National Cheng Kung University (NCKU)

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) reaches out from the historic city of Tainan in Taiwan. It is a university with a pragmatic academic climate, solid research strengths, an international learning environment, interdisciplinary innovation, effective academia-industry cooperation and a pragmatic approach to issues. It is a school that actively exerts a positive influence in many areas of endeavour while simultaneously embracing the world.

NCKU’s practical academic climate is conducive to the steadfast pursuit of knowledge and truth. Since its foundation, NCKU has undergone tremendous transformation and growth. Today the school comprises 10 colleges: Engineering; Management; Liberal Arts; Sciences; Medicine; Social Science; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Planning and Design; Bioscience and Biotechnology; and Computing. Within these colleges there are 43 undergraduate programmes, 36 independent graduate institutes and nine degree programmes. The colleges are located on the main campus, while the Kuei-Jen, An-Nan and Dou-Liu campuses are home to, respectively, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory and NCKU Hospital Dou-Liou Branch. These features make NCKU one of the most academically comprehensive research universities in the region.

NCKU is a university that promotes high self-expectations for the future of the country and for social responsibility. Today, NCKU students originate from more than 80 countries. Currently, there are about 22,000 students enrolled at NCKU with the number of alumni reaching 190,000 globally. NCKU believes that a university should nourish the culture of society and all citizens, while acting as an integral element of enlightenment among individuals. NCKU embraces educational innovation, research excellence and social responsibility as the main axis to build a pioneering university with teaching, research and social responsibility as the vision for excellence.

NCKU prioritises talent cultivation. In addition to improving students’ domain knowledge, it also aims to equip students with language proficiency; knowledge of the world’s many cultural values; flexibility to adapt to any environment; and familiarity with the use of information technology. All these abilities are necessary for world-class, globally mobile talent.

NCKU has always been a national leader in terms of performance in industry-academia collaboration. Funding from such collaboration at NCKU reached NT$5.5 billion (£137 million) in 2020. NCKU has also achieved excellent performance in terms of income derived from intellectual property rights, and in terms of number of patents and utility models. NCKU’s results from collaboration with enterprise also lead the nation. It was counted among the top 100 universities worldwide in the number of US patents approved from 2012 to 2020. The amount of technology transfer signing fees collected each year has exceeded NT$100 million for 11 consecutive years since 2009. NCKU is the only university in the nation to achieve such performance.

With effective interdisciplinary integration and outstanding academic achievement, and through its research centers, NCKU stays in close touch with social trends and developments. It assumes a core role in industry and public policy, social engagement and sustainable innovation, and its achievement in these are well recognised around the world.

Miin Wu School of Computing

NCKU transforms the moment with computing to weave the future with intelligence

To cultivate talents and implement computing in fields that help to make a better world, the Miin Wu School of Computing at NCKU, based on the excellent foundations of NCKU as a comprehensive university, is designed to link external industry resources to provide a complete cross-disciplinary teaching and research environment.

Announced in August 2020, a gift of NT$1 billion from Macronix Electronics represents a fully supported commitment of NCKU towards the Miin Wu School of Computing. As mentioned at the launching ceremony by NCKU president, with this donation NCKU seeks to propose fundamental solutions, create a new era of interdisciplinary computing talent cultivation, and set a new paradigm in Taiwan.

Vision and aims

• Bilingual: cultivate talents with dual competency (both domain-specific and computing expertise)
• X-disciplinary: bring together niches of the nine colleges to develop computing-centric, cross-disciplinary technologies and applications
• V-integration: conduct requirements analysis and system design to benefit human society
• I-liaison: establish solid industrial and international links

Features

The School of Computing consists of degree programmes – associated with the research centers – and industrial liaison programmes. Featured programmes and strategies include:

• Application-oriented research and interdisciplinary programmes
• Balanced funding from the private sector and government
• Tightly coupled industrial liaison programmes
• Interdisciplinary research centers for all faculty members
• Highly flexible and industry-oriented degree programmes
• Innovative international and industrial collaboration

Academic programmes

Various cross-disciplinary programmes are on offer, including both degree programmes and credit programmes, tailored for different applications while linking the School of Computing with the existing colleges of NCKU. The programmes listed below will soon be open to students. 

• Graduate programmes
• AI robotics graduate programmes
• Intelligent computing graduate programmes
• Intelligent computing industrial doctorate programme 
• Computational biomedicine graduate programmes
• Undergraduate programmes
• Intelligent computing credit programme for EECS and non-EECS students

Research centers

The research centers in Miin Wu School of Computing are eager to form strong, large-scale research and development teams aiming at high-impact, long-term projects. The topics will be aligned with the degree programmes and industrial liaison programmes. Upcoming openings of research centers include: 

• Center for AI Robotics 
• Service robotics and related applications
• Center for Future Computing 
• Memory-centric computing
• Neuromorphic computing
• Quantum computing
• Center for Computational Biomedicine

Industrial liaison programmes

The industrial liaison programmes are associated with the research centers, the industrial master’s and doctorate programmes, and extension courses in the Miin Wu School of Computing. This is in addition to international collaboration on joint educational programmes, courses and research projects, as well as exchange programmes for faculty members and students.

Enjoying life as an NCKU student

NCKU students benefit greatly from the rich cultural heritage of Tainan and enjoy famous snack foods offered throughout the city. The library, public artworks, historic buildings, tree-shaded campus and a variety of extracurricular activities contribute to a wonderful campus life. The experience of studying and living in the historic city of Tainan is treasured by students from many places in Taiwan and around the world.

Historic buildings shaded by old trees form part of NCKU’s unique character. The NCKU Museum, which was once the administrative centre of Tainan Technical College, is the first museum at a public university in Taiwan to be officially integrated into the school’s organisational structure. The NCKU campus boasts rich culture assets that tell the story of the school’s past. Laid out in a straight line, the Li Xian building, Dacheng Hall and the Department of History building, with their white Roman-style six-pillared porticos, red-brick walls and green window lattices creating a time-tunnel ambiance of dappled light and shade. Such a classic scholarly setting is the perfect environment for students to concentrate on their studies while simultaneously obtaining spiritual enrichment.

In addition to a great learning environment, NCKU also has strong sports culture. There are 11 outdoor basketball courts and 11 volleyball courts, a 400m track field, a football field, a standard swimming pool, and a comprehensive court for baseball, softball pitch and football pitch. At least 12 billiards or 12 badminton courts can be fitted into the indoor centre hall, ranking the highest among the surrounding universities. A new swimming pool and ball stadium opened at the end of 2018 and will promote a sports and leisure atmosphere that is also conducive to the cultivation of professions and research literacy for staff and students.

Feeling the campus and the city

NCKU’s main campus is conveniently located in downtown Tainan and is adjacent to the Tainan Railway Station, providing easy access to various transportation networks as well as the Southern Taiwan Science Park. With multiple colleges residing on the main campus, NCKU can easily facilitate interdisciplinary learning and cooperation, leading to the development of competitive, multifaceted professionals and students who can expand their international perspective by interacting with their peers from diverse ethnic backgrounds and nationalities.

Outside the campus, fascinating backstreets and historic buildings can be found throughout Tainan, and the famous traditional local eateries are particularly popular with NCKU students.

There are more than 1,600 temples located in Tainan city, which preserve a traditional cultural legacy and the sensory richness of life that helps NCKU students to uniquely excel in fields such as urban innovation, history and literature. A variety of resources, whether artistic, cultural, historical or scientific, along with a convenient location, help NCKU students enjoy an atmosphere of academic professionalism and a wonderful lifestyle that effectively prepares them for success in an ever-changing world.

Rich ecological resources

Tainan enjoys very rich natural resources and multiple ecosystems. For example, the Sicao Green Tunnel, nicknamed the “little Amazon River”, is a mangrove forest on either side, extending over the water to form a tunnel. In this tranquil, secret part of the city, one can experience the world-renowned wetland ecosystem and see nature co-existing in harmony with the city. In addition, Tainan is the ideal place for observing the endangered and rare black-faced spoonbill. Through the efforts of non-governmental organisations and local governments, initiated in 1988, a popular conservation philosophy gradually developed to aid this species’ survival. In 2022, their worldwide population stands at around 6,100, of which 3,800 wintered in Taiwan. Tainan has the highest population of the birds, attracting many international tourists coming to take photos of them each winter.

International Network

As a prestigious, leading research university in Taiwan, NCKU began its internationalisation early because it realised that an international environment is conducive to the cultivation of global citizens. Currently, NCKU offers 33 programmes comprising 694 courses taught in English. In 2021, there were 2,117 international students at NCKU, accounting for more than 9.5 per cent of the student body.

NCKU exerts its global impact through 486 international cooperation agreements with 294 foreign universities and institutions across 38 countries. Currently, the agreements include 53 dual-degree programmes and 144 active exchange student programmes that greatly enrich the international experience of students.

Face up to all of the world

Mingling culture

NCKU has firm relationships with universities in South-east Asia – the number of students from in 2021 was 1,326, ranking first among universities in Taiwan. To meet their religious needs, several prayer rooms have been built at different campuses for their daily use. In addition, 13 international student associations for Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, among others, and the United International Student Alliance are supported by NCKU to help international students overcome their assimilation problems and deepen their degree of interaction with local students.

A wonderful Chinese learning environment

Traditional Chinese characters are a treasured cultural legacy and the product of thousands of years of linguistic evolution. The Chinese Language Center (CLC) at NCKU is the only one in Taiwan selected by the US Department of State’s Critical Language Scholarship Programme for American undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the second-largest among all national universities in Taiwan offering a complete Chinese language training programme to promote international cultural exchange. Each year, more than 1,100 foreign students from over 50 countries come to study Mandarin Chinese at the CLC. The students are of all ages, ranging from the early teens to retired seniors. 

TU Darmstadt Asia Office

In order to strengthen academic cooperation between Germany and Taiwan, NCKU and Technische Universität Darmstadt have established an Asia Office at NCKU as the basis of a long-term partnership. There will be a German scholar stationed at the office – the first time a German university has had on-site representation in Taiwan. Both parties will benefit from cooperation, student exchange, short-term lecturing, academic exchange, scientific research and cultural exchange.

First inter-college, international programme among Taiwanese universities 

The Circular Economy Programme is the first inter-college, international programme among Taiwanese universities targeted at a mixed student body composed of working professionals, mid-career students and continuing university students who are enrolled in at least one of the master’s degree programmes offered at NCKU. Created in 2018, this programme provides students with professional skills that are linked with each other but distributed throughout the existing departments at NCKU.

NCKU-Purdue dual-degree programme

NCKU and Purdue University have entered into a collaboration for a 3+1+1 dual-degree programme and 2+2 doctoral dual-degree programme in engineering. A scholarship will be offered by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) of Taiwan to selected students in the 3+1+1 dual-degree programme, with summer intern opportunities and job vacancies at AIDC Taiwan or AIDC US.

A great world with no boundaries

In 2019, the World Universities Network invited students from its member schools to the WUN Conference for the first time. As the only student representative team from Asia, NCKU assigned three students with backgrounds in international exchange, student government and genetic engineering. At this conference, the three student representatives exerted tremendous effort. It is helpful that faculty members and students from different universities are able to meet and discuss action in the face of humanitarian crises.