Creating New Value By Doing Academic Research and Venturing for the Contribution to the Society: NTU Start-Up Day Shines

A big event has just been held in National Taiwan University to promote the spirit of venture in the university. The founders of NTU Start-Up Day, who are also NTU graduates, hope to launch this event to make a connection to the industries and to encourage NTU students to venture their own businesses for a better social responsibility and a stronger international perspective by doing contribution to the society in Taiwan to promote the value of academic research by venturing businesses.

NTU President, Si-Chen Lee, and the chairman of Quanta Computer Inc., Barry Lam, founded NTU Start-Up Day by holding a big event of the academy for honorary members on March 4th, 2012. They signed the declaration of NTU Start-Up Day for venture and past the torch during the rituals in the ceremony. The guest attendants were from corporations and industries, including the vice executive of Epoch Foundation, the CEO of Amtran, the CEO of Bionet, the CEO of G1.com, the CEO of Etron Technology, the CEO of CyberLink, the CEO of Id Soft Capital, and the CEO of Medigen Biotechnology Corp.

NTU President, Si-Chen Lee, hopes that universities can be firmly connected to corporations and expects that there will be another Facebook founder from universities in Taiwan. President Lee noted that universities are supposedly responsible for education, academic research and social service. As one of the top universities around the world, National Taiwan University is currently in the situation of academic research without the breakthrough creating productive values to corporations and industries. NTU President encouraged NTU students work on venture at campus during their college years for a better connection to corporations. It is only a first step founding NTU Start-Up Day for more opportunities of venture in a hope of the academic value combined with the productive value in industries.

Tracing back to the history of education, President Lee pointed out that the first official university was set up in Egypt, where they focused on the cultural heritage and education, which has been the same and the ultimate goal over the past 1000 years among universities around the world. With the movement and the development of science, academic research has been a target task in universities since the 21st century. As one of the top universities around the world, National Taiwan University is currently in the situation of academic research without the breakthrough creating productive values to corporations and industries. NTU President encouraged NTU students work on venture at campus during their college years for a better connection to corporations. It is only a first step founding NTU Start-Up Day for more opportunities of venture in a hope of the academic value combined with the productive value in industries.

Professor Liang-Gee Chen, who’s in charge of founding NTU Start-Up Day, agrees that universities view academic research though a simpler perspective without making much connection to corporations with great values; hence, they founded this association in a hope of making a connection to hatch fund companies by inviting them to evaluate the school teams’ performance of venture attempt.

The CEO and the founder of Quanta Computer Inc., Barry Lam, shared his personal experiences of venture by pointing out that National Taiwan University will definitely be competitive in the world with its great advantages of investors waiting ahead of, just like the similar condition of Stanford and MIT. He encouraged NTU students to make a good use of what they’ve received from their well-educated background, working on their venture with the support from the NTU graduates from corporations. Barry Lam stated that it’s transitional age transforming from semi-con to IT, proving Google and Facebook are absolutely the two role models in this industry. He encouraged NTU students to do something innovative and dare to take risks and think big.

The founders of NTU Start-Up Day, who are also NTU graduates, hope to launch this event to make a connection to the industries and to encourage NTU students to venture their own businesses for a better social responsibility and a stronger international perspective by doing contribution to the society in Taiwan to promote the value of academic research by venturing businesses.