March 2016 RDE Newsbits
National Seminar on Patents and Innovation
With Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) setting up the Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO), Vice President for RDE Francis Ann Sy and coming ITSO Head Angel Sabusap attended the World Intellectual Property Organization – World Economic Forum (WIPO-WEF) Inventors Assistance Program (IAP) and National Seminar on Patents and Innovation on Feb. 29-March 2 in Manila.
The WIPO-WEF Inventors Assistance Program is aimed at helping local inventors of participating countries get legal assistance in patenting their innovations. The National Seminar on Patents and Innovation is an orientation seminar on the Philippine patent and innovation climate and aims at preparing participants for the operation of the ITSO.
For more on SLSU’s Innovation and Technology Support Office, see our February 2016 RDE News Articles for the story SLSU Launches Innovation and Technology Support Office.
VP-RDE Francis Ann Sy and Angel Sabusap with one of the Conference speakers.
Delegates from other universities and agencies at the Conference.
4th Student Research Congress
SLSU-Sogod held its 4th Student Research Congress on March 9, 2016. RDE Director Veronica Reoma was among the panel of evaluators. “Their researchers were really good,” said Reoma.
Really good that the office of the Vice President for Research, Development and Extension is considering a patent application for similar student researchers, subject to the students’ consent.
Nine student groups presented in the student research congress with awards going to three researches on the development of a mobile emergency charger, energy efficiency in electrical devices, and low cost sonar devices.
Majority of the student groups who participated in the congress came from the Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) Department.
Science and Technology is fast becoming a focus on improvement in SLSU with the change of the university vision into becoming a science and technology university.
Faculty members in the CSIT and Engineering departments are also pushed on into getting and finishing PhDs. SLSU’s engineers and faculty from the CSIT and Industrial Technology departments are becoming regarded as the front liners in the attainment of the university’s science and technology objective.
A training will be held in April for faculty members from the three departments on innovation and patenting in relation to the establishment of the Innovation and Technology Support Office in the university.
The panellists of the student congress were Dean Juanita Costillas, Engr. Julius Paler of the Engineering Department, Extension Unit Head Rex Lucino from the Tomas Oppus campus, RDE-Sogod Director Veronica Reoma, and Engr. Marvin Arsel Cabalo of SMART Communications.
A photo collage of the 4th Student Research Congress of SLSU-Sogod. Courtesy of Veronica Reoma.
Regional Conference on Agent-Based Modeling
A Regional Conference on Agent-Based Modeling was held in Cebu City on March 9-11, 2016 which was participated in by 12 participants from SLSU, four from Sogod campus, six from Tomas Oppus campus and two from San Juan campus.
SLSU-Sogod paper presenters at the conference were R&D Unit Head Marie Khul Langub (A Predictive Model on the Spread Behavior of Stuxnet Virus), Marvin Credo (Simulation Model on the Number of Nodes Affected When a Line to Ground Fault Occurs on Power Distribution System), and Danilo Metra Jr. (Simulation Model on Exothermic Reactions for Innovating the Steam Pipe for Better Efficiency). The other SLSU presenters came from the Tomas Oppus and San Juan campuses.
SLSU presented 12 papers in all, the most number of researches presented from one university during the Conference.
Participating universities at the Conference were Eastern Visayas State University, Naval State University, Leyte Normal University and Samar State University.
SLSU-Sogod presenter Danilo Metra Jr. (third from left) in a group photo from with presenters from other SLSU campuses. At far right is the Leyte Normal University Research Director Rutchelle Enriquez.
R&D Unit Head Marie Khul Cabalo with research presenters from SLSU-Tomas Oppus
Partnerships in Coconut-Based Products
SLSU-Sogod became the recipient of a visit from a delegation of officials from the Philippine Coconut Authority on March 14. The representative of German firm HMP Consulting, Jenny May Cinco, was also present in the meeting.
HMP, the PCA, SLSU are major players in a planned project entitled “Coconut Tree Mapping and Inventory of Carbon Sinks and Coconut By-Product Sustainability”, authored by Rec Alfonso Cinco and Geraldine Mangmang and presented by Mangmang, and on utilizing coconut coir for various coconut-based products destined for sale in Germany and Europe.
Also discussed in the meeting was the coming Memorandum of Agreement between SLSU, PCA, the DTI, and HMP Consulting.
HMP’s General Manager Harald Fuechsel first presented to SLSU on Feb. 3, 2015 the idea of producing coconut-based products as a means to help address the poverty situation in the province and provide training for SLSU’s students by counting them among the pool of workers in the production process, a set-up that is patterned after a successful water purification enterprise with an Indonesian university which HMP partnered with.
That Feb. 2015 meeting was attended by representatives from the Department of Trade and Industry – Maasin, the Bontoc Credit Cooperative Inc., a representative from LGU-Bontoc, and SLSU key officials. Should the project push through, it will be a big break for SLSU and surrounding municipalities who will be tapped as suppliers of coconut for the project.
To understand the background to this development, see our story German Company Sees SLSU as Potential Partner in Public-Private Partnership.
PCA officials and VP-RDE Francis Ann Sy discuss the coming strategies in the implementation of the proposal and the MOA.
RDE Review and Evaluation
The second RDE Review and Evaluation of the year was held at SLSU-Sogod on March 29, 2016. Eleven papers were presented composed of four proposals and seven ongoing and completed researches.
No Exceptions. R&D Unit Head Marie Khul Langub gets grilled by the Research, Development and Extension Review and Evaluation Committee composed of RDE Directors from the various campuses headed by the Vice President for RDE.
National Abaca Summit Validation
RDE-Sogod is an active supporter of the efforts to rehabilitate abaca. While the entire Sogod campus was involved in the preparation of the National Abaca Summit held on Nov. 4-5, 2015, RDE-Sogod has been collaborating with Worldfish in conducting focus group discussions, surveys and interviews with abaca farmers in Sogod barangays Mac, Mahayahay, Javier and Maria Plana.
Worldfish is the international research organization convening the various line agencies in holding the National Abaca Summit and the convenor of the Abaca Coalition.
Thus, being the face of the partnership with SLSU in the abaca rehabilitation efforts, RDE Director Veronica Reoma was invited to a Validation of the Abaca Summit 2015 Proceedings and Development of Abaca Proposals activity held at Visayas State University on March 17, 2016. The activity was a validation of the proceedings of the National Abaca Summit and an activity for the development of more abaca proposals.
RDE staff were also actively involved in the conduct of the National Abaca Summit. RDE Director Reoma was tapped as a moderator of the open forum involving plant breeders, farmers, and abaca exporters and Research Assistant Lieza Noelle Malinao was assigned to be a transcriber and English translator of the open forum.
RDE staff participate in an interview with abaca farming families in Brgy. Maac in March last year. In this photo, Extension Unit Head Nestor Morales interviews farmers’ wives while RDE Director Veronica Reoma and RDE Research Assistant Lieza Noelle Malinao interviewed the farmers themselves, together with staff from the Department of Development Communication in Visayas State University.