Penn State University

History

Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, was founded in 1855. It has twenty-four campuses across Pennsylvania that serve more than eighty thousand students. It is one of the ten largest public universities in the United States and also known as a world-class research university, ranked among the top universities in the United States, and the birthplace of industrial engineering in the United States.

In 1983, NTNU’s Department of Industrial Education and Penn State’s Department of Learning and Performance Systems（Workforce Education and Development Program）initiated academic exchanges between the two universities. In 1998, the two sides formally became sister universities. In 2008, a university-level joint dual-degree agreement was signed. In 2013, the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts of both universities also signed student exchange agreements.

In order to deepen and enhance bilateral cooperation in academic research and teaching, NTNU made Penn State a strategic partner in 2016. Exchanges between the two sides have extended into administrative benchmarking, beyond what was simply academic cooperation.

Key Activities and Opportunities

Dr. Geoffrey Godbey
a professor at the Department of Recreation
Park
and Tourism Management at Penn State
gave a speech at NTNU on February 26 about the role of recreational activities in public health.

Professor David H. Monk
Dean of the College of Education at Penn State
visited NTNU on December 13 with Professor Pamela Monk and Professor Wen-Hua Du to discuss a collaboration with the NTNU Science Education Center and the Chinese Language and Technology Center
as well as a Joint Dual-Degree proposal between Penn State and NTNU’s Department of Industrial Education and Department of Technology Application and Human Resource Development.
The NTNU Chinese Language and Technology Center convened an advisory committee meeting to discuss language acquisition fundamentals and behavioral research on December 20. Professor Ping Li of Penn State’s Center for Language Science was invited to partake in the academic exchange.

NTNU and Penn State jointly established the Institute for Research Excellence in Learning Sciences. Kuo-En Chang, President of NTNU; Ovid Tzeng
Academician of the Academia Sinica; Gwo-Dong Chen
Director General of the Department of International Cooperation and Science Education of the Ministry of Science and Technology; and David H. Monk
Dean of Penn State’s College of Education jointly announced the establishment of the institute on January 24. Both sides agreed to conduct academic exchanges as well as a student exchange program
and promote Chinese language education to the world with the support of cloud computing in the future.
David H. Monk
the Dean of Penn State’s College of Education
arrived at NTNU with his delegation on January 23. The two sides reached a consensus and signed an agreement for a student exchange program between the two schools’ College of Liberal Arts and College of Education. Also
concrete plans for academic exchanges were made with the goal of increasing mutual visits by students and researchers and broadening the students’ and teachers’ worldview.

NTNU Office of Student Affairs visited Penn State in August. The two sides had discussions concerning regulations for new students
the planning of camp activities
psychological counseling
and other topics.

In order to open up more opportunities for exchanges in academic research and teaching
NTNU and Penn State have jointly launched the “One Department
One Standard” program: Dr. Scott Metzger
Associate Professor of Penn State’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction
led a delegation of five graduate students to NTNU on March 11, and discussed the topic of "What Does Civic Education Mean in a Globalized World?” with teachers and students from NTNU’s Department of Civic Education and Leadership
followed by a Q&A session. From September 6 to September 13
the Department of Civic Education and Leadership also sent a delegation of 6 students
led by faculty members
to visit Penn State.
On November 7
Damon Sims
the Vice President and Dean of Students Affairs of Penn State
led a delegation to NTNU, where he and Vice President Cheng-Chih Wu and Vice President Yao-Ting Sung enthusiastically discussed many topics. From November 14 to November 16
a 3-day workshop was held to provide in-depth exchanges on innovative teaching topics such as online universities and digital courses.

A delegation that included Michael Adewumi
Vice President of Penn State; Martin Trethewey
Vice Director of Global Engagement; and Professor Rose Lee-Yong Tan visited NTNU from October 26 to October 27. They and Vice Presidents Cheng-Chih Wu and Yao-Ting Sung discussed the possibility of having more exchanges in terms of courses and departments.

