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NCKU Faculty Teaching Development Community Integrates Modular Courses, Winning Three Silver Awards at the MUSE Design Awards
The winning entries include THE UNFOLDED STRATAGEM, which draws creative inspiration from traditional opera arts and earned two Silver Awards in "Product Design – Beauty & Cosmetics" and "Product Design – Sustainable Living/Environmental Protection," as well as 94 Fragrance, which extends mathematical creativity into design and won a Silver Award in "Packaging Design – Beauty & Cosmetics." Blending traditional opera culture, mathematical structures, artistic creation, design, and sustainability concepts, these three works demonstrate students' ability to translate interdisciplinary learning into tangible design outcomes and serve as an exemplary model for sustainable, cross-disciplinary education combining traditional opera with mathematical creativity.
The course is also integrated with a faculty teaching development community convened by Associate Professor Wei-Chien Ma, bringing together Professor Yan-Hsun Su from NCKU’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Associate Professor Yu-Chen Shu from the Department of Mathematics, Ru-Wen Chen and Chun-An Chen from the Department of Folk Arts at the National Taiwan College of Performing Arts, and Li-Wu Tai and Wei-Ling Yu from the Department of Jingju. Through joint lesson preparation, dialogue, and pedagogical exchange, this team of specialists in art, mathematics, materials science, and performing arts transforms knowledge across disciplines into accessible, hands-on learning content for students.
Associate Professor Yu-Chen Shu noted that Art Action Healing: Staging Mathematical Creativity centers on the connection between traditional opera arts and mathematical geometry, guiding students to draw from opera characters, plots, physical movements, and stage aesthetics while incorporating numbers, proportions, geometry, forms, and colors to translate abstract mathematical concepts into concrete artistic and design expressions that bridge traditional culture and contemporary creativity.
Associate Professor Wei-Chien Ma explained that combining the faculty teaching development community with modular courses allows interdisciplinary learning to take place simultaneously between faculty and students—traditional opera provides character and narrative context, mathematics introduces structure, proportion, and logic, and materials science expands creative media and practical possibilities, integrating diverse fields of knowledge into concrete results through artistic creation. Professor Yan-Hsun Su also expressed that these awards serve as encouragement for students' cross-disciplinary learning and creation, expressing hope that modular courses will continue to expose students to diverse ways of thinking and help them apply what they learn to both creative work and daily life.
In recent years, NCKU has consistently promoted interdisciplinary courses, modular courses, faculty teaching development communities, and cross-field collaborations to encourage faculty to cooperate across disciplinary boundaries and support students in exploring diverse domains. Recognition from these three international awards not only highlights students' achievements in interdisciplinary creation, but also showcases NCKU’s distinctive educational approach of linking art, creativity, and sustainability through interdisciplinary teaching—from collaborative faculty learning and course co-creation to student practice.
Recognition from these three international awards not only showcases students' achievements in interdisciplinary creation, but also demonstrates NCKU’s educational hallmark of connecting art, creativity, and sustainability through interdisciplinary teaching—from collaborative faculty learning and course co-creation to student practice.
The integration of the faculty teaching development community with modular courses enables interdisciplinary learning to occur simultaneously among both teachers and students.
The course brings together faculty specializing in art, mathematics, materials science, and performing arts, transforming interdisciplinary knowledge into comprehensible, hands-on learning content for students.
Associate Professor Wei-Chien Ma of NCKU’s Institute of Art Studies and Master Program in Drama, together with the faculty community team, extended the outcomes of the modular course Art Action Healing: Staging Mathematical Creativity to win three Silver Awards at the 2026 MUSE Design Awards.
The award-winning works include THE UNFOLDED STRATAGEM and 94 Fragrance. (Photo credit: Official Awards Website)
