3. Welcome and Congratulations
• We welcome you to the Taiwan AI Academy
(AIA)
• We congratulate you for having passed the
entrance exam
– I know this may not be easy for some of you,
especially for those who have been out from school
for some years
• More importantly, I congratulate you for having
earned this unique three-month study
opportunity to advance yourselves in thi
important field of AI
– This is especially significant at this time when AI has
begun to change every aspect of our life and our
society
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4. Some Background About AIA
• In 2017 I took a 6-month sabbatical from Harvard
to visit Taiwan, staying mainly in Hsinchu
• To get understand of potential use of AI in
Taiwan's industry, I visited about 20 companies,
mostly with CEO Chen
• Many of these companies expressed their strong
interest in exploring the AI opportunity. They
needed a deep understanding of how AI can
help their business, but this assessment is
difficult for many of them
• We initiated Project Theta to work with a dozen
of companies, and had success with most of them
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5. A Lesson Learned:
Local Talent Development Is Ergent
• We need both engineers for AI system and
application development as well as managers
who can manage and support AI projects
• 10,000 companies in Taiwan @ 10 each -->
100,000 such people needed
• We must nurture most of them locally in
Taiwan, given the global war for AI talent and
short-term nature of the AI opportunity
• It is clear that we need some new human
resource development systems to meet talent
demands
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6. Taiwan's Competitive Advantages
• Ownership of unique data in some important
areas such as manufacturing and healthcare. We
have interesting data to work with
• Visionary leadership in industry and government.
They understand the importance of AI and are
willing to commit resources
• Extremely efficient communication (physical and
cyber) and networking among professionals
• And people like you, who are willing to take extra
step to be contributors to this new technology
opportunity for Taiwan
WE CAN DO IT!
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7. About AIA
• First class started in January 2018 and graduated in April
2018
• We are here today to celebrate the beginning of a new
class
• Sponsored by Foundations and supported by many friends,
AIA has flexible programs to meet industry's need
• We focus on real-world AI applications, and we operate in
campuses in the vicinity of major industrial centers of
Taiwan
• Thanks to sponsors, AIA students have access to nice
environments and state-of-the-art equipment
• Thanks to enthusiastic teaching and lab staff, AIA have
opportunities to work on real-world problems
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8. Set Your Objectives for Three Months at AIA
• A three-month time is long enough to do
something substantial and also short enough
for to set up realistic expectation
– Note companies often use quarterly milestones
• You should have concrete objectives for your
three months at AIA
• If you don't have them yet, formulate come in
the coming week
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9. Some Example Objectives
• Learn how CNN works
• Learn machine learning framework skills such
as Tensor Flow, Caffe and Keras
• Do a project which you always wanted to do
(this is a cost-effective way of getting real
experience)
• Meet some new friends for inspiration and
collaboration
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10. In August 2018, When You Graduate from AIA ...
• You can clearly state what you have accomplished in
three months
• Your employers will consider highly of your experience
at AIA
• You will be one of the first in your organization and
community who turn potential benefits of AI into
reality
• Your family will understand the reasons for your hard
work at ATA, and feel proud of you
• You will be able to keep up this fast moving field in the
foreseeable future on exciting topics such as edge AI,
distributed AI, and privacy/security, AI chips, etc.
• You will look forward to joining the AIA alumni
networks
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11. Last But Not Least, I Want to Thank …
最後我想感謝 ...
許許多多幫助／支持我們的好朋友們
• 主辦:
– 財團法人科技生態發展公益基金會
– 台灣資料科學協會
• 執行:
– 委託財團法人人工智慧科技基金會
• 協助:
– 中央研究院資訊科學研究所
– 中央研究院資訊科技創新研究中心
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