On October 6
NTNU’s Center for Teaching and Learning Development invited Professor P. Karen Murphy
a distinguished professor of the Department of Educational Psychology
Counseling
and Special Education
to be the keynote speaker of the EMI Workshop and lead the students in discussion on the application of the Quality Talk teaching method in order to enhance the professional skills and teaching quality of teachers in the school.
From November 28 to December 5
President Cheng-Chih Wu led a delegation from NTNU to Penn State to learn about benchmarking and Penn State’s experience in school development and related operations. He also spoke with Eric Barron, President of Penn State
and
during their meeting
both sides agreed to launch the "2019 Collaboration Development Fund Request for Proposals" program to further bilateral academic exchanges.

From March 18 to March 19
the 4-person delegation from the Penn State Office of Planning and Assessment and the Office of Education Equity talked about their school’s development plan from 2016 to 2020 as well as the structure and mission of the Office of Planning and Assessment. Through this exchange
NTNU learned about the planning
history, implementation
assessment
and reports of Penn State’s school development.
From April 14 to April 23
Vice President Frank Yung-Hsiang Ying led a delegation from the administrative team to Penn State to discuss four major topics
including: school development plans
establishing and managing relationships with alumni
alumni fundraising and donation management
and strategy planning for maintaining ties with alumni. Through learning
discussion
and using SWOT for comparative analysis
relevant strategic planning and design were carried out, and future feasible solutions were proposed.
From May 26 to June 4
Vice-President Greg Chung-Mou Lee led a delegation from the administrative team to Penn State for benchmarking on school development
planning of colleges
online education
and alumni networking in order to gain in-depth understanding of how various offices in Penn State conduct the promotion
integration and related achievements of their development plans.

President Cheng-Chih Wu and President of Penn State, Eric J. Barro signed a collaboration agreement for “Taiwan Hauyu BEST program” on November 1 to promote Chinese language instruction and learning through academic cooperation and exchange of visiting scholars and students.

Vice President Vice President Frank Yung-Hsiang Ying visited Penn State for the unveiling ceremony of the "PSU-NTNU Mandarin Training Center" on January 14, continuing to deepen the collaboration of “Taiwan Hauyu BEST program”.
Vice President of NTNU Frank Yung-Hsiang Ying led a delegation consisting of Vice President for International Affairs Yi-De Liu, Chair of the Department of Chinese as a Second Language Jia-Fei Hong and Associate Executive Director of Mandarin Training Center Chao Mei Tu to visit Penn State on November 16 to 17. The focus of this trip is to strengthen the academic research cooperation between strategic partners, to conduct exchanges on administrative benchmark learning, including the Global Classroom and the bilingual university plan, and to hold a local Taiwan Huayu BEST Program workshop to conduct academic exchanges on Chinese language teaching topics.

2019-2020 Joint Research

NTNU and Penn State have launched the "2019 Collaboration Development Fund Request for Proposals" program to strengthen their strategic partnership and promote cooperation in academic research and teaching. Faculty members from both schools have submitted research proposals
and those who have been selected for funding are listed below.

NTNU	PSU	Project Name
Lin, Yu-Tzu Graduate Institute of Information & Computer Education	Martin K.-C. Yeh College of Information Sciences and Technology	Leveraging human brainwave and eye gaze to harness the theory of computer program comprehension
Yeh, En-Chao Department of Earth Sciences	Roman DiBiase Geosciences	UAV-assisted geomorphic and structural surveys of river corridors in the Taiwan Central Range
Chen, Po-Hsi Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling	Hartono Tjoe Mathematics Education	An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the role of calculators in mathematical problem solving: Perspectives of mathematics educators and psychometricians
Chiang, Tsung-Che Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering	Sadan Kulturel-Konak Management Information Systems	(i)Solving Multiobjective Dynamic Environmental/Economic Dispatch (DEED) Problem using AI & (ii)Developing Machine Learning Modules to Incorporate in Existing Courses
Lai, Christine W Department of Business Administration	Dannis Lin Statistics	Word Power in Finance and Accounting: Topic 1: Information Signals of Text and Quantitative Measures in Financial Analyst Reports
Kuan, Yi-Jehng Department of Earth Sciences	James Kasting Geosciences	Spectral Study of Exoplanetary Atmospheres: A Direct Search for Habitable Earth-like Extra-Solar-System Planets
Ho, Yao-Hua Department of Computer Science & Information Engineering	Esther Obonyo Architectural Engineering	Participatory Sensing for Outdoor-Indoor Air Quality Monitoring