EDUCATION
Harvard inks grant deal
Taiwan and Harvard University have signed an agreement to send five Taiwanese doctoral students to the US school on full scholarships every year for the next five years, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. Starting from the next academic year, both sides would together select five Taiwanese doctoral students to attend the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the ministry said in a statement. The scholarships for up to four years would be covered by the ministry and Harvard, it said. The agreement is one of many signed with Harvard, the ministry said, adding that Taiwan now has doctorate scholarship agreements with 18 schools that are ranked in the top 100 worldwide.
CRIME
Gun workshop uncovered
A man on Thursday was arrested at a residence in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和) where an workshop for converting firearms was concealed, local authorities said. The man, surnamed Wu (吳), is suspected of contravening the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), police said. A converted handgun, a converted shotgun, 27 shotgun shells and other shells, as well as tools for converting firearms were seized, police said, adding that about 2.5 grams of heroin and 0.5 grams of amphetamine were also found. The Criminal Investigation Bureau raided the residence after receiving a tip-off, police added.
SOCIETY
Worker dies at sewage plant
The body of a man, who worked for a company contracted by the Taipei City Government to remove scum from sedimentation tanks at Dihua Sewage Treatment Plant, was retrieved on Sunday, about six hours after he fell into one of the clarifiers, the city’s Public Works Department said. The worker, surnamed Chang (張), fell into the clarifier as he was opening the tank lid at about 11am, it said. Firefighters were called immediately, while emergency measures were adopted including lowering the tank’s water level and using equipment to extract sludge from the tank. However, rescuers were unable to locate Chang until 5:10pm, the department said. An investigation is being launched to determine the cause of the incident, it added. The Taipei Labor Inspection Office said the sedimentation tank is 10m deep, but the contractor failed to provide its employees with secure safety belts, so it would be fined up to NT$300,000 for contravening occupational safety regulations.
EDUCATION
NTHU embracing AI
National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) has been incorporating generative artificial intelligence (AI) education in its humanities and social science courses, a school official said on Thursday. NTHU dean of academic affairs Wu Yung-hsien (巫勇賢) said generative AI courses were set up in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Education last semester. Five more courses are to be offered in fields such as cultural analysis, history research, law and policy this semester, Wu said. Although AI is likely to become ubiquitous, such technology would not be able to replace humanities students trained in people-oriented critical thinking, Wu said. To maintain competence as technology advances and society changes, humanities students must use AI tools to their advantage, he said. NTHU is the first university in Taiwan to create a team dedicated to generative AI.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its