National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) on Wednesday announced that it would team up with 10 of Taiwan’s largest tech firms to establish a semiconductor research college.
The college would be jointly operated with some of the larger companies in the sector, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, the university said.
Semiconductor development — such as design processes, the physics and chemistry of materials, components technology, IC design and advanced packaging — would be the college’s focus, it added.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
“We’ve invited Lin Burn-jeng (林本堅), who is well-known for developing an industry-changing immersion lithography technique, to act as dean of the college,” university president Hocheng Hong (賀陳弘) said.
Since 2016, Lin has been a distinguished research chair professor at the university. He worked for IBM in the US before returning to Taiwan to work for TSMC.
The companies would collectively invest more than NT$130 million (US$4.64 million) per year in the college, which would also receive funding from the government.
Other Taiwanese backers are GlobalWafers Co, Unimicron Technology Corp, United Microelectronics Corp, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp, Novatek Microelectronics Co and Nanya Technology Corp, while Japan’s Tokyo Electron and the US’ Micron Technology are also onboard.
“We expect to accept 80 master’s students and 20 doctoral students each year into the college, and we will be offering a lot of scholarship money,” the university said. “We would like to begin accepting applicants as early as next spring.”
The university hopes that the college’s programs “will open students’ eyes” to the interdisciplinary nature of semiconductor development, which includes information technology, physics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, mathematics and other areas of study, Hocheng said.
Meanwhile, Lin said that the college would offer internationally competitive salaries to attract big-name teachers, including inviting industry elites to teach microcredit courses.
The college would also invite researchers from Academia Sinica and the US’ National Academy of Engineering, he added.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern