IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Newsletters, Volume 6, Number 3, June 2012
Sharing Experiences from Forum on “Global Talents Competitiveness in
Man / Machine Symbiotic World”
Honorary Chair Prof. Bing Sheu * +, IEEE Fellow;
Professor & Vice President San-Liang Lee *;
Prof./Director Poki Chen *;
Prof./ex-President Peter Chung-Yu Wu +, IEEE Fellow;
Prof./Associate_Dean Liang-Gee Chen **, IEEE Fellow;
Prof./Dean Daphne Soe-Tsyr Yuan ***;
Prof./ex-Dean Shuo-Yan Chou *
* National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
+ National Chiao-Tung University,
**National Taiwan University,
*** National Chengchi University
I.
Challenges in 21st Century
Challenges in 21st Century are quite different from those in 20th Century. TI Jack Kilby Chair
Professor Edgar Sanchez-Sinencio at Texas A&M University informs us that the published article:
“Sharing 2010 Experiences on High-Tech Academic Mentoring in System-on-Chip field” at February
2011 CAS Society Newsletters has been very valuable to assistant professors in his university.
Professor K. Thulasiraman (Hitachi Chair) at University of Oklahoma echoes the importance of
internationalization & globalization.
In roughly every 20 years, the challenges manifest in a new format: “Internationalization” during
1970 – 1990, “Globalization” during 1990 – 2010, and “Man / Machine Symbiotic World” for the next
20 years.
(I.A) Internationalization (1970 – 1990)
In 1970’s and 1980’s, high-tech industry was mainly concentrated at several developed countries
such as U.S.A., Japan, and in Western Europe. Many international students came to United States to
pursue advanced degrees in engineering and/or science fields. After graduation, some joined high-tech
companies in Silicon Valley (in west coast) or at Bell Labs., IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, etc (in
east coast), while quite a few pursued teaching positions at leading research universities in U.S.A.
During this period of time, advances of electronic systems were mainly on hardware development.
Many talents were attracted to the semiconductor field, and also to integrated circuits design: both
digital IC design and analog/mixed-signal design. Representative electronic gadgets were personal
computers and very bulky 1st-generation cellular phone.
(I.B) Globalization (1990 – 2010)
In 1990’s and early 2000’s, high-tech manufacturing know-how proliferates around the world.
Thomas Friedman wrote the book “The world is flat” to call our attention. Telephone call centers are
relocated to different parts of the world, such as to India and/or Philippine. Semiconductor
manufacturing spread out from well-established electronics companies in U.S. and Japan, to Korea and
Taiwan. World-leading semiconductor companies such as Samsung in Korea and TSMC in Taiwan
emerged during this period of time.
In addition, many large U.S. electronics companies shifted toward fab-lite or fabless. Motorola Inc.
span off Freescale Inc. AMD span off manufacturing operations to form Global Foundry Inc. Fabless
Design Houses such as nVidia on graphics chips, Qualcomm / Broadcom / MediaTek on wireless
communication chips leverage the rich eco-system of dedicated semiconductor foundry. During this
period of time, advances of electronic systems were on both hardware and software. Representative
electronic gadgets were Notebook computers and 3rd-generation cellular phones.
(I.C) “Man / Machine Symbiotic World” (since 2010)
Since 2010, we have entered the Era of “Man / Machine Symbiotic World”. Representative
electronic gadgets are iPad and smart mobile devices (such as 4th -generation smart phones, with LTE
capability).
Characteristics of the 21st Century include:
. Slow growth,
. Global growth engine shifts,
. Aging society,
. Changing consumer behavior, and
. Rise of cloud computing.
In the Web 1.0 era (1997 - 2003), typing is the primary means of entering data into the computer
system. The usage emphasis was on reading. In the Web 2.0 era (2003 - 2006), typing is replaced by
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touching (very mature products such as iPad touch-screen) and gesture (very mature products are
Kinect such as Microsoft Xbox 360). The usage emphasis is on sharing. Both IoP (Internet of People)
and IoT (Internet of Things) are popular.
