Text and Photos: Office of Research and Development and Innovation Headquarters.
 

Innovation Demo Day brings industry, government, academia, and research together for exchange
 

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) held its annual academia-research event, INNOVATION DEMO DAY, on November 4 at the Macronix Building on Sheng-Li Campus. Co-organized by the Office of Research and Development and the Innovation Headquarters, the event was part of the celebrations for NCKU’s 95th anniversary. It brought together top research teams, the Great South Research Commercialization Platform, NCKU’s startup ecosystem, and the Phoenix Entrepreneurship Platforms, with nearly 100 R&D achievements and innovative technologies on display. Industry forums, results presentations, and a fundraising competition ran alongside the exhibition, reflecting NCKU’s wide-ranging strengths, from forward-looking research and industry-academia collaboration to innovation and entrepreneurship.
 

The event drew more than 1,000 senior corporate executives, venture capital representatives, faculty, students, and guests from across government, industry, academia, and research institutions. Among those present were Chen-Kang Su, Vice Minister of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC); Wen-Ling Su, Director General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Administration of Commerce; Hsiu-Jung Cheng, Director General of the Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau; Chi-Hong (Peter) Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Qisda Group; and Chin-Lai Wang, President of the NCKU Global Alumni Association. Representatives from several Czech universities responsible for industry-academia collaboration and technology transfer also visited, gaining firsthand insight into NCKU’s research results, industry partnerships, and entrepreneurial development, while adding an international dimension to the event.
 

NCKU President Meng-Ru Shen opens the event with remarks
 

The event opened with remarks by NCKU President Meng-Ru Shen, who noted that this year marks the university’s 95th anniversary. Demo Day is the first event in the anniversary celebration series and is being held for the third consecutive year. Tracing NCKU’s 95-year history, President Shen described how the university has moved from laying industrial foundations to strengthening national defense, from fostering urban prosperity to standing as a bulwark against epidemics and, more recently, building national resilience. Guided by the founding spirit of “open minds and nimble hands,” NCKU has worked to turn the depth of its academic research into knowledge and technologies that serve the real world.
 

“Where the university is, there is hope,” President Shen said, adding that a university’s foremost mission is to nurture talent. For innovations to truly serve society, he noted, universities must join forces with partners from industry, government, academia, research institutions, and the international community to build an innovation ecosystem together.
 

President Shen explained that the idea for Demo Day originated with NCKU alumnus Chi-Hong (Peter) Chen, Chairman of Qisda Group, after he visited ETH Zurich in Switzerland and saw the university bring hundreds of research results together in one exhibition, encouraging technology exchange and collaboration. That experience led NCKU to build a similar platform of its own. Now in its third year, Demo Day has grown more polished in its planning. By gathering the major research results and innovative technologies of NCKU faculty and students under one roof, President Shen hopes to let industry and visitors from all sectors see the university’s R&D strength, and to uncover further opportunities for technology applications and industry-academia partnerships.
 

A Czech delegation tours Innovation Demo Day
 

NSTC Vice Minister Chen-Kang Su, who joined the event, said the NSTC’s two main missions are advancing forward-looking scientific research and developing science parks. He hopes the industrial settings that science parks provide will help such research and applied technologies take root, driving further industry-academia collaboration and creating new value. Su commended NCKU for its long-standing commitment to nurturing talent and working with industry, noting that the university not only trains outstanding graduates for every field but also serves as a key driver of southern Taiwan’s technology sector.
 

Su noted that over the Southern Taiwan Science Park’s 30 years of development, NCKU has continually supplied talent and R&D capacity. “Without NCKU, the Southern Taiwan Science Park would not have become what it is today, holding up half of Taiwan’s science parks,” he said. As the global semiconductor and AI industries race ahead and international challenges grow more complex, he stressed, industry, government, academia, and research institutions must join hands to chart new directions.
 

NCKU has also taken an active part in key policies such as the Greater Southern Taiwan New Silicon Valley Promotion Plan and the Ten AI Initiatives Promotion Plan. Looking ahead, Su hopes to keep combining NCKU’s research strength, industry links, and international cooperation to bring forward-looking technologies into real-world use and sustain the growth of Taiwan’s technology industry.
 

Chin-Lai Wang, President of the NCKU Global Alumni Association, said in his remarks that NCKU has about 220,000 alumni worldwide. Through alumni chapters and departmental alumni associations around the globe, the university rallies its graduates to keep backing its innovation, entrepreneurship, and industrial development. Wang pointed to the Phoenix Entrepreneurship Platforms, the Alumni Startup Angel Platform, and NCKU Venture Capital, a fund pooled by alumni, as a “three-in-one” structure supporting innovation and entrepreneurship.
 

