NPUST’s Program for Artificial Intelligence and Mechatronics is cooperating with industry to create a talent cultivation hub for ‘smart mechatronics’. Together, they will provide teachers of vocational high schools and junior colleges in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung (Kao-Ping) area with training on AIoT smart environment sensing applications. The aim is to cultivate seed teachers who will be able to put together complete courses and certification programs for their students, thereby helping to improve the effectiveness of technical education.
As part of the initiative, the director of the program, Professor Hudson Hsu, is cooperating with a forward-looking professional talent cultivation organization, Soartecn Inc. (PlayRobot), to create the learning content. The subject matter is based on the three-layer structure of “cultivation selection, innovative practice, and industry-university co-prosperity”. These are supplemented by the featured theme of AIoT environmental sensing applications with an aim of quickly incorporating local indicators into the AI and IoT applications.
The Pingtung Science Park was officially launched in 2022, with focus given to the three main areas of space technology, green materials and smart agro-medicine. Although there are 16 colleges and universities in Kao-Ping area which will see more than 70,000 students through to graduation in the next 10 years, the number of people trained in mechanical and electrical majors will still be insufficient. Under the guidance of its president, Chin-Lung Chang, NPUST is actively working to create a talent cultivation base for regional smart electro-mechanics so that young people will be able to stay in their hometowns rather than drifting north to find employment. The teaching facilities of partnering schools will be integrated so that they will be able to improve and expand fields of learning and implement a strategy of “practical learning and learning for application”.
