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  • U of I System, National Taiwan University launch joint R&D teams

    Mar 23, 2026 4:15 pm by Ben Taylor
    The University of Illinois System and National Taiwan University logos

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    • The University of Illinois System and National Taiwan University logos

    The University of Illinois System and National Taiwan University earlier this month awarded funding to three new interdisciplinary research teams that will drive innovations and advance collaboration between the universities, plus four travel grants to strengthen academic connections between the U of I System and NTU. This marks the second group of awards from an institutional partnership launched in 2023.

    Building on talent, innovations and resources from the two universities, the initiative seeks to accelerate economic development through the development of innovative technologies. Funding for the program comes from NTU’s Office of International Affairs and the U of I System’s Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Innovation.

    The newly funded seed grant projects will focus on using contact lens sensors to detect eye infections, novel membranes for sustainable remediation of the group of chemicals known as PFAS and using semiconductor processing to advance quantum processing.

    The travel grant recipients will build collaborations around topics such as design patent understanding, using AI to improve food manufacturing systems, employing AI to discover peptides that reduce diseases in plants and THz substrate-integrated waveguide sensors.

    “These funded seed-grant projects display the future-focused research that faculty at our universities and at NTU are undertaking,” said Jay Walsh, the U of I System’s vice president for economic development and innovation. “We chose these projects because they will advance their respective fields and are expected to lead to breakthrough discoveries. This partnership with NTU continues to show the importance of working globally to move science and society forward.”

    Project teams were required to have participation from National Taiwan University and from one of the three U of I System universities, and proposals had to be focused on health and medicine, data science and AI, sustainability, quantum and semiconductor technologies, and social science — key areas of strength for both institutions.

    “We were deeply impressed by the overwhelming response and the exceptional quality, innovation and vision demonstrated in this year’s proposals,” said professor and Director of the NTU Tri-University Center Daniel Chi-Sheng Shih. “The awarded projects stood out for their outstanding merit, collaborative spirit and potential for significant impact. We look forward to seeing how the joint efforts will forge new frontiers, bridge disciplines and strengthen the international ties that make NTU and the U of I System a global force for innovation.”

    The research projects receiving grants are:

    • Soft and transparent contact lens sensors for wireless detection of infectious eye diseases. Co-principal investigators: Chung-Tse Michael Wu, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, NTU, and Pai-Yen Chen, College of Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago.
    • Employing tailored nanofiltration membranes in electrochemical systems for sustainable PFAS remediation. Co-principal investigators: Chia-Hung Hou, College of Engineering, NTU, and Xiao Su, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
    • Advancing quantum performance by leveraging classical semiconductor processing. Co-principal investigators: Kung-Yen Lee, College of Engineering, NTU, and Christopher Paul Anderson, Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

    The projects receiving travel grants are:

    • A multi-modal framework for design patent understanding. Principal investigator: Souray Medya, College of Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago.
    • Building collaborative pathways in AI-driven food systems for intelligent manufacturing and safety enhancement. Principal investigator: Changmou Xu, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
    • AI-accelerated antifungal peptide discovery for plant disease management. Principal investigator: Has-Xun Chang, College of Bioresources and Agriculture, NTU.
    • THz substrate-integrated waveguide sensors. Principal investigator: Yu-Hsiang Cheng, College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, NTU.