The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday marked the sixth anniversary of the American Innovation Center (AIC) and its reopening as it seeks more collaboration with Taiwanese partners in innovation in the post-COVID-19 era.
Located at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the AIC moved from a first-floor space to a second-floor office next to the Songyan Creative Hub.
Speaking through a prerecorded video at the center’s reopening ceremony, Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) said this year has been difficult for people and she expected the newly reopened center to create more possibilities by integrating the innovative energy of Taiwan and the US.
Photo: CNA
The first of its kind in Asia, the AIC was established in 2014 to promote the shared US-Taiwan values of innovation, entrepreneurship, digitalization, and culture and design by offering related programs to public audiences, AIT Deputy Director Raymond Greene said.
Over the past six years, more than 133,000 people attended more than 620 courses related to innovation and entrepreneurship, digitalization, culture and design, he said.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world, people are exploring innovative models for the post-pandemic era, Greene added.
A forum marking the AIC’s anniversary in the afternoon focused on cross-disciplinary innovation, especially on artificial intelligence, design, virtual reality and augmented reality development, and human-computer interaction, which was cohosted by National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, he said.
Thanking the AIC’s old partners, such as Microsoft Taiwan and IBM, Greene welcomed new partners including Kaohsiung-based makerspace provider M.Zone, the Service Science Society, the Pacific Service Design Association and the UX/UI Design Association.
The Songshan cultural park is central to the Taipei City Government’s “wall-less museum” concept that seeks to connect old and new spaces, Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun (蔡炳坤) said.
On one side of the park lies the National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, while on the other side is the Taipei Railway Workshop, which is to become a national railway museum under a Ministry of Culture project, he said.
With construction of the Taipei Dome expected to be completed in 2022, the neighborhood would become a new hub for cultural and sports events, and galvanize local tourism, he said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS