Jui-Yu Chou’s Lab:
Exploitation of biodiversity, lactic acid productivity, and metabolomics of lactic acid-producing microbes isolated from Taiwan and production of poly lactic acid using microbially produced lactic acid through ring opening polymerization. The experimental objectives are as follows:
1. Screening of yeast with high invertase production activity in molasses;
2. Isolation of LA-producing microbes, including lactic acid bacteria (LAB), fructophilic lactic acid bacteria (FLAB), and Rhizopus spp fungi., from various niches and Response Surface Methodology (RSM)-based optimization of fermentation conditions using selected strains;
3. Understanding of metabolomic pathways of LA production of LAB/FLAB;
4. Characterizing natural bioactive compounds produced by LAB/FLAB during molasses fermentation;
5. Synthesizes and characterization of polylactic acid (PLA).

Chi Yen Huang’s Lab:
The research fields are related to the liquid crystal physics, materials and electro-optical applications. The interested topics are as follows:
1. Focal length tunable liquid crystal lens without mechanically moving parts.
2. Improvement of power conversion efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with liquid crystal mixtures.
3. Development of large scale self-assemble periodical polymer array, which can be used in the lighting system, backlight system, and photonic crystal devices.
4. Nanomaterials for liquid crystal applications