Five students from National Taiwan University and National Chung-Hsing University were given an incredible opportunity to participate in the Female STEM @ Rice University-MACHI program, a five-week short-term research and internship program in Houston, Texas. The students came with Doctor Junichiro Kono, Chair of the Department of Applied Physics at Rice University to call on TECO in Houston and receive a warm welcome from Director-General Robert Fu-Wen Lo and Director Andrea Yang of the Education Division.
The MACHI program was established by Dr. Kono specifically for Taiwanese female students in STEM fields. Kono started the TOMODACHI program, sponsored by U.S.-Japan Council, to invite excellent Japanese female students to visit and intern at Rice University and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 2016. The success of the TOMODACHI program led to a call in 2020 for a similar program for Taiwan. Soon after, and with much support from the Greater Houston community, the MACHI program was established. MACHI aims to enhance female students’ research experience and understanding of the U.S. higher learning, particularly in STEM fields.
Students under the TOMODACHI (Japanese for "friends") and MACHI (Japanese for "good friends") programs live and study together under the supervision of American faculty and researchers, demonstrating the spirit of collaboration in education between the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. Through these programs, female students are provided with unique research and internship opportunities to broaden their academic spectrum and promote the idea of gender equality in STEM education.
The five Taiwanese students also received support from Ministry of Education's "Study Abroad" program (學海計畫) funding. The students represent various fields and majors, such as biomedical engineering, physics, biotechnology, and mechanical engineering. They have worked on different lab projects from fabrication and optimization of lenses to photo-thermal control and single-photon emission. The five women are happy for the opportunity to study at Rice University under MACHI and are determined to become promising female scientists in the future.