The Foreign Languages and Literature Department (FLLD) seeks to engage with the social and technological changes taking place in contemporary Taiwan and equip itself better to meet the ongoing challenges of student recruitment, faculty development, and government accreditation. To this purpose, we propose an AI and Computational Language and Linguistics Development Project to be implemented by a small team comprising the Department Chair, three language and linguistics teachers, and one composition and literature teacher.
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literature has a large number of alumni working as Marketing Communication Managers, Public Relations Managers, International Sales Representatives, Sales Supervisors, Interpreters/Translators, and other positions in IT and other High-Tech companies in Taiwan and overseas. These include:
Ms. Jennifer Hu: Sales Supervisor at Fivetech Technology
Ms. Sophia Hsu: based in HK; PR and Marketing with AI-related high-tech companies in HK and China.
Ms. Conny Cheng: Cultural Manager, Ubisoft, Berlin, Germany.
Ms. Huang Hsiao-feng: PM at Wistron (緯創資通); located in Munich, Germany.
Ms. Barbara Yu: Taiwan Country Manager, CEVA (a publicly listed semiconductor IP company, headquartered in Mountain View, CA).
Mr. Eugene Chen: HR Officer, Amazon Web Services, located in Seattle, WA.
Mr. Lawrence Wang: Senior Manager, Chicony International
Mr. Luke Hsu: Manager, Neihu Industrial Park (內湖科技園區) (formerly Strategic Alliance Manager at Corel)
Mr. Christopher Chen: Vice-President, Reallusion (manufacturer of iClone and Crazytalk software)
Mr. Kazuhisa Honda: Sales Manager at 智邦科技 (Accton Technology)
The above is but a brief sampling of the alumni who are employed in major national and international high tech, IPR, and creative culture-industry companies and many more examples could be listed. We have begun reaching out to some of these alumni and discussing with them the possibility of placing students in internships. We have no doubt whatsoever that we will, indeed, be able to place students with several of the above. Once the AI-related courses and related activities are initiated in the Department, we will proceed and sign MoUs with the selected partners.
We are also able to network and closely interact with the French Tech in Taiwan and, if necessary, French corporate giants such as Carrefour and Decathlon which are well represented in Taiwan. We may be able to place student interns in some of these companies as well
Problem Based Learning: AI and CL for Language Students This course aims to introduce students to AI and CL with the help of language and literature materials relevant to FLLD students; the main objective is to provide students with basic knowledge and have them undertake small group problem solving projects. Students will learn to leverage their present skills in language, linguistics and literature to brainstorm and solve simple to intermediary problems using learned AI and NLP theory and tools. Students will develop computational thinking and basic programming skills over the course of the semester. They will also be encouraged to use basic hardware platforms (for example, Raspberry Pi) for more creative projects.