In Web 3.0 (2007 - 2011), touching and gesture are further replaced by integrated projection. The
usage emphasis is shifted to life stream. In Web 4.0 (since 2012), we have entered the Symbiotic
Computing era, with emphasis on online customer engagement.
II. Higher Education not Keeping Pace with Changing Real World
In 21st Century, focus of higher education has been falling behind the real world further and
further. Most leading research universities still focus on addressing the issues from globalization,
while some even struggle with internationalization only. Very few have started to address the pressing
issues arising from “Man / Machine Symbiotic World”.
(II.A) Why the urgency is not properly felt by the faculty?
The current education system was established many decades ago and has not gone through major
overhaul yet. In the existing educational system, after about 6 years of successful and impressive
research work, a young faculty member can be promoted from the Assistant Professor rank to the
Associate Professor rank and with tenure. Then, he/she will have stable career life for the next thirty
plus years. Thus, he/she might repeat similar mode of operations in guiding the graduate students in
the next thirty plus years (technical content will adapt, but the mode of operations might stay about the
same).
On the other hand, the real world changes very fast. A good analogy is to use the practice of
major car manufacturers (such as Toyota, Honda in Japan, or GM, Chrysler, Ford Motor in U.S.A.)
that roll out new car models in approximately every 6 years. Similarly, students entering real-world
industry / business encounter very different practice in every several years.
Forty years ago, long-term job security was the norm in industry and many people can stay with
the same company until retirement age. In 21st Century, it is very rare now. In the private sector, most
people have to change jobs several times in his/her career life (whether willingly or forced to do so).
The most challenging part occurs around the age of 50! Many senior workers at age 50 find that they
are less competitive as compared to younger generation at age 30 (due to many baggage factors: such
as high payment levels, slow adaptation to new knowledge, etc).
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Many universities just focus on helping new graduates to find the first job (at age of 25 to 30), but
pay little or no attention to the competitiveness of those people 10 years later (at the age of 40) or
twenty years later (at the age of 50). Many professors, yielding to the traditional academic pressure of
“publish or perish”, employ the graduate students to help generate large number of research papers for
technical conferences or journals. If the students are smart, then they can deduce valuable insights
from such paper-producing practice and excel after graduation. However, most students are not so
smart. They just move on from one stage of their life to the next stage, whether properly educated or
not.
(II.B) Increasing Difference From Ivory Tower to Changing Real World
In 20th Century, academic ivory tower and industrial real world were quite similar. Many
graduated students with Ph.D. degree could pursue basic research at Bell Labs., IBM T.J. Watson
Center, or with teaching positions at leading research universities. In 21st Century, the academic ivory
tower does not change much, but the industry/business real world has changed tremendously.
Key characteristics of being a student in a university are:
. Do your own homework,
. Write your own exam answers, and
. Standard answers are available to questions on the exam.
On the other hand, in the real world of high-tech industry, characteristics are:
. There are no long-term competitors or long-term friends. The work relationship can change due to
merge-and-acquisition (M&A).
. There are no fix answers. No matter how crazy the idea might be, as long as it does not break the
laws and still within morality: the more creative, the better.
. Continue searching for better solutions in each year. Try to out-smart last-year’s pride answers.
. Be innovative, and the sky is the only limit.
Too many students are trained to fill in the right answer for equality. But, today’s powerful
computer system already knows the answer to equality, no need for human beings to be involved. On
the contrary, human beings shall better deal with inequality or uncertainty that the existing computing
system is still not very good at.
Imagine the modern scenario: smart phones are connected through Internet with support from
cloud computing. In competition, each person just relies on his/her brain. Very soon, system of
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machines (with powerful computers inside) will be employed to handle systematic matters. People will
be left to deal with random events. Such scenario already occurs at modern silicon Giga-Fab. During
normal operation, the factory is fully automated and human operators have to stay side-lined.
III. Forum on Global Talents Competitiveness
In April 2012, the Forum on “Global Talents Competitiveness in Man / Machine Symbiotic
World” was held at National Taiwan University of Science & Technology, in Taipei. Prominent
researchers from management, social sciences, and electrical engineering participated. This Forum is
to awaken professors to face all the three big challenges simultaneously: “Internationalization”,
“Globalization”, and “Man / Machine Symbiotic World”.
Honorary Chair Professor Bing Sheu advocates for the new Forum to take place. The Organizing
Committee at National Taiwan University of Science & Technology consists of Prof./Vice_President
San-Liang Lee (who also serves as R&D Dean), Professor Poki Chen (who serves as Director of SoC
Center), and Professor Shou-Yan Chou (who completed his term as Dean of International Office).
(III.A) Opening Remarks by Professor San-Liang Lee
Professor San-Liang Lee recognizes the difficulty of organizing such a very unique Forum that is
of interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary nature. Regular researchers are more accustomed to attend
focused-topic workshop or symposium that addresses a particular technical subject. To attract speakers
and attendees to such non-technical Forum about global competitiveness requires very special skills
and high enthusiasm. The underlying challenges will not be fully solved in one Symposium for one
afternoon. It will require continuous attention and efforts, probably on semi-annual or annual basis.
(III.B) First Plenary Talk by Professor Daphne Soe-Tsyr Yuan
Following the common practice of lady first, Professor Daphne Yuan elaborates on academic
influence through diversity. She describes the KPI (Key Performance Index) regarding worldwide
university competitiveness. The emphasis is not only on physical science and engineering disciplines,
but also on social sciences and humanity / literature. Sustained impact to the human society is also one
integral factor, in addition to the number of SCI-index publications.
From her view, university competitiveness is directly affected by many factors: research strategy,
infrastructure, talents nurturing, research funding, evaluation criteria, and collaboration mechanism. It
is important that academic investment is properly spread to cover both physical sciences/engineering,
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and social science / humanity / literature.
(III.C) Second Plenary Talk by Professor Shou-Yan Chou
Professor Chou is from the host institution. He makes frequent international travels, more than 25
times in a year. He cautions attendees about tough facts in Taiwan:
. Long work hours for efficiency, but not effectiveness;
. Moving from technology-intensive to knowledge-intensive;
. Fewer new-born babies now, and thus fewer college students in foreseeable future;
. Not having critical mass in many important research areas;
. Falling behind on foresight and impactful research;
. Need to move from component level (easy to replicate) to system level development;
. Need to go abroad to be close to worldwide markets;
. Modeled after U.S.A. may have been a wrong strategy (due to different country size); and
. Have to find better positioning in the world in order to compete more effectively.
Professor Chou provides a list of items to test how well people know about new developments in the
world:
. Can you name one major development in higher education in the world?
. What are the main research topics and status of the global research?
. Can you name one area that Europe wants to collaborate (with Taiwan)?
. How much do you know about financial melt down in U.S.A. in 2008?
. What are the new opportunities in global higher education market?
. What are the strategies to cooperate with global partners?
(III.D) Third Plenary Talk by Professor Peter Wu
Professor Peter Wu served as VP-Conferences for IEEE Circuits and Systems Society in 2004 &
2005. He served as President of National Chiao Tung University in 2007 - 2011. Professor Wu urges
us to re-think from management viewpoints: “From Good to Great: fifth-level leaders.” He emphasizes
on creativity, interdisciplinary ability, and problem-solving skills. He echoes the 2 famous sayings by
late Steve Jobs of Apple Inc.: “Stay Hungry, and Stay Foolish.”
Professor Wu uses pictorial illustration about importance of being open-minded. The picture
shows that 3 polar bears can collaborate in order to catch salmons more effectively. In addition, he
also conveys the famous story of a university president at the graduation ceremony: Urging the
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graduates to “Keep Moving”.
(III.E) Fourth Plenary Talk by Professor Liang-Gee Chen
Professor Liang-Gee Chen has extensive industrial experience as Leader at Electronics Research
and Service Organization (ERSO) under Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan
for 2 years. Currently, he serves as Associate Dean at EECS College and also as Director of “Intel NTU Joint Research Center” at National Taiwan University, and is a National Chair Professor in
Engineering field.
