Vice President Lien Chan this morning received two key members of IBM's "Deep Blue" supercomputer development team--Dr. C. J. Tan and Dr. F. H. Hsu who are on a three-day visit to Taipei.
During their meeting, the Vice President said that high-tech industry is critical to the Republic of China's survival and future development. As Taiwan has a large talent pool, Taiwan will be able to keep a leading place in the increasingly competitive global market, he added.
Dr. Tan and Dr. Hsu, both came from Taiwan, have played a key role in developing "Deep Blue" supercomputer which won a victory over world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in May.
Vice President Lien expressed his hope that the two outstanding computer experts will visit Taiwan frequently in the future to counsel relevant public and private sectors on the future direction of science and technology development.
As the Vice President showed keen interest in the Deep Blue-Kasparov chess match, Dr. Tan and Dr. Hsu briefed him on the development of the smart supercomputer. The project is aimed at exploring how to resolve complex problems with parallel processing, and "Deep Blue", with the experience and skills acquired from chess games with Mr. Kasparov, will be used in meteorological, economic and medical studies and analysis to benefit the human beings as a whole, they said.
The duo were accompanied by Dr. Yang Shih-chien, ROC minister of state, to the Office of the President for the meeting. Also present was Mr. Huang Jeng-hsiung, deputy secretary-general of the Office of the President.