Coming Soon: the SLSU GIS Tech Center
Image courtesy of Dr. Alejandro Tongco
In June 26, 2015, research specialists from the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) came to Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) to see the outcome of SLSU’s activities in the area of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in connection with the Balik-Scientist Program.
Balik-Scientist and GIS expert Alejandro Tongco, who first came to SLSU in 2013, held trainings on GIS in May 2014 and a series of GIS trainings and consultations in February, April and May 2015.
The proposal for an SLSU GIS Tech Center was first presented publicly during the June 26 program with the PCIEERD guests, selected SLSU officials and GIS trainees. The proposal for the Center was presented by Tongco himself.
“I am passionately dedicated – whatever you call it – to create such a center because I think it’s the only way for GIS to take off here in SLSU because the center acts as the vehicle on which the capacity building of SLSU on GIS can be sustained; and without a center there would be no continuity, no guidance and no entity that will implement cohesively the goals of SLSU in terms of promoting GIS technologies in campus and in the province of So. Leyte,” said Tongco in an interview in August.
When the SLSU GIS Tech Center is established, it intends to act as the province’ centralized GIS database and portal and provide overall leadership in the planning, coordination, implementation, and assessment of various GIS-engaged initiatives of SLSU and the province.
But the Center will also do more than that. “The GIS Tech Center really is a center where instruction, research, extension and production can be utilized and performed,” said SLSU President Prose Ivy Yepes. “It will help empower not only our faculty, our admin staff and our students, but also the community people on how to analyze spatial data using GIS.”
Tongco’s trainings on GIS had emphasized GIS as a powerful decision-making tool with applicability in various disciplines. In an interview with Tongco in January for station DYSL 104.7, GIS was framed as a method for creating precise scenarios that could enable precise interventions.
The planned menu of trainings to be offered by the GIS Tech Center include watershed delineation, land use mapping, protected area delineation, cadastral mapping, 3-dimensional mapping and other GIS workshops that will be tailored to specific client needs upon request.
SLSU’s Research, Development and Extension (RDE) office also plans to engage local government units and provincial planning officers and other officials, on the application of GIS.
Tech Center Operations
Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) Department Head, Alex Bacalla, will be the Director of the Tech Center.
“If we cannot get external funding, the SLSU Management is really into establishing the GIS Tech Center. We have already discussed this with the CSIT Department Head and Dr. Cabalo. Upon the completion of the 15 Million CSIT Building, three laboratories will be devoted for the GIS Tech Center,” said President Yepes. “That will be constructed within the year, hopefully, and be furnished soon with computers and other needed equipment; and we will be starting out, probably next year.”
Organizations interested in availing of GIS trainings or an orientation on the nature and importance of GIS, may contact Dr. Tongco through the SLSU RDE Secretariat (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; phone: 053-383-3264). Tongco can also be reached through email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Students of an undergraduate GIS course seek out Dr. Tongco at SLSU-Sogod RDE office in February 17, 2015 for a brief tutorial on navigating the PhilGIS website (philgis.org), which Tongco created to provide free GIS data on the Philippines for educational and nonprofit use.