I graduated from NCTU with a degree in Civil Engineering. Science track in high school — technically "STEM" — but "semiconductors" and "chip manufacturing" back in my university days were about as relevant to me as "RC structures" were to an electrical engineering student. Someone else's jargon.

Then around 2019, TSMC's stock started taking off. And by now, keeping up with Taiwan's semiconductor giants has started to feel like basic financial literacy — everyone's investing, everyone's talking about it. But even so, I don't think most people actually understand what "semiconductor technology," "advanced process nodes," or even "chips" really mean. I was one of those people. Until June 12th.

The 2026 New Taipei Science Day took place at Haishan Senior High School — 500 students and teachers, including upper elementary and middle schoolers from across New Taipei City, all gathered to experience what it means to be an "Atomic Architect."

Professor Teng Chin-Pei from Tamkang University's Department of Chemistry designed the nano-gold experiment: silver is deposited onto nanoscale gold particles through a chemical process. Because of the unique plasma resonance effect at the nanoscale, the color change is visible to the naked eye — and through that, participants get a tangible feel for what Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) actually is.

ASM, the co-organizer, is the global market leader in ALD equipment. Dutch company, founded in 1968, 2,900+ patents. They don't make chips — they make the machines that make chips. Which tells you everything about how vast this industry really is.

I think this might be one of the first times in educational history that semiconductor manufacturing concepts have been brought directly to elementary and middle school students. Even the teachers were full of questions the entire time — which made me realize: we so often underestimate children's capacity for curiosity, simply because they're still in compulsory education.

One elementary school student asked me: "Why does the color keep changing if we're adding the same ingredients each time?" I was so moved. Because of Professor Teng's experiment design, because of how the session unfolded, I watched children think — and find their own way into understanding something. There's nothing more valuable than that.

我是交通大學土木系畢業的，從高中就是個二類人，照理說是被歸類為「理工科」，但「半導體」、「晶片製程」在我唸大學時，地位就像「RC結構」之於電機系學生——別人的術語。

大約2019年前後，台積電的股票開始飛漲，到了今年，半導體好像變成全民常識，但直至今日，大家好像依然沒有很明白這些技術到底是什麼意思。我也是其中之一——直到6月12日。

新北科學日在2026/6/12於海山高中盛大登場，五百名師生，當中包含新北市的國小高年級、國中生，大家都來透過實驗，體會「原子建築師」。

淡江大學鄧金培教授設計的「奈米金實驗」，透過在奈米等級的黃金上，以化學方法鍍上銀。因為奈米粒子獨特的「電漿效應」，我們可藉由肉眼觀察到顏色變化，進而體會「原子層沉積技術」（ALD）。

協辦廠商ASM是全球ALD設備的市場領導者。荷蘭公司，1968年成立，兩千九百多項專利。他們不做晶片，他們做做晶片的機器——由此可見，這個產業是多麽龐大。

我想這應該是教育史上前幾次，將半導體製程的知識教給國小、國中生，在場也有非常多老師都不斷提問——我深刻發現：我們經常因為孩子們正接受義務教育，而忽略了對知識好奇的重要性。

有一位國小生問我「為什麼都加同樣的原料，顏色會變得不同？」我好激動，因為鄧老師的實驗設計、因為我的帶領，我發現孩子們在思考、在用自己的方式理解知識——沒有什麼比這個更可貴的了。