MIRDC has been holding the Elite Award, its highest award for four years. This year’s award ceremony was held on May 19 at the auditorium. The Elite Award selection is used to award outstanding teams and individuals in the fields of technology, product, industry, and service, and to demonstrate MIRDC’s excellent R&D service capability. For this award ceremony, judges Woody Duh and Yu-Sung Chen were especially invited, and they gave high recognition and encouragement to the team and individual winners. MIRDC hopes to use this platform to show development results or industry service experience to colleagues at the Centre, and to establish the annual benchmark for success.
This year’s awarded groups included the only supercritical CO2 fractionation purification equipment and production technology in the nation, which was used to assist local Chiayi agriculture industry step into high value food biotechnology products (such as gold-and-silver honeysuckle facial mask, Antrodia cinnamomea pills, and other skin care and dietary supplements), the nation’s first ultrasound atomization controllable micro-carrier module technology (applicable in the cancer medication field and bring benefits to cancer patients), assisting the Plumbing Association of Taiwan in establishing a lead free and functional faucet accreditation label to eliminate health risks from heavy metals and ensure the drinking water safety of general public. Elite Award is held to extract the Centre’s model DNA so that experience can be passed on, shared, and learned. The award provides an opportunity to commend the year’s successful models and to exhibit MIRDC’s R&D service and innovation capabilities.
Knowledge accumulation and experience inheritance is the foundation for improving the Centre’s innovative organization culture. In recent years MIRDC’s R&D capabilities and industry performance have been recognized internationally and by various industries. For example, the ultrasound atomization controllable micro-carrier module technology that won the category of product innovation in this year’s Elite Award also won the National Industrial Innovation Award’s Fundamental Industrial Technology Development Award, the highest honor for Taiwan technology development. In terms of industry-academia collaboration, MIRDC received the Outstanding Industry Academia Cooperation Institution Achievement Award granted by Chinese Institute of Engineers for four consecutive year. For international competitions, MIRDC won the “honorable mention” of Red Dot award with its MEER Thermo Bottle in 2016. The “memory metal - liposuction needle & system” won the Red Dot award once again in 2017. In addition, MIRDC has also helped Okuma (the world’s third largest fishing gear & tackle manufacturer) develop the “intelligent near-net shape forging technology for gear” which significantly improved reel performance. In April, Canada’s Discovery team even came to Taiwan for an in-depth interview.
MIRDC president Chiu-Feng Lin stated that “when flowers bloom, butterflies will come; if people are talented, fate will make arrangements.” This indicates the president’s high recognition towards the Elite Award, and expresses the president’s wish of using the transfer of model to continue with the Centre’s improvements and breakthroughs. Innovation comes from people, and MIRDC is working hard towards the development and promotion of production and management technology required by metal and its related industries. This not only forms a fundamental technology base and establishes a core technology team, but also helps organization members think out of technology-based box to proactively transform industrial model. This can help lead the reform of Taiwan’s metal industry and help the Centre’s innovative capabilities and potential to be recognized.