Taipei Tech, rich in the applied scientific and technological capacity, has earned itself quite a few opportunities of collaborations with the industries or the academia. At the end of May 2019 came another chance to initiate a trailblazing research collaboration on material research with the Pennsylvania State University (hereafter the PSU). Dr. Clive Randall, Director of the Material Research Institute of the PSU, visited Taipei Tech for preliminary talks for the plans to build a partnership.

Taipei Tech and the PSU have been seeking to forge a long-term research alliance that shares research resources to people and strategic partnership. Both universities have paid mutual visits frequently for the past few years, and thus have been acquainted with the environments and research initiatives. The visit from the PSU this time is bringing both a further step to more in-depth mutual understanding essential to future collaboration.

The one-day visit plan for Dr. Randall began with the morning presentation on the detailed introduction to the Material Research Institute in the PSU. The presentation covered the institute model, talent development of the researchers, the research priorities, the yearly grants and the ones coming from the external funding. One of the major strengths of the PSU is its cross-disciplinary teaching and learning model that enables students to access integrated knowledge in each field. This model goes well with one of the goals of Taipei Tech, which is to employ cross-boundary learning to figure out more solutions or seek improvements.

The indispensable part to a potential partner coming to Taipei Tech is to demonstrate the tangible examples of Taipei Tech’s research capacities. In the afternoon, Dr. Randall was accordingly introduced to the highlighted research centers of Taipei Tech. He called at the Precision Analysis Material Research Center and had a deep conversation with Vice President Yang, who is one of the key directors of the center. It was then followed by the Center of Smart Textile Technology led by the Department Head Chang of Molecular Science and Engineering, and the Center of EMO materials and Nanotechnology by President Wang. 

At the end of the visit, Dr. Randall delivered a speech to the faculty and the students of the College of Engineering, reviewing the strategic plan and the manner which the MRI operates, and discussed the ongoing major research initiatives of their faculty and his own group. The faculty and students were fully absorbed into the informative presentation which assembles different aspects of knowledge and had a great time communicating with Dr. Randall about the opinion and ideas over the researches he brought up.