The Department of Information Management of TKU will participate in the “Challenge Cup” National Competition of Chinese College Students in Extracurricular Academic and Scientific Achievements, held in China this November. The competition is widely known as the Olympic games for the Chinese students on information technology field. The team from TKU will be the only team that is consisted of cross-straits students, as TKU’s Information Management Department has teamed up with the College of Software, Nankai University in Tianjin this August. Other contestants of the competition include several famous academies, such as Taiwan University, Peking University, and Tsinghau University in Beijing.

The chair of the department Shaw Reuy-shiang said the department has started to work with the Nankai University since this May. The cooperation began by exchanging e-mails to discuss the topic for the coming project. In August, Shaw led 7 graduate students to Tianjin for face-to-face communication with the Chinese professors and students. The developing groups is divided into two teams, one aims at developing a video and audio platform entitled, “MyChannel,” and the other to develop a robot with facial expressions.

“MyChannel,” under the advice of Director-in-Chief of the Information Center Huang Ming-ta, is a simulation on television channel management. It aims at allowing customers to upload their own videos to the channel, which mark a difference between other online media platform. “Robot with Facial Expressions” is under the guidance of Dr. Xing Shusong, a professor in College of Software, Nankai University. In this project, a normal robot is incorporated with an instant message software with the functions of gesture, emotional expressions, to add more fun to online chatting. Shaw said that it is quite difficult to work on this project since both Taiwanese team and Chinese counterpart have to overcome cultural, educational and other gaps to make a unified team. While the participating students said it was a great opportunity to work with Chinese students. Lo Chiao-yu, a junior in the Department of Information Management, said, “I can learn a lot more than knowing how the Chinese students study!” ( ~Shu-chun Yen )