NVIDIA-NYCU Innovation Center
In collaboration with NVIDIA, NYCU advances AI education, technology R&D, applications, and innovation
During his visit to Taiwan in June, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang not only joined COMPUTEX but also revealed plans to establish an AI R&D center in Taiwan. The center will collaborate with local industries on AI application development and work with leading Taiwanese universities on the AI University initiative. In just a few days, Huang's visit ignited an unprecedented surge in Taiwan's AI landscape!
NVIDIA partners with National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, and Chung Yuan Christian University to establish AI University.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, as early as 2021, the Department of Industrial Technology approved NVIDIA's "AI Innovation R&D Center Project," a plan worth approximately 24.3 billion NTD. The Ministry provided a subsidy of 6.7 billion NTD while NVIDIA funded 17.6 billion NTD. As part of this project, NVIDIA plans to establish an AI R&D center in Taiwan, employing a team of 1,000 researchers, and develop a computing platform for the Taiwan AI R&D center. The project will also offer partial computing power to domestic academic and research institutions, as well as partners and startups. Additionally, the project includes fostering AI talent and exploring collaboration with Taiwan's top universities on the AI University initiative. During his speech at National Taiwan University, Huang announced the 17 public and private universities involved in the project, including National Taiwan University (NTU), National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), and Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU), all of which have partnered with NVIDIA to establish AI University.
The President of National Taiwan University Wen-Chang Chen announced that NTU has partnered with NVIDIA to establish the AI University Center, to integrate AI into teaching, research, and entrepreneurship. The initiative will train AI instructors to incorporate AI into curricula across all departments and foster research in various AI fields. Additionally, it will encourage faculty and students to leverage AI technology for entrepreneurial ventures, supported by external resources. Meanwhile, National Tsing Hua University has launched the "Tsing Hua-NVIDIA Joint Innovation Center" to focus on AI education and healthcare applications. As for Chung Yuan Christian University, it has signed a memorandum of understanding with NVIDIA to create the "NVIDIA-Chung Yuan Christian University AI Application Development Joint Service Center." CYCU invests 16 million NTD to develop AI infrastructure, optimize related spaces, and offer smart innovation courses and collaborative teaching models tailored to each department's specialties. By March 2024, three CYCU faculty members had obtained the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI) deep learning instructor certification.
NYCU Taiwan AI University and NVIDIA Collaborate in AI Education, Research, and Startup Incubation
In late 2022, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University partnered with NVIDIA to establish the "NVIDIA-NYCU Innovation Center," a university-level research hub. The center aims to: (1) leverage NVIDIA’s resources to enhance AI education and practical experience, (2) accelerate research in cutting-edge AI technologies, (3) drive the development of AI application solutions, and (4) foster the creation and growth of AI startups. The center is led by Professor Yu-Chee Tseng from the Department of Computer Science, an expert in robotics and artificial intelligence. Just now, six research projects, including those focused on deep learning and circuit design, have proceeded.
In partnership with NVIDIA, NYCU Taiwan AI University is dedicated to building a strong foundation for advancing AI skills. To support this goal, the university has established "Graduate Programs," "Postgraduate Programs," and "Industry Collaboration" initiatives.
Graduate Programs Actively Recruiting DLI Teaching Kits Users and University Ambassadors
The Graduate Programs offer courses including Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and industry-specific subjects. The programs actively seek instructors to join the Ambassador Program, and encourage students and faculty to utilize the Teaching Kits provided by NVIDIA's Deep Learning Institute (DLI). In addition to flexible, self-paced online courses that can be accessed anytime and anywhere, DLI offers remote workshops led by certified instructors. Participants have the opportunity to use cloud-based GPU-accelerated servers as well as create and deploy end-to-end projects across various technologies and fields. Upon completing the courses, learners receive the NVIDIA DLI certificate, a recognized credential that validates their professional expertise.
The NVIDIA-NYCU Innovation Center announces that individuals with higher education teaching qualifications can access course materials in areas such as accelerated computing, deep learning, and robotics. The comprehensive teaching kits include lecture notes, GPU cloud resources, self-paced access to DLI courses, and more. The kits also feature course slides, instructional videos, lab exercises with solutions, quizzes and exams with answer keys, physical and digital textbooks, free access to DLI online courses and certifications, free AWS cloud credits, and integrated DLI course syllabi. Currently, five professors from NYCU have successfully applied for Teaching Kits. They include Associate Professor Yun-Chien Cheng from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is focusing on machine learning and data science; Assistant Professor Jieh-Sheng Lee from the Institute of Technology Law; Assistant Professor Ling Chen from the Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration, specializing in machine learning; Associate Professor Cheng-Kuan Lin from the Department of Computer Science; and Assistant Professor Stefano Rini from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, both of whom are concentrating on machine learning and deep learning.
The Ambassador Program currently has certified DLI ambassadors at hundreds of universities worldwide. Faculty and researchers at NYCU are encouraged to apply, as they can receive free certification and the opportunity to teach DLI workshops to students. In addition to Associate Professor Ping-Chun Hsieh from the Department of Computer Science, who is already certified, two other professors have applied: Associate Professor Jen-Jee Chen from the Institute of Computational Intelligence and Assistant Professor Ling Chen from the Institute of Hospital and Health Care Administration.
Post Graduate Programs Welcome More Professors to Join Advanced Research Projects
The "Post Graduate Programs" are divided into two main sections: "Leveraging NVIDIA's research expertise and integrating AI with accelerated computing technologies to advance the nation's research and academic accomplishments" and the "Applied Research Accelerated Program." The former includes Professors Yu-Chee Tseng and Chih-Wei Yi’s project "Application of AI Technology for Badminton Tactical Analysis and Strategy Collection.” The latter encompasses several initiatives, including Professor Albert Chih-Chieh Yang's "Neuroscience Medical Federated Learning Program," Professor Yen-Yu Lin's "Deep Cross-domain Learning for Computer Vision Applications Grant Proposal," Professor Wei-Chen Chiu's "Learning Explainable Models and Discovering Hierarchical Concepts," Professor Ping-Chun Hsieh's "Meta RL for Multi-Objective Bayesian Optimization for Circuit Design," Professor Yih-Lang Li's "Fast Rip-up and Rerouting Convergence in Chip Detailed Routing by RL," Professor Po-Hung Lin's "Circuit Schematic to Netlist" from the Institute of Pioneer Semiconductor Innovation, and Professor Po-Hung Chen's "Development of High-Efficiency 48V-to-1V DC-DC Converter Grant Proposal" from the Institute of Electronics.
Industry Collaboration Inviting Industry-Academic R&D Startups to Join the NVIDIA Inception Program
The goal of the Industry Collaboration is to foster the development of AI startups through the NVIDIA Inception Program, which focuses on three main areas: supporting AI startup teams from universities to join the program, advancing industry-academia collaborative research in sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and autonomous driving, and organizing hackathons and intensive training camps that engage both industry and academic participants. Currently, Professor Henry Horng-Shing Lu is participating in the Incubator Program with his AI-assisted clinic statistical learning project in healthcare.
Furthermore, with the support of NVIDIA and ASUS, the Institute of Applied Arts at NYCU (NYCU IAA) can utilize the NVIDIA Studio platform for digital creation. NYCU is proud to be part of the NVIDIA AI University program. We deeply appreciate the collaboration and resources provided by NVIDIA and are excited to work with domestic and global partners to help shape the future of AI.