Last week Chen Sheng-wei (陳昇瑋), Taiwan AI Academy’s CEO and E. Sun Financial Holding’s CTO, passed away from a stroke. This was a big loss to the tech and AI community, and we’d like to take the time to highlight some of his accomplishments for the ecosystem.
He has been dubbed “Taiwan’s AI guru” and “the godfather of Taiwan’s data science” because of his contributions to the community, making data science known as his north star, and growing AI talent. Taiwan AI Academy, for example, nurtures top AI talent through intensive four-month training programs to help industries in Taiwan gain a competitive edge in the AI revolution and industrial development. They offer different tracks depending on the students’ skills and needs, such as programs for technical professionals versus ones for business managers. They have a roster of heavyweight AI experts on the panel of teachers who have teaching experience as well. Taiwan AI Academy has so far cultivated around 6,000 young people around the country in 2 years, according to the academy.
The National Development Council (NDC) had previously recruited him to serve as a government advisor in drafting an open-data policy due to his expertise. One of his latest projects was the Taiwan Renaissance Platform, which was launched earlier this year with the aim of helping Taiwanese businesses upgrade and transfer from their existing, more traditional business models, in preparation for the challenges ahead.
In terms of his background, Chen Sheng-wei received his PhD. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University and his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from National Tsing Hua University. He started his career at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institute, at the age of 26. In 2017, he helped Academia Sinica to build its first popular science website to make science more approachable to the general public. During his 18-year tenure of service to the country’s research pool, Taiwanese manufacturers, and future workforce, he published over 130 research papers and founded the Taiwan Data Science Society alongside Taiwan AI Academy.
What kind of lessons can founders take away from Chen Sheng-wei?
1. Have a north star: when you have a big, lofty goal to reach, you essentially have a vision for your company. Keeping your north star in mind will ensure that you’re always moving in the right direction.
2. Users first: One of the biggest challenges in the early days of AI was education. The general public viewed AI in the lens of entertainment or sci-fi, which wasn’t that accurate. Chen Sheng-wei educated the public on the true nature of AI and the importance of data science in a format that best suited the public’s UX. The same kind of thinking can be applied to your users as well.
3. Give back to the community: One of the ways that Silicon Valley is so powerful is because everyone in the ecosystem understands the concept of “paying it forward”. Helping other founders and stakeholders will open doors of opportunity in the future. See if you can use the COVID-19 situation in a positive way to help others like Chen Sheng-wei did, for example by taking your data and turning it into content for your users / clients, or by onboarding offline clients affected by the virus to being online to drive sales.
Thank you Chen Sheng-wei for your contributions to Taiwan’s development, may you rest in peace.
Photo credit: Taiwan News
By: Natalie Feng Lin, Analyst
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