artworks of 13 AU Students Win the Red Dot Design Awards.
A group of students from the College of Creative Design at Asia University (AU) won 13 Red Dot Awards. Two award-winning works “Taiwanese Traditional Weaving” and “ BEAU Lipstick Gift Box “ just won the gold and bronze medals in the New York Art Directors Club (NY ADC) design competition in May. Now, they won the Red Dot Design awards, proving that the design abilities of AU students are highly recognized by international competitions.
Yuan-Rong Li, Director of the College of Creative Design at AU, said that the Red Dot Design Award is one of the four major international design competitions in the world, and a total of 6,992 works from more than 50 countries participated in this competition. A group of 35 students from the Department of Visual Communication Design and the International Degree Program of Design at AU won the 13 Red Dot Awards, including five Packaging Design Awards, three Publishing and Print Media Awards, two Brand Design and Identity Awards, one Illustrations Award, one Posters Design Award, and one Film and Animation Award. Not only their works are diverse but also the number of awards is a new record of AU.
Chien Hua Cheng, Director of Visual Communication Design, said that Wei-Yu Huang is a student studying at the Department of Visual Communication Design of AU. His work "Taiwanese Traditional Weaving" uses the cross structure of the “latitude” and “longitude” of fabric to show the visual effect of three-dimensional weaving on the plane, which is visually clear. Another work “BEAU Lipstick Gift Box” designed by Yu-Lin Juan and Pei-Wen He won an ADC bronze medal. They used retro nightclub elements and neon colors to attract young people, hoping that they will so buy the product based on the work. The packaging structure is presented on a fan-shaped stage, and the gift box may be opened as a surprise to the receiver, which is quite worth collecting.
Director Cheng said that one of the works winning the Red Dot Design Award entitled “Married with a Soul” is an achievement of the Department of Visual Communication through AI teaching! Specifically, the department conducted AI research to set up a course named “three-dimensional composition design” with the theme of smart folding computing and application design. Furthermore, another course named "information visualization research" was offered for the master students to explore the visual performance and communication of big data. What the students learned from the course can help them to create AI-related works to participate in various competitions, to apply for the College Student Research Project granted by the government, and to publish papers in academic conferences and journals, thereby enhancing the research capabilities and academia-industry cooperation of the teachers at the Department of Visual Communication Design.
Director Cheng emphasized that the award-winning works of the students are very diverse and creative. All the works winning the Packaging Design Award, Publishing and Print Media Award, Brand Design and Identity Award, Posters Design Award, and Illustrations Award are favored by the judges, showing that the teaching results are fruitful. In the past ten years, a total of 98 works created by AU students have won Red Dot Design Awards, of which 16 won the Awards of “Best of the Best”.
The AU Students Win One Gold, Two Bronze, and Three Merit Medals of the ADC Awards
Students from the Dept. of Visual Communication Design at Asia University (AU) participated in the competition of the 99th Art Directors Club (ADC) Annual Awards in May, 2020, and six of their works are awarded one Gold, two Bronze, and three Merit medals. Announced by the ADC Awards this year, AU is ranked the 13th in the world and the 1st in Taiwan among awarded colleges.
Prof. Pang-Soong Lin, a Chair Professor of the Dept. of Visual Communication Design at AU, said that the ADC Annual Award was founded in New York in 1920, which is the oldest and most prestigious global competition in the world. Also, the ADC Award is called “the Oscars of the advertising business” and is the most representative professional award recognized by advertising and design industries both in Taiwan and other countries.
Furthermore, two groups of the students also received the bronze awards. One group, consisting of two students Yu-Lin Juan and Pei-Wen He from the Dept. of Visual Communication Design, designed the packaging work “The BEAU Lipstick Gift Box.” It is a fan-shaped packaging decorated with retro nightclub elements and neon colors which can attract the viewer’s attention. People who see the appearance of this gift box will feel pleasantly surprised. Another work called “My Old Children” is created by the other group of students, including Yu-Ting Hung, Yu-Wen Hsu, Jui-Shan Tu, and Po-Chun Kuo, from the Dept. of Visual Communication Design. This is an easy-to-read guidebook with simple illustrations to help older adults affected by strokes, Alzheimer's diseases, or accidents. Integrating with a mobile APP, it can record daily conditions of people and provide a more direct and convenient way to caregivers.