Professor Chen talks about: “Where is the Holy Grail of Academic Research?” He shares
experience from early years of academic research as a graduate student in Taiwan, and with constant
progress and innovative approach to adapt from EDA field to image and video processing field. His
work on 3-dimensional vision processing was well received at IEEE International Solid-State Circuits
Conference in 2011. He emphasizes on: “Aim High, Stay Low.”
(III.F) Concluding Plenary Talk by Honorary Chair Professor Bing Sheu
Honorary Chair Professor Bing Sheu gave in-depth presentation on challenges in 21st Century and
pointed out solution directions. He has extensive experiences in both teaching (1985 – 1998) and
industry (1999 – 2012). So, his views are quite balanced on both sides: academia and
industry/business.
F.1
Four Quadrants: IQ, EQ, AQ, and SQ
Students on campus focus a lot on academic studies, and thus advance on IQ (Intelligent Quotient).
Many students actively participate at extra-curriculum activities and thus gain extensive experiences
on EQ (Emotional Quotient). Some students encounter difficulty or significant challenges and have the
experience of recovering from the worst situation toward success. They gain valuable experience in
AQ (Adversity Quotient). There is a famous saying: “Do not fear the winds of adversity. Remember:
A kite rises against the wind rather than without it.”
Another important factor is SQ (Social Quotient) which is related to social intelligence. Each
person’s established human networks will play very valuable role in his/her career life.
F.2
From IoP (Internet of People) to IoT (Internet of Things): Losing Human Advantage
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IoP (Internet of People) provides us with convenient access to huge amount of valuable
information and knowledge from any place, at any time. It was great invention in 20th Century. As the
technology continues to advance, IoT (Internet of Things) becomes more popular in each year. Within
next 5 to 10 years, many household appliances will be connected to the Internet. Imagine that the
refrigerator and microwave ovens in your house to be digitally connected through Internet. They could
operate automatically or communicate with one another without intervene by human beings. Soon,
existence of many people will appear as being redundant.
The scenario depicted at the movie “I, Robot” is still very vivid. According to Wikipedia
description (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film)), the robots are programmed with Three
Laws of Robotics, and coordinated by V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). In the movie,
V.I.K.I. admits to controlling the uprising. She explains that as her artificial intelligence evolved, her
interpretation of the Three Laws did too. It is obvious that she wants to control the humanity and make
dominance over the world. Luckily enough, a special Robot (named Sonny) came to human rescue.
In our real world, can we be so lucky to have “Sonny” to rescue us again and again? I am afraid
NOT. In the “Man / Machine Symbiotic World”, we are losing advantage to smart machines in a very
rapid manner.
F.3
Circular Solution: Divide-by-N Law
All the knowledge created or invented within recent 3 hundred years will be 100% encoded into
computing systems, and used in favor of machines. So, we have to search from the wisdom before
Industrial Revolution, i.e. before invention of steam engine in 18th Century.
About 2,000 years ago, Confucius in ancient China shared his wisdom with us: “Respond from 3
different angles to the original proposition.”
Mathematically, such approach makes great sense. Image a circle of 360 degrees. If a person
makes a proposal, place it down to the right, i.e., at 0 degree direction. Then, the Circular Solution
Law systematically specifies the available solutions to the 2nd person:
Divide-by-1 (i.e., 360 degrees or 0 degree): The 2nd person can completely agree with the 1st person
and thus fully aligned. This solution is safe, but with least amount of additional value. Mathematically,
it corresponds to Equality scenario. In industry/business, this corresponds to Operations with SOP
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(standard operating procedure) to follow. In problem-solving, this corresponds to Newton-Raphson’s
gradient-descent method to find the locally optimal solution.
Divide-by-2 (i.e., 180 degrees): The 2nd person can completely disagree with the 1st person and argues
vigorously. Mathematically, it corresponds to Inequality scenario. In industry/business, this
corresponds to Development that tries to minimize the remaining few unknown factors. In
problem-solving, this corresponds to hill-climbing method to tediously search for the globally optimal
solution.
