The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is to establish a new division in Israel to draw on that nation’s technological innovations and business models, a ministry official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.
The ministry has 16 overseas technology divisions that work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taiwan’s representative offices abroad.
Israeli research on artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and biomedical technology are robust, and businesses in Israel are experienced at developing new business models to turn technological achievements into marketable products, the official said.
“Taiwan and Israel are very similar — both are densely populated and have limited resources,” the official said, adding that Taiwan can learn from Israel about using a minimum of resources to achieve the greatest technological innovations.
With the new division expected to be officially set up by June, MOST intends to send Taiwanese talent to work at Israeli enterprises through its “Learn, Explore, Aspire, Pioneer” program, which has sent people aged 40 and younger to Silicon Valley and France for internships of between six and 12 months, the official said.
In other news, the nation’s participation in last month’s trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, was fruitful, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Hsu Yu-chin (許有進) said yesterday.
At the trade show, the ministry led 32 start-up teams in exhibiting AI and Internet of Things technologies, “smart” wearables, and applications in “smart” biotechnology, “smart” medicine, virtual reality and augmented reality.
The start-up teams received purchase orders totaling US$600,000, with potential collaboration and investment expected to total in the millions of dollars, he said.
Before the show, Robotelf Technologies Co was awarded the Robotics and Drones Innovation Award for its home security robot, while iXensor Inc won one of the Best of Baby Tech Awards with its Eveline Smart Fertility System during the show, he said.
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Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the