Wu Cheng-wen (engineer)

In this Taiwanese name, the surname is Wu.

Wu Cheng-wen (Chinese: 吳誠文; born September 18, 1958) is a Taiwanese electrical engineer, computer scientist, and academic who has served as the minister of the National Science and Technology Council since 20 May 2024.

Wu Cheng-wen
吳誠文
Official portrait, 2024
2nd Minister of the Science and Technology Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 May 2024
Premier	Cho Jung-tai
Preceded by	Wu Tsung-tsong
President of the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
In office 2023 – 20 May 2024
Preceded by	Lu Deng-maw
Succeeded by	Chou De-kuang
Personal details
Born	(1958-09-18) September 18, 1958 (age 66) Tainan, Taiwan
Education	National Taiwan University (BS) University of California, Santa Barbara (MS, PhD)

Early life and education

Wu was born in 1958 in Tainan.^[1] Wu was an outfielder and pitcher for the Tainan Giants, representing Taiwan in the 1971 Little League World Series.^[2][3] After graduating from National Tainan First Senior High School, he attended National Taiwan University (NTU) and graduated with his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in electrical engineering in 1981.^[2] He then completed graduate studies in the United States at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he earned his Master of Science (M.S.) and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 1985 and 1987, respectively.^[4] His doctoral dissertation was supervised by computer science professor Peter Capello.^[5]

Academic career

After receiving his doctorate, Wu joined the National Tsing Hua University faculty in 1987. Wu later became vice president of National Tsing Hua University. In this role, Wu attended the 2016 ceremony marking the establishment of an office for the China-funded Cross-Strait Tsinghua Research Institute at NTHU.^[6][7][8] In 2017, Wu was one of eight candidates during the initial round of voting for the presidency of National Taiwan University.^[9][10] After education minister Pan Wen-chung drew attention to a "flawed" selection process that saw the election of Kuan Chung-ming to the post,^[11] Wu announced his intention to withdraw from further votes if interference took place in the selection of Kuan.^[12]

Wu has been affiliated with the Industrial Technology Research Institute as head of its Information and Communications Research Laboratories,^[13][14] as well as its vice president,^[15][16] and later, senior vice president.^[17][18]

Political career

At the time of his appointment as leader of the Executive Yuan's National Science and Technology Council on 16 April 2024, Wu was president of the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology.^[19]

In June 2024, Wu announced the government's proposal to extend the third phase of Taiwan's space development program.^[20]

Wu undertook a trip to Silicon Valley in the United States in September 2024. The trip included a visit to Stanford University's Taiwan Science and Technology Hub and Nvidia.^[21] In November 2024, Wu referenced in an interview that the Taiwanese government will spend NT$98 billion (about US$3 billion) over three years on artificial intelligence data centers and other upgrades, while working to strengthen cooperation with the United States' incoming Trump administration.^[22]

In December 2024, Wu stated that the Taiwanese government was in talks with Amazon about collaborating for the company's Kuiper broadband satellites. According to Wu, bandwidth for the country's existing Eutelsat OneWeb satellite service was too small, and Taiwan had also considered working with other European and Canadian companies.^[23] Wu also announced preparations for the "Chip Team Taiwan" initiative, which aimed to promote domestic production of drones, robotics, and other technologies and to reduce reliance on Chinese suppliers.^[24]

Honors and awards

Wu was elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2004.