Taipei, July 7 (CNA) A group of U.S.-based young Taiwanese scholars will assist and instruct local youngsters in a series of workshops which aim to bring cutting edge technology to Taiwan and inspire an adventurous spirit among its young people, organizers said Saturday.
The workshop, entitled "Taiwan Workshop, " includes three mini-workshops -- IT (Information Technology) and Democracy, Social Entrepreneurship and Night Market Workshop 2007 -- that will take place in Taipei and Taichung from July 29 - Aug. 26. An estimated 140 registrants will attend the workshop.
"The goal of this foundation is to encourage Taiwan's young people to reach out to the world. At the same time, we try to pull the world into Taiwan. Who would be better candidates to do this than thousands of 'Taiwan's favorite sons' who currently study and conduct research at prestigious institutions in various countries?" said Wang Hao-wei, President of the Club V1492 For Traveling and Reading, the main organizer of the event.
More than a dozen of Taiwanese PHD candidates from the U.S. universities of Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) , Harvard, Boston University and U.K.'s Royal College of Arts, will participate in the workshop. A number of foreign scholars are also invited for topical speeches and instructions.
Issues such as the restrictions and limitations of technology and citizen participation will be discussed in the IT and Democracy camp, while the Social Entrepreneurship camp will focus on solving social problems through business and changing conventional thinking to create new business models and establish social enterprises, curators said.
The Night Market Workshop, which is entering its third year, will be headed by Jackie Lee, who currently works in MIT's Media Lab. The four-day workshop will try to integrate artistic creation and digital mobile technology with local material and themes under one of the best symbols of Taiwanese culture -- the night markets, Lee said.
"We hope that this event will continue to be held. Hopefully, more overseas scholars will return to make contributions to our home country, and more local young people will participate in the future," said Hsueh Chiao-jen, a MIT researcher who is one of the curators of the Social Entrepreneurship camp.