Aiming at technology. Oriental Institute of Technology drives the Future with Intelligent Talents

        The rapid development of science and technology has accelerated the change and competition of the world. Among them, AI artificial intelligence is not only the innovation of science and technology, but also the comprehensive change of human life and industry. In the age of wisdom, we should not only have insight into the changes of the market, but also have the learning ability of continuous innovation and the mobility to connect with the world. This issue of "Cover Story" invites President Huang Maoquan to share how Oriental Institute of Technology keeps pace with the times and fosters a new generation of intelligent talents.
Open AI Gate and Build Talent Training Base
Despite the increasing potential of AI and its huge and amazing business opportunities, many countries around the world have set off an upsurge in AI research and development, but according to President Huang Maoquan's observation, "most universities have not changed the name of their departments, but focuses on the cultivation of students' basic abilities (such as mathematics, programming language and practical ability), and began to make use of the “theme-based course group” in the second and third grades to connect the professional knowledge required for a series of cross-curriculum so that students can learn all kinds of professional knowledge and skills from solving practical problems. "
In addition, in this wave of AI, Principal Huang also found that "the number of end users where AI is applied is increasing, especially that the improvement of consumer services is the main factor to drive the growth of AI market.” In order to grasp the opportunity of AI development, Oriental Institute of Technology, in collaboration with the Taiwan AI Action Plan of the Executive Yuan, plans to build an interdisciplinary "Application Center for Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Life Innovation", invites teachers who are interested in the management of AI-related application fields to participate, hoping to find advantageous development projects, train AI Science and technology talents, provide empirical fields, assist SMEs to introduce AI innovative applications, promote AI industrialization and industrial AI in Taiwan, in order to enhance the competitiveness of AIOT and robot industry.
Among them, Microsoft Professional Program (MPP) is the most seamless international course. This series of courses is taught online through the cloud to assist faculty and students to obtain certification of Data Science, Big Data and AI courses. "The initial goal is to train the first batch of AI and Big Data seed teachers in the campus, as well as related scientific and technological talents. In the long run, we hope to internalize them into a set of exclusive AI professional training courses.” Principal Huang further explained.
In addition to training AI science and technology talents, President Huang firmly believes that "even non-technical developers or programmers should cultivate the ability to appreciate AI and understand what AI can do, can't do, what is good, what is bad, and what areas have potential?" These knowledge will become students' advantageous ability to enter the job market. "
Oriental Institute of Technology hopes to become the best partner of high and secondary vocational schools in the process of this revolution since 108 new curriculum has been formally incorporated into the program education. Therefore, in the future, the center will also introduce the most popular STEAM education in the educational field, combining science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics and other interdisciplinary teaching methods and connect the knowledge in five fields. It is worth mentioning that Oriental Institute of Technology redefines "A" as artificial intelligence (AI), plans four learning stages, namely "structure and motivation", "basic program", "robot development" and "high-level AI application". Through experiential learning such as repetitive research and discussion, hands-on implementation, students' innovative abilities such as teamwork, independent thinking and problem solving are trained.
As for the research and development of intelligent robots, which is also the key project of the “Center for Innovation and Application of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Life,” Principal Huang plans to introduce the Lego EV3 Robot course. With the Lego Robot as a teaching tool, students will be able to control the robots to accomplish their tasks automatically by combining mechanical principles with computer programming design. “In the future, students will be able to participate in various competitions under the training of the Center. On the other hand, more excellent works will be reserved and become a new highlight and feature of our school.” Principal Huang is confident about the future of the “Center for Innovative Application of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Life.”
