
Hi! I’m Chih-Yu (Andrew) Lai.
I’m a hardware engineer currently living in Taipei. I have a great interest in developing innovative software and hardware, so I am very excited to create this website for sharing my projects and experience with you.
I had been profoundly inspired by programming when I was young. In junior high school, I self-learned Visual Basic and wrote several programs, with one of them winning the first prize in a science fair competition. In senior high school, I learned C/C++ along with algorithms and data structures, and entered 2nd stage (5~10th place) in Taiwan Olympiad in Informatics (TOI). These series of events firmly established my programming skills.
As a person with programming background, devices I had constructed possess vivid and complex functionality. In college, I majored in bio-mechatronics and attained relevant skills for completing a variety of projects. I teamed up with schoolmates for developing an aroma alarm clock that can awake people using a specific fragrance and earned 40,000NTD in a fundraising event. During this period, I acquired PCB layout skills and the ability for practical usage of microcontrollers, IC chips along with different electronic components. I have lots of practical experiences for machine learning and data mining using neural networks (Python+Tensorflow), and won first prize in a big data analysis competition held by TSMC. I also have experience in designing digital logic circuits using Verilog learned during college.
My graduate research topic focuses on interdigitated array electrode chips applied to electrochemical impedimetric biosensing. I learned the complete microfabrication process for microelectrodes and microfluidic chips, utilized Raspberry Pi for developing a wireless and miniaturized website-controlled impedance detection device, and applied those to my own research. Accordingly, I wrote two full research articles as first author, and published them on a Q1 international journal (Electrochimica Acta). After graduation, I had worked as a research assistant in our lab and led a research team for developing miniaturized bio-sensing platforms.
Now, I work as a layout designer in TSMC, which is the world’s largest dedicated independent (pure-play) semiconductor foundry and the 30th largest company in the world by market value as of 2019. We design layouts of the most advanced processes, and I am currently doing research within the field of layout automation.
Honors and Awards
Name | Year | Description |
---|---|---|
TSMC – DTP Coneference | 2020 | Best Presentation Award |
TSMC – Idea Forum | 2020 | Awarded Honorable Mention |
Annual Meeting – Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers | 2019 | Awarded Fine Piece of Writing |
Annual Meeting – Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers | 2017 | Awarded Outstanding Poster Paper |
TSMC – Big Data Analytics for Semiconductor Manufacturing | 2016 | Won First Prize |
National College Student Computer Programming Competition | 2015 | Entered Finals in Programming Group |
National Taiwan University Presidential Award | 2015 | Awarded within 103-1 Semester |
Taiwan Olympiad in Informatics – Contestant Training Camp | 2013 | Entered 2nd Stage (5th ~ 10th Place) |
Harvard Prize Book | 2012 | Awarded Harvard Prize Book |