【Article by International College of Innovation】

On March 17 2026, Prof. Hung-ying Chen’s Human Geography class attended a guided tour at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Smart City and Net Zero Summit & Expo, as part of the USR Inclusive Innovation: International Student Volunteer Empowerment Program.

Through the arrangement of Taipei Computer Association, students observed firsthand how entrepreneurial and citizen-centric goals, technological innovation, and urban management interact, negotiate, and intersect the production of policies and technologies shaping the future of urbanization in Taiwan and beyond. The Expo not only features the latest technological advancement, it also includes how Taiwan is moving toward its net-zero goal and building resilience using digital and green transformation.

After the expo, students reflected on what they observed while juxtaposing their course readings on smart city governance. An international student remarked “What surprised me most was not the technology itself, but the way it (the exhibition) framed urban life. The city was presented almost as a series of problems to be solved through data and automation, rather than as a lived space shaped by diverse human experiences. [...] If smart city technologies are primarily designed for institutions, then where does that leave the residents they are meant to serve?”

Similarly a domestic student shared that “[...]I believe current smart city development is still heavily concentrated on big companies and big cities. This was also obvious at the exhibition: big companies and big cities had large booth areas, and most people were there, while other booths had very few visitors. Therefore, we should grasp the viewpoints mentioned in the paper to view current developments, shifting from data to problem-solving, real needs.”

These remarks illustrate how students engaged critically with the exhibition, using the reading to interrogate whose needs and whose visions of urban life are centered in smart city development and whose are left out. The visit raised a question the class will continue to carry: how do we design futures that are not only technically advanced but genuinely inclusive? 

The class also encountered moments where technology felt genuinely human-centered. Several students were struck by a firefighter safety monitoring device that tracks movement and connection in hazardous environments, alerting rescue teams when a colleague stops responding. This technology is designed not for optimization, but for keeping people alive. Others noted Kaohsiung's street tree tilt-monitoring system, which emerged directly from pressure by environmental groups resisting arbitrary tree removal, turning civic advocacy into real-time public data.

One student reflected on a book recommendation tool built around reading history, modest in ambition but attentive to individual experience in a way that much "smart" infrastructure is not. Through these diverse technological applications and innovations, we see the off-campus expo as a learning venue beyond the classroom setting.

These examples suggest that the critical questions raised by the expo are not simply about technology itself, but about the conditions under which it is designed: who defines the problem, whose knowledge is drawn upon, and In this process, will ordinary citizens become active participants in shaping the urban landscape, or will they remain merely subjects of management? While a single exhibition may not provide a definitive answer to these questions, it has certainly deepened the students’ understanding of today’s smart cities.

This inquiry continues on March 31st, when students of the Human Geography class will further learn about the intersection of human spaces, technology, politics, and urbanization with the guest lecturer Dr. Mei-Huan Chen, a Postdoctoral Researcher at National Taiwan University. Dr.Chen’s talk, “Doing Political Ecological Research:Water, Infrastructure, and More-than-Human Politics in Kinmen and Beyond,” will examine how water, infrastructure, and non-human actors shape politics and the environment in Taiwan deepening the class’ exploration of the intersections among space, technology, and governance.