The Community Setting | Starting from Shuijing Village, Kouhu Township, Yunlin

How can everyday life in a village become a starting point for shared learning between a university and a local community? Professor Cheng-Min Lin of National Formosa University shared his team’s experiences in Shuijing Village, Kouhu Township, Yunlin County. Taking a holistic approach to community development, the team connects local life with course-based learning, identifies problems in everyday activities, and works with residents to find solutions.

Beyond addressing daily and industrial needs, the team also explores Shuijing Village’s history and distinctive features. These include the “Three Treasures of Shuijing Village”—the turtle, the white horse, and the matchmaking flower, or frangipani—as well as historical records and local stories preserved in the village. These collective memories serve not only as cultural material but also as resources for community learning and local development. They help residents rediscover their hometown while enabling faculty and students to understand the community through participation.

Intergenerational Learning | Making Local Memories a Shared Language

Drawing on his experience in education for older adults and young children, Professor Lin explained that different age groups have distinct learning needs and ways of participating. Early childhood education emphasizes creativity and hands-on activities, while participation among older adults focuses on therapeutic activities, sharing experiences, and opportunities to remain involved in community life. Course design must respond to these differences while creating opportunities for generations to learn from one another.

Through websites and open-source digital tools, the team documents, preserves, and shares local stories, gradually building a collection of digital resources that the community can use collectively. In this way, local memories become a shared language for intergenerational exchange. Drawing on expertise from different departments at National Formosa University, the team also supports the development of local identities and brands, ensuring that local knowledge is not only preserved but also remains in use and continues to create value.

Project Implementation | Refining the Approach through Teaching, Field Validation, and Feedback

Community needs cannot always be fully defined at the beginning of a project. Instead, they must be clarified through ongoing interaction and practical work within a cycle of “teaching, field validation, and feedback.” Professor Lin emphasized that data collection must address real problems if it is to support sound judgment and action.

In aquaculture pond management, for example, the team monitors electricity consumption by paddlewheel aerator motors to identify equipment with higher energy use. The findings inform decisions about equipment replacement and operational improvements, helping reduce electricity consumption. These results must also be translated into information that residents can understand and use. Through dialogue and outreach, the findings are shared with the community, gradually establishing sustainable approaches to improvement.

In teaching, the team integrates the university’s distinctive courses with the CDIO methodology—Conceive, Design, Implement, and Operate. Beginning with local stories and ideas for addressing community problems, students acquire the necessary technical skills in class before applying them in real settings and evaluating the results. Through collaboration with residents, faculty and students also develop new understandings of the issues, creating a cycle of “shared learning, practice, feedback, and further learning.”

AIoT Applications | Turning Data into Information Residents Can Use

For aquaculture pond management, the team uses AIoT—the Artificial Intelligence of Things—to transform environmental and equipment information into data that can be interpreted and used to support action. Sensors collect data on water quality, dissolved oxygen, temperature, water levels, electricity consumption, and equipment status. These data are transmitted to a platform through the MQTT communication protocol and mobile networks. Databases and dashboards display trends, while alerts flag abnormal conditions, helping residents monitor their ponds, conserve water and energy, and inspect equipment.

The effectiveness of these technologies, however, also depends on whether users can understand and continue using them. Farmers and aquaculture producers need to be able to interpret the data, respond to alerts, and perform routine system maintenance. These capabilities allow the tools to become part of local life and production practices and deliver lasting benefits.

From a Well to Smart Living | Connecting Production, Ecology, and Everyday Life

Beginning with the story of a well and a village, the Shuijing Village USR project connects three dimensions: production, ecology, and everyday life. Starting from local needs, it applies technology to improve water use, electricity consumption, and agricultural and aquaculture production while also addressing environmental conditions and quality of life. By documenting local history and culture and fostering intergenerational learning, the project brings local knowledge into view and keeps it in active use.

Professor Lin’s presentation illustrated how social practice requires continuous engagement with understanding needs, learning together, making findings accessible, and governing resources. The value of technology lies in how it responds to residents’ everyday lives and helps build local capacity to use and maintain these tools through collaboration among the university, community, and industry. This remains a central focus as Shuijing Village continues its journey toward becoming a smart community.