SLSU-Sogod became the recipient of a timely largesse from the Department of Agriculture (DA), on May 19, 2016 after a small delivery vehicle parked at the Tissue Culture Laboratory and unloaded laboratory equipment and reagents to be used in the abaca tissue culture laboratory.

The download of equipment is a gift from the DA in the wake of typhoon Yolanda, for the rehabilitation of tissue culture laboratories in Yolanda-affected areas. Though delayed in its delivery, the DA’s provision is providential now that SLSU-Sogod is preparing to undertake higher volume production of tissue cultured abaca, in support of the aims of the Abaca Coalition, which seeks to revive abaca cultivation in the abaca growing areas of Sogod, and Sogod Bay municipalities.

SLSU’s tissue culture laboratory currently produces the Inosa and Laylay varieties of abaca, and sparse amounts of cardaba and anthurium. 

TWO THUMBS UP. SLSU’s Tissue Culture Laboratory aide Bernard Recullo stands beside rows of the Laylay variety of abaca, a remarkable production volume for a one-man job. 

After hosting the National Abaca Summit in 2015, SLSU might just become the venue for another summit: the planned Regional Summit on the Cacao Industry.

Representatives from the Provincial Planning and Development Office of both Leyte and Southern Leyte, the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office 8 (DA-RFO 8), the National Economic and Development Authority Region 8, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) - So. Leyte, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) - So. Leyte, the University of Eastern Philippines (UEP), Eastern Visayas State University and SLSU, were together in the second Regional Coordination Meeting for the Cacao Industry Regional Conference on April 11, 2016 at the SLSU Board Room.

SLSU and UEP are the lead convenors of the summit in collaboration with the DA, DOST, DTI, the Philippine  Coconut Authority, and the Society of Agricultural Educators in Region VIII.

The tentative schedule set for the summit is the first week of August 2016.

Summit objectives include the presentation of a road map and the creation of a strengthened multi-sectoral action plan by incorporating the inputs from farmer groups, state universities and colleges (SUCs), local government units, line agencies, and industry players.

A discussion will also be held for coming up with a quality seed protocol that will build the capability of the Region to locally source its own high quality planting materials. Other expected topics will be the preservation and propagation of native cacao.

Majority of cacao planting materials currently given to and cultivated by farmers are sourced outside of the Region.

A techno-booth will also be set-up for presenting existing technologies in cacao cultivation and the products of cacao for food, toiletries and pharmaceuticals.

The planned target participants are key industry players, local chief executives, multinational organizations into cacao, line agencies, SUCs, and 10 or more farmers from each LGU.

A registration will be collected per participant, however farmers' registration will likely be shouldered by their respective LGUs and provinces, as discussed during the meeting.

The Regional Coordination Meeting was chaired by Vice President for Research, Development and Extension Francis Ann Sy. Other SLSU representatives to the meeting were President Prose Ivy Yepes, Wade Lim of SLSU-Hinunangan and Balik Scientist Alejandro Tongco. 

Provincial government and line agency representatives with SLSU officials in the Regional Coordination Meeting for the Cacao Industry Regional Summit. 

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.

 

 4^th Student Research Congress

SLSU-Sogod held its 4^th 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 4^th 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.

 

SLSU Launches Innovation and Technology Support Office

SLSU is one of the universities setting up the Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO) which is an extension of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), subject to a Memorandum of Agreement between IPOPHL and the concerned university. With ITSO, faculty members, students, researchers, and support staff will get assistance in registering and acquiring a patent for any intellectual property, invention or discovery.

ITSO was set up to facilitate the patenting of the wealth of technology being produced by universities. It would behoove us to recall that one of the functions of a university is research, and one of the stated thrusts of many state universities is the undertaking of research to benefit communities and support the attainment of local and national development plans.

SLSU is following the lead of various schools which are setting up ITSO offices to protect the technologies generated by their universities. It can also be recalled that the number of patented technologies is one of the data required in normative financing.

Heading SLSU’s ITSO will be Engr. Angel Sabusap, who is also the Graduate Studies RDE coordinator, and one of the section heads of SLSU's Affiliated Renewable Energy Center.

Sabusap went to various trainings in February, for the operation of the ITSO and developments on Philippine intellectual property. Sabusap attended the CHED National Intellectual Property Foundation Course on Feb. 9-10 at Cebu City, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – World Economic Forum (WEF) Inventors Assistance Program (IAP) and the National Seminar on Patents and Innovation on Feb. 29 - Mar. 2 at Manila.

 “I would like the year 2016 to focus on innovation and patents,” said Vice President for RDE Francis Ann Sy in a meeting with RDE directors on Feb. 5, and a series of trainings on intellectual property is planned for selected faculty members this April.

Students and inventors scurrying to have their ideas patented, will have to be patient though, as ITSO will have to undertake a prior art search to ensure that the idea or discovery to be registered is not a copycat of an already registered work.

For this reason, ITSO will be staffed by three more faculty members: a patent searcher and two examiners, to ensure the originality of the creative work.

Sabusap and VP-RDE Francis Ann Sy with some national and international speakers at the Feb. 29 – March 2 trainings in Manila. 

 

SLSU Holds RDE Manual Revision

SLSU held the revision of the Research, Development and Extension (RDE) manual in February to synchronize it with the new Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives of the university. Across the five campuses of SLSU, campus-level revisions were held, before the university manual revision on Feb. 15. SLSU-Sogod held its campus-level revision in Feb. 11.

While  the university level revision was participated by RDE Directors, RDE unit heads and some academic deans from other campuses, Sogod’s campus-level revision was a gathering of its RDE staff, academic department heads, the undergraