Since the rise in the 50s, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been developing through the past sixty years, and has experienced two significant transformations. The first transformation came in the 80s, which made AI received attention from the industry with the “knowledge driven” professional system. Then, the second transformation came in the 21st century, which has made larger achievement for AI with the “data driven” system. With the integration of Big Data and Machine Learning, AI has made prominent achievements in many areas. Therefore, it is urgent and important for every country to think how we can utilize the existing high technology on improving the current situation. Taiwan government has started the “Taiwan Productivity 4.0 Initiative” and the “Innovation Program of Five Industry”, which includes the “Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency, ASVDA” (IoT), Biotechnology and Medical industry, Green Technology, Smart Machinery and Defense Industry. The Smart Machinery Industry Program aims at “Creating the city of smart machinery”, “Deepen the development of products and techniques of smart machinery”, “Accelerating on importing smart machinery into industry”, and “Promoting international connection.” With the intelligent system of solution built, this could help facilitating the industrialization of smart machinery and the intellectualization of all industries. The program has helped to determine an approach under the wave of industrial revolution for our country. And related fields of AI and robotics are indeed not only important keys to development of Taiwan, but also two key development points for countries over the world.

With the improvement on people’s living standard, we pay more and more attention on personal health, which makes health management and disease prevention become the focus of healthcare in world wide. And under the development in medicine, people and clinicians are expecting more and more from precision medicine. They not only wish to receive highly precise diagnosis, but also hope that AI could assist on the prediction of the risk on the occurrence of disease, and prevent events that would have harm on health with appropriate intervention or treatment. Of course, the completeness of cognition of the brain is also important for human health. On the one hand, the realization on the Neural Networks of the advanced cognitive function of human brain could not only improve the understanding on ourselves, but also help to find new diagnosis and treatment for major illnesses, including complicated illnesses like Seizure, Autism, Schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury; On the other hand, it could help to improve the further development on AI. “Brain-like Artificial Intelligence” has been brought up in recent years; above all, the most well-known example is “Deep-Learning” and the theory of deep learning comes from the study of the optical system of brain. Therefore, understanding the construction and function is also fundamental for the demand of AI. The researches on the theories not only deeply convinced people of the extensiveness of application on AI, but also let us believe the field of medicine will achieve an unprecedented realm on diagnosis, prevention, and even treatment through AI.

In the light of this, it is indeed essential to establish an interdisciplinary center which combines application of AI on robotics, industrial manufacturing, biomedicine and cognitive science in National Taiwan university. National Taiwan University (NTU) is a comprehensive university, which is innovative in academic fields and is a high-quality environment for research and Industry-academic Cooperation. NTU is also very active on attracting oversea talents and promoting international academic communication. With the great environment and full support from the school authorities, “NTU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics” is established.

The center aims not only on executing cooperative research between institutes of NTU, but also collaborate with laboratories and related centers, like: “Imaging Center for Integrated Body, Mind and Culture Research at NTU” and “Neurobiology & Cognitive Science Center at NTU.” And we will recruit, cultivate key research talents to integrate industrial, governmental and academic resources. With the efforts, we wish to promote advanced industry-academic collaboration on research, and to improve the strength of knowledge economy of Taiwan.