In 2015, the United Nations (UN) Member States decided to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which set out a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by expecting the society to consider all three aspects of economic development, social progress and environmental preservation in the process of development. In 2019, referring to the initiative of The World in 2050 (TWI2050) launched by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Executive Yuan has announced the promotion of “Six Core Strategic Industries” that can pave way for Taiwan to achieve the aim of sustainable development, where the industries include information and digital industries, cybersecurity industry, precision health industry, green and renewable energy industry, national defense and strategic industries, and strategic stockpile industries. Seeking to advance the transformation and upgrade of Taiwan’s industry and add new momentum to economic growth, the government employed the core principles of “innovation, employment, and equitable distribution” and proposed the “five plus two” innovative industries plan which covers seven industries and projects: intelligent machinery, Asia Silicon Valley, green energy, biomedicine, national defense and aerospace, new agriculture and the circular economy. Together with the strategy of “Connect to future, connect to global and connect to local”, the focus of these areas is expected to move Taiwan forward as the core of next generation industrial development, stimulating the innovation and boost the competitiveness of the industry. Therefore, smart, sustainable and circular economy has become an important direction for Taiwan government policy and industrial development.
By integrating internal and external research resources to form a cross-field research team (including science, engineering, and humanities) with the concept of horizontal division of labor and vertical integration, the center conducts activities such as technology R&D, system integration services, talent development and others with purposes as follows : ：
Expand research effort, focusing on three major research topics, including ecological development, biodiversity assessment and applications, and environmental management
The center’s cross-field research team focuses on algae culture technology and its application in circular economy as it core with the applications of algae in medicine, food and wastewater treatment, regeneration and recycling, integrating with AIoT technologies which include environmental monitoring (water environment pollution monitoring, smart factory sewage treatment, air pollution monitoring), smart control in the production process of traditional industries (such as petrochemical plants, traditional chemical plants or steel plants), big data research and analysis, and smart algorithms. Industry-university services focus on biotechnology, agriculture, fishery and animal husbandry, traditional industries, wastewater treatment facilities, research consortia and government units. The center hopes to cooperate with industry-university-research institutes to create the greatest benefits of technology diffusion.
The center will cooperate and communicate with the world's top teams in related fields to establish a close interactive international network to enhance the international visibility and influence of the center. The international partners of the center will focus on the Asia-Pacific region and the new southbound countries, and achieve effective international exchanges through the exchange of personnel and technology, the joint development of international cooperation plans, and the joint publication of journal papers. In addition, it is necessary to promote the interaction and connection with related industries at local and overseas for the industrialization and internationalization of the technology developed by the center.。
The goal of the center's talent cultivation is to enhance Taiwan's R&D and education environment in terms of artificial intelligence, sustainable environment, circular economy and others as well as focus on cultivating high-quality, competitive and cross-disciplinary talents. The center gathers experts and scholars from different fields to form a service team to assist institutions such as industry, government, academic, research and other institutions to handle education training and short-term courses. The talent training courses can also be tailor-made following the individual needs to assist in the development of intelligence environment, establish a digital transformation team to achieve the vision of sustainable operation.
The development of smart monitoring systems can help to achieve the goals of effective production conditions control, product stability enhancement, production lines malfunction probability minimization, and personnel safety protection improvement. Intelligent monitoring employs artificial intelligence (AI)-related technologies to develop intelligent control technology based on the historical operating data and operating experience of the factory. That is to say, using the process data obtained by monitoring, once a deviation or abnormality occurs, the system can automatically judge and predict, and make the best control decision, so that the product quality can return to the normal level. Real-time monitoring and advance forecasting using machine learning with fully automatic optimization of production control parameters, successfully reduce production costs and increase production yield, creating a process operation method superior than manned control, and demonstrate potential to achieve unmanned production through this technology in the future.
