光电所本学期自三月一日起，特聘知名光电学者Dr. Ian T. Ferguson来校开设「固态照明」之课程。Dr. Ferguson为英国苏格兰圣安德晋大学半导体物理博士，现任教于美国乔治亚理工学院。Professor Ferguson专长为宽能隙材料与氮化镓材料相关组件（含发光、检光及电子组件），尤其着重应用于照明与自旋电子之材料发展，其在光电科技方面的丰富学养必能使同学受益良多，欢迎同学踊跃选修该课程。

对于Professor Ferguson个人资料有兴趣者，可参见网页：http://www.ece.gatech.edu/faculty/fac_profiles/bio.php?id=34

Prof. Silvano Donati and Mrs. Donati

～临别感言～

When I accepted to come and spend a semester of Visiting Professor at the GIEOE, I got only a vague idea of Taiwan. At that time, I was a professor that, after having worked hard for 20-year to grow up my Group of researchers in Electro-Optics, had suddenly decided that it was time to escape the routine and devote some time in expanding my cultural horizon. More than the US, for me it was the Pacific Rim the best place to go and try to understand what is new in

the world and where the world is going and why. Taiwan, this small island where a population of half the Italian  is packed, holds a leadership position in the high-tech manufacturing of electronic products, and thus it strongly attracted me and my wife Tiziana, an electronic engineer, like me very curious about R&D issues and industrial management.

So, like novel Marco Polo’s, we packed our books and headed to Taipei, where Professor C.C. Yang was offering to me a Visiting position for a semester.

While I was delivering my lessons on Guang-Dien-Yi-Che (Electro-Optical Instrumentation) at the GIEOE of the National Taiwan University, Tiziana sat patiently in the office collecting and organizing her notes for a book she had in mind since a couple of years but had no time to pursue, on RF-ID and Wireless Networks Microsystems.

What a surprise for her, when we drop to the underground the first time, to discover that RF-ID where already in use there, while it is just being planned in Italy!

By the way, the Taipei MRT is really fine, it is probably one of the best we have seen in the world, because fast, clean and cheap.

For me, a nice surprise was getting a class of Master and PhD students, sharp and bright, very interested in my lessons and not losing a word of my lessons despite the language barrier, a barrier that I never realized enough until being confronted with trying to speak Chinese words!

About languages, we appreciated a lot finding English language signs in the road and in the MRT, and we owe congratulations to the municipality of Taipei for that. Also, the effort to teach English as a second language for Taiwanese is very commendable. Nowhere in other Asian Country common people in the road understands English so well. Also, the level of English speaking of students and educated people is really quite high, even better than in many European countries.

Another pleasant discovery we got, early upon our arrival in September, was Confucius Day. Expressing gratitude to the elder scholars who takes care of the education of you or of your children is a sign of great and fine civilization, something that is sadly fading away in Europe on the wave of criticism to establishment and hierarchies. Along the same way, the ‘core values’ signs I saw in the Department are reminders of behavior style that fits very well in a model of society respectful of ‘good moral values’, a pleasant rediscovery for us European used to live with the ‘politically correct’ and its distortions.

Also very appreciated by us was the level of personal safety around the town, as well as the good manners in the behavior of both adults and children. As we have understood after a brief brainstorming, all the above come from the mental attitude of Asian people, because it is an easy consequence of values like ‘have a peaceful mind’ and ‘stay in harmony with the world surrounding you’. And really, as European, we realize how precious these simple words are.

About my teaching, it went on plain and easy, thanks to the aid and the feedback of Cheng-Yen (Robert) Chen, my teaching assistant. He patiently sat at my lessons listening carefully and signaling to me when to slow down, and when to complement the topics covered with a ‘back-to-basic’ excursus. He also planned with me the midterm and the final examination problems, and helped in reviewing and evaluating the exams.

During my classes, while I have not interacted so much with Professor C. C. Yang, the Chairman of the GIEOE, I felt his constant presence, because his Swiss-clock organization of the Institute was the clue for a smoothly running activity.

And also the GIEOE office, with Mr. Wu, Angela, Li-Chi, Karen and Effie were all supportive and wonderful in turning each problem into easy matter. I learned that, during the years, the Institute has grown in number of students and has attracted a lot of new Professors with very high qualification. So I think that I shall heartily thank Professor Yang for the excellent environment he has been able to create around us in the Institute.

Another rising star that I met with great pleasure is Professor Sheng-Lung (Luke) Huang, formerly at the Sun Yat Sen University in Kaoshiung and now with the GIEOE. As a Chairman of the Taiwan IEEE-LEOS Chapter, I met him and had the opportunity to become acquainted with his cutting-edge research on crystal fibers.

Other Professors that I knew at the GIEOE and I had a great pleasure to discuss science with, include Hung-Chun Chang, Guo-Dung Su, Lung-Han Peng, Chi-Kuang Sun, Jiun-Haw Lee and Jui-Che Tsai. Last but not least, the Dean of the EECS College, Prof. Soo-Chang Pei, was proactive in letting me understand similarities and differences of the Taiwan University organization compared to the Italian.

On her side, my wife Tiziana was interested in the techno-economical structure of the many Companies operating in electronic manufacture in Taiwan. A big surprise to us, opening a daily newspaper like the Taipei Times, was to find listed in the bond quotation page, more companies in electronics than we have in Italy! So, she (and me too) tried to analyze the reason of this success. The result, after a period of visits, data collection and interviews, was an article entitled ‘Alta  Tecnologia e Ricerca in Taiwan – il Miracolo Economico’ (High Tech and Research in Taiwan: the Economic Miracle) which is going to appear on the official Magazine of  the Italian Electronic Engineer Association (AEIT). Indeed, the situation in Taiwan today resembles that of Italy after the World War II, when the infrastructures of the country were seriously damaged, but people were eager to reconstruct and restart the economy, which got a so wonderful takeoff to be named ‘il miracolo italiano’ (the Italian Miracle). For Taiwan, the reasons are different but anyway it is the fortunate blend of very-good-management, expertise-and-skill, and low-cost-of-manpower to make the winning recipe which is under the envious eyes of the world.

In the spare time I got also the opportunity of visiting the island, touring from Kenting to Kaoshiung, from Tainan to Sun-Moon Lake and to Hualien. But, also Taipei City is great, starting from the 101 building, a beautiful piece of architecture merging modern style and Chinese flavor, and for sure a bold civil engineering achievement of which Taiwanese can be proud! We also enjoyed the National Palace Museum, with the beautiful jade sculptures and the ancient pots, the Chan Kai Shek Memorial Hall, the Sun Yat Sen gardens, and the central zone around the Convention Center, where if you close your eyes you may feel to be around the Trump tower of Manhattan or the Bonaventura of LAS. I also enjoyed visiting the Confucius Temple and sacral places like the Lunghshan Temple with its involving atmosphere of prayer and faith, not to forget the plenty of small altar sometimes just displaying a Buddha statue, where people come to bow displaying the incense sticks.  And, many more places are worth a snapshot, we have filled 2 CDs with pictures taken in Taipei City!  So, I will recommend my friend a visit, Taiwan is really richly worth the travel.

Food? Of course as a gourmet loves Chinese food and Taiwanese food in particular. Additionally, for a Milanese like me crazy of fish and exotic fruit, Taiwan is a paradise where I can survive with my diet based on oysters, lobsters, guava, mango and passion fruits.

So, in conclusion, we got great time in Taiwan. I got an excellent experience of teaching and knew colleagues that I much appreciate.

So let me conclude saying: Wan She Ru Yi, my dear Taiwanese friends!

Silvano (and Tiziana) Donati

February 18, 2006