Daring to try to join NSYSU was the right choice
Professor Feng-chang Huang describes his academic career and experiences as unique, mainly because he is a person who likes to experiment and explore the world in different ways. Shortly after receiving his PhD in Taiwan, Professor Huang was very grateful for the generosity of Taiwan’s National Science Council, which awarded him a full scholarship to conduct post-doctoral research at Warwick Business School in the UK. After completing a full year of post-doctoral research in the UK in 2012, he went on to submit his resume around the world. With the generous recommendation of his doctoral advisor and many senior academics from home and abroad, Professor Huang was successfully recruited to teach at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in Australia, where he spent nine years. The professor shared what he saw as the differences between Australian campuses and the Taiwanese campuses and explained that the education model of different societies has a great impact on students.

Professor Huang, who had never lived in southern Taiwan, chose to join the faculty of National Sun Yat-sen University for several reasons. First, he cited the success of the university’s internationalization, which allows professors who return to Taiwan from foreign academic systems to teach to make a smooth transition. The second reason is that, when interviewing with NSYSU’s Department of Business Administration, he felt the friendly and warm atmosphere of the department, the healthy and harmonious working environment, and the cordial relationship between colleagues, which he cherishes. Professor Huang said with a smile: “I trust my instincts – joining NSYSU’s College of Management is the right choice.”

Sharing teaching experiences abroad to promote exchange and diversification
During Professor Feng-chang Huang’s teaching experience in Australia, he found that the biggest difference between foreign students and Taiwanese students is autonomy. In his nine years of teaching at Sydney University of Technology, he never encountered students sleeping or eating in class. In terms of learning attitudes, foreign students are never afraid or shy to ask questions or express their ideas, and they have a confident attitude, which is rooted in the way they are taught from an early age. Using the example of his own children’s experience in kindergarten and elementary school, the professor observed that children are encouraged and trained to express themselves from the elementary school level, thus allowing them to develop strong communication skills.

From Professor Huang’s point of view, the experience of teaching abroad and then coming back to see the teaching model in Taiwan gives him a different perspective and allows him to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the educational systems in both societies. This has also allowed him to communicate with his students in a more diversified way.

Professional integration of interdisciplinary knowledge to create innovative courses 
Professor Huang’s research areas include computational optimization, data science, information management science, intelligent transportation and logistics, and production operation scheduling. His academic background covers management, engineering, and mathematics, and he is able to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge into the curriculum so that students can absorb a wider range of new knowledge.

Professor Huang’s courses “Information Management Systems” and “Production Operations Management” are required for business management students. Professor Huang mentioned that a new course will be offered next semester, “Measurement Management Optimization Methods,” which is relatively rare in the business administration departments. He believes that operational research and optimization methods are key tools for research related to measurement management. If students’ future research direction is related to management science and measurement management and needs to be presented in a quantitative way, then this new course will be very helpful in their learning path.

Follow your heart to teach and make your own way
In the process of learning about Professor Huang’s research expertise and academic experience, we found that he had actually aspired to pursue university academic work from his second year in college. While working as a research assistant at Academia Sinica, he chose to pursue his PhD in Taiwan, taking into account his family’s situation. Through hard work, he received a fellowship from Taiwan’s National Science Council to go abroad for additional training, and then further taught abroad for many years, fulfilling his initial dream.

In particular, Professor Huang’s academic career stage is different from most of the returnee scholars, who usually return to Taiwan to teach after completing their master’s and doctoral degrees abroad, while Professor Huang’s experience is the opposite. Therefore, he encouraged domestic PhD students not to undervalue themselves, but to make efforts to explore their own advantages and strengthen their international competitiveness. He uses himself as an example to encourage students that studying a PhD in Taiwan is not without value and asked them to think about how to take advantage of their value to make their own way.

(Written by special correspondent Chuan-yun Wang, Institute of Management and Communication / Edited by the College of Management)

Interview Video: http://www.youtube.com/embed/LfunIxazpKE