A sweet convention took place on Sept. 9th, when NPUST and the Forestry Bureau invited bee experts and operators of under-forest community farms from across Taiwan to share information related to under-forest beekeeping and honey production. Some of those present included Shiyang Chang, Consultant of the Taiwan Beekeeping Association; Chih-Tsung Wang, Director of Fengshen Organic Bee Farm; Yu-Wen Chen, distinguished professor of Yilan University; and Ben-Han Chen, researcher at the Miaoli Agricultural Research and Extension Station.

During the summer vacation (8/4), the NPUST Smart Media Research Center held teacher training for teachers at Linghe Elementary School in Tainan. With focus given to “computational thinking” the team put together the “Robot Maker Classroom” to train the teachers from the rural the elementary school how incorporate robots into their teaching plans and implement “maker education”.

Abbot Yong Yan and a number of other representatives of Fo Guang Shan visited the campus on August 11th to present the school with a“Smart Epidemic Prevention Gate”, a generous donation given inconsideration of student health. The delegation, also included Lecture Hall Supervisor Shizai Hsu, Supervisor Suli Jiang, and Lecturer Hsiangtan Zhuang Yue, each of whom wishes health and safety to the students and faculty in the upcoming semester.

National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) has added a new element to its efforts in sustainable development research: On August 4th and 5th, the university’s College of Agriculture and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) linked up with Japan for the “Taiwan-Japan Online Seminar for Smart and Circular Agriculture”. The seminar was opened with a speech made by Mr. Huang Hsin-Chien, the executive director of the central branch of the ITRI. Following this, NPUST President Chang-Hsien Tai, welcomed all the distinguished guests from industry, government and academia and thanked them for their contributions to sustainable development. The Pingtung County magistrate, Mr. Pan Men-An, and the Director of the Economic Section of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, Mr. Nobuyuki Shikasho, were also invited to speak. Hopes are that through the cooperation of industrial, academic, and research organizations in Taiwan and Japan, new applications of Smart technology will be used to help achieve Circular and zero-carbon production. The seminar attracted over 300 online participants.

A workshop on Taiwan’s grass owls was organized under the “Gao-Ping Area Ecological Blueprint Construction Project”, bringing together the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) Department of Forestry, the Pingtung Forest Management Office, Guansheng Ecological Co., Ltd., and many other interested parties.