Founded in 1986, PANJIT Group is approaching a major milestone: its 40th anniversary. In an exclusive interview, founder and Group President Jason Fang reflected on the company's entrepreneurial journey, which began shortly after completing his military service, when he launched a red-brick manufacturing business specializing in tunnel kiln technology that later became the largest brick factory in southern Taiwan.Looking back on those early years, Jason Fang believes entrepreneurship is built on respecting professional expertise, building the right values within an organization, and fulfilling corporate social responsibility. These principles laid the foundation for PANJIT's evolution into a leading Integrated Device Manufacturer (IDM) in the power semiconductor industry, with capabilities spanning wafer fabrication, packaging, and testing.Like any enduring enterprise, PANJIT's journey came with its share of challenges. Along the way, a key source of the company's strength has been the close partnership between Jason Fang and his brother, Chairman & CEO Jeff Fang. With complementary leadership styles and strong execution capabilities, the two brothers have worked side by side for four decades, guiding PANJIT through every stage of its growth.Turning the Vision of "Power Semiconductors as the Backbone of Industry" into RealityPANJIT was founded during Taiwan's rapid industrial transformation in the 1980s, when the economy was shifting from traditional manufacturing toward a rapidly growing technology sector. Recognizing the long-term potential of foundational electronic components, Jason Fang chose to enter the power semiconductor industry despite having little prior experience in the field.He believed that every electronic device ultimately depends on efficient power components, viewing power semiconductors as the backbone of modern electronics. The vision, that power semiconductors would become the backbone of the modern electronics industry, became the driving philosophy behind PANJIT's development. Through the collective efforts of Jeff Fang and the entire PANJIT team, has steadily become reality over the past forty years.In its early days, PANJIT entered the market through packaging technologies for fundamental components such as power diodes. Technical support initially came through a Korean supply chain connected to Fairchild Semiconductor, allowing the company to begin as an OEM supplier serving the European home appliance market.Through close collaboration with customers, PANJIT gradually established its quality systems, manufacturing foundation, and domestic supply chain ecosystem, strengthening its operational capabilities and building a solid foothold in the market.Three Key Milestones Behind PANJIT's Rise in Automotive and Data Center Power SemiconductorsThe first came during the Y2K era around 2000, when rapid growth in ICT products and compact consumer electronics accelerated the industry's shift from through-hole components to surface-mount devices (SMD). Recognizing this trend early, PANJIT imported advanced equipment from Switzerland and quickly expanded into the SMD segment, capturing its first major growth opportunity.The second milestone came during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Surging demand for notebooks and electronic devices placed heavy pressure on semiconductor supply chains, making capacity expansion a top industry priority. PANJIT accelerated expansion at its Xuzhou manufacturing base while restructuring its solar panel business to refocus resources on core semiconductor operations. As Jason Fang described it, the company chose to "rise again from where it once faced setbacks."The third turning point emerged from tightening global automotive semiconductor supply chains beginning in 2024, often referred to by the media as the "Nexperia supply disruption." During this period, PANJIT successfully transitioned from a secondary supplier to a primary sourcing partner for many customers. By providing stable supply, competitive pricing, and strong manufacturing support, the company rapidly expanded its automotive power semiconductor business, with automotive applications accounting for approximately 40% of revenue, while further advancing into AI data center and medium- to high-voltage DC power solutions.Expanding the PANJIT Brand in the Global MarketPANJIT's expanding presence in the global automotive supply chain began taking shape as early as 2018, when increasing numbers of Tier 1 automotive customers approached the company in search of additional sourcing partners. This opportunity also highlighted the need to further strengthen product quality and manufacturing systems.While PANJIT's earlier business focused primarily on consumer electronics, automotive applications required a much higher level of reliability and quality assurance. To meet these standards, PANJIT worked with a German team in Europe to establish automotive-grade quality and manufacturing systems, rebuilding its quality management framework over two years.Beginning in 2020, PANJIT significantly increased investment in automotive and high-performance power semiconductor technologies. Through its R&D teams, the company expanded product lines compatible with leading European solutions while investing approximately USD 300 million between 2020 and 2023 to strengthen its competitiveness in the automotive market.By 2024, PANJIT had further expanded its third-generation semiconductor portfolio to include silicon carbide (SiC) products, addressing growing demand from AI data centers and next-generation infrastructure applications. With a strong focus on automotive and AI-related medium- and high-voltage DC power solutions, the PANJIT brand has steadily gained recognition in the global market.At the same time, PANJIT continued expanding its global manufacturing footprint while strengthening Taiwan as its core R&D and advanced packaging hub through manufacturing sites in Kaohsiung. To enhance supply chain flexibility amid evolving geopolitical conditions, the company launched a new packaging production line in the Philippines in 2023. In 2025, PANJIT further expanded its global operations by acquiring a 95% stake in TOREX Vietnam Semiconductor Co., Ltd., including its manufacturing facility. These expansions further strengthened production flexibility, regional capacity allocation, and diversified sourcing options for customers worldwide.PANJIT Advancing into New Frontiers to Power the FutureBuilt upon four decades of steady development, PANJIT is now preparing for its next phase by expanding its international product portfolio, advancing technology capabilities, and cultivating global talent resources to further elevate the PANJIT brand worldwide.Looking ahead, Jason Fang identified three key strategic markets for the company's future development: continued expansion across Europe and the United States, deeper operations within China's increasingly self-sufficient semiconductor ecosystem, and broader opportunities in Japan through collaboration with customers, suppliers, and industry partners.Beyond business expansion, Jason and Jeff Fang also hope to build long-term partnerships with organizations that share similar values while supporting the revitalization and future growth of Japanese industry through collaboration and mutual success.Guided by its vision to "Power the Future," PANJIT continues to expand its global brand presence across the Americas, China, and Japan as the company moves confidently toward its next forty years of growth and innovation.PANJIT Group executives and guests from around the world celebrated its 40th anniversary. Credit: PANJIT

As Large Language Model (LLM) reasoning capabilities continue to evolve, AI Agents have officially surpassed passive "Copilots" to become the core of global digital transformation. These agents are now capable of autonomous planning, multi-step execution, and real-time strategic adjustments, marking a shift in how organisations approach digital transformation. According to MarketsandMarkets' "AI Agents Market Report (2025–2030)," the global AI Agent market is projected to experience explosive growth over the next five years, reflecting widespread enterprise adoption.At AI Expo Taiwan 2026, this shift was a central theme across the event, with multiple organisations highlighting agent-based architectures. HCLTech was among those presenting its perspective under the theme "Are You Agent-Native Yet?". The company showcased a suite of solutions tailored for semiconductor manufacturing and financial services aimed at helping enterprises operationalise AI agents and integrate them into core business processes.Commenting on the evolving AI landscape, Terry Tai, Country Leader of HCLTech Taiwan, noted that "under the traditional Copilot model, humans act as coordinators, giving specific instructions via chat interfaces for AI to execute. In the AI Agent era, however, these agents take a high-level objective, autonomously plan, orchestrate tools, and iteratively complete tasks. Humans have transitioned from coordinators to supervisors and are no longer bogged down by tedious intermediate steps.""The real shift comes down to reasoning capability," said Alan Flower, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Cloud and AI Labs at HCLTech. "It's what allows the latest Frontier models to work through complex intermediate steps, with agentic frameworks enabling shared knowledge across the new multi-model, multi-agent solution domain.As organisations move to AI-Native approaches, it's becoming clear that this isn't just a technology change, it's a cultural transformation as organizations re-engineer their core value streams to be augmented and delivered by agentic AI. You need to think about the responsibilities you are prepared to delegate to AI, retain human-in-the-loop, or allow fully autonomous human-on-the-loop approaches. You need to reskill and train your workforce; teach them to assemble teams of AI agents to whom they will delegate work. For example, software engineers now need to describe software, and delegate the coding to agents, not write all of it themselves."Solving Smart Manufacturing Pain Points: HCLTech Kinetic AI.InspectTaiwan's semiconductor and high-tech industries lead the world, yet traditional facility inspections still struggle with high labor costs and significant safety risks. For instance, in a semiconductor wafer fab, engineers can spend considerable time merely complying with gowning and entry protocols before addressing a single device malfunction. These logistical delays represent a significant, yet often overlooked, hidden cost for high-tech manufacturers.HCLTech featured Kinetic AI.Inspect at the expo, a solution specifically designed to address these pain points. HCLTech builds "Hybrid Inspection Fleets" using quadrupeds (robot dogs) and drones, integrated with 3D reality capture and real-time AI analysis. This solution, already deployed by a leading global aircraft manufacturer, has delivered significant results: reducing unplanned downtime by 30%, increasing inspection frequency by 30x, and boosting post-processing productivity by up to 95%.Flower pointed out that with Kinetic AI.Inspect, if a robot dog detects an anomaly, it doesn't just sound an alarm; it can autonomously trigger an ERP system check for spare parts. If no stock is found, it automatically generates a Purchase Order (PO) to initiate the repair process. This Agent-Native flexibility is something traditional, stationary IoT sensors cannot achieve.Tai added that these applications extend across all manufacturing sectors, including steel, petrochemicals, and offshore wind power, where reducing on-site human risk is critical. Many Taiwanese firms expressed strong interest at the event and are currently planning Proof of Concepts (PoC).Implementing Agentic SDLC with HCLTech AI ForceBeyond manufacturing, HCLTech introduced the AI Force platform for the software-heavy tech sector. This platform supports the full Agentic SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), covering automated requirement documentation, API specification architecture, and code refactoring. Internal benchmarks show a 30% increase in development speed, a 45% boost in testing efficiency, and a 60% acceleration in legacy application modernization. As a TSMC Design Center Alliance (DCA) partner, HCLTech also applies AI to semiconductor R&D, automating specification interpretation and test plan generation to maximize engineering throughput."When you look at the B2B Accounts Payable landscape, the scale is enormous - in Taiwan alone it's worth around USD 215 billion annually. Yet much of it still runs on manual processes, with global Straight-Through Processing rates sitting at just 32.6%," said Tai."What we're seeing is a shift. By applying specialised agents to tasks like data extraction and duplicate payment detection, it's possible to move beyond those constraints. In some cases, STP rates are rising above 80%, invoice processing costs are dropping by more than 60%, and duplicate payments are falling to under 1%."With over 200,000 employees globally, HCLTech operates innovation labs in the US, UK, Germany, India, and Singapore. In late 2025, HCLTech partnered with NVIDIA to launch an AI Lab focused on scaling Physical AI and cognitive robotics for industrial use. By assessing technical maturity and data readiness, HCLTech continues to help enterprises explore and incubate new technology use cases as their primary AI transformation partner.To find out more, please visit HCLTech.HCLTech at AI Expo Taiwan 2026. Credit: HCLTech

National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) successfully hosted the 2026 Global Consortium for Innovation and Engineering in Medicine (GCIEM) Global Summit. This international academic exchange highlighted that the cross-disciplinary integration of medicine and engineering has entered a stage of systematic development. Dr. Albert C. Yang, Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Digital Medicine and Smart Healthcare at NYCU, pointed out that Taiwan is progressively stepping outside traditional medical education frameworks to cultivate interdisciplinary talent bridging engineering and healthcare. The summit served as a crucial opportunity to showcase the results of these long-term investments to a global audience.ASUS showcased its smart healthcare strategic layoutroadmap at the summit. Joe Hsieh, Chief Operating Officer of ASUS, stated that in addition to its talent pool, Taiwan possesses key foundational advantages such as comprehensive medical data, industry agility, and system integration capabilities. While these factors have accelerated the real-world deployment of related applications, ASUS remains committed to further elevating Taiwan's global visibility through ongoing industry-academia collaborations and continuous international platform connections.GCIEM Strengthens International Ties; ASUS Showcases Smart Healthcare SolutionsThe inception of GCIEM traces back to post-pandemic international exchanges. In 2022, an NYCU delegation visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and observed that certain academic and research institutions had already integrated engineering into medical education. This catalyzed the joint efforts to establish GCIEM and its annual summit mechanism. Following the inaugural summit in the U.S., Taiwan was selected to host the second edition. Dr. Yang believes that hosting the summit in Taiwan allowed the international community to witness Taiwan’s departure from traditional medical education, systematically demonstrating its achievements in med-tech integration while strengthening global ties.As a global leader in smart healthcare, ASUS participated in GCIEM 2026. At the summit, the company aimed not only to demonstrate its technical expertise but also to validate Taiwan's integration capabilities in engineering medicine. Joe Hsieh noted that ASUS has long been strategically positioned in medical applications. Its technological focus has evolved from early physiological data collection via the ASUS VivoWatch smart health watch and medical imaging utilizing the ASUS Handheld Ultrasound, to advanced AI applications. Progressing from sensor technology and medical image processing to model-driven AI, ASUS is now advancing toward No-Code AI platforms and Agentic AI, showcasing the evolution of medical technology from assistive tools to intelligent decision-making systems.NYCU and ASUS have collaborated extensively in recent years to integrate smart healthcare systems. A prime example is the clinical application of the ASUS VivoWatch smart health watch, which collects physiological signals to assess risks related to sleep, stress, and sleep apnea. Additionally, the introduction of Ambient AI-powered voice recognition technology has significantly enhanced clinical documentation efficiency and optimized medical workflows. Reflecting on these collaborative experiences, Dr. Yang asserted that Taiwan’s smart healthcare capabilities, in terms of both clinical techniques and medical quality, are on par with those of other advanced nations. He believes that international platforms like GCIEM will continue to expand Taiwan's global visibility, systematically presenting its achievements and advantages in the smart healthcare sector.NYCU Highlights Physician-Engineer Program to Deepen MedTech IntegrationDr. Yang further pointed out that the integration of medicine and engineering has progressed from the application layer to the talent cultivation system. To address this, NYCU has implemented a six-year Physician-Engineer Program within its Department of Medicine. The program equips medical students with a solid foundation in electrical engineering and computer science, fostering the cross-disciplinary expertise needed to drive medical innovation and bolster Taiwan's talent advantage in both fields. Joe Hsieh added that beyond talent, Taiwan possesses critical competitive advantages, including comprehensive medical data, industry speed, and exceptional system integration capabilities. [1] Joe Hsieh stated that in addition to talent, Taiwan possesses key competitive advantages such as data, speed, and system integration capabilities.He noted that Taiwan's highly concentrated industrial supply chain enables rapid technical integration and product deployment, while its long-accumulated data provides ideal conditions for AI model training.