NTHU News

NTHU senior vice president Nyan-Hwa Tai said that the concept of sustainability has already become deeply rooted in research, teaching, and administration at NTHU. The competition, themed “Sustainability as a Form of Communication,” was organized by the Sustainable Development Committee and accompanied by a joint exhibition highlighting the distinctive features of NTHU. Moreover, in 2022 NTHU received a gold rating from the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS), and it has received the Taiwan University Sustainability Award for three consecutive years. 

Sustainability Office director Fu-Ren Lin said that if the nearly 4,000 students who graduate from NTHU every year are concerned about sustainability, they will go on to have a significant impact on society. He added that the main criteria for selecting the winning teams were how well their plans leveraged the existing strengths of NTHU and their potential impact beyond the campus.

Teams that made the first cut were interviewed by a committee consisting of personnel from various companies, including MediaTek, United Microelectronics Corporation, and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Gold, silver, and bronze awards were presented in the student, faculty, and staff categories, with a total of nine winning teams.

The gold medal for the student group was won by Shao-Chi Lo, a doctoral student from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Under the guidance of Professor Chih-Huang Lai of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lo developed a technology to recover rare earth elements from discarded home appliances and batteries, which reduces chemical use and carbon emissions.

Lo noted that although the field of sustainability may not yield immediate returns like the semiconductor industry, he remains confident in its long-term potential. In the past, he and his colleagues donated a portion of their winnings from domestic and international competitions to support interdisciplinary education at NTHU, demonstrating their commitment to sustainability.

The gold award in the teacher group was won by a team led by Professor Hsiu-Chuan Chou that formulated a plan for cleaning up the Touqian River Basin. The project includes fieldwork to study pollutants in the river, the use of an AI identification system, general education courses, and partnerships with local environmental groups to develop solutions for pollution prevention and environmental education.

Chou's cross-disciplinary team formulated its plan for mitigating water pollution in the Touqian from multiple perspectives, including pollution prevention, environmental education, and green finance. The members of the team include Hong-Lin Chan of the Department of Medical Science, Ruey-An Doong of the Institute of Analytical and Environmental Sciences, Nen-Fu Huang of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Shun-Chi Wu of the Department of Engineering and System Science, Jow-Ran Chang of the Department of Quantitative Finance, Chun-Ming Chen of the Regional Innovation Center, and Tonny Kuo of the College of Technology Management.

The gold medal in the staff group was won by Nai-Yun Chang, a research assistant in the Tsing Hua Interdisciplinary Program. She organized an orientation event for experimental education students in which they visited the Xinfeng Mangrove Forest, where they learned about coastal ecology, the Hukou Old Street, where they learned about Hakka culture, and an equestrian center, where they rode horses. Following the activities, students showed an 83% increase in environmental awareness and a 71% improvement in their understanding of sustainability.

Brad Peng, CEO of the TSMC Charity Foundation and a member of the judging panel, praised the participating teams for developing sustainability solutions that were both cost-effective and efficient. Another judge, Shang-Hsiu Hu, director of the Office of Research and Development at NTHU, commended the teams for their creativity in applying innovative technologies for sustainability across air, land, and sea.

The 2025 NTHU Sustainability Exhibition, themed “Passion to Action,” was held in conjunction with Earth Day (April 22) at the International Conference Hall. It featured award-winning projects, ambassador initiatives, and multimedia presentations.