Seventh Asia Pacific Conference on Wind Engineering, co-held by Taiwan Association for Wind Engineering (TAWE) and TKU Wind Engineering Research Center (WERC), took place at the Grand Hotel, Taipei, from Nov. 8 to 12, in which more than 200 scholars in the wind engineering field from 19 countries presented 183 papers and 8 speeches. One German professor expressed that this was the best international seminar he has ever attended. Dr. Cheng Chi-ming, Director of WERC, indicated that the Conference was not only successful but also won many feedbacks and appreciation. He was really grateful to the staff that spares no effort to prepare and hold the conference.

Hosted by Dr. Cheng Chi-ming, the opening ceremony of the Conference invited Dr. Flora C.I. Chang, President of TKU, and Dr. Yu Gwo-hsing, Dean of College of Engineering, to give addresses. This Conference, held every four years, is the official academic event of International Association for Wind Engineering (IAWE). IAWE is divided into three regions: Asia Oceania region, Americas region, and Europe-Africa Region, and this year is Taiwan’s turn to hold the Conference. The participants include Professor Yukio Tamura, the President of IAWE, Professor Ahsan Kareem, the member directory of National Academy of Engineering, Professor Chun-Chieh Wu, the principal investigator of Priority Typhoon Research Project “Dropsonde Observation for Typhoon Surveillance near the Taiwan Region,” and many wind engineering scholars from other colleges and universities.

The Conference discussed many topics of diversified related fields. Apart from sharing the research results and application of wind engineering from European, American, and Asian regions, the papers also probed into the basic characteristics of wind fields, Theory of Bluff Body Aerodynamics, the application of environmental engineering and the assessment of disaster risk, etc. All the participating scholars had good and enthusiastic interaction in the meeting. In addition, the Conference also arranged a Taipei 101 tour for the attendees, who felt very exciting and happy when they saw the Pendulum Tuned Mass Damper atop Taipei 101 that they often read in the academic papers. ( ~Shu-chun Yen )