[2] Regarding medical data, Taiwan's long-accumulated data foundation provides optimal conditions for AI applications. Furthermore, the high concentration of Taiwan’s industrial supply chain enables rapid technical integration and product deployment, ensuring extraordinary industrial responsiveness. In terms of system integration, the capability to transform systems into total solutions remains a core advantage of Taiwan's MedTech ecosystem.Addressing collaborations with academic and research institutions, Joe Hsieh pointed out that as AI enters a phase of high specialization, healthcare is a field with significant barriers to entry. This requires deep, tripartite collaboration between enterprises, academia, and medical institutions to effectively bridge technology with clinical needs. He stated that Taiwan's unique geographical and industrial concentration accelerates the verification and deployment of medical research findings. ASUS has currently deployed hundreds of engineers to develop medical AI, utilizing industry-academia-research collaborations to streamline the path to bringing efficient and high-impact results to real-world clinical applications.AI Enters Clinical Decision-Making; Trust Remains the Key to Healthcare SystemsJoe Hsieh further noted that AI's role in the medical field is rapidly transforming. Medical AI has progressed from the early AI 1.0, which focused on image recognition, to AI 2.0, capable of integrating multimodal data. Moving forward, it will transition into Agentic AI featuring task execution and proactive collaboration capabilities, gradually entering the core of medical workflows.Dr. Yang emphasized that AI's clinical positioning is not to replace physicians, but rather to serve as a support system for preliminary screening and alerts. In areas such as image interpretation, endoscopy, and critical care decision-making, AI assists in improving efficiency and reducing the risk of human omission.As AI evolves from assisting in interpretation to participating in workflows, the depth of its application increases. However, the high requirements for accuracy and accountability in healthcare make trust a critical factor for adoption. Joe Hsieh pointed out that due to the inherent uncertainty in AI judgments, reliability must be enhanced through foundational computing power, trustworthy models, and multi-model cross-validation mechanisms.The question of whether Taiwan can transition from a technology adopter to a standard-setter against the backdrop of rapid medical AI development has become a key focus for both the medical and tech industries. Dr. Yang mentioned that standards are not formed through a top-down approach; instead, they emerge from applications recognized by frontline medical staff. These practical experiences are gradually refined and accumulated, eventually transforming into followable guidelines. Joe Hsieh added that the core of standardization lies in verifiability. Establishing consistent workflows through multi-model cross-validation to drive the standardization of decision-making mechanisms will be an essential foundation for developing medical Agentic AI. Throughout this process, Sovereign AI serves as the critical foundation for ensuring data and model autonomy. By leveraging its existing advantages in medical data to build sovereign models and application ecosystems, Taiwan has the opportunity to secure a stronger voice and greater strategic influence in the global development of medical AI.Refocusing on the Patient-Physician Relationship in the Era of AI WorkflowsRegarding the future development of smart healthcare in Taiwan, Dr. Yang suggested starting by enhancing patient-physician interactions. He cited the concept of a "computerless clinic," powered by Ambient Clinical Intelligence (ACI), as a prime example. In this scenario, wearable sensors and Ambient AI systems collect and analyze patient physiological data in real time, while automatically generating electronic health records (EHRs), ordering tests, and entering data into backend systems. This innovation ultimately frees the consultation process from the distractions of manual computer operations.Joe Hsieh concurred, adding from the perspective of real-world deployment that multiple Agentic AI systems featuring voice recognition, image analysis, and sensory capabilities could operate synergistically in the future. This collaborative approach establishes a digital assistant architecture with a clear division of labor. Combined with wearable devices and smart glasses, technology can be integrated seamlessly and invisibly into medical workflows to provide real-time information. This ultimately allows physicians to focus entirely on clinical judgments and patient interactions, thereby elevating overall efficiency and quality of care.Dr. Yang concluded by pointing out that hosting GCIEM 2026 has allowed Taiwan to transition its role in med-tech integration from a mere participant to an active practitioner. As AI advances from a supportive tool to decision-making and execution, the competitive focus within the healthcare industry is shifting from singular technical capabilities to system integration and the establishment of trust mechanisms. The collaboration between ASUS and NYCU demonstrates the pathway from talent cultivation and data accumulation to real-world deployment, gradually forming a replicable and scalable development trajectory. With cross-disciplinary capabilities serving as a solid foundation, Taiwan is poised not only to participate in this smart healthcare transformation but also to define its future direction.

