OT-2039
September 23, 2020
Remarks by AIT Deputy Director Raymond Greene
at the American Innovation Center Housewarming Opening Ceremony
September 23, 2020
(as prepared for delivery)
Minister Tang, Deputy Mayor Tasi, and to all of our AIC friends, Dàjiā hǎo (大家好)!
I am pleased to be here today representing the American Institute in Taiwan to celebrate the sixth anniversary of the American Innovation Center and to open both the New AIC with our partner Songyang Creative and Culture Park (SCCP) and our Anniversary Forum hosted with the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology with the theme of “Post Covid-19’s Cross-disciplinary Innovation – Design for a Better World.”
The AIC was jointly established by AIT and our Taiwan partner in 2014 to promote the shared U.S.-Taiwan values of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Digitalization, and Culture & Design, by offering technology, creativity, and design-themed programs to public audiences. Over the past six years, more than 133,000 people visited the AIC and attended our 620 programs about innovation, AI, and big data, or to learn how to do coding, or make virtual reality applications.
Furthermore, we are grateful to have many of our old and new friends participate at our opening ceremony today. We often talk about the U.S.-Taiwan partnership in very simple terms: Real Friends, Real Progress (真朋友，真進展). And for AIC’s new opening this year, we not only would like to express our thanks to Taiwan Design Center and our long-term innovation partners, such as Microsoft Taiwan, IBM, and National Geographic, but especially would like to welcome our new partners including SCCP, MZONE, Service Science Society, Pacific Service Design Association and UX/UI Design Association. We are excited about the new energy, ideas, and resources they bring to the AIC.
As the Coivd-19 pandemic has changed the world including global industry and ecology, everyone is exploring new innovative models for the post Covid19 era. This year, AIC’s anniversary forum focuses on cross-disciplinary Innovation, especially on AI, design, VR-AR development and human-computer interaction after the Coivd-19 pandemic. Distinguished Designer Adam Cutler from IBM will join us from the United States and we are also hosting a Maker exhibition exploring how Maker can create new products to assist people against Coivd-19. We hope this forum and exhibition can give everyone new ideas.
Finally, once again I want to thank our distinguished guests, our many friends, and great innovation partners for your contribution to the development of the American Innovation Center and for making today’s events possible. And we are looking forward to working with all of you to co-create more innovation programs in the near future. And thank you to everyone attending here today.
