Pingtung County’s Mudan Township Office received approval from by the National Development Council to conduct local regeneration projects running from 2020 to 2024. With support of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (Ministry of Agriculture), and professional assistance from the NPUST Forestry Department’s Community Forestry Center, they are promoting local creative development under the theme of under-forest economies. These economic activities, which include under-forest chicken raising, mushroom cultivation, and beekeeping in the tribal mountain villages, have received enthusiastic responses and investments from villagers and are becoming an emerging featured industry in Mudan Township. Branch Director Jui-Fen Yang and Section Chief Hsien-Pin Hsu of the Pingtung Branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency were joined by NPUST Vice-President Weng-Ling Shih, Department of Forestry Director Yu-ting Wu, Forestry Professor Mei-Hui Chen, and Mudan Township Mayor Chuang-Chih at 10 a.m. on November 27 (2024) to publish the project results and hold a plaque unveiling for the Domestic Timber Workshop and Forest Biomass Energy Recycling Site in Dongyuan Village, Mudan Township. The event, which began with a traditional song performance by the Mudan Ancient Folksong Class, was attended by more than 90 local community partners, making for a lively scene.

NPUST was founded on agriculture science and has been continuously innovating in related areas of study for the past one hundred years. And now, in order to further promote “agricultural value-added” and “cross-field talent cultivation”, NPUST has built a Center for Technological Agriculture, which officially opened at 9:30 am on the school’s 100th anniversary, November 16, 2024. NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang, Director of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (Ministry of Agriculture) Jeng-Fang Huang, and Academia Sinica research fellows Chang-Hung Chou, Ching T. Hou, I Chiu Liao, and Gwo-Ching Chang jointly participated in the plaque unveiling.

Over the years, NPUST has played a pivotal role in Taiwan’s economic development at home and its technological agriculture contributions, internationally. This year (2024), in conjunction with the university’s 100th anniversary, NPUST specially arranged to host the International Conference on Sustainability together with the 2024 UNTA Annual Meeting on Nov 15 at the school’s International Conference Hall. The opening ceremony was presided over by NPUST’s President, Chin-Lung Chang, who thanked the participating scholars for coming to discuss the two themes of “Promoting Change through USR: Public Advocacy, Innovation and Welfare” and “Achieving a Sustainable Future: Innovative Application of Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture”. Guests from all over the world took part in the discussions and submitted papers on their latest research results. Also, during the 2024 UNTA Annual Meeting, a memorandum of cooperation was signed to provide members with a platform for exchanging the latest developments and challenges in the field of tropical agriculture.

The 12th Taiwan-Thailand Bilateral Conference was held on November 14 (2024) at the NPUST College of Agriculture, giving focus this year to research that extends “From Sustainable Agriculture to One Health”. The occasion for bilateral academic exchange between Taiwan and Thailand included the three major fields of agriculture, food science, and veterinary medicine, and a total of 53 academic papers were published. Meanwhile, efforts were made to promote more intense industry-university cooperation and talent cultivation between the two countries. The conference was jointly opened by NPUST Vice President Shang-Min Ma and Kasetsart University (KU) Special Assistant to the President, Dr. Kornsorn Srikulnath. Scholars, researchers and industry figures from Taiwan, Thailand, and other countries were invited to participate in the seminar and share ideas and opportunities related sustainable development and international cooperation.

Confronting the challenge of global climate change while simultaneously promoting ecological conservation and natural carbon sequestration, the NPUST Department of Forestry and the Ministry of Agriculture’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency jointly held the “2024 Tropical Forestry Symposium” at the NPUST Library and Exhibition Hall on November 8th with the aim of fostering relevant academic exchange. NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute Director Yen-Hsueh Tseng, Branch Director Jui-Fen Yang of the Pingtung Branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency and many other officials, experts, and scholars gathered together to discuss relevant research results, share their different perspectives, and propose new opportunities for cooperation.

Geared up to celebrate its 100th Anniversary Celebration in a few short months, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) was just named winner of the 2024 CommonWealth Magazine University Citizen Award, distinguishing itself as the champion among all public technical and vocational schools in the country in the area of USR. At the award ceremony, which was held on September 18th, NPUST President Chin-Lung Chang and Center of Interdisciplinary Feature Development Director Hsu-Yang Kung accepted the award on behalf of the school.