Introduction
Introduction
Mission Statement
Kaohsiung and Pingtung are the key regions for petroleum and manufacturing industries. These regions have been continually providing important petrochemical, steel, plastic and industrial materials in Taiwan for decades. To face the challenging tasks of upgrading traditional industries into high-tech industries and innovating emerging technologies such as nanotechnology and optoelectronics, Southern Taiwan Science Park and Kaohsiung Science Park were established by the government to meet the challenges. And these technological challenges have created a high demand for qualified engineering graduates. Thus, the Department’s undergraduate and master degree program was established in 2004 and 2007 respectively to meet these challenges.
The Department uniquely integrates chemical engineering and materials engineering into an interdisciplinary program. High-tech industries such as semiconductors, electronics, optoelectronics, nanocomposites, biotechnology, and energy, etc, demand a large number of talented engineers possessing both chemical engineering and materials science training. However, traditional chemical engineering departments prepare their students with training in chemical synthesis, unit operations, and process design, but not much into materials science; on the other hand, traditional materials engineering departments prepare students with structure, basic theory, characterization, and applications of material sciences, not much into chemical engineering related knowledge.
Therefore, the Department integrates traditional chemical engineering and materials engineering into a combined chemical and materials engineering department to meet the growing demand for highly qualified engineers in the high-tech sector. The Department cultivates students with a liberal arts education and provides a vigorous education to prepare students for fulfilling professional lives, participation in lifelong learning, development of emerging technology, and becoming tomorrow’s technology leaders. Outside of teaching, the Department aims to expand and advance the frontiers of technology through research and innovations to provide the highly skilled engineers and researchers necessary to meet the demand for talent of Taiwan’s technological development and beyond.