Institute of Science Tokyo Delegation Visits NCKU to Deepen Semiconductor and Smart Medicine Collaboration
Written by NCKU Office of Internation Affairs. Image credit to NCKU News Center
NCKU welcomes the Institute of Science Tokyo delegation. Executive Vice President Yung-Chun Lee (right) exchanging gifts with Vice President Yoichi Oshima (left) of Science Tokyo.
A delegation from the Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) visited Taiwan from March 9 to 11, 2026, for a three-day program featuring academic exchanges and corporate visits. The delegation spent March 9 and 10 at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) to engage in high-level talks focusing on semiconductors, AI medical imaging, and robotic medicine, aiming to foster future industry-academia collaboration and transnational innovative research. The delegation was led by Vice President Yoichi Oshima, who also serves as the Director of the Center for Innovation Management (CIM). He was accompanied by Prof. Shusaku Yamada, Head of the Innovation Accelerating Section at the Center for Medical Innovation; Prof. Toru Inoue, Associate Director of CIM; and Manager Asako Baba, Creative and Research Manager at CIM.
Professor Yung-Chun Lee, Executive Vice President of NCKU, delivered the opening remarks on the morning of March 9. He expressed NCKU’s ambition to establish a profound research partnership with Science Tokyo. The exchange program, coordinated by NCKU’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), specially invited directors of several Joint Research Centers (JRC) and arranged on-site corporate visits. These activities aimed to share insights on deepening R&D strength and supply chain integration through industry-academia collaboration, ultimately creating a multi-win partnership for both universities and their corporate allies. Vice President Lee noted that NCKU President Meng-Ru Shen personally led a delegation to Science Tokyo in September 2025, which initiated this strategic dialogue.
Vice President Yoichi Oshima of Science Tokyo echoed the enthusiasm for deeper cooperation, noting that both universities share high resonance in tackling global challenges and scientific transformation. He highlighted two core pillars for collaboration: interdisciplinary research as the key to cultivating the next generation of researchers, and the internationalization of industry-academia cooperation. He pointed out that innovative ecosystems should not be confined by borders; only through international transnational networks can R&D bottlenecks be truly broken. Furthermore, Vice President Oshima shared that Science Tokyo was recently selected for Japan's International Research Excellence Program, and he looked forward to building a swift and substantial partnership with NCKU to construct an innovative environment with significant social impact.
Representatives from NCKU and Science Tokyo engage in a discussion on industry-academia collaboration during the morning session and pose for a group photo.
Dr. Liang-Ming Whang, Director General of the Innovation Headquarters at NCKU, provided an overview of NCKU’s industry-academia operations. As the core hub for industrial engagement, the Innovation Headquarters manages project management, patent licensing, and industrial relations. Dr. Whang emphasized that NCKU not only excels in performance but has also established deep strategic partnerships with global leaders like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Whether in institutional innovation or the industrialization of research outcomes, NCKU has demonstrated outstanding achievements and strong international influence.
The meeting also featured Chair Prof. Emeritus Kwang-Lung Lin, Director of the NCKU-ASE JRC, and Distinguished Prof. Tsorng-Juu Liang, Director of the NCKU-Delta JRC. NCKU and ASE, a global leader in semiconductor packaging and testing, have shared a partnership for over a decade, officially upgrading to a Joint Research Center in January 2024. ASE invests annually to support frontier R&D in materials science, electrical engineering, and advanced packaging. Similarly, NCKU’s strategic partnership with Delta Electronics spans over 20 years. Led by Prof. Liang, the NCKU-Delta JRC follows an "industry-demand-driven" model, focusing on Green Power and Smart Automation.
Representatives from both universities engage in a thematic exchange on semiconductor and AI medical applications during the afternoon session and pose for a collective group photo.
In the afternoon session, Executive Vice President Shyy-Woei Chang welcomed the delegation and conveyed President Shen’s strong support for the partnership. He stated that the collaboration aims to build a strategy-driven model that integrates resources in semiconductors, smart medicine, and corporate links to transform R&D investment into concrete industrial impact. Vice President Chang hopes to ensure that the partnership precisely aligns with industry needs to solve specific technical challenges and build a competitive transnational research network.
Distinguished Prof. Yeong-Her Wang, Director of the NCKU- TSMC Joint Research Center, shared the successful "Industry-Proposed, Academia-Solved" model that NCKU and TSMC have maintained since 2014. The center integrates interdisciplinary R&D from over 16 departments, focusing on next-generation nano-electronic devices and advanced manufacturing. Following this, Honorary Dean Yan-Kuin Su of the Academy of Innovative Semiconductor and Sustainable Manufacturing provided an in-depth analysis of Silicon Photonics research, while Dr. Cheng-Li Lin from NCKU Hospital shared cutting-edge research on AI medical imaging and robotic medicine.
On March 10, led by Dean Hsiu-Chi Cheng of the NCKU College of Medicine, the delegation visited advanced anatomy facilities and operating rooms at NCKU Hospital. Future cooperation is expected to focus on the cross-disciplinary integration of optoelectronic semiconductors and AI robotic medicine, aiming to lead the next generation of technological innovation.
This exchange and corporate visit program was coordinated by the NCKU OIA to bridge frontier R&D with industrial implementation. The OIA and the Innovation Headquarters arranged for the delegation to meet with representatives from Delta Electronics and conducted site visits to ASE (guided by Prof. Kwang-Lung Lin) and Macronix (guided by NCKU Hospital Vice Superintendent Peng-Chan Lin). Through this deep exchange, both parties will continue to catalyze the Taiwan-Japan industrial partnership, making the R&D energy of both universities a powerful engine for global technological innovation.
Provider:
NCKU News Center
Date:
2026-03-19
