NCKU spearheads chip tech development at Southern Taiwan Science Park

New base at southern tech park to nurture talent according to industry needs

National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) inaugurated a tech base in Tainan on Tuesday (Feb. 15) in collaboration with the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) that will nurture talent in the thriving semiconductor sector.

The joint project is the latest by a southern city to cultivate high-caliber tech professionals by pooling resources from academia and industry. It comes on the heels of December's launch of a venture in Kaohsiung’s Asia New Bay Area.

The base in the STSP will serve as a space for partnering universities and companies to conduct research and experiments.

NCKU President Su Huey-jen ( 蘇慧貞 ) stated that the university has joined with 10 other schools to train the talent, seeking to meet the needs of the job market. An online course for semiconductor engineering conducted in English, for example, was launched Monday (Feb. 14), a first for the university.

Lo Yu-long ( 羅裕龍 ), associate dean of NCKU’s Academy of Innovative Semiconductor and Sustainable Manufacturing, noted that the academy will hold its first symposium in March that features CEOs of its corporate partners.

A major focus of the academy, which was established in October, will be to incubate talent for the semiconductor industry. It will offer five degree programs, from integrated circuit design to smart manufacturing, Lo added.

According to Su Chen-kang ( 蘇振綱 ), director-general for the STSP Administration Bureau, the tech park houses some of the most advanced semiconductor process technologies, with 5 nanometer chips already in production and a 3 nm process to be introduced soon.