        Promote Collaboration Between Industry and School Achieve Technology Research and Development
In addition to serving as a training base for Oriental Institute of Technology AI talents, another important task entrusted by President Huang to the Center for Innovative Application of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Life is to promote Collaboration between industry and school and accelerate AI landing. Principal Huang said, "To truly integrate intelligent technology into life, we must consider such factors as commercial value, culture, local conditions and customs. Therefore, the center will combine industry with people's life, let service innovation and R&D achievements link the government, research institutions, schools and enterprises, bring into the lives of users, and constantly improve products, designs and service quality from the process of public experience so that it can effectively help enterprises to enhance market competitiveness and increase the output value of service economy. "
It not only serves as a communication platform between teachers and students of Oriental Institute of Technology, the "Center for Innovative Application of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Life" will also help deepen the links between Far Eastern Group industries and strengthen the synergy of the group. For example, the Department of Information Management, Department of Marketing and Distribution Management can develop smart retail or unmanned stores in conjunction with Oriental Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd., Far Eastern Department Store, A-Mart and other companies; Department of Information Management and Department of Industrial Management can cooperate with Oriental Industries (Suzhou) to develop smart manufacturing and industry 4.0; Department of Information Management, Department of Healthcare Administration, Department of Nursing and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital can develop smart medical care. Taking the application of intelligent robots as an example, President Huang pointed out that "Pepper-B2B Business Robot", "Pepper Development Robot" and "NAO Humanoid Robot" could be used in various fields such as hospital guides, patient consultation services, intelligent consultation, intelligent customer service, or in welcoming guests, soliciting customers or department briefings, laboratory introductions, etc. in the initial stage, which not only attracted customers 'attention, but also an important teaching tool to shape Oriental Institute of Technology. "
        Embrace Global Competition and Cultivate International Learning Ability
Facing the dramatically competitive environment, how to help students keep in line with international trends is one of the core issues of colleges and universities. In addition to continuous improvement in R&D and technology, cultivating professionals with an international outlook, and strengthening international academic and industrial exchanges are also the goals of Oriental Institute of Technology. In order to strengthen the foreign language ability of teachers and students, every semester, the school holds a workshop for English teachers to enhance their teaching abilities, so that full-time and part-time English teachers can learn to use different teaching methods and the latest software and hardware of educational science and technology to improve their teaching effectiveness, and actively promote international certificates, international papers publication, and teaching professional courses in English, hoping to improve students'English level and construct bilingual campus. Principal Huang said, "Every school year, we hold an English proficiency test for freshmen. We provide after-class tutoring classes and top-notch English courses for students with different English foundation. We also pay more attention to funding every semester and offer various English and multicultural tutoring courses and workshops to encourage students to speak English. "
In terms of the result of promoting the international exchange, Oriental Institute of Technology has actively strived to cooperate with internationally renowned universities, it successfully signed MOUs with Japanese and Malaysian schools in recent years, and strived to obtain subsidies from the Ministry of Education for the international cooperation projects, as well as courses on international perspectives and social issues, such as "International Relations" and "Globalization issue" “Global Environmental Change and Sustainability Development”, “Perspective of Western Literature”, and “Language and Culture of Southeast Asia” and other diversified themes.
In view of the phenomenon of "talent migration" driven by the trend of globalization, President Huang knows that higher education must provide a better environment and treatment in order to retain talent. "Our school has formulated a pluralistic incentive system, which allows teachers, whether research-oriented or teaching-oriented, to receive financial subsidies so that they can exert their talents to the most suitable places. According to statistics, there are 360 Collaboration between industry and school projects in 104-106 academic years, totaling more than 74 million yuan in research grants, which can cultivate teachers' independent research and innovative ability in teaching plans, and integrate specialties into industrial practice, so as to achieve the overall development of industry and school, patent application, international competitions and technology transfer. "
In terms of enrollment, Oriental Institute of Technology, in addition to providing scholarships for overseas students, guides overseas students to Far Eastern Group affiliated enterprise to participate in professional practice by virtue of group advantages, promoting the willingness of students from all countries to come to school to speed up the goal of internationalization of higher education. "In order to broaden students'international horizons, the school has also launched international exchange students program since 2016. Every year, in addition to recommending outstanding students to Malaysia for professional studies, some students recommended by the University of Malaysia come to Taiwan for professional courses or project study to enhance two-way communication. In addition, in order to alleviate the economic pressure on exchange students, our school continues to apply for the " Flying in the Learning Sea " subsidy from the Ministry of Education, and provides free English course training before going abroad , so as to help students adapt to the overseas all-English campus environment as soon as possible. "Principal Huang added.
All walks of life are facing the critical moment of transformation, and education is no exception. Oriental Institute of Technology aims at new technologies such as AI, Big Data and intelligent robots. Through specialized and internationalized training, it lays foundation for students. It is hoped that in the new wave of digital revolution, it will be in line with the world and continue its competitiveness.