Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering

The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at Vanung University cultivates talents of aircraft maintenance and professionals of aviation composite materials. Recently, the Department received NT$ 17,000,000 subsidies from the Ministry of Education’s Optimized Technological and Vocational Practice Project to build an advanced aviation composite material production, inspection and repair practice field. This is the only practice field for aviation composite repair and non-destructive inspection that uses aviation standard equipment and maintenance manuals in Taiwan. Under the recognition of the Ministry of Education and the aviation industry, Vanung University will become the cradle of cultivating composite materials professionals across the country.

The only aviation composite manufacturing and maintenance laboratory in Taiwan that uses aviation standard equipment and maintenance manuals. President of VNU Dr. Zhuang (second from right) and students at the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering.

In June 2020, the successful trial flight of Brave Eagle, the higher education aircraft made in Taiwan, demonstrated the government's determination to support the nation’s aerospace industry and also marked a new milestone for having indigenous jets made by domestic aerospace industry. The use of a large number of composite materials for the fuselage of the Brave Eagle higher education aircraft is one of the important highlights of future fighter planes. The use of composite materials in the aerospace field has become an industry trend. Dr. Zhuang, the President of Vanung University, which is the closest university of science and technology to Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan, has taken the lead. A few years ago, he had invested heavily in the development of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU, not only training aircraft maintenance talents, but also aviation composite materials production and maintenance talents.


The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering has a hangar for parking the cockpit of the Boeing 737-200 passenger plane and various aero engines.

The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering has a hangar for aircraft repair and maintenance. The total floor area of ​​the hangar is about 500 square meters. It parks the cockpit and cabin of Boeing 737-200 passenger aircraft. It also has a variety of helicopters, fixed-wing aircrafts and aero engines, which are fully used for aircraft maintenance practice teaching. The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering employs a number of professional teachers with many years of experience in aircraft repair and maintenance, including Mr. Minglin Mo, the former director of TransAsia Airline’s Composite Repair Service, and Mr. Shanyuan Wang, the former director of Far Eastern Air Transport’s non-destructive inspection service. Mr. Mo has dozens of Airbus composite repair certifications, and is also a composite repair course trainer for GMI AERO, France, while Mr. Wang is certified in non-destructive testing level 2. Both practitioners would like to pass on their more than 20 years of practical experience to students in order to achieve the teaching characteristics of "learning by doing, doing by learning" at VNU.

The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering cultivates professional technical talents in aircraft maintenance and composite repairs. President Zhuang (middle) affirmed the students' learning attitude in the hangar.

The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering actively cooperates with the industry, and cooperates with the Plastics Industry Development Center (PIDC) to set up a composite material talent cultivation course in order to guide students to obtain the "Primary Composite Material Engineer Certification" from PIDC. In addition, the teachers lead the students to accept customized orders from the industry for the repair and development of composite parts in order to move towards sustainable management of the practical field. The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering attaches great importance to practical teaching, and helps students not only enter the aviation industry, but also shine in related industries and create their own bright future.

Aeronautical Engineering Related Departments at Universities of Science and Technology also Attract High School Students to Apply
 
Joint college entrance examination of Technological and Vocational Education was held on May 4. Under the declining birthrate, only the number of applicants for industrial sciences has increased this year. Among these applicants, Aeronautical Engineering related departments are one of the hottest departments in the Power Mechanical Engineering Group. Such departments produce aircraft maintenance technicians who not only earn high salaries, but are also in great demand. As long as they are willing to sweat and bear heavy loads, they can earn NT$40,000 a month once they graduate. Recognizing the demand, universities of Science and Technology also started related departments to proactively recruit talents and attract high school students to apply.
 
“In 2018, the output value of Taiwan's aviation-related industries reached NT$ 100 billion, of which aircraft maintenance accounted for 55% to 60%,” said Dr. Yu-Tai Yang, Assistant Professor of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at Vanung University (VNU). Dr. Yang also said, “The starting salaries of the aircraft maintenance personnel are NT$ 35,000 to 40,000 at the two major aircraft factories, CAL Engineering & Maintenance Organization, and Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corporation. The starting salary of a university graduate can reach NT$ 43,000 if his/her TOEIC score is 450 up.  
 
In response to the demand for aircraft maintenance personnel in Taiwan, Vanung University established the Preparatory Office of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering in 2014. From 2015 to 2018, the department increased one class every year, and in 2018 it recruited a total of 200 students in 4 classes. Dr. Yang said that the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering planned to enroll only 10% of high school students, but it attracted three times the number of applicants.
 
