Dr. Lucia Lin (林思伶), Political Deputy Minister of Education;
Dr. Lin Jung-Yaw (林榮耀), member of Academia Sinica;
Dr. Chu Nan-Shyan (朱楠賢), Director of the National Taiwan Science Education Center;
Honored guests;
Students and teacher advisors;
Ladies and gentlemen:
Good afternoon!
I’m very happy to be here today with you, joining almost 500 students and teacher advisors from Taiwan and abroad. The government of the Republic of China, holds these science fairs because we hope that healthy competition will help students develop a broader vision. We also hope that sharing the results of their research will give students an opportunity to interact with young scientists from all over the world.
Thanks to the continued efforts of the National Taiwan Science Education Center, over the past few years the Taiwan International Science Fair has seen an increase in both the number of countries represented, and the total number of projects submitted. And the projects themselves keep getting better every year. As in years past, this year’s winners and their projects will be representing the Republic of China, Taiwan, at important youth science fairs in places like the United States and Holland, with a chance to make their country proud.
Every year, Taiwan participates in the world’s largest science competition for junior high school and high school students—the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the United States. And since 1982, we’ve been quite successful, with 132 projects and 156 students winning awards. Last year, we sent 12 representatives, and garnered 12 awards in a truly outstanding overall performance.
But as we all know, in any competition, there are some winners, and some losers. So before this afternoon is over, some of you may be asked to come up on stage, and receive an award. And some of you may be asked to go back to the drawing board, and keep on trying. But whatever the results may be, I believe that participating in this science fair will become an experience that you’ll treasure for the rest of your life. In the past, participating in the science fair has helped many students find their direction in life.
One such example is a science fair alumnus, Mr. Ben Jai (翟本喬), the founder of Hope Bay Technologies. After working at Google, Mr. Jai returned to Taiwan to start a business. Then just last month, given his deep understanding of Internet technology and current trends, Mr. Jai was invited to the Executive Yuan to share his knowledge and experience with government ministers and administrative officials.
Another good example is Ms. Hung Yu (洪瑀), a female student whose outstanding performance at a science fair led to her enrollment at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Well, she’s “MIT”—“Made in Taiwan.” Ms. Hung also has an asteroid named after her, using her English name: Jacqueline Hung!
I’m also quite pleased to see that there are numerous vocational high school students participating in this year’s fair. The organizers have informed me that the first vocational high school student to win a science fair award, Mr. Lin Zuo-yi (林祚儀) is now an executive at a high-tech company. Mr. Lin once said, “If I had not participated in the international science fair, I probably wouldn’t have continued my studies after vocational school. And I would never have had a chance to design machinery.”
It was really quite touching to hear him say that. It shows that our science fairs really do empower young people, inspiring them to think about the future, and helping them to find a direction in life.
I basically feel that participating in a science fair means much more than just taking part in a competition. It’s more important to use the science competition process to seek and discover problems, and to learn and grow through setbacks and frustration.
From another perspective, participating in a science fair also gives you a chance to interact with young people from different cities and countries, a great opportunity to foster an international perspective. I also feel that the perseverance that scientific research demands, an abundance of creativity, and an international perspective are precisely what young people need for the 21st century. And I trust that these special qualities are the most precious gifts that you will glean from this international science fair.
As participants in a friendly competition, I hope that everyone will be able to win with humility, and lose with grace. I also hope that everyone will take advantage of this rare opportunity to communicate with each other, make some new friends, and let this experience become a beautiful memory of your student years.
Ladies and gentlemen, some of you may not be aware that Taiwan has very few natural resources. The only resource we have, actually, is manpower.
There’s a famous American columnist, Thomas Friedman, who wrote a famous book entitled The World Is Flat. And a few years later, he wrote another book—Hot, Flat, and Crowded. His articles are syndicated in 700 newspapers and other magazines. He once was here in Taiwan visiting, and I invited him to speak at the Presidential Office. When Mr. Friedman came here, he was quite taken by the fact that on this very small island, although we have almost no natural resources, we were still able to create—at that time, about five years ago—US$340 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves. Nowadays, it’s US$415.9 billion dollars. And he was also quite astonished at how we are able to have a rapprochement with the Chinese mainland. So on that very day, he sent his first comments from Taiwan to New York. And according to his observations, he said that Taiwan has no natural resources. No oil. No gas. No coal. But they do have a very important natural resource: their brains. They think their brains are a natural resource.
Here, I would like to thank all of the advising teachers and parents of the participants for supporting your students. As you know, this high school is located in the Shilin District of Taipei City. Once you’re here, you should not only participate in this event, but I hope you will also manage to squeeze some time out of your very busy schedule to visit two places in this special district: One is the National Palace Museum, which actually houses the art treasures collected by the emperors of at least 25 dynasties. So you will really see the masterpieces of several thousand years. Another one is the night market. I don’t know if any of you have already visited, but there you will see the daily life of our people, and many delicious pastries. Last, but not least, we certainly hope that during your stay in Taiwan, please do as much shopping as possible. Make our economy even more vigorous.
Once again, I hope you will enjoy the rest of your trip, and have very fond memories of your visit to Taiwan, the Republic of China.
Thank you very much.