iCatch Technology announced that its 360-degree vision-based obstacle avoidance system has been successfully integrated into Avilon Intelligence's drone platform. Through four camera modules, multi-view image perception, real-time AI vision processing, and flight-control coordination, the system enhances autonomous flight safety, stability, and intelligence in complex environments.Compared with traditional single-direction or partial obstacle avoidance architectures, iCatch Technology's 360-degree vision-based obstacle avoidance system uses four camera modules to build a more comprehensive surrounding perception capability. This allows drones to simultaneously understand environmental information from multiple directions, including front, rear, left, and right, effectively reducing collision risks while improving flight stability and mission success rates.The integration between iCatch Technology and Avilon Intelligence demonstrates the practical application value of the 360-degree vision-based obstacle avoidance system on a real drone platform. By combining the 360-degree module system, image input, real-time computing, and flight-control coordination, drones can move beyond simply "seeing the environment" toward "understanding the environment and actively avoiding obstacles," making intelligent flight a truly deployable system capability.Weber Hsu, General Manager of iCatch Technology, stated: "360-degree vision-based obstacle avoidance is not only an upgrade in obstacle avoidance capability, but also an important foundation for drone platforms moving toward advanced autonomy. Through a comprehensive visual perception architecture and modular integration capability, we aim to help customers shorten development cycles, lower integration barriers, and enable more drone platforms to complete integration faster and truly take flight."Dafeng Huang, Chief Technology Officer of Avilon Intelligence, stated: "Our collaboration with iCatch Technology is not merely the adoption of a single module, but an important milestone in integrating visual perception capabilities with drone platforms. Based on Avilon Intelligence's existing autonomous flight controller and Visual SLAM architecture, the system further combines iCatch Technology's panoramic imaging and depth perception capabilities. In indoor environments without GPS, it can improve positioning accuracy and obstacle avoidance response. In outdoor scenarios where GPS signals are interfered with or obstructed, real-time image capture and environmental recognition can also support navigation decisions, further enhancing flight stability and mission reliability. This provides more resilient technical support for drone applications in highly complex environments."Through this successful integration with Avilon Intelligence's drone platform, iCatch Technology once again demonstrates its technical strengths in AI vision SoCs, image sensing integration, and drone application system development. Looking ahead, iCatch Technology will continue to promote a modular sales model, helping drone manufacturers avoid the complex process of redeveloping hardware. From assembly and integration to deployment, the solution enables products to take flight faster and business opportunities to be realized sooner. iCatch Technology will also continue working with partners to promote safer, smarter, and more practical drone solutions, redefining the core value of next-generation intelligent flight. 

The human hand is an engineering marvel. With up to 27 degrees of freedom, it can perform tasks ranging from heavy lifting to the delicate threading of a needle. Replicating this dexterity in a machine has long been considered the "Holy Grail" of robotics. At the upcoming COMPUTEX 2026, one Canadian startup is set to demonstrate that this goal is finally within reach. Sarcomere Dynamics, founded in 2021, is bridging the gap between mechanical rigidity and human-like finesse by combining sophisticated hardware with what industry experts call "Embodied  AI" where software intelligence is translated into high-performance, real-world  interaction. CEO Harpal Mandaher, a 32-year veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, discussed the company's journey from a student project to a pioneer in the next generation of robotics. From a Son's Vision to Industrial RealityThe story of Sarcomere Dynamics is a family affair. The company was founded by Harpal's son, Avtar, the current CTO, while he was studying at the University of British Columbia. Initially, the mission was deeply personal: to create an affordable, highly functional prosthetic hand for upper-limb amputees. "The first prototype was sophisticated, with 11 degrees of freedom," Harpal explains. "But it was  too complex for a patient to control easily. However, we noticed immediate interest from industrial players who saw the potential for this hand to automate assembly, sorting, and pick-and-place tasks". Seeing the opportunity to impact both the medical and industrial sectors, Harpal and his wife, Nancy - also a military veteran and retired professional nurse - joined as initial investors and co-founders. Solving the Weight-to-Power PuzzleMost robotic grippers today are simple "pinchers" designed for specific repeating tasks in controlled settings, but not suitable for complex manipulation of objects of different sizes, shapes, textures, or weights. For these high-mix tasks, the human hand is ideal. To create a hand that truly replicates human capabilities, Sarcomere had to overcome significant mechanical hurdles. "Ideally, for every movement, you need a motor," says Harpal. "Juggling 27 motors leads to massive problems such as heat, weight, interference, and movement control".  