NUK Sustainability Report

2026-01-20

Amid growing global challenges related to climate change and sustainability, National University of Kaohsiung (NUK) has reimagined the value of programming education through its Higher Education Sprout Project initiative, launching the “SDGs-Oriented Programming and Creative Thinking Course Cluster.” This interdisciplinary program integrates three courses—Java Programming, Web Programming, and Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving—while embedding sustainability issues and design thinking into the curriculum. The initiative attracted more than 100 students and encouraged them to identify real-life problems and develop socially meaningful solutions through technology.

While learning technical skills such as Java and web programming, students were also guided to better understand social and environmental challenges and reflect on how their expertise could respond to real-world needs. As a result, student project topics evolved beyond traditional game development and expanded into sustainability-related themes such as food waste reduction, waste sorting, digital carbon footprints, and accessibility solutions.

The course cluster was supported by NUK’s Higher Education Sprout Project under the “Smart Collaborative Learning” initiative and was led by Professor Yu Ya-Ru from the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, in collaboration with Professor Lin Hsing-Tzu from the Department of Information Management. Through the establishment of a faculty learning community, six faculty members organized seven teaching exchange sessions and classroom observations to promote collaborative course planning and the sharing of instructional practices.

During the 2024 spring semester (Academic Year 113-2), sustainability topics were introduced into the Java Programming course for the first time. Students were required to identify sustainability-related challenges from everyday life and propose meaningful programming-based solutions. The course also incorporated the university’s internal elevator pitch competition, helping students strengthen communication and presentation skills alongside technical development.

In the 2025 fall semester (Academic Year 114-1), both Web Programming and Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving further deepened the integration of sustainability themes. Using design thinking methodologies, students were encouraged to transform personal concerns into concrete actions by identifying problems and developing practical solutions. The Innovative Thinking and Problem Solving course also encouraged students to step beyond the classroom by participating in two external competitions, allowing their ideas to gain broader visibility. At the end of the semester, both instructors jointly organized a cross-course成果 exhibition, fostering interdisciplinary exchange among students from different colleges.

Over the course of this year-long collaboration, the initiative began with faculty exchange and interdisciplinary cooperation and gradually transformed students’ learning attitudes and actions. Technology was no longer viewed as cold lines of code, and ideas no longer remained confined to the classroom. Instead, students learned how to translate technical skills into actionable solutions that could be understood, adopted, and applied in society.

Ultimately, the program aims to cultivate computer science students who not only possess strong programming capabilities but also demonstrate social awareness and a commitment to addressing real-world challenges—becoming technology practitioners equipped with both professional expertise and social responsibility.

#SDG4 #SDG9 #SDG17