NCKU Joins Hands with Sampo Corporation and Rechi Precision to Create a Common Research Center for Smart Home Appliances-國立成功大學永續發展SDGs

NCKU’s joint venture with Sampo Corporation and the Rechi Precision Company was made official after NCKU’s president Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su, Sampo chairman Sheng-tian Felix Chen, and Rechi Precision’s vice chairman Jin-Hsi Liu signed a memorandum for establishing a cooperative research center on the 18th. The collaboration will bring together the fortes and energies from all three establishments. In order to get the pulse of current needs, specifically solutions for improving future smart homes and new kinds of compressor technologies, manufacturing processes, and product chains, the first step in the process will be to field applications and proposals for creative and cutting edge research projects. The new research center will be a training ground for up-and-coming talent from the fields of science, engineering, design development, and management. Together they will work in tandem and push forward in the smart home appliance industry and create a new future for home living.

The signing ceremony took place at NCKU. Those who bore witness to the signing include the chairperson of the Executive Yuan’s Ocean Affairs Council as well as former NCKU president Hwung-Hweng Hwung, Sampo president Lien-Chun Chen (陳連春) and vice president Cheng-Min Yang(楊正民), Rechi Precision president Ming-Fa Feng and his director of research and development Hsi-Kun Hsu (徐錫崑), NCKU director of research and development Sun-Yuan Hsieh, NCKU’s Transfer and Incubation Center vice chairman Ming-Chin Hou (侯明欽), Woei-Shyan Lee (李偉賢), and the guest speaker Professor Fan-Tien Cheng.

NCKU president Dr. Huey-Jen Jenny Su touted the significance of this collaboration, saying that the center will provide a common platform on which both new and veteran teachers can work together towards a common goal. For the last 90 years since its founding, NCKU has stayed its course in upholding its values and mission while solidifying its foundation on which the school has grown. Dr. Su personally thanked Sampo and Rechi Precision for their many years of support to NCKU but said that they all must now focus on forging a new path of development for NCKU in the areas of energy, artificial intelligence, and industrial development. Moreover, social sciences and medicine will also be incorporated into the mix so that students can gain a deeper understanding of the humanities and find more opportunities in the future.

Sampo chairman Felix Chen once said: “Invest in Vietnam? Why not invest in Tainan?”. The chairman half-jokingly cited Tainan’s good air quality and tantalizing food scene as reasons for moving operations to Tainan. But food and air quality aside, the chairman was pleased to see this collaborative project finally launch after a lengthy period of planning and preparation. As a champion of establishing roots at home, the chairman expressed his hope that NCKU will be a power source to spark higher levels of innovation. Rechi Precision vice chairman Jin-Hsi Liu is a firm believer in a company’s sustainable growth in the way of continuously innovating new products, developing technologies, and onboarding new talent. He has high hopes that this collaborative partnership will be a long-lasting and sustainable one.

NCKU is a comprehensive school and research institution for the sciences. It was globally ranked by Thomson Reuters for its volume of academic papers in the field of electric home appliances. Domestically, NCKU is ranked number one in this regard. Be it energy planning, green energy development, artificial intelligence, or industrial design, all these fields have immense growth potential. The Global Research & Industry Alliance (GLORIA) will also help shoulder responsibilities of helping bottlenecked companies quickly find breakthroughs in the form of academic resources and at the same time establish a direct pipeline between NCKU talent and the industry at large, which will accelerate the establishment of the connection between Taiwan’s smart home appliances and the international market.

Taiwan’s major manufacturer of electric home appliances Sampo Corporation was founded in 1936. Throughout the many decades, Sampo has made itself into a household name. Sampo’s chairman Felix Chen, its president Lien-Chun Chen and vice president Cheng-Min Yang are also all NCKU alumni. With Sampo’s new manufacturing center soon to be completed in the Tainan Technology Industrial Park Service Center, the area will soon experience a boom in its need for new talent. The future of Sampo manufacturing will center around energy conservation as well as a healthy and green internet of things connecting home appliances and AI-related products. The accompanying technologies will feature highly integrated home appliance systems which allow voice-command initiated or the remote control of in-home lighting systems, air conditioning and heating, and audiovisual electronics among others. The system can take appropriate actions with these appliances depending on the home’s environment which it can detect via sensors, making home living more convenient than ever while meeting energy conservation and environmental needs.

Rechi Precision Company was founded in 1989. Having a close pulse on the electric home appliances industry, it is currently an air conditioning compressor industry leader as the world’s number four in compressor manufacturing. Rechi Precision has also worked closely with NCKU for many years and has spared little resources to train up new talent. In the past three years alone, the company has donated $3 million NTD in student scholarships. From 2015 to date, it has been avidly promoting the Masters program in the Design of Electrical Machinery under NCKU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and spurring collaborations between academia and industry. In addition, the company offers NCKU students plentiful internships and organizes group tours of its factories in the Mainland with the aim of giving students a deeper look into how enterprises operate while engaging in technological exchanges and broadening their world view. Rechi Precision Company also offers NCKU graduates a chance to get involve in the global market in the form of employment opportunities.