Study Abroad in Taipei, Taiwan
Dr. Randall Geiger and Dr. Morris Chang at ISU initiated a study abroad program for students major in Electrical and Computer Engineering on Spring 2006. We intended to begin with a program of one semester study at Tatung University in Taipei and follow by an optional internship at a local high-tech company. This program has grown to a major exchange program in the College of Engineering at ISU. Dr. Morris Chang is serving as the program coordinator. See the letter below from Dr. Geiger for his impression about this program. Feel free to contact Dr. Chang (morris _at_ iastate.edu), should you have any question about this program.
For students interested in this Study Abroad in Tatung University for future semesters, some details follow : (new)
The average cost of lunch or dinner at Tatung's cafeterias is
about $2 to $3 USD per meal.
The cost of dormitory at Tatung --- Tatung has made a special
arrangement for ISU students. Two students (preferably one from
ISU and one from Tatung) will share one room
which is usually shared by 4 students. The dormitory is situated in the center
of downtown Taipei and is within walking distance to Tatung campus and Metro
station. The cost of dormitory for each ISU student is about $500 USD per
semester. The dormitory fee will be waved if ISU student agreed to spend two
hours per week to serve as an ISU student ambassador to Tatung campus.
The duty will include formal and informal presentations on subjects related to
ISU campus and American culture to Tatung students during regular class period
or extra curricula activities to promote mutual understanding between ISU and
Tatung University or USA and Taiwan.
A work-study program at Tatung University --- Tatung university will
provide an opportunity for qualified ISU students to work on campus as teaching
assistant in Tatung's English classes (e.g. conversation class). The hourly rate
is about $7 USD per hour. In general, an ISU student can work upto 10 hours per
week.
A scholarship to cover partial travel cost is available to qualified ISU
student.
The summer internship opportunities will include, but not limited to, high-tech companies with strong tie to Tatung University. For example,
Tatung Company, and
Chunghwa
Picture Tubes Company, among many other Tatung subsidiaries, have constantly
offered internship opportunities to Tatung students in each summer. Usually,
student will receive $500 USD per month during the internship. ISU students will
have the same opportunity as Tatung students in obtaining these internships.
Taipei City,
population of 2.63 million, is the capital of Republic of China
(Taiwan). The ICRT radio station, a
popular English speaking station, provides good resources to the international
community in Taipei. A short video introduces
Taiwan's high-tech business. A short video
by Wang, a Yankee baseball player from Taiwan.
Tentative traveling date: Jan 12,
2014
ISU students who have participated in this exchange program:
Spring 2005::
Mr. Jonathan Farmer
Fall 2006:
Mr. Paul Jennings,
Mr. Daniel Wiltse,
Mr. Jake Sloat
Some Letters from ISU students
Spring 2008:
Mr. Benjamin Holland ,
Mr. Peter Scott ,
Jon Dykhuis, and Michael Higdon. Some Pictures from
Holland,
Holland_2,
Holland_3,
Holland_4,
Dykhuis,
Dykuis blog and Some Letters from them in 2008
Spring 2009
Mr. Karl Deakyne,
Summer, Fall 2009 Mr. Joshua Ellis.
Spring 2010; Mr. Nick Buchholz, and
Mr. Joshua Ellis (2nd semester)
Summer 2010; Mr. Yik Sen Tan, Mr. Keng Gee Ng and , Mr.
Kevin Hancock
Fall 2010, Mr. Nick Buchholz (2nd semester)
Spring 2011, Mr. Jan Schroeder
Summer 2011, Mr. Diego Camargo,
Mr. Wei Herng Tee
, Mr. Kevin Bergler, Mr. John Irwin ,
Fall 2011, Mr. John Irwin,
Miss Jennifer Cheuk,
Spring 2012, Mr. John Irwin (2nd semester),.
Mr. Stephen
March ,
Mr. George Cherucheril
and, Mr. Memo
Hinckley
Summer 2012, Mr. Luke Swanson, and Mr. Brian Forsberg
Fall 2012, Mr. Brian Forsberg and Mr. Luke Swanson
Spring 2013, Mr. Brian Forsberg
Summer 2013 Miss Sarah Gluck
Spring 2014, Mr. Samuel Slagle
Summer 2014 Mr. Haiqi Wen
Fall 2014 Miss Cimone Wright
Application Procedure:
(for ISU students):
You should start from the "student check list" (under How to
Apply) available from
engineering international programs. (Please send an electronic
version of the transcript to Dr. Chang).
