English - Research & Reflections

My Fulbright Experiences at University of Minnesota

Yu-Hui Chang 張宇慧 March 23, 2015

As a Fulbright Taiwan grantee, I always feel honored to introduce my country and discuss culturaldifferences whenever I meet people. When I attended a three-week Fulbright pre-academic program, which was sponsored by Fulbright IIE at Virginia Tech, I met Fulbright grantees from 26 countries. We not only shared our diverse cultures, but also learned about American culture and academic preparation together. It was a time to effacestereotypes and rethink questions of culture and mutual respect; most importantly, it was the time to try to understand other voices. From religiousto political issues, from culinary habits to the educational system, the topics wecovered ranged widely every day that I spent time with Fulbrighters. In a way,this experience was a challenge because it was necessary to expand my international knowledge so quickly, while being prepared to answer questions about my own country. Overall, it was worthwhile to share my perspectives that could present Taiwanese perspectives or speak for Taiwan in an international context. After the pre-academic program, I started my PhD coursework at the University of Minnesota where I’m currently studying learning technologies in the fields of curriculum and instruction studies. In my first semester, it’s been

Hierarchical Image Segmentation based on Sequential Partitioning and Merging

Sheng-Jyh Wang 王聖智 March 23, 2015

1. Background In computer vision, image segmentation is the process that decomposes an image into multiple segments. The goal of this process is to partition an image into something more meaningful and easier for subsequent analyses. For example, for the image shown in Figure 1, human eyes can easily recognize that there are two persons walking on a beach. Apparently, they have just finished snorkeling. To computers, however, this image is nothing but an array of pixel data, with each image pixel (picture element) containing three different kinds of color values (Red, Green, and Blue). If we can decompose the image into several smaller regions with each region containing similar colors or textures, it becomes easier for the computer to recognize the possible objects in the image (like humans, diving boots, and beach) and understand the image content. Over the past few decades, hundreds or even thousands of segmentation algorithms have been proposed, trying to produce segmentation results that are close to what human eyes perceive. Among these segmentation approaches, graph-based methods and clustering-based methods have proven to be quite successful and have been widely used. However, for the beach image in Figure 1, graph-based

A Midyear Reflection on the State of my Research

Lance Crisler 柯則已 March 20, 2015

I do a lot of reading; it’s part of my job description as a graduate student. I read all types of works: newspaper articles, opinion pieces, scientific data, political diatribe, etc. I also read quite a bit of Chinese literature and modern scholarship on such works. Recently, it occurred to me that I have lost, to some degree at least, my love of reading for pleasure, especially reading works of fiction. I tend to get lost in critical works, the argumentative polemics and rhetorical strategies of academic work published in scholarly periodicals, but I realized that I rarely, if ever, spend significant time reading fiction anymore. This is disconcerting, disturbing even, because not all reading is the same; different genres can produce wildly different effects. For example, exploring the universes of the future plotted out by science fiction writers or contemplating the power of language in historical settings recreated by dramatists shows the infinite possible worlds existing when authors indulge in fictive landscapes. Fictional works simultaneously reflect a multiplicity of voices and viewpoints in a way that other artistic mediums seem hard-pressed to duplicate. The way authors choose to arrange their plots, create characters, and manipulate

Notes from a Sufi Shrine in Sindh, Pakistan

Pei-Ling Huang 黃佩玲 March 13, 2015

The heat of the day had receded as we walked into the shrine after ‘isha, the final evening prayers. The marble ground felt cool to our bare feet when we took off our sandals and went in. There was no guard at the gate, no shoe-keeping stand, and people sat on the ground in small groups, chatting, eating, and sleeping. Children and even dogs ran around in the informal and mildly festive atmosphere of the beautifully-lit shrine courtyard. This place, the shrine of Shāh Abdul Latīf in Bhit Shāh, Sindh, was beyond doubt one of the most open and welcoming Sufi shrines I had ever been to in Pakistan. Adding our own footwear to a pile of countless dusty black sandals in the corner, we headed straight towards the inner courtyard where the saint is buried. My heart leapt as, from a distance, we saw the silhouette of a group of men sitting in a semi-circle on the ground in front of the tomb door, wielding huge pumpkin-bodied long-necked string instruments. The Shāh Jo Rāg fakirs were already there, ready to sing. I first read about the Shāh Jo Rāg fakirs in a program note for

Conversations: Names, Mingling, and Speaking Up

Yann-Ru Ho 何彥如 March 13, 2015

When I first arrived here in the United States to pursue graduate studies, I not only noticed the language difference, but also the unfamiliar conversation conventions. I realized that many conversations here operate according to a different communication style than what I was used to back home. Here in LA, I have found that many people greet others warmly and openly, even strangers. Since my arrival here, I have been greeted by cashiers, sales clerks, and bus drivers; even pedestrians on the streets usually greet me with a smile. This happens less often back home. During the many opportunities I have had to chat with Americans in the United States, I have observed some interesting features of conversations. For instance, not only do people greet each other, many also cordially share their opinions and information about themselves in lengthy dialogues with strangers. This openness and frankness is helpful, since it gives me more opportunities to hear what Americans have to say. From such conversations, I have been able to learn about American culture in terms of interpersonal communication. To illustrate, I will recount below some interactions I have had here with new friends. Name

My Reflections

Randall Nadeau, Jennie Farris Railey King Professor in Religion, Trinity University March 3, 2015

Taiwan is a welcoming, multicultural environment offering wonderful opportunities to international scholars. I have known Taiwan for 30 years, having first come at age 28 to teach English for a summer at the Tainan YMCA, and returning a year later for Chinese language study at the Stanford Center at National Taiwan University. After earning my PhD in East Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia in 1990, I have made several more trips to Taiwan: as a research scholar at Academia Sinica in the summer of 1996, as a guest professor of history at National Chengkung University in the spring of 2012, and now as a Senior Fulbright Scholar at Tunghai University. Tunghai University is a highly regarded private university in central Taiwan, founded in 1955 by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. Its motto is “Sustainability on the Foundation of Liberal Arts.” In the course of my fruitful five months at Tunghai, I have dedicated myself to collaborative work between Trinity University and the International College at Tunghai University. I have contributed to the strong relationship between these two institutions and our two countries in three areas: service, teaching, and research.