In the 99th ADC Award competition, three works from the Dept. of Visual Communication Design at AU are also granted Excellence Awards, including “Scenery of Typography, Taiwan” designed by Yi-Ting Min and Cheng-Han Liu; “Wu Gau Hou Hsia” created by Chih-Ti Kuo, Yi-Fang Lin, Yi-Hui Lin, and Tzu-Yen Hsu; and “Monster-tongue-shaped pastry” made by Jo-Yin Yu, Yu-Tsen Hung, and Cheng-Yu Ku. These works are based on local cultures, snacks, and attractions in Taiwan, and are favored by the judges.
A New Face Recognition System Developed by AU Faculty and Students for COVID-19 Prevention.
As the number of infected patients greatly increased, people are suggested by the government to wear a face mask in public to reduce the spread of the disease. Prof. Chao-Neng Wang at the Department of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering at Asia University (AU) and his research team developed a face recognition system integrated with AI detection technologies and temperature sensors, which can measure individuals’ body temperatures even when they were wearing a mask. In addition, tested using hundreds of image sets, this system has successful performances of recognizing faces with 95% accuracy.
During the epidemic prevention period, AU has set up quarantine stations at the entrance of each building. The faculty members and students are asked to complete a health declaration form with their body temperatures taken using an infrared thermal imager every day before entering in-door spaces. To improve the issue, Prof. Wang and his team consisting of six students from the Departments of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Engineering, and Photonics and Communication Engineering developed the face recognition system using a sample database of about one million unmasked face images and a much smaller database of masked face images. Successfully, this system has been tested to identify people in one second with 95% accuracy even if they are wearing medical masks.
“With the person's facial details based on this system, the management personnel are provided with a full range of epidemic prevention information such as body temperatures and employee identities,” said Prof. Wang. Moreover, this system is capable of identifying visitors and guests after completing face verifications and identity registrations. Prof. Wang emphasized that when an employee whose body temperature is above 37.5˚C, the system can show up a warning sign in the computer to help the person get protective measures quickly.
Currently, every one at AU has to fill in a self-declaration health statement and provide his/her travel and contact history accurately through a website. Also, people are required to pass daily temperature screening at building entrances before entering workplaces or classes. Facing the COVID-19 outbreak, AU faculty and students use the face recognition technology to identify users even when they are wearing masks. This recognition technology can provide a fast and zero-contact method for identifying individuals. In the near future, the (a) face recognition system will become popular as an identification tool and can be applied in various activities.
Analysis of Feedback Word Cloud in Feature Exhibition of SPROUT Project
In order to allow the freshmen in this academic year (2020) to understand the features and focal points of sprout project, the display booths for publicity of development focal points and features in 2020-2022 have taken place and shared. After students finished the guided tour, they completed the assessment tests and feedback online. Of which, 1,907 questionnaires were collected in total. In the content of open-ended feedback, from the word cloud, we can understand what are impressive and beneficial contents. More than that, they also understand diversified learning channels and opportunities provided by the school, which is the main objective of activity for this time.
The Impact of Distance from School on Learning Performance of First-year Students
Observe the impact of distance from school on different learning performance of first-year students. The subjects of study are first-year day-school students in first semester of academic year 2017, excluding all foreign students (including Chinese students and oversea Chinese students). According to their accommodation, they can be divided into students living in the dormitory (1,892 people) and students not living in the dormitory (366 people.). For students not living in the dormitory, we filtered only those whose correspondence address is Taichung City, Changhua County and Nantou County (349 people). The final subjects of research are 2,241 students. According to the result of One-way ANOVA, there is significant difference in academic performance and scores statistically (p=0.0216). The posteriori test is then used to discover the detail of difference. After comparing the class ranking in percentage of our research subjects, the average score percentage of student living in the dormitory is 50.33± 28.49%, short-distance group of students not living in the dormitory is 55.75±29.16% and the long-distance group of students not living in the dormitory is 53.91±30.45%. It shows the academic performance of students living in the dormitory is significantly better than short-distance group of students not living in the dormitory. Even though academic performance of students living in dormitory is better than the long-distance group of students not living in the dormitory, the significant meaning doesn’t exist statistically. Overall, the academic performance of students living in the dormitory is way better than students not living in the dormitory. It is presumed that the group life in dormitory of school allows students to discuss and learn from their classmates or seniors, making the academic performance of students living in dormitory better than students not living in the dormitory.