The Institute of NanoEngineering and MicroSystems (iNEMS) was founded at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan in 2002, initially named as the Institute of Microelectromechanical Systems. Dr. W.-L. Fang, an adjunct professor from Department of Power Mechanical Engineering, served as the first director for the year of 2002. The first two faculties, Prof. J. Andrew Yeh and Prof. D.-J.Yao, were recruited in 2002. Dr. L.-S. Fan, one of pioneers in MEMS, joined the Institute in Aug. 2003 and served his directorship till Jan. 2009. Dr. Fan devoted himself to boost the international exposure of the micro/nano-engineering program at NTHU. The next director, Dr. Yeh, succeeded Dr. Fan in 2009 till Sep. 2012 to build a globally competitive program in the field of nano/micro-technology. Since Oct. 2012, Dr. Yao was elected as the current director.

Looking back to Year 2012, the Institute entered a new era as one of the international stars within MEMS and Nanotechnology fields according to President L.-J. Chen. In 2012, the Institute currently has 10 faculties and 8 adjunct professors from different schools. Not only does it have solid training courses, but the profits of academic research come out within 2012. Number of courses offered in English has continued to increase and exceeded 80% in percentage. What is more, the international influence of the iNEMS continues to increase in terms of global partnership. Two major conferences, IEEE Sensors 2012 and IEEE MEMS 2013, have been organized and chaired by the faculties of the Institute.

The Institute continues to demonstrate excellent academic portfolio/research program in 2012, comprised of research achievement, research budget, course curriculum, student admission, etc. The research funding per faculty at iNEMS remains one of the highest at NTHU. In addition, the Institute has been granted by the NTHU-INX program under MOE special funds for the years of 2013 and 2014. The Institute received a new space at Delta Building to allocate student/faculty offices. Based on the extra funding and current space, five common laboratories have been built, including Chemical common lab., Biological common labs, Electronic common lab., Optical common lab., and Magnetic common lab.

Seeking to establish strong relationships with Peking University, with the Institute FUNSOM at Soochow University in China, with VTT in Finland, and with University of Tokyo in Japan, we are bringing a new piece into our international network, resulting in well-positioned globalization along with the NAMIS partnership. The Institute targets to recruit more international students by various means, such as job fairs at domestic universities in India. To establish direct interaction with undergraduates, the Institute will encourage faculties to teach undergraduate courses upon number reduction of graduate courses. We devote ourselves to fulfill our commitment and look forward to your sincere participation.

Da-Jeng Yao,

Ph. D. Professor and Director

2013/02/07