Academics and officials from Taiwan and India unveil a smart pandemic prevention system March 24 via a videoconference. (Courtesy of National Chung Cheng University)

Taiwan and India unveiled a jointly-developed smart pandemic prevention system March 24 via a videoconference, spotlighting the like-minded partners’ commitment to advancing disease-fighting technology.

In consultation with the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India and Taiwan Education Center in India, researchers from National Chung Cheng University in southern Taiwan’s Chiayi County and Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state fined tuned the system featuring real-time contact tracing, facial recognition and thermal body temperature monitoring over the course of nine months of intense collaborations, implementing it with great success on the two university campuses.

According to NCCU’s Taiwan-India Joint Research Center on Artificial Intelligence, the system demonstrates that Taiwan Can Help strengthen the New Southbound Policy target country’s response to COVID-19. It is expected to be rolled out in hospitals and other hot spots where disease prevention is of utmost importance, the center added.

High-profile participants of the event included Chen Mu-min, TECC deputy representative; Wang Chin-tsan, director of TECC’s Science and Technology Division; and Chadaram Sivaji, director of International Bilateral Cooperation Division under India’s Department of Science and Technology.

A key plank in the government’s national development strategy, the NSP seeks to deepen Taiwan’s agricultural, business, cultural, education, tourism and trade ties with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand. (YCH-E)