Taiwan Tech student wins aerial photography ward for drone shot of Taichung Opera House 

The Taiwan Tech Department of Architecture offers students courses for operating drones and applying virtual and augmented reality into architecture design. Chao Chun Kung, a  student who specialized in UAV aerial photography, won an International Photography Award for architecture under the sub-category of cityscapes for his aerial photograph, Day and Night, taken above the Taichung Opera House.

The International Photography Awards (IPA) is often dubbed the "Oscarfor photographer". The IPA is also highly contested for its comprehensive categories and would serve as a gateway to international fame for the average photographer. 

Associate professor Lucky Shin-Jyun Tsaih said that the Department of Architecture has established an  “VR and AR in Architectural Application Capstone Lab,  and opened two courses, one on drone operation and UAV aerial photography training, licensed UAV examinations, and  architecture photography techniques and point-cloud softwares. The other course teaches  the specific skills that are needed to utilize AR software for their capstone projects.

Through these courses , Chao Chun Kung learnt to master the application of drones in architecture design and started touring various cities across Taiwan for at least two years to gain experience as a UAV aerial photographer.  Kung took the IPA award-winning aerial photograph above the Taichung Opera House.

Kung expressed that his experience of drone-piloting and aerial photography delivered by the resources of the architecture department reflects the immense innovation that drone technology brought for the architecture industry.

When Kung took  the aerial photograph of the Taichung Opera House, Kung relied on his professional knowledge of architecture to evaluate the landmark architecture’s building plot, the three-dimensional model, and illumination levels. Kung then simulated the model of Taichung Opera House with  architecture software to generate differing angles of illumination at various times of day.
For the final act, Kung captured the cityscape above the Taichung Opera House at day and night in panorama.