A certified public accountant by profession, Wang also offered a clever reading of “CPA” as Classmate, Professor and Alumni, describing how the strengths of classmates, professionals, and fellow alumni can be combined to bring together talent, technology, and capital. This network gives startup teams support at every stage, from angel investment and early growth to entering the capital market. He hopes the effort will help more NCKU faculty and students move from innovative R&D to entrepreneurship and grow into successful entrepreneurs.
 

Chi-Hong (Peter) Chen, Chairman of Qisda Group and an alumnus of NCKU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, said that every return to his alma mater leaves him energized, and that he is glad to see NCKU steadily raising its international profile. He pointed out that NCKU made the biggest leap in the QS Asia University Rankings, a sign of its growing international competitiveness in recent years.
 

Chen recalled that three or four years ago, he led a delegation to ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where he saw the university gather 200 to 300 innovative R&D results at its Innovation Demo Day and draw industry figures from around the world to exchange ideas. The visit inspired NCKU to launch a similar event of its own. Now in its third year, the event has, under President Meng-Ru Shen’s leadership, gradually pulled together the university’s research and industry-academia innovation strengths, bringing NCKU’s work to the attention of more industry leaders.
 

NCKU, Chen noted, has long been known as the “employers’ favorite university” and should extend its strengths in talent and research into innovation and entrepreneurship. Through the Phoenix Entrepreneurship Platforms, he said, funding, startup mentoring, and industry resources from alumni can be linked together. “Need funding? It’s there. Need guidance? Senior alumni in industry are ready to help,” he said. Chen encouraged faculty and students to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, hoping NCKU will become Taiwan’s trailblazer in innovation and entrepreneurship and “the cradle of unicorns.”
 

Executive Vice President Yung-Chun Lee (left 1) moderates the industry forum, with NSTC Vice Minister Chen-Kang Su (center) and Director General Wen-Ling Su of the Administration of Commerce (right 1) as speakers.
 

The industry forum featured NSTC Vice Minister Chen-Kang Su and Director General Wen-Ling Su of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Administration of Commerce as keynote speakers. Addressing industry-academia collaboration policies, Chen-Kang Su emphasized that innovation should go beyond technological research and development and begin with real industry needs. Through joint innovation between industry and academia, followed by testing and validation in real-world settings, successful outcomes can then be replicated and adopted more widely. Citing the Greater Southern Taiwan New Silicon Valley initiative as an example, he explained how connecting talent, technology, and industrial environments can help bring AI applications into practical use.
 

Director General Wen-Ling Su approached the topic from how AI is applied in industry, introducing the “Smart Rainforest: AI Ecosystem for Commercial Services,” a program promoted by the Administration of Commerce. Under the program, commercial service businesses bring forward their industry pain points and testing grounds, universities and colleges form interdisciplinary research teams while training students through hands-on practice, and IT service providers supply system tools, products, and services. Working together, the three parties develop AI solutions and put them to the test in real settings, speeding up the adoption of AI in sectors such as food service and retail.
 

Innovation Demo Day displays NCKU’s rich R&D and technological strengths.
 

Nearly 100 R&D achievements and innovative technologies were on display at the event. The Office of Research and Development selected 20 forward-looking research projects from across the university for the exhibition, and invited winning teams of the Future Tech Awards and the National Innovation Awards to present their work, demonstrating innovative technologies with potential for industrial application. The Innovation Headquarters, for its part, brought together NCKU’s technology teams and teams from the Great South Research Commercialization Platform, whose projects spanned electrical and communications engineering, mechanical manufacturing, materials technology, biotechnology and healthcare, and energy and the environment.
 

On the entrepreneurship front, NCKU has long cultivated entrepreneurial education and incubation mechanisms, creating a complete startup ecosystem that carries ventures from “idea launch, prototype development, and accelerated incubation to scaled-up launch.” This year, 23 teams from the NCKU Innovation Dream Realization Program presented their results and took part in the Elevator Pitch, where five-minute presentations demonstrated their creativity and market potential and caught the eye of investors and companies on site.
 

The Phoenix Entrepreneurship Platforms, launched jointly by NCKU and its alumni, teamed up with the NCKU Alumni Angel Club to hold the “Phoenix Platforms Award and Fundraising Pitch,” inviting investors and corporate partners to look for early-stage investment opportunities. The four “Golden Phoenix Startup Award Teams,” which had received extensive mentoring from the platform and demonstrated strong investment potential, took the stage alongside eight other outstanding startup teams to present innovative technologies and business results. The pitch demonstrated the platform’s ample capacity to accelerate startup commercialization, with the hope that on-site interaction would link teams precisely with capital and give NCKU startups a strong push toward growth.
 

Through industry forums, exhibitions, startup competitions, and fundraising platforms, Innovation Demo Day linked forward-looking research, industry-academia collaboration, and innovation and entrepreneurship, bringing academic and research results closer to industry needs and into line with the market. The event continues to extend NCKU’s influence in nurturing talent, putting technologies into practice, and driving industrial innovation.