ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said he would like to see Taiwan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology work more closely together in the future for the advancement of science and progress.
“I’m optimistic that MIT would become tightly linked to Taiwan via research projects” Ma said, when receiving MIT President Susan Hockfield in the presidential office.
Ma also praised Hockfield for her contributions in the field of neuroscience and commended her for being the very first female to head the prestigious institution.
Ma noted that according to a survey conducted by the Kauffman Foundation, MIT graduates have established more than 25,800 companies worldwide, which employ more than 3.3 million people and generate annual revenues in excess of US$2 trillion. These numbers are a powerful testimony to some of the contributions that MIT has made to the world, Ma said.
Joking that MIT is sometimes taken to mean “Made in Taiwan,” Ma pointed out that many ties bind Taiwan with MIT. More than 70 students from Taiwan are currently pursuing either master’s or doctoral degrees at MIT, the president noted. He added that the current ministers of the Ministry of Economics and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications are MIT graduates.
Through an exchange known as the T-party program, Ma observed, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT has worked closely in recent years with National Taiwan University and National Chiao Tung University.
“We hope that such fruitful exchanges between Taiwan and MIT can continue to thrive in the years ahead,” Ma said.
Also present during the meeting were Wu Ching-ji, minister of Education; Lee Lou-chuang, minister of the National Science Council; and Barry Lam, chairman of the board of Quanta Computer Inc. (KP-HZW)