Unveiling and Opening Ceremony Held for "Bi-Zhen Hall",
the New Research and Cooperation Building for the Chu-Bei Branch of NTU

The unveiling ceremony was held on December 10th for the "Bi-Zhen Hall,"an academia/industry R&D building for the Chu-Bei branch of our university. This new building, which was named after the mother of the donor, Dr. Jane Hsiao, who donated N.T. 300 million for the construction project, will become a stronghold for bio-medical research and training in the future.

Dr. Jane Hsiao attended the ceremony with her father Mr. Sheu-Sen Hsu, her mother and her family. With a grateful heart, she thanked the cultivation of her parents and her alma mater, and hoped that the unveiling of the "Bi-Zhen Hall" would produce a catalytic effect, attracting more people to reciprocate our country and our society.

In making his speech, President of NTU Dr. Si-chen Lee pointed out that the "Bi-Zhen Hall" represented the official and organized entry of NTU into the Hsin-Chu area. He said that in future developments NTU would coordinate with the Hsin-Chu Scientific Park by not only bringing in high tech research teams as the basis for academia/industry cooperation, but also closely cooperating with the local industry, especially in the area of bio-medicine. After the construction of the "Bi-Zhen Hall", there would be more construction projects under way, so that NTU would play an important role in the Hsin-Chu area and live up to the expectations of the local residents, the County Assembly, and the County Government, he said.

President Lee also emphasized that there were many people to thank for being able to construct such a good building, including Mr. Frank Huang, chairman of Power-chip Semiconductor Corporation, who was willing to come forward and organize the preparatory committee to begin with, and Dr. Nicky Lu, chairman of Etron Technology, as well as Mr. Hsiu-Kang Chang, chairman of Health Banks Biotech, Ltd., who donated money to support our research and expected an early realization of the construction project. Last but not the least, a word of thanks was due to Dr. Samuel Yen-Liang Yin, chairman of the Ruentex Group, whose pre-fabricated way of construction allowed the building to be completed in such a short time. President Lee also mentioned that, about two years ago, chairman Samuel Yen-Liang Ying donated a civil engineering building to NTU. The donation contract was signed on June 23rd, and on June 22nd of the following yea a special use permit was obtained from the governing authorities and the Civil Engineering Departmental people moved into the new building, setting a record for NTU. Now the construction of the "Bi-Zhen Hall" opened a new page of history for NTU, he said.

Hsin-Chu country magistrate Mr. Yong-Jin Zheng used "long awaited" to describe the expectations of the Hsin-Chu local residents for NTU. He believed that the construction of the new building would initiate the third trillion dollar enterprise for the Hsin-Chu area, and promote the prosperous development of Hsin-Chu as well. Following the NTU Chu-Bei branch school, the College of Hakka Culture of National Jiao-Tung University, the Hsin-Chu Bio-medical Science Park, the Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and the Flagship Park of Taiwan Knowledge Economy would come to settle in Hsin-Chu, whereby Hsin-Chu County's policy objectives of "science and technology, culture, and a college town" would be fully implemented, he said.

The "Bi-Zhen" academia/industry R& D Hall is the first architecture of the Chu-Bei branch school, to which the College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and the College of Life Science and other academic/industry experimental labs would soon move in, thereby greatly shortening the distance between the branch school and the NTU main campus, and opening up new initiatives for the future under frequent interaction.

The Chu-Bei branch school of NTU borders Chuang-Jin North Road in the east, extends to Chung-Shan Freeway in the west, borders the Hsin-Chu Staduim and Kuang-Ming 6 Road Section I in the south, and neighbors the residential area and the industrial area in the north. It has an total area of 35.7 hectares, including a building which has a basement and six stories above ground. Total floor area of the building is about 9200 square meters.