Department of Aerospace Engineering (DAE) will celebrate the 30th founding anniversary on March 29, 2003. The department will sponsor a series of activities including a gathering of the departmental alumni and their dependents and the aerospace week to demonstrate the achievement by the department in the past 30 years.

Chen Ching-hsiang, Chair of DAE, said that DAE would charter Chinese style palace classrooms on March 29 to have a gathering for the graduates of the department to recall their college days. DAE will also invite alumni’s dependents to visit the campus and to take part in a parent-kid activity. The alumni will also bring their works to take part in the DAE’s traditional activities—jet car and egg-throwing competitions to recall the happy past events.. More than 300 departmental alumni will take part in the celebration gathering where “Mr. Eugene Chien Scholarship” donated by Tai Der-ming, member of Kaohsiung City Council, and the “European Language Scholarship” donated by the departmental alumnus Lee Chia-yuan will be conferred in the meeting.

In addition to jet car and egg-throwing contest, water rocket, paper airplane and airplane throwing will add to the activities. A water rocket made of plastic will be lunched at 12:00 am, Thursday held at the Track-and-Field Ground. Paper airplane and airplane throwing contest will be held at the University Commons on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

An Airplane Manufacturing Centennial Exhibition will be held at the ground floor of the Engineering Building from today to Friday. King Kuo-ting, President of the Departmental Student Association, said that it has been 100 years since Wright Brother invented the airplane in 1903. Members of the association have drawn pictures of airplanes in the past 100 years on posters since last semester so as to let visitors understand the evolution of airplanes, including fighters used in World War I and World War II. Prof. Ma Der-ming will also exhibit his research work—“Airplane Circumstance Simulator”, a cockpit with six instrumental panels.

The display will also include those works winning award—“Evolution 20” which won third place in a contest sponsored by the Society of Aeronautic and Aerospace Engineering of the Republic of China and won second place in a contest sponsored by the Ministry of Education.