“The 3rd Trilateral Symposium” was held from August 27th to 29th at Chiang Mai University (CMU), Thailand. National Chiayi University Vice President Chun-Hsien Chang led 50 teachers and students to participate in the exchange with experts and scholars from CMU in Thailand and Kagawa University in Japan. They discussed the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in such areas as climate change, health, food, technology, society and tourism. The outstanding performance of the NCYU's teacher-student team has successfully raised the visibility of NCYU for the upcoming 4th symposium, to be hosted by the university.
To deepen academic exchanges and explore future cooperation plans, NCYU signed a MOU with its sister schools, Kagawa University in Japan and CMU in Thailand, agreeing to take turns holding a trilateral forum every two year in 2019. The 3rd symposium was hosted by CMU, with the NCYU Office of International Affairs and session moderators assisting in the preparation. In his opening remarks, NCYU Vice President Chun-Hsien Chang expressed gratitude to CMU for organizing the 3rd symposium, and commended on the excellent achievements of the three schools in promoting green university initiatives and academic research. He hoped that the three schools would continue to deepen their cooperation in the future and contribute to creating a resilient and happy society.
More than 200 teachers and students from the three universities in such fields as education, humanities, agriculture, life sciences, engineering, medicine, and management participated in the forum. The discussions this year focused on UN's SDGs. With rice as the staple food, Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan are major rice producers in the world who share a concern for the sustainability of food production, distribution, and consumption. Huang Wen-Lii, Professor of NCYU’s Department of Agronomy, delivered a keynote speech titled “Establishment of an Integrated Low-carbon Footprint Production System in Rice.” The speech was of great significance to the research on food production and environmental sustainability in Asia, and met with enthusiastic responses from the participants.
In addition to the thematic paper presentations, the symposium also featured a rich program of visits arranged by CMU to relevant sites to showcase the university's progress in research and social practice. Scholars interacted enthusiastically at each session, and promised to continue collaborating after the forum. On August 27th, CMU also organized a student poster and oral presentation competition, where NCYU students performed remarkably. Fu Yu-Ting from the Department of Horticultural Science, and Li Xin-Ru and Hong Yu-Ting from the Department of Biological Resources won the top three prizes in the poster presentation group. Liu Yu-Qi from the Department of Applied Chemistry won the first place in the oral presentation category.
In his closing remarks, CMU President Prof. Dr. Pongruk Sribanditmongkol
emphasized that all the three universities have contributed to sustainability
in the academic field. In 2026, the symposium will be held in Taiwan, and he
hoped that the universities will work together to pass on the tradition. NCYU
Vice President Chun-Hsien Chang also praised the participants for their
impressive research and practical accomplishments, and expected they would
continue to strive for the SDGs. The 4th Trilateral Symposium will take place
at NCYU in 2026. See you all at NCYU in 2026!
Photo 1: The 3rd Trilateral Symposium kicked off
at Chiang Mai University, with a participation of over 200 teachers and
students.
Photo 2: Vice President Chun-Hsien Chang delivered
opening remarks on behalf of NCYU at the opening ceremony.
Photo 3: Among the attendees of the Climate Action
Session were Show-Jen Chiou (5th from left), Director of the Center for
Environmental Protection, Safety and Health, and Wen-Lii Huang (2nd from left),
Professor of the Department of Agronomy, NCYU.
Photo 4: Dean Cheng-Cheng Yang and Secretary Guo Yu-Min from the Office of International Affairs, participated in the student forum with NCYU students, and exchanged ideas with faculty and students from CMU and Kagawa University.