The engineering education in university-based incubators of Taiwan

摘要

Business incubation is a dynamic process of business enterprise development. Incubators nurture young firms, helping them to survive and grow during the start-up period when they are most vulnerable. Incubators provide hands-on management assistance, access to financing and orchestrated exposure to critical business or technical support services. Most also offer entrepreneurial firms shared office services, access to equipment, flexible leases and expandable space-all under one roof. Up to now, there are 95 incubators in Taiwan, in which 73 incubators (76.8%) are university-based. All the university-based incubators are sponsored by the government. The purpose is to invest the research capability in the universities into enterprises. By way of professors leading students to solve actual problems of enterprises so as to vitalize the enterprises and fulfill the practice of engineering education. This paper introduces the definition, content, and goals of an incubator. The incubation history, development, and current status of Taiwan are also depicted. Besides, the multi-disciplinary engineering education in the business incubation of Taiwan is described as well.