For Immediate Release August 24, 2020
J Ko, NTHU-NA Foundation Communication Committee
The Communication Committee of the NTHU-NA Foundation is delighted to share a heart-felt story about alumni helping a team of NTHU students fulfill their pursuits on an international stage, the 2019 IGEM Competition. In the spring of 2019, NTHU alumni volunteers at the NTHU-NA Foundation (1) learned that a team of undergraduate students were preparing for the 2019 IGEM Competition in the US. Their major sponsor unexpectedly withdrew support for 2019, meaning the students would not be able to compete. Dr. YN Chen (陳昱寧博士) Physics 74, currently an Honorary Board Director at the NTHU-NA Foundation immediately took on the challenge of finding new sponsors for the team.
Within a short time, Dr. Chen, with alumni collectively raised the initial 30% of the total cost for the students to compete in the US. These alumni gave the students a needed boost before other sponsors committed to the remaining funds.
True to our rich tradition at Tsinghua, alumni’s sponsorship also included mentoring the students for fundraising, project design of ideas, presenting proposals to potential sponsors and writing a thank you letter to sponsors post competition.
For their effort, the students received a Gold Award. Their project is Far Farm IA, Intelligent Agriculture in the Future Farm. They proposed to use automation to control agriculture and farming processes to alleviate global food shortages in the future. (2) (3) After the competition, the students shared their exciting, unforgettable experience in their thank you letter by Tzu-Yu) Chiang. (4
The alumni sponsors are:
· 葉仁杰 74 物理
· 陳昱寧 74 物理
· 賴文針 72 化學
· 施義成 76 材料
· 塗能光 74 物理
陳昱寧 made her contribution from the US through the NTHU-NA Foundation. Ailena Yin (尹秀蓮, EMBA11) from NTHU Department of University Development & Financial Planning received the funds from alumni in Taiwan and the NTHU-NA Foundation, before disbursing it to the School of Bioscience for the students’ expenditures.
NTHU Alumni Spotlight Interview (5) will feature陳昱寧at 2 PM (PST) on Sunday, September 6, 2020.
YN Chen, Chuping Huang, Kunshang Huang and Ailena Yin also contributed to this article.
Bright youngsters - from NTHU to MIT and back
(1)National Tsinghua University North America Foundation was formed in 2019 as an independent US foundation, operated by NTHU alumni volunteers in North America, to raise funds to help NTHU’s development and excellence. For details, visit https://www.nthu-na-foundation.org/ (2)Project overview, see https://2019.igem.org/Team:NTHU_Taiwan, and
(3) Students’ majors at NTHU: https://www.facebook.com/nthu.tw/posts/2681296375259707 (4) Students’ thank you letter in full
(5)NTHU Spotlight Interview is a newly established event hosted by the NTHU-NA Foundation Communication Committee. We feature prominent alumni for in-depth conversations on topics such as wisdom and life-experience, technical expertise, career development and advancement. Alumni can submit questions during registration and in real-time during the Q & A segment. To nominate alumni and topics for future interviews, contact:
Chuping Huang:chupinghuang@yahoo.com , and
Kunshang Huang:kunshan.huang@gmail.com