IoT—The combination of artificial intelligence (AI) + Internet of Things (IoT) has become an inevitable trend! According to Gartner's forecast, 80% of enterprise IOT (Internet of Things) projects will include AI (artificial intelligence) solutions by 2022. By 2025, there will be more than 50 billion connected devices worldwide, generating 180 Zettabytes (ZB) of data. It is equivalent to 180 billion of 1TB data output. The report "Sizing the prize : What’s the real value of AI for your business and how can you capitalize?" by PWC pointed out that AI will bring approximately 14% of global GDP growth with the worth of $15.7 trillion in 2030. According to McKinsey's research, the global output value of IoT applications will reach 11.1 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025, while AI is expected to bring an output value worth 13 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. Research surveys pointed out that Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, ARM and other S&P 500 companies are actively deploying edge computing to expand the AIoT ecosystem, and AIoT is transforming the world!
The value of AI must be realized by the IoT, and the value of IoT depends on the extension of artificial intelligence, AIoT to drive the huge demand for relevant professionals in the upper, middle and lower stream of the technology industry chain around the world. Taking the factory as an example, the data generated by various IoT-related equipment and devices will be calculated through cloud-based machine learning-related algorithms, and then fed back to the equipment to push the factory to become smarter and optimize production, energy saving, equipment monitoring, preventive maintenance, etc. The scope of application and development directions include: smart home, smart medical, smart factory, autonomous vehicles, traffic management, business services, financial technology, etc.
AI technology can enable machines to learn from external database, make predictive analysis, or assist decision-making after analysis. The real-time nature of data transmitted by IoT is very important for the calculation of artificial intelligence adaptive learning systems. Using cloud data and analysis: Cloud services can be divided into three service modes, including infrastructure, platform and software (IPS). Recently, technology companies that provide cloud services have also begun to actively integrate data resources and strengthen AI products, showing the vigorous expansion of the AIoT industry. Integrating embedded system and sensor: Embedded system is generally a closed system that is customized for a special purpose and developed with integrated software and hardware. Traditional IoT control operations are operated by sensors equipped with embedded systems for data collection.
In addition, edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that uploads the computation of applications, data storage, and services from the network center node to the edge node on the network logic for processing. Since the edge node is closer to the user terminal device, the data processing and transmission speed is accelerated, and the delay can be reduced. Under this paradign, the analysis of data and the generation of knowledge are closer to the source of the data, so it is more suitable for big data analytics.
The specialties of this research center are smart algae cultivation system (livestock (dairy and piggery) wastewater treatment, sustainable algae bioeconomy applications), smart breeding (smart algae shrimp cultivation system, fishery and electricity symbiosis system, smart clam breeding system).
Smart algae cultivation system (livestock (dairy and piggery) wastewater treatment, algae-based bioenergy production, conventional petrochemical industry wastewater treatment), guidance on water and energy resource saving technologies, reclaimed water operation planning.
In order to enhance Taiwan's strength in artificial intelligence, sustainable environment, circular economy and other fields, as well as accelerate the digital transformation of the industry, talent cultivation is not only a key project of academic institutions, but also the foundations for industries and research institutions moving toward sustainable development. In the past decade, cloud computing, big data analysis, Internet of Things infrastructure, artificial intelligence and others which have changed industrial models and marketing mechanisms, have become indispensable elements of industrial, commercial and technological strategies. If a company wants to move towards to digital transformation, in addition to the above-mentioned basic elements, a more crucial aspect is the transformation of human resources.
Human resources transformation can start from two aspects: internal training and external recruitment. For internal training, a series of education and training programs can be planned for cultivation of professional teams from within the company. On the other hand, for external recruitment, professionals can be recruited from outside, and build teams in e-commerce, digital marketing, data analysis, and IT technology to assist in the company's digital transformation.
The center gathers experts and scholars from different fields to form a service team to assist institutions such as industry, government, academic, research and other institutions to handle education training and short-term courses. The talent training courses can also be tailor-made following the individual needs to assist in the development of intelligence environment, establish a digital transformation team to achieve the vision of sustainable operation.
Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Environmental Protection and Director, Occupational Safety and Health
Distinguished Professor and Director of Healing Environment Management and Research Center