Dr. Yu-Tai Yang pointed out that the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU will not expand in the future, but will focus on improving the quality of teaching in four major areas: aircraft maintenance, aviation composite materials, drones and electromechanical integration. Among them, VNU invested NT$ 20 million to cultivate the talents of aviation composite materials. Such investment is aimed at the demand for Taiwan’s aircraft component technicians by major manufacturers domestic and abroad after the continuous development of Taoyuan Aerotropolis.

  "Lightweight" is currently one of the focus of aircraft design. Newly built aircraft will use a large amount of composite materials. Therefore, the aviation industry urgently needs high-level composite structure repair talents in the future. In view of this, the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering is striving for the NT$ 17 million implementation environment plan of the Ministry of Education to optimize the technical and vocational schools to build the nation’s leading "Advanced Aviation Composite Material Production and Repair Inspection Practice Field", and then actively cultivate the composite talents needed by the industry, so that teaching and the workplace can be seamlessly integrated, and students can find a good job in the aviation industry as soon as they graduate.




 The trainees do it by themselves and experience the interesting practical application of composite materials. Picture: Provided by Vanung University

 In order to enable the graduates of technical and vocational schools to better meet the needs of the industry, the Education Bureau has specially set up the "Promoting Industry-University Linkage Cooperation Education Platform". Using the equipment and teachers of "Advanced Aviation Composite Material Production and Repair Testing Practice Field", in mid-August for two consecutive weeks, the "Aeronautical Composite Material Structure Repair Technology Industry Practice Training Course" was held at Vanung University. The course content includes: standard equipment and technology for aviation composite structure restoration, discussion of various aspects, actual field experience observation, etc., so that participating teachers can understand the latest industry information and experience the actual situation in person, so as to lead students to successfully enter this high salary and high value-added aviation industry.
 
This course invites many experts from the "Consortium Plastic Industry Technology Development Center" and experienced professors from the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at Vanung University to serve as lecturers. The "Plastic Industry Technology Development Center" is an important center for the development of composite materials technology in China. Deputy General Manager Zhengwen Qiu, Dr. Xiucheng Zhang and others who are lecturers are all heavyweights with experience in the field of composite materials. The industry teachers of Vanung University are the former director of Far East Airlines non-destructive inspection Shanyuan Wang and the director of TransAsia Airline Repair and Maintenance Minglin Mo. In addition to teachers from all departments of Vanung University, the participants also included teachers from the Department of Aeronautics of Chaoyang University of Technology, China University of Science and Technology, and Far East University, and students from the Aerospace Engineering Department of Tamkang University. The teachers were full of intellect and sensibility in the classroom, sharing the leading creativity and superb technology accumulated by Taiwan's composite materials industry over the years, and the discussion atmosphere was enthusiastic. The trainees also personally experienced the interesting practical application of composite materials. Many participants felt that the trip was worthwhile and benefited a lot.


 The Executive Office of the National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology cooperated with the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at Vanung University to launch the "Aerospace Composite Structure Repair Technology Industry Practice Study Course." Picture: Provided by Vanung University

 The soul of this event, Director Shengjun Yang of the Aerospace Technology Center of Vanung, said: "Our students are not looking for jobs in the past and present industries, but in the future industries. We want to teach students about the future. Things, aviation composites are the rising stars of the aviation industry, waiting for our children to shine in it.” Ligen Hsu, director of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering, thanked all the participating professors and experts, and emphasized: "This training course draws on the industry-university links between the Ministry of Education and the Plastics Center. It is very meaningful, because the aviation composite industry needs talents, and we have teachers with practical experience to instruct students step by step, regardless of their levels, as long as our students are willing to learn, they can step into this high-paying industry."

 Many people yearn for the job of a pilot. The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU recently recruited former China Airlines Boeing 737 training pilot Zhihong Chen to join the teaching team. At the same time, the Department spent a huge amount of money to build a six-axis dynamic flight simulation classroom, of which the six-axis flight dynamic simulator is the key to training pilots. The equipment, in addition to visually simulating the scenes seen during flight, the cabin can also be linked with the change of flight attitude to show the real flight experience.


 VNU builds flight simulation classroom for students to experience the feeling of flying

 The simulator course cultivates students' hand-eye coordination and multi-tasking operation to pilot the aircraft. In addition to experiencing the joy of flying, they can also practice flying skills. Zhihong Chen said that the six-axis flight dynamic simulator is used for primary flight training. Students take flight courses as an elective course, first learn basic flight operation skills, and then expand relevant aviation professional knowledge.
 
Dr. Chang Zhuang, president of Vanung University, said that students first love flying, participate in flying, understand flying, and then learn aircraft maintenance, design, and production. The Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU gathers all kinds of talents in aviation engineering, including masters with composite material licenses and practical experience, as well as experts with long-term first-line operations and non-destructive inspection licenses, and teachers with expertise in drone operation. Now, with the addition of a pilot instructor with civil aviation flight experience, the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU has truly become the cradle of all-round aviation talent cultivation.
 
Dr. Ligen Hsu, director of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering, pointed out that the department provides students with complete courses on aircraft structure and engine maintenance, aviation composite materials, non-destructive testing, drones, and simulated flight, so that students can fully compete in the high-paying aviation industry after graduation.

 

Students from the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering participated in the "2020 National English Readers Theater Competition" and won the second place in the Group Award and the second place in the Individual Award for Best Oral Skills. This competition is sponsored by the Department of Applied Foreign Languages ​​and Language Center of Longhua University of Science and Technology. Through script reading and performance, the interest in reading and the ability of oral expression are enhanced. The awards are divided into the top 3 of the Group Award and the top 3 of the Individual Award (best oral skill award). Contestants from Vanung University selected the play "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" from the readers' theater scripts provided by the organizer to participate in the competition. A total of 42 contestants from various universities competed to perform different scripts.
 
Enyu Lu, a student from the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering won the second place in the "Personal Award for Best Oral Skills" in this competition. He graduated from the Aircraft Maintenance Department of Kaohsiung Dayong High School. Enyu, who is still a freshman, said that he has never participated in any national English competition before, and he has never tried to perform a ruthless character like the wolf in English. During the practice time, he kept putting himself in the evil and cunning mood of this character. In the process, as the plot continued to change, his voice expressions also had to change. He failed to produce the desired effect at the beginning. However, through the continuous guidance of Ms. Yu-hui Tsai from the school’s English Language Center, he achieved a breakthrough. He never thought that he would have won the Personal Best Oral Skills Award. With this experience, he said, “I hope that in the future, I can greatly improve my English listening, speaking, reading, writing and communication skills by participating in more national English competitions.”
 
Ms. Yu-Hui Tsai from the English Language Center of Vanung University patiently trained the participating English contestants every day before the competition. Enyu Lu was one of the talents she selected on the day of freshmen orientation in the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering. She said that the contestants spent a lot of time and effort every day to practice lines, strengthen their pronunciation, intonation, and voice expression. Also, they must cultivate a team understanding with other teammates in a short period of time. Although after registering for the competition, there was only less than two weeks to train, the diligent team had exerted the greatest explosive momentum within a limited period of time, and won the second place in the team competition and the individual award respectively. “Great achievement, I am deeply gratified,” said Ms. Tsai.
 
Dr. Ligen Hsu, director of the Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering, said that in addition to cultivating engineering professionals in the areas of aircraft maintenance and aviation composite materials, the department has always spared no effort in cultivating students' English ability. After all, a high level of English in the aviation industry will lead to a higher-paying position. Looking back the records of the student achievement awards since the establishment of the department in 2015, under the hard work and guidance of Ms. Yu-Hui Tsai, the number of winners in various national English competitions from this department has reached more than 24 people, and many of them are among the top three national awards. Such English competition results are not easy for students in any department of engineering!
 
The president of Vanung University, Dr. Chang Chuang said that the school attaches great importance to English teaching and international learning to enhance students’ international vision and international mobility. Vanung University adheres to the student-oriented teaching philosophy of "appropriate talents." With good grades and strong English proficiency, students can get full scholarships to go to the United States as exchange students, and do overseas internships in their senior year. Dr. Chuang congratulated the students for winning the second place in both the individual award and the group award in the National English Readers Theater Competition. The first-class university will surely create first-class students!
 
The following is the link to the award-winning live performance in the National Readers Theater Competition: https://youtu.be/5fwYZQ1b57w

English Introduction to Vanung University (VNU)





English Introduction to Department of Aeronautical and Opto-Mechatronic Engineering at VNU