On March 13 (2025), the Pingtung County Government held a “Vocational Education Experience Expo” at the Howard Plaza Resort in Kenting. Students from vocational schools in Pingtung County, from junior-high to college level, were invited to share the results of their vocational education at booths with displays and hands-on experiential activities. This year, 57 schools set up 83 booths where junior high schools highlighted their special skills courses, high schools demonstrated diversified hands-on teaching, and colleges and universities provided information on advanced technical and vocational education. The expo provided participating teachers and students with an opportunity for in-depth exchange and a chance to broaden their horizons.
National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) was represented at the expo by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, with Professor Chi-Feng Lin and Research Fellow Chen Yi-Ling setting up a booth to showcase an industrial-grade collaborative robotic arm developed by the school in cooperation with Lichi Technology. Visitors to the booth were welcomed to try their hand in operating the robotic equipment, which the university uses for teaching purposes. Collaborative robot arms have been widely adopted in the manufacturing industry in recent years. Compared with general industrial robot arms that require safety fences to keep operators out of harm’s way, collaborative robot arms have built in detection functions, so that they will not injure people or damage property. Thanks to this feature, the visitors could experience mechanical operations for themselves without any worries.
Lichi Technology’s general manager, Ming Yi Lu and one of their engineers, Hsu-Hua Chen (an alumnus of NPUST’s Mechanical Engineering master’s program), were also present at the booth to help explain the applications of robotic arms in the industry. When Chen was studying his master’s degree, he chose to focus on a combination of robotic arms and machine vision for his thesis research topic, so he was able to provide the visiting students with quality insight. After experiencing the robotic arm for themselves, the junior high and high school students were able to get a better feel for the operating principles and the future applications of AI artificial intelligence. They also had a chance see how robotic arms are replacing human labor, and consider how they might plan their future studies and careers in light of current trends.
