Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan's Computing Industry

Professor Honghong Tinn at ECE's Fall 2025 Colloquium

The MIT Press published my book Island Tinkerers: Innovation and Transformation in the Making of Taiwan’s Computing Industry earlier this year. Island Tinkerers tells a critical history of how Taiwan rose to global prominence in high tech manufacturing. From computer maker to the world’s leading chip manufacturer, Taiwan boasts the likes of Acer, Foxconn, Asus, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Island Tinkerers argues that local technologists—a group of technology-savvy professionals, technocrats, technology users, and engineersturned-entrepreneurs—led the transformation of Taiwan from a former Japanese colony and defeated Chinese Nationalist’s last fortress to a country that calls itself the Silicon Island. Drawing from my book, I will present in this talk a selection of the history of “island tinkerers” including United Nations’ technical aid program participants in the early 1960s, Quanta Computer founder Barry Lam, Acer Computer founder Stan Shih, and TSMC founder Morris Chang.