On Shamanism, Positivism, and Shifting One’s Frame of Reference

Mary Hamilton, B.A., Fordham University March 1, 2015

An important skill that I have adopted for living overseas in a different culture is shifting my frame of reference to accommodate new experiences or ideas. Living in Taiwan for the last six months has certainly challenged me to do so in refreshingly unexpected ways. Since new understandings begin with language and so much of language is based upon context, even a play-on-words can illustrate the value of shifting one’s frame of reference to unlock new meaning in a different culture. As my Social Cultural Anthropology teacher, Futuru Tsai, said jokingly in class, “If you asked an English speaker what is one plus one, they would reply with ‘Two.’ If you asked a Mandarin speaker what one plus one is, they would reply ‘Wang.’” The clever observation makes sense when you consider that Chinese writing is traditionally written vertically. The character for “one” is a horizontal line, 一, followed by a plus sign +, and then another horizontal line, 一, forms the Chinese character 王, wang, meaning king or monarch. Shift your frame of reference and you are already smiling. The approach of shifting one’s frame of reference comes in handy especially when encountering subjects that

Seeing the Coral for the Reef

Nathaniel Maynard 馬耐德 February 28, 2015

According to research by the Kenting National Park (KNP), more than 80% of Taiwanese people will visit the park at some point in their life, and of those, 70% will go to one of the park’s coral areas. Over 400,000 international and domestic tourists visit the area each month. These tourists bring critical revenue to the Hengchun Peninsula supporting livelihoods and infrastructure. At the same time, rising tourism increases overfishing, water pollution, and coastal development, all of which damage marine biodiversity. Humans need both economic development and natural integrity, but how do we balance these sometimes-competing goals? In the past, policy makers tended to focus on either growth or conservation to the detriment of both. Natural resource economics helps us understand ecosystems in monetary terms using social science–bringing our relationship with nature into the realm of financial planning. Once we know an ecosystem’s value, we can find appropriate legal settlements, reprioritize development goals, and help raise public awareness for better conservation. No ecosystem needs more protection right now than coral reefs, the beating heart of Kenting. Coral, the ocean’s calcium rainforests, supports 25% of the world’s marine biodiversity while covering less than 1% of

Mathematical Modeling: The Formosan Landlocked Salmon

Laurie Battle, Professor of mathematics, Montana Tech February 28, 2015

In recent decades, dam removal has become a frequently-used strategy for restoring natural stream habitats because dams deteriorate river channels and often lead to decreased diversity of species. Taiwan has many short and steep rivers in the high mountains, where strong rainfall creates high water velocity. As a result, the government constructed many check dams to prevent the collapse of riverbanks and to lessen sediment transport to lower elevations. As of 1999, Taiwan had over 3,000 check dams. The Chichiawan Stream and its tributaries in central Taiwan are the last refuge of the Formosan salmon. Dam establishment and agricultural development have degraded this habitat. These key factors are considered the main reason for the decline in the abundance and range of the Formosan salmon after the 1960s. The salmon population declined to about 200 individuals by 1984, at which time the Taiwanese government listed them as an endangered species. The salmon abundance in the entire Chichiawan basin has ranged between 1,000 and 5,500 since 2005. The Chichiawan Stream basin had 11 check dams in 2000, covering a length of less than 10 km. These dams have disturbed the salmon’s habitat in multiple ways. For instance, the presence of dams creates

This Invitation

Amber Kao February 24, 2015

“It began with an invitation from the Fulbright Program to spend a year in Taiwan and now an invitation for the audience to enter into the choreographer’s world: an invitation to dream, to wonder, to be innocent, to feel pain…to sacrifice, learn, re-learn, let go…to die, to live…” Created as the culmination of her year as a Fulbrighter in Taiwan, this work titled This Invitation represents Amber Kao’s journey of returning to the country from which her family came, and her discordant experience as an outsider in a culture where she looks like she should belong. This works alludes to two influential figures in the choreographer’s life that unintentionally led her back to Taiwan this year: her grandmother who immigrated to the United States to raise her and her piano instructor and artistic mentor, Professor Logan Skelton. The dual influence of tai chi dao yin and contemporary dance technique is interwoven throughout this theatrical and choreographic work. This piece comprises a sound score that includes voices of young children and a recording of a poem, both of which the choreographer composed and compiled. This Invitation I have for you this invitation, Feel free to accept or decline. I’d like for

Research & Reflections

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Research & Reflections

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Tag: English

My Fulbright Experiences at University of Minnesota

Hierarchical Image Segmentation based on Sequential Partitioning and Merging

A Midyear Reflection on the State of my Research

Notes from a Sufi Shrine in Sindh, Pakistan

Conversations: Names, Mingling, and Speaking Up

My Reflections

On Shamanism, Positivism, and Shifting One’s Frame of Reference

Seeing the Coral for the Reef

Mathematical Modeling: The Formosan Landlocked Salmon

This Invitation

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about

research topics

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watch videos

about

research topics

awards to taiwan

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awards to the U.S.

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watch videos

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Awards to Taiwan

grant categories

Awards to the U.S.

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Research & Reflections

fulbright taiwan online journal