The already on-road operating electric bus (right), and the two-seater Taipei Tech electric car (left).

Two eco-friendly buses parked majestically within the gates of one of Asia’s greenest campus (ranked No. 2 in Asia for UI GreenMetric World University), the Taipei Tech campus. Probably unknown to the admirers of these two buses, Taipei Tech welcomed nine visitors from Fujian who signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) hoping to establish future cooperation with Taipei Tech on electric cars and how to go green.

To start off the visit, introductions were made and each of the nine representatives from Fujian was presented with a miniature lion printed from an advanced 3D printer by Professor Jia-Chang Wang of the Mechanical Engineering Department. The representatives of Taipei Tech at this meeting were Vice President Chii-Ruey Lin (林啟瑞), members of the Taipei Tech Elite Union, and representatives of major enterprises in association with Taipei Tech, such as Hi-Genius Power Inc. (海鉅能源股份有限公司). Evident to the visitors as they walked through the campus was the fact that Taipei Tech is a very green and eco-friendly campus. A video presentation excerpted from the Discovery Channel showed and explained Taipei Tech’s transformations. For example, working together with Professor Sergio Palleroni from the University of Texas, Architecture Professor Jen-Hui Tsai has built a bio-swale around the campus of Taipei Tech allowing a bit of nature to come back to the concrete city of Taipei. Following the video presentations, the visitors from Fujian were shown the strides that were made by Taipei Tech’s Department of Vehicle Engineering and enterprises working together on electric cars and lithium batteries.

Zhang Qiu, Deputy Director General of Fujian Provincial Department of Foreign Trade Economic Cooperation, expressed on behalf of all of the visitors their joy at having the chance to visit Taipei Tech even though their stay is very brief due to time constraints. He believed that it would most definitely be mutually beneficial for there to be future cooperation. Vice President Lin invited the Deputy Director General and the other visitors to visit his or any other professor’s laboratory to get an even deeper understanding of Taipei Tech. The meeting ended on a very hopeful note as Vice President Lin and the Deputy Director General exchanged gifts, and signed the memorandum of understanding amid camera flashes.