The Google company collaborates with NYCU for university-industry cooperation agreements, followed by more bilateral workshops, courses, talent exchanges, and more, highlighting a new era of international connections for the university and the field of photonics in Taiwan.
Metaverse is a rising future trend that cannot be ignored. To cultivate more XR talents, the Google company, which has long been putting efforts into Taiwan, has seen the potential of diversity in National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) and has made further collaborations recently by signing the contract of Google Academic/Industry Affiliation Program with the university for nurturing extended reality (XR) talents together. Under the framework of this academic cooperation, both parties of the program seek to build a closer connection regarding international collaborations, enabling XR technology to take root and grow in Taiwan.
Google Academic/Industry Affiliation Program is a collaborative project for the company to gather the world’s leading research-oriented universities together for future R&D needs. Under this Program, the Google company will begin its collaborations with professors and students of NYCU, including academic research, university-industry cooperation projects, and bilateral cooperation meetings. The agreement framework for this academic cooperation will explore the possibility of collaborative activities, the exchange of academic staff with graduate students, and the use of academic research, scientific information, and research equipment. The two parties will also conduct joint research projects and sign a separate agreement on university-industry cooperation.
Dr. Bernard Kress, the director of Google XR hardware and the president of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) in 2023, visited NYCU and signed the contract on behalf of Google headquarters in California, USA. He also awarded Prof. Yi-Hsin Lin, the Tin Ka-Ping Photonics Center director, the Google Gift award. The award acknowledges Prof. Lin’s research on optical zoom lenses, the work of the team, and the courses given by the center, all of which align with Google’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. It is also an encouragement for Prof. Lin to set up more photonics-related courses in the future for the continuous cultivation of diversified talents in the field of photonics.
As the only university in Taiwan participating in this program, NYCU has invested in Extended Reality for a long time with remarkable results. For example, the Foresight Intelligent Interactive Reality Display Technology Project, which the National Science and Technology Council subsidizes, focuses on developing vital photonic components and hardware-software integration that may serve as the terminal technology to enter Extended Reality. NYCU has also been educating students since their college academic years to develop their own forward-looking R&D capabilities. As a result, the photonic talents are all playing key leadership roles in related industries worldwide. This is one of the main reasons why Google is willing to cooperate further with NYCU.
According to Prof. Yi-Hsin Lin, the Department of Photonics and the Tin Ka-Ping Photonics Center members will continue to work closely with domestic and international technology majors, including Google, Facebook (Meta), Nikon, Essilor, Coopervision, GIS, Innolux, Brogent, Wistron, etc. The collaborations with these companies focus on developing XR technologies, such as liquid crystal glasses, semiconductor transistors, microLEDs, AR/VR displays, fingerprint recognition, 3D sensing, large screen optics, vertical surface emitting laser, fiber-optic communication, laser epitaxy, etc. The Tin Ka-Ping Photonics Center’s forward-looking R&D achievements have also become the footstone of photonics technology development in Taiwan and abroad.
Associate Professor Li-Yin Chen, also the Deputy Director of the Photonics Center, stated that the alliance program with Google would help members of the Center to cultivate more forward-looking photonics professionals through highly intensive international cooperation.
Based on the strong R&D capabilities and achievements of NYCU, the Tin Ka-Ping Photonics Center will continue to collect the research energy of the university and collaborate with the industry to build XR and photonics technologies for the next generations.
