Education: Bachelor's Degree, Department of Economics, National Dong Hwa University; Master's Degree, Department of Economics, National Tsing Hua University

Current Position: Ph.D. Student in Management of Technology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

Dear fellow students of the Department of Economics,

I am Tsung-Han Chou, an alumnus currently studying innovation economics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. I am writing this article to share my experiences with you and to let you know that the Department of Economics at National Dong Hwa University offers many unique possibilities that you may not yet have noticed.

Like many other universities, the Department of Economics at NDHU offers courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics, providing rigorous training in these fields. What sets NDHU Economics apart, however, is that the professors are very willing to guide students in conducting research, especially while they are still undergraduates.

In the second semester of my sophomore year, I joined Professor Yan-Shu Lin's research team and began learning research methods. Under her guidance, I completed both a departmental research project and an undergraduate research project funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Later, I accompanied Professor Lin to National Taiwan University to attend Professor Hong Hwang's seminar on international trade and further develop my academic knowledge. These experiences not only gave me the opportunity to publish an academic journal article, but, more importantly, also laid a solid foundation for my subsequent research career.

Currently, my research focuses on the institutional design of intellectual property rights and the impact of patent systems on corporate innovation. Although the research methods I use now differ from those I used before, the foundation I developed as an undergraduate continues to help me articulate my ideas more clearly and improve the quality of my research when considering economic implications and determining research directions.

In conclusion, if you are interested in economic research, the Department of Economics at National Dong Hwa University is definitely a place worth considering. In addition to the advantages mentioned above, NDHU also offers a highly flexible course selection system, allowing you to easily take courses from different colleges in areas such as programming, data analysis, mathematics, statistics, and financial management. Moreover, NDHU is home to many international students from different countries, providing abundant opportunities for cross-cultural exchange.

I hope you find these experiences helpful, and I wish you every success in your studies!

Tsung-Han Chou 2024.06