Their solution, the Artus robotic hand, is a masterclass in compact engineering: 1. Form Factor: the size of an average human male's hand (it is actually modelled off the CTO's hand). 2. Lightweight: Weighing only 1.1 kg to 1.4 kg, the Artus hand can be used on smaller, more cost-effective robotic arms without exhausting their payload capacity. 3. Durability: Rated for millions of cycles in industrial applications. Key structural components are reinforced with aircraft-grade aluminum to handle payloads up to 20 kg. The Move to Embodied  AI and "Artificial Skin"Dexterity is nothing without a sense of touch. Sarcomere is currently working with technology partners like Nanosen (Germany) to integrate a layer of "artificial skin" over the hand. This thin sensor layer allows the robot to feel grip force and detect proximity, adding a critical layer of safety. "If someone touches the back of the robot arm, the machine will know," Harpal notes. "It can pause or react, just as a human would". This technology is paving the way for Teleoperation in hazardous environments. By wearing a haptic glove, a technician in a safe zone can control the robotic hand naturally and intuitively from a distance. Inside the glove are tiny inflating bubbles to provide tactile feedback (sense of touch), allowing the operator to "feel" what the robot is touching - a gamechanger for nuclear decommissioning, bomb disposal, or handling hazardous chemicals. Why Taiwan?As Sarcomere Dynamics eyes global scale, Taiwan sits at the center of their roadmap. Their presence in Taipei for COMPUTEX underscores the island's growing role as the indispensable foundation for the next generation of robotics. Harpal is focused on three key goals, including securing supply chain resilience, exploring the potential to outsource manufacturing and assembly to Taiwan's world-class OEM ecosystem, as well as to find "embodied  AI" experts and local robotic arm manufacturers to create integrated, plug-and-play systems."We haven't lost sight of why this started," Harpal says. "As we harden the technology for industrial use, we're continuing prosthetics development in parallel, so the same advances in dexterity, sensing, and control translate into a more capable and more affordable prosthetic hand.  "

The dream of a world without charging cables - where phones, headsets, and even industrial robots never need to be plugged in - is moving from science fiction to reality. AWL Electricity, often referred to by partners as All Electricity, is at the forefront of this shift by leveraging advanced semiconductor breakthroughs to deliver power wirelessly over distance. As the company prepares for COMPUTEX 2026 in Taipei this June, it aims to solidify its position as the global leader in mid-power, mid-range wireless charging.The Breakthrough: GaN and the Five-Foot RadiusThe foundation of AWL Electricity's technology lies in a scientific leap made in 2017 by the invention of CEO Emmanuel Glenn. While the concept of wireless power dates back to Nikola Tesla, traditional low-frequency methods were often unsafe or impractical due to the extreme power required at low frequencies. By utilizing Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors, the company successfully increased operating frequencies while reducing electric field strength, making the technology safe and highly practical.Unlike standard charging pads that require direct contact, AWL-E's Resonant Capacitive Coupling technology focuses on a 1.5-meter (five-foot) radius. Francis Beauchamp-Verdon, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, explains that human moves around within a five-foot bubble, whether at a desk, in a car, or at a café. While the company remains "planet-centric" and advises that high-power stationary devices like coffee machines or electric vehicles should remain wired for maximum efficiency, wireless power is reserved for mobility and devices where cables create significant friction.Transforming Industry 4.0Beyond consumer electronics, AWL-E is targeting the "New Age of Physical AI" and smart manufacturing. Modern factory lines can require between 40,000 to 50,000 sensors, with an automotive leader noting that every single wire adds significant connection costs. AWL-E's solution eliminates the need for traditional cable management and drag chains into robotic cells. By powering humanoids and autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) while they work, factories can eliminate 20% downtime typically lost when robots must sit next to a charging wall.Strategic Objectives for COMPUTEX 2026Taiwan holds a special place in the AWL-E story, as its semiconductor ecosystem enabled the company's initial breakthrough. During the COMPUTEX 2026 mission, the company seeks to collaborate with Taiwanese chip leaders to transition their technology into a dedicated Wireless Power Chip, which would make the solution smaller, cheaper, and more accessible. Additionally, the company hopes to help Taiwan improve its own chip-making tools, specifically in vacuum environments where wires are a "worst enemy," creating a symbiotic relationship where AWL-E powers the machines that build the chips.Beauchamp-Verdon will be carrying a portable demo unit to the event to prove that this innovation is ready for today's market. He believes that seeing technology in action is essential for the Taiwanese industry, where "seeing is believing" is a core mindset. AWL-E currently maintains flagship projects in consumer electronics, automotive, and factory automation across Asia and intends to use this visit to find the right partners for their next level of expansion.

