Chen Chih-yang, a second-year PhD student in the Dept. of Computer Science and Information Engineering, has done exceedingly well in the“2007 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office” held this summer by Microsoft in Orlando, Florida, USA. After competing with the best candidates from various countries around the world, Chen won the third prize in the Excel category of the competition.

Before joining with the global contestants in America, Chen has already won the championship in “MOS Best National Competition” in Taiwan held by the Elite Information Technology Company this May. He later joined the international competition in July, representing our country. The contestants were from around the world ranging from Germany, Australia, Korea, Italy, Thailand, Japan, and China. Chen said he has met many friends of different countries by participating in the contest. Apart from sharing with them the techniques and ideas of using Excel, Chen disclosed that he also learned how other countries trained their contestants.

Chen revealed that since the game was held in America, all the questions were written in English, which has caused him extra time to digest the questions in comparison to other contestants from English-speaking countries. However, this is not a major problem to him. “I have accumulated enough experience in answering these questions,” Chen said. He also indicated that he was really excited because this was not only his first trip to go aboard, but also his first time to represent Taiwan competing in an international game. Chen felt that the trip has truly broadened his worldview. He wished that next year he will be able to participant in Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office, not as a contestant but as an instructor in training the next young player to win in the game. (~ Shu-chun Yen )