Those who do not have a science or engineering background need not despair, as they will have an opportunity to work in the electronic sector if they participate in the ‘System on Chip’ courses run by TKU. These courses will create talents that are equipped with a multidisciplinary repertoire in semi-conductor applications. These people will be in high demand once they graduate from these courses, which emerged from the government concerns over Taiwan’s semi-conductor manufacturing industry. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has requested, including TKU, 6 universities to run similar courses.

These six universities, apart from TKU, are National Taiwan University, National Chin Hwa University, Chiao Tung University, Cheng Kung University, and Sun Yat-sen University. TKU is the only private one among them, and the first to complete the course design that will be offered to the public.

The organizer of these courses is TKU’s College of Management. It’s Dean, Chen Ding-guo points out that their program will begin in September this year offering courses ranging from IC Design, Nature of Chips, to Management, Law, Accounting and Marketing. The professor, Chang Zhao-Hsiang from the Department of Information Management, who designed these integrated courses meticulously, took great care in the contents of the program as well as the timing. He made sure that TKU was the first institute to be approved and funded by MOE. He firmly believes that a program such as “System on Chip” will not only train talents who can participate in the government’s 2008 Gemini Project, but also enhance the overall employability of the attendees. He encourages all students with background in Management, Science, Engineering and Software Design to join, or any sophomores, juniors and graduate students from related fields to apply.

To complete this program, students will need to fulfil the requirement of 24 credits. There are 145 places open for application for the first year and there will not be any extra fees for exceeded credits. Those who are interested, please go to B307 to apply in person. For further details, log in to http://www.soc.im.tku.ed.tw.