Inauguration Ceremony of the New COE Building at NTU

On September 28, 2022, the College of Engineering (COE) at National Taiwan University held the Inauguration Ceremony of the New COE Building. The event was attended by NTU President Dr. Chung-Ming KUAN and COE Dean Dr. Wen-Chang CHEN, who invited distinguished guests from other NTU units and the primary donors, such as the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation, to jointly celebrate the completion of the majestic New COE Building, which took a total of 30 years from the planning phase to completion. During the event, a solemn unveiling ceremony was also held for the naming of Cheng-Chih International Lecture Hall, the statue of Mr. Cheng-Chih TSUNG, and the commemorative nameplate of the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation, which officially started an important new chapter for the COE.

Group photo of (from left to right) Gary KUO, Chair of APEX SCIENCE & ENGINEERING CORP. and CHANG JI CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD.; COE Dean Dr. Wen-Chang CHEN; NTU President Dr. Chung-Ming KUAN; Hsu-Shun TSUNG, Chair of the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation; former NTU President Dr. Si-Chen LEE; and Yuan-Lian TSAI, Architect at EDS International, taken at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the completion of the New COE Building.

 

Group photo of (from left to right) COE Dean Dr. Wen-Chang CHEN; NTU President Dr. Chung-Ming KUAN; former NTU President Dr. Si-Chen LEE; and Nancy TSUNG (Director) and Hsu-Shun TSUNG (Chair) of the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation with family members, taken after the naming of Cheng-Chih International Lecture Hall and the unveiling ceremony of the commemorative bronze statue of Mr. Cheng-Chih TSUNG at the New COE Building.

 

Group photo of (from left to right) Architect Yuan-Lian TSAI; Chair Gary KUO; Dr. Pei-Chun LIN, Chair of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; Dr. Yee CHAO, Director of the Dept. of Oncology at Taipei Veterans General Hospital; Chair Hsu-Shun TSUNG; COE Dean Dr. Wen-Chang CHEN; and Director Nancy TSUNG with family members, taken after the unveiling ceremony of the commemorative nameplate of the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation.

The recently-completed New College of Engineering Building (hereinafter referred to as the “New COE Building”) is located at the heart of NTU Main Campus, directly facing the First Student Activity Center. Since 1990 when the official planning was initiated, the project has faced many challenges in terms of space and funding. However, with the efforts of successive NTU Presidents and COE Deans, a complete plan was achieved in the end. With the subsidies approved by the Ministry of Education and the generous donations made by the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation for many years, the project was put out to contract in 2017 and finally broke ground in the next year (2018). The New COE Building was designed by EDS International and constructed by CHANG JI CONSTRUCTION and APEX SCIENCE & ENGINEERING CORP. After a four-year construction period, the building successfully obtained a license for use in July 2022. The total construction area is more than 3,300 square meters, and the floor area is almost 20,000 square meters. The New COE Building will serve as the work/research space for the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering in the future, and its designs showcase the representative characteristics of various eras. For example, under the standard design of green buildings, the New COE Building not only has high-wattage solar panels installed, but also is equipped with a rainwater recycling and reuse system. In addition, the international lecture hall, which extends to the basement floor, utilizes the lighting from adjacent open areas to allow natural light into every corner of the lecture hall to save energy use.

NTU President Dr. Chung-Ming KUAN said in his speech that the NTU COE has been one of the best-performing colleges at NTU for a long time and that the University fully supports the new projects of the COE in all aspects. With more work/research space in the future, the COE will make more outstanding accomplishments and achieve greater excellence. COE Dean Dr. Wen-Chang CHEN also said in his speech that the New COE Building would provide sufficient space for the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, and that other COE units which are currently not located in the (Old) COE Building can also be relocated to the (Old) COE Building in the future so that the COE can form a closer cluster; this can makemaking it more convenient for all units to cooperate horizontally and conduct cross-disciplinary work.

Chair Hsu-Shun TSUNG of the principal donor, the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation, brought the entire family to the event and participated in the inauguration and unveiling ceremonies with Dr. Yee CHAO (on behalf of CEO Hsu-Li TSUNG) and Director Nancy TSUNG of the Foundation. The commemorative installations unveiled are located on the first floor of the New COE Building, allowing faculty members and students to cherish the Foundation’s contribution to NTU. In his speech, Chair Hsu-Shun TSUNG mentioned that his father, former Chair Cheng-Chih TSUNG, always had a deep affection for NTU since he graduated from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, and that the Foundation was more than happy to contribute to higher education in Taiwan.

Dr. Si-Chen LEE from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, who actively promoted this project during his term as NTU President, told the guests about the challenges for the New COE Building project and that many difficulties were overcome along the way for the inauguration ceremony to take place. Architect Yuan-Lian TSAI of EDS International and Chair Gary KUO of CHANG JI CONSTRUCTION also related that NTU buildings must be of first-class quality because the expectations and requirements of all parties are particularly high and that they have gone all out to achieve the best results.

After a simple yet solemn unveiling ceremony of the bronze statue and nameplate, the representatives of EDS International took all the guests on a tour of the New COE Building. The guests were all deeply impressed by the coexistence of old and new buildings on NTU campus and the fact that the architect team of the New COE Building was willing to reduce the building volume and incorporate eco-friendly designs in order to preserve the historical “Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Building” built when Taiwan was under Japanese rule and to protect the trees in the surrounding areas. It is believed that, with the facilitation of space capacity, the COE will continue to pursue excellence and strive to become one of the world’s top engineering research units in the future.