In the high-stakes world of global security and emergency response, the shift toward "video-centric" operations has created a massive technical bottleneck: the struggle to transmit high-quality data over narrow, unreliable bandwidth. Secure City Solutions, a Canadian fast-growing company, is bridging this gap between military-grade demands and smart city infrastructure.In an exclusive interview, Siva Kumar, CEO of Secure City Solutions, explained why Taiwan plays an essential role in the company's global expansion, and why he has signed up to attend COMPUTEX 2026 in Taipei in June. "We not only want to address the Taiwan market, but we're also looking for hardware manufacturers for our global deployment."The company was born from a specific challenge faced by founders with deep military and defense backgrounds, including former General Dynamics leadership and a Colonel in the Canadian defense forces. They recognized that whether in a military conflict or a law enforcement pursuit, personnel often struggled to send big data over radios with low bandwidth. This led to the development of a unique solution designed to deliver forensic-quality video from one point to another without losing the essential details required for legal and operational use.At the heart of their offering is the Omni Compressor, a neural-type algorithm that drastically shrinks the digital footprint of video data. While traditional compression often drops frames or reduces resolution to save space, Secure City's technology maintains the original frame rate and resolution. This is a critical distinction for law enforcement, as compromised video quality is often inadmissible in court. Beyond the legal sector, the compression allows commercial entities like banks to store eight to nine times more footage on existing hardware without losing clarity. The company also claims to reduce costs by 75% compared to other solutions.The real-world impact of this technology is already visible in major global deployments, such as with the Dubai Police and over 45 other law enforcement agencies. The software allows police units to share live video from patrol cars or body cameras over weak wireless spectrums, ensuring that backup units can monitor officers entering dangerous areas. Firefighters have also adopted the technology, using helmet-mounted cameras to transmit live feeds to commanders who guide them through burning structures to rescue civilians. Even in rural areas where 5G is unavailable, the algorithm automatically adjusts to available bandwidth and uses high error correction to keep feeds stable despite network noise or jitter.As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent in surveillance, Secure City Solutions serves as a vital performance booster. By reducing data sizes - for instance, from 100MB to 10MB - while maintaining original quality, the software allows AI models to process information and produce results much faster than they could with uncompressed files.Looking toward the future, Kumar is exploring strategic partnerships in Taiwan to address local needs for data sovereignty and hardware manufacturing. While the company has been successfully bootstrapped by its conservative, veteran leadership, they are now open to strategic investors to fuel a more rapid global expansion into new verticals like transportation and medical services. Secure City Solutions aims to ensure that no matter how narrow the pipe, the most critical data always gets through.

Mecademic Industrial Robotics, a Montreal-based robot manufacturer in Canada, is redefining the landscape of precision manufacturing through its pioneering work in micro-automation. At the heart of their innovation is the Meca500, a six-axis industrial robot designed with a footprint so compact that it matches the size of a standard sheet of letter paper when in its shipping pose. "Everything that has gone into this design has been aimed at achieving the highest possible precision," said Naveen Krishnan, Director of Application Engineering at Mecademic. "For us, five microns is the ultimate goal." While traditional industrial robots often rely on bulky external cabinets, Mecademic's architectural simplicity integrates the controller directly into the robot's base. This plug-and-work system eliminates the need for large external hardware, saving critical floor space in capital-intensive environments like clean rooms.Unmatched PrecisionMecademic specializes in micro-automation, addressing a market segment that requires extreme precision in a small footprint. Their flagship Meca500 achieves a repeatability of five microns - thinner than a red blood cell. According to Naveen Krishnan, this level of precision is the result of a "ground-up" design philosophy. Unlike systems built from commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) components, Mecademic vertically integrates its mechanical, electrical, and software designs, using specialized harmonic drives and high-precision encoder systems to ensure reliability and performance.An Open and Accessible ArchitectureAs noted above, one of the company's most significant innovations is the integration of  the controller directly into the robot's base, eliminating the need for bulky external cabinets. This "plug-and-work" architecture allows system integrators to replace complex, fixed Cartesian systems with a  single, more flexible manipulator.Furthermore, Mecademic has adopted an open, language-agnostic approach to programming. Instead of forcing users to learn proprietary languages, the robot can be operated via a TCP/IP interface using modern languages like Python or C#. This lowers the barrier to entry for New Product Introduction (NPI) teams and process engineers who may not be traditional automation experts. For industrial users with a requirement for industrial real-time fieldbus protocols, there is native support for Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, and Profinet built into the standard system.Targeted Applications and Market StrategyMecademic targets high-tech verticals where miniaturization is the dominant trend, specifically within the semiconductor, medical device, and optics sectors. The Meca500 is particularly effective for tasks that involve handling very small parts typically managed by human operators using tweezers under a microscope, such as assembling medical implants or characterizing sensors. To further address niche demands, the company introduced the Meca500-OB, which uses specialized finishes and light-absorbing materials to reduce reflectivity during sensitive measurement tasks involving lasers and interferometers.Key industries include: 1. Electronics & Semiconductors: Handling small parts for testing, assembly, characterization, and sensor validation. 2. Life Sciences & MedTech: Lab automation, sample handling (microplates/vials), and medical device assembly. 3. Optics & Photonics: Sensitive measurement tasks using the Meca500-OBto prevent reflectivity during laser interferometry.Looking Toward COMPUTEX 2026As Mecademic prepares for the InnoVEX, the company aims to educate the market on how micro-automation can bridge the gap between manual labor and full-scale industrial robotics. Philippe Beaulieu, CEO, and Ammon Liu, Sales Director ASEAN, are expected to represent the firm in Taipei.By replacing capital-intensive manual processes with repeatable, high-throughput robotic solutions, Mecademic provides the essential hardware platform necessary for the next generation of AI-driven, high-precision manufacturing.

