In accordance with governmental policy and subsidized by grants from the Ministry of Education, NTU implements the "Project to develop World Class University and Top Notch Research Centers." In Academic Year 2006, NTU has surpassed MIT and Stanford in IC design and nano-disc technology, achieving the goal of becoming "top among the Chinese, and No. 1 in the world." And in the areas of seeking cure for the common ills of hepatitis, cancer, and infectious diseases, the key research projects at the core labs of NTU's Research Center for Medical Excellence also have achieved major breakthroughs with far-reaching results.

Excellence in Research (1)
NTU's SOC Research Team Starts from Zero, and Ends up Being Heroes

  ISSCC is the highest benchmark for publication of thesis in the area of IC design. Compared with other first class universities' performance in ISSCC, from 2002-07, NTU's SOC Center has a total of 33 theses published in ISSCC, ranking No. 1 in the world, and the number far exceeds the 24 theses submitted by MIT, the 21 theses submitted by Stanford, and the 12 theses submitted by UC Berkeley. The statistics of 2007 further indicate that the number of theses submitted by NTU for publication have surpassed those from many internationally renown research institutes such as IBM, INTEL and UCLA.

 The achievements in research and development by NTU's faculty members not only won critical acclaim in the international academic arena, but also contributed to the output of the computer industry in Taiwan. In the recent two years the technological transfer funds from the SOC team of NTU took up 19% of all research projects' technological transfer funds of the National Science Council. This piece of statistical information is concrete proof of the significant contribution made by the NTU SOC team to the computer industry in Taiwan.

  The convenor of the SOC research team, Professor Liang-Gee Chen of the Department of Electrical Engineering noted that such an illustrious outcome was actually very hard to come by. Prior to 2002, Taiwan's performance was scorned by international journals. But since the Ministry of Education started to implement the integration plan of research type universities from 2002, and expanded the budget to N.T. 50 billion for a five-year period in 2006, NTU's research centers received more abundant resources, which helped to bring about breakthroughs in research. A case in point is the number of theses published in ISSCC. Who would have thought that the number could spiral from zero in 2002 to a total of 33 in 2007, ranking first in the world!! ! Such a performance is quite stunning, to say the least. The Japanese media Nikkei Electronics was quite amazed at Taiwan's performance, and made a positive comment: "Taiwan's momentum is on the rise, and all signs indicate that the momentum is not temporary."

  President Si-chen Li points out that, the metamorphosis process from zero to hero indicates that Taiwan does have the world's best technological talents. The government's subsidization and key development of higher education, though seemingly slow compared to other countries, is by all means a pivotal factor in enhancing the international competitive power of Taiwan.

Excellence in Research (2)
150GB super capacity optical disc technology puts Taiwan on top of the world

  The optical storage industry is one of the most important lifelines of the photoelectrical industry of Taiwan. Its output accounted for more than 75% of the global output, the highest percentage in the world. Yet, owing to the inability to grasp technical research and development, in the past industry members had to pay huge sums of royalty to foreign disc makers. This disadvantage is soon about to change.

  The NTU nano optical storage research team has successfully developed a super-large capacity nano optical disc, with a storage capacity up to 150 GB, which is 30 times the capacity of current DVD discs. This is a major breakthrough in the optical recording technology, with amazing market values and economic effects. It opens up a brand new future for the domestic disc industries, freeing them from the need to pay large amounts of royalties to foreign disc makers. The market value of this new technology is estimated to exceed N.T. 100 billion.