Divide-by-3 (i.e., 120 degrees): This is equivalent to “Mora” or finger-guessing. The 1st person has no
advantage over the 2nd person. Mathematically, it corresponds to Uncertainty scenario. In
industry/business, this corresponds to Research that explores many unknown factors. In
problem-solving, this corresponds to “Lateral Thinking method” to efficiently search for the globally
optimal solution.
Divide-by-4 (i.e., 90 degrees): This requires very high skill. 90-degree means perpendicular and thus
zero projection amount. Such an approach will incur least amount of resistance, but with 50% chance
to successfully oppose the original proposition. Mathematically, it corresponds to use of imaginary
numbers. In industry/business, this corresponds to “Blue-Sea” Research that cleverly opens up the new
field. In problem-solving, this corresponds to Tunneling method to super efficiently reach the globally
optimal solution.
Notice that Divide-by-1 and Divide-by-2 methods occur frequently in daily life. Divide-by-3 and
Divide-by-4 methods seldom occur and require special wisdom and skills to realize. Some experts
recommend reading the book: “The Art of War” (written by Sun-Tzu about 2,000 years ago from
ancient China) which is quite popular in U.S.A. and Japan, to help practice Divide-by-3 and
Divide-by-4 methods.
Conclusion:
Challenges in 21st Century are more complex than those in 20th Century. Smart machines are
becoming smarter and/or more intelligent in each year with the help from cloud computing
infrastructure. The role that human beings can comfortably play in “Man / Machine Symbiotic World”
is quickly shrinking. It is the pressing challenge for professors at leading research universities to figure
out more suitable roles for the younger generations, instead of merely cracking out many printed
research papers. In this article, we clearly point out the fundamental challenges and difficulty. It will
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require collective wisdom from all over the world to address the issues.
Note:
Dr. Bing Sheu serves as Director of Design Research Program at TSMC R&D Design and
Technology Platform function. Bing coordinates “TSMC University Shuttle Program” and handles
RD/DTP University Program. Bing served as Society President of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society
in 2000, as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems during 1997 – 98, as Founding
Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia during 1998 – 99.
Acknowledgement:
Special thanks to Prof. Henry Horng-Shing Lu (Dean of College of Science) at National Chiao
Tung University, Miss Janet Wang who is Editor of The Voice of National Chiao Tung University
Alumni Newsletters, TI Jack Kilby Chair Professor Edgar Sanchez-Sinencio at Texas A&M
University, and Hitachi Chair Professor K. Thulasiraman at University of Oklahoma.
References:
1. B. J. Sheu, “From Engineering, Management, to Superior Leadership,” Invited Talk at Graduate
Institute of Electronics Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, October 18,
2011.
2. B. J. Sheu, “How to be super innovative?” vol. 449 & 450, Newsletters: The Voice of National
Chiao Tung University Alumni, Dec. 2011 & Feb. 2012.
3. B. J. Sheu, “Applying Wisdom from Confucius’ Saying to Modern Society in 21st Century,”
Forum on Global Talents Competitiveness, National Taiwan University of Science & Technology,
Taipei, Taiwan, April 6, 2012.
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Photo 1: Attendees to the Forum. (Front row from left) CGU Dean/Prof. Wu-Shiung Feng, NCCU
R&D Dean/Prof. Soe-Tsyr Yuan, NTUST ex-Dean/Prof. Shou-Yan Chou, Honorary Chair Prof. Bing
Sheu, NCTU ex-President/Prof. Peter Wu, NTUST VP/Prof. San-Liang Lee, RiTech VP Wang, NTUT
Prof. Yuh-Shyan Hwang.
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Photo 2: (Standing, from left) NTUST ex-Dean/Prof. Shou-Yan Chou, and NCCU R&D Dean/Prof.
Soe-Tsyr Yuan at Q&A Session.
Photo 3: Honorary Chair Professor Bing Sheu delivers Plenary Talk.
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Photo 4: NCTU ex-President/Prof. Peter Wu addresses to the audience.
Photo 5: (from left) NTUST Vice_President/Prof. San-Liang Lee, with NTU Associate_Dean/Prof.
Liang-Gee Chen after the Plenary Talk.
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