NTU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics Officially Launched

The opening ceremony for the NTU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics (AI.ROBO) was held along with a cross-disciplinary conference on April 30. The ceremony was attended by Director-General Hsiu-Ya Yang (楊琇雅) of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Foresight and Innovation Policies, NTU Interim President Tei-Wei Kuo (郭大維), professionals from industry, and faculty and students on campus.

In his address, Interim President Kuo noted that artificial intelligence (AI) technology has attracted enthusiastic attention and investment worldwide since its rise in the 1950s. The application of AI has extended to various fields, such as medical care, elderly care, disease prediction, and precision medicine. For example, with AI technology, we can develop smart robots to provide daily life assistance for older adults in their homes or elderly care facilities, thus relieving the burden of the aging society on the younger generation.

In recent years, the emergence of the concept of “brain-like AI” has drawn much attention, as well. In particular, the development of “deep learning” and the related innovations have dramatically changed our lifestyle, business models, and the future of manufacturing engineering. Therefore, countries worldwide have formulated specific plans for developing brain-like AI technologies, as well as listed AI and robotics as their key areas for development.

NTU boasts a friendly and encouraging environment for research and academia–industry cooperation, providing a solid foundation for integrating resources across disciplines to facilitate the R&D of AI and robotics. To foster the research capacity in this field, Prof. Li-Chen Fu (傅立成) initiated the AI.ROBO Center as a collaboration platform for scholars and researchers interested in AI-related theories, applications, or robotics.