You are required to bring your answers to
a set of questions for an interview with either Dr. Chang or Dr. Geiger. In
addition, you should apply your VISA by: (1). fill
Tatung Application
form , email to Dr. Chang (morris _at_ iastate.edu). It will be forwarded to
Tatung. Then, you will receive an admission letter from Tatung. (2). obtain your
passport. (3). fill the
VISA application form, you should check the "Resident visa" box in the item
1, and include two pictures as it stated in the page 1. Mail your
passport, VISA application form, two pictures, your admission letter from Tatung,
this memo from MOE and $131 application fee
(in money order, payable to TECO) to:180 N.
Stetson Ave., Suite 5701, Chicago, IL 60601. Make sure you call 312-616-0100
before you mail your application materials. You should include a
self-addressed & stampted USPS Express or Priority (plus delivery
confirmation) return envelope. The complete information of VISA
application can be found
here. Or read this
file (4). reserve your airline tickets. (5). you are required to set up
your home page for a host family program in Tatung (Guideline
for your home page). Few tips for you before your
departure.
The Spring semester at Tatung University is from Feb. 15, to Mid June while the Fall semester is from mid September to end of January.
---------------------- A Letter from Dr. R. Geiger ---------------------------------
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 08:57:07 -0500
From: Randall L Geiger <rlgeiger@iastate.edu>
Cc: wheat@iastate.edu, morris@iastate.edu
Subject: Re: Taipei Study Abroad
I can not give you specific details at this time but will let you know
where we stand. The strategy is to set the arrangement up so students pay
tuition at their home institution so that means ISU students would pay tuition
to
ISU and Tatung students would pay tuition to Tatung. So, from a tuition
viewpoint, it should be revenue neutral. Tentatively Tatung is exploring the
possibility of either paying the cost of the housing in Taipei or providing
low-cost accommodations but as of yet those details have not been worked out. I
suspect the lodging rates will be no more, and likely less, than what you are
paying in Ames (unless you are living at home). Correspondingly, I have been
told that the accommodations of students in Taipei are usually quite modest
compared to what students have been accustomed to here but I have not visited
any
of the student housing complexes. The airfare to and from Taiwan will be your
responsibility. Food costs in the cafeterias and in street-side restaurants
appear to be quite low but I can not give you exact food costs at this time. I
did eat in the cafeteria used primarily by students at another university in
Taiwan and the cost of my meal there was really low but I do not know what the
costs are at Tatung. I have made several trips to Taipei recently and with a
little advance planning, the tickets have all been under $1000 but I don't know
what the situation will be this summer. In Taipei, they have a
metro system
that seems to be very good so transportation in the city is not a problem. In
regard to the course sharing, very tentatively, we will be targeting 435 and
maybe one or two other courses from ISU that will be available by streaming
video. Dr. Huang who is the advisor of Yu-Chun and who received her doctorate
from Ohio State teaches courses in the greater VLSI area and will offer her
courses in English if students are interested. There are one or two other
faculty members at Tatung that likely will be willing to do the same but as of
yet we have not obtained commitments. There is also a business program there
that apparently already offers some instruction in English and we will see if
there is a course that focuses on either Asian economic issues or international
economic issues as a possibility or maybe some other relevant course that they
may have. The course offering situation, this time, will be taylored to the
students from ISU going to Taipei - that is - we will work with the interested
students to see what they want and what Tatung can offer but hope to get a
consensus so that those participating students will be in the same classes since
their instruction is normally in Chinese and it appears they may be reluctant to
change the instruction to English if there is only one ISU student in the
classroom. In regard to the internship issue, the Vice President of Tatung
University (the counterpart of Geoffrey here at ISU) indicated verbally when he
visited ISU this summer that he thought he could arrange for the internships but
we have not taken it any farther at this time since we do not want to utilize
those resources until we know the efforts will be worthwhile. In regard to the
time span, we have tentatively targeted a one semester, one summer program but
that needs to be aligned with student interests. I suspect a two semester
scenario or a one semester followed by a longer internship would be possible as
well. I believe the trigger number of students to make this happen is 3 although
that is not yet firm. As soon as we identify 3 or more interested students, we
will push pretty fast to work out the details and I suspect they will
materialize
pretty quickly.
If you would like additional information about Tatung or the Taipei area, please
contact Yu-Chun Wang. She is the student I introduced in class yesterday. Her
email address is wheat@iastate.edu and her office is in Rm 310 Durham. Dr.
Morris
Chang is a graduate of Tatung and has been instrumental in establishing ties
with
Tatung and would be available for input as well. have taken the liberty of
copying Yu-Chun and Dr. Chang on this email message so that they will not be
surprised if you contact them. If you know of any other students that might be
interested, please have them contact me.
For the record, if I were a student at this time, I would view this as a
fantastic opportunity, in part, because of the importance of becoming familiar
with Asian environments which are becoming increasingly important not only for
the electronics field but for commerce in general.
Have a good day!
R. Geiger
