On June 5 NTHU’s commencement ceremony was held in the University Auditorium, which was packed to capacity with both students and their parents. Amongst the graduates was one from Malaysia who began saving money when he started his freshman year for their plane tickets so that his parents could come to his anticipated graduation. .

 

Soon after entering NTHU’s Department of Economics, Kee Zhen-shun began working part-time in hopes that by the time he graduated he would have saved enough money to buy plane tickets for his parents so that they could attend the ceremony. Kee stated, “For a long time I’ve been looking forward to giving my parents the chance to experience their son’s university life at NTHU.” It was only at the beginning of this year that he was finally able to purchase the air tickets, and since then he had been happily looking forward to their arrival. It turned out his graduation was a big event for his entire family. In addition to his parents, his grand-parents also made the trip to celebrate his graduation.

 

In his commencement speech, NTHU President Hong Hocheng said, “An accomplished scholar is not a utensil,” a quote from the Confucian Analects meaning that a truly learned person’s ability is not confined to any one thing. This was a way of encouraging the graduating students to avoid being hampered by self-limitations, and encouraging them to continue cultivating their abilities and broaden their mind. President Hocheng also urged the graduates to set high goals for themselves, to actively explore the world, and to always be open to learning from others, regardless of their age, ethnicity, or socio-economic status.

 

Alumnus Liu Jong-min, President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), delivered an address in which he stated that, rather than repeating the cliché “think globally, act locally,” he would like to encourage the new graduates to “think locally, act globally.”

 

To explain his view, Liu presented two examples from his experience at ITRI. First, he described how over the course of a few short years the highly polluting vehicles used at the Xiluo Produce Market in Yunlin County were completely replaced by electric ones, and that this same technology could be introduced to other countries where air and noise pollution are still a major problem, such as India.

 

In his second example, Liu described how a prosthetic device—something like the powered suit of armor in the film Iron Man—was invented in Taiwan to help a paralyzed doctor stand up, and is now being developed in the USA to assist injured soldiers. With these examples, he encouraged the new graduates to be leaders rather than followers—to find meaningful problems, solve them by applying what they learned at NTHU, and then find ways to adapt the same solution in other parts of the world.

 

Afterwards, an address titled “My Teacher” was delivered by NTHU alumnus Kuo Way, the current President and Distinguished Professor of the City University of Hong Kong. Stressing the importance of teachers, Kuo said that we meet all sorts of different people in life. Everyone knows that we should learn from a good teacher; but, not everyone knows that even if we meet someone who’s not so good, we can still “learn” from them by avoiding repeating their mistakes. He also wished the new graduates the best of luck in finding a teacher capable of expanding their mind and setting them on the path of lifelong learning.

 

Representative of the graduating graduate students Huang Jing-yi of the Department of Power and Mechanical Engineering gave an address in which she reflected on her six years at NTHU. She stated that there were good times, tough times, and times when she wondered if she would ever finally graduate, but she believes that as long as one is studying something one a passion for, then things will eventually turn out well as in her own case. She also stated that despite the career benefits of being a graduate of a prestigious university like NTHU, what really matters for her is the conscientious, practical, and persevering attitude towards research she has learned during her time at NTHU.

 

Representing the graduating undergraduate students Wang Yi-ning of the Department of Foreign Languages gave an address in which she stated that one of the most important things she learned at NTHU is how to maintain an open-minded outlook toward the world. She also said that all the learning and experience she gained at NTHU makes her feel as though she is standing on the shoulders of a giant, gazing far into the future. She also encouraged all the new graduates, wherever their lives may take them, to be sure to live up to their highest ideals.

 

During the ceremony the Mei Yiqi Memorial Medal—NTHU’s highest academic honor—was awarded to six outstanding undergraduates: Chang Bao-sheng of the Department of Life Science, Bashir Bastien of the Department of Economics, Cheng Chi-shun of the Department of Chemistry, Chang Jer-rong of the Department of Engineering and System Science, Chen Ya-shin of the Department of Quantitative Finance, and Wang Chun-ping of the Department of Power and Mechanical Engineering. Bashir Bastien is from Haiti and is the second foreign student to ever receive the Mei Yi-qi Memorial Medal.

 

This year NTHU awarded 1,780 bachelor’s degrees, 1,800 master’s degrees, and 313 doctorates.