As the global technology industry descends on Taipei for COMPUTEX 2026 this June, a Canadian startup is preparing to challenge the fundamental architecture of modern processing. Irreversible, a Montreal-based firm with deep roots in quantum computing, is unveiling a "physics-first" analog in-memory computing architecture that promises a staggering 1,000x reduction in power consumption compared to conventional digital processors.Unlike many silicon startups that originate in traditional chip design, Irreversible’s journey began in the highly constrained world of quantum physics. The core team originally specialized in quantum computing, where they were forced to solve computing problems within the extreme limitations of a dilution refrigerator - an environment where even the slightest heat or noise can destroy a fragile quantum state. Co-Founder Dominic Marchand explains that this background led them to become a "computing company that found its way to designing chips," rather than the reverse. This unique DNA pushed the team to strip away decades of architectural abstractions and return to the most basic laws of physics to find the most energy-efficient ways to process information.The current industry obsession with massive Large Language Models (LLMs) has created a significant energy crisis, particularly at the "extreme edge" where devices must operate on microwatt-class power. Irreversible addresses this by sidestepping the Von Neumann bottleneck, the energy-intensive movement of data back and forth between memory and the processor. By performing calculations directly in memory and maintaining a fully analog signal path, Irreversible also eliminates the power-hungry digital-to-analog conversions that often limit hybrid AI chips. This approach recognizes that while digital logic offers noise protection, the energy required to strictly maintain ones and zeros is a luxury that edge sensors can no longer afford.A critical point of differentiation is how Irreversible compares to other innovators in this space. Marchand notes that while he is proud of the Canadian leadership in analog in-memory compute, Irreversible maintains several distinct advantages. First, the company is memory-agnostic, meaning they are not tied to a single proprietary memory technology and can instead utilize various non-volatile memories and emerging RRAM roadmaps. Second, the company places extraordinary emphasis on its software and simulation tools, which allow their hardware and software teams to work in lockstep. Their proprietary hardware-aware training ensures that neural networks remain accurate by accounting for the inherent variability of analog circuits during the initial training phase.For their up-coming visit to Taipei, Irreversible has set clear strategic objectives to integrate with the world's leading semiconductor ecosystem. A primary goal is establishing high-level connections with semiconductor foundries to gain privileged access to specific memory cells, which are essential for their "physics-first" custom designs. Additionally, the company is actively seeking partnerships with OEMs and solution integrators. By bringing intelligence directly to the sensor site, Irreversible aims to enable "previously impossible" use cases, such as deploying sophisticated AI on small drones or always-on wearable devices that cannot support a traditional GPU. Ultimately, Irreversible arrives in Taipei not just to showcase a chip, but to advocate for a shift in how the world thinks about intelligence. By trading the rigid certainty of digital bits for the natural efficiency of physics, they are proving that the future of AI isn't just about more power - it's about more efficient computing.

As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite competition intensifies, satellite communication has evolved from a terrestrial supplement into a core infrastructure for AI and cloud services. Emtar Technologies, a Canadian chip design startup founded by Taiwanese-Canadian entrepreneur Alvis Huang, is emerging as a critical player in this shift. Leveraging his background as a Marconi Young Scholar, Huang has led Emtar to develop groundbreaking 6G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) chips that have already garnered support from TSMC and the Canadian government.Breakthrough Performance: The "Private Library" ArchitectureAt the recent TSMC North America Technology Symposium, Emtar conducted a Live Demo of its 6G NTN solutions, demonstrating high strategic value to the semiconductor supply chain. Emtar's chipset - comprising high-performance RF Front-End ICs and Intelligent Beamforming chips - acts as the system's "sensory organs and brain."Unlike traditional architectures where transceivers must "queue" to access shared memory (SRAM), Emtar utilizes a disruptive fully embedded memory design paired with proprietary algorithms. This gives each transceiver a "private library" for instantaneous data scheduling, resulting in: 1. 10x faster tracking and position prediction. 2. 2x higher reception sensitivity. 3. Significant power savings (dozens of watts), solving critical heat dissipation issues for satellite equipment.National Recognition and Global ExpansionEmtar's strategic importance is backed by high-level Canadian endorsement. Emtar participated in a Canadian trade mission to South Korea led by Minister Maninder Sidhu, where the company engaged with potential satellite industry partners. Additionally, Emtar was named "Startup of the Year" by Canada's Semiconductor Council (CSC), an organization featuring industry titans like AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm.The Future: Data Centers in SpaceHuang anticipates the LEO market will reach 2 billion users within seven years, driven by "Data Centers in Space." Cloud providers are eyeing orbital AI deployments to mitigate terrestrial geopolitical risks. This shift demands high-efficiency satellite access for everything from autonomous drones to maritime vessels - these are Emtar's primary target market.With products entering mass production by year-end, Emtar is currently engaging with Taiwanese ODMs and space agencies during COMPUTEX Taipei. As products head toward mass production by the end of the year, Emtar plans to launch its Series A funding round. Huang emphasized that he is looking for investors with Silicon Valley experience who can provide top-down strategic resources to help Emtar connect with tier-one global satellite operators. From a Canadian startup to an industry star, Emtar is poised to leave its mark on the 6G space race, blending Taiwanese entrepreneurial resilience with North American technical innovation.