An Investigation on Undergraduate’s Bio-Energy Engineering Education Program at the Taiwan Technical University

Abstract

With global warming issues and high dependence on imported energy in Taiwan, the Advisory Office of Ministry of Education (MOE) started a pioneer four-year project to develop the interdisciplinary green technology (GT) education program for undergraduates since 2007. In this paper, the implementation of bio-energy program at the two technical universities (i.e., National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, and Tajen University of Technology) under the funding support of the program was described to focus on the curriculum development. This paper will also address some new approaches and innovative directions to bio-energy education: incorporating basic courses into the bio-energy program, transforming the current bio-energy program into undergraduate degree program, implementing distance learning courses, and combining informal science education into the professional education program. It is thus prospective that the bio-energy education at university level will be in line with the efforts in the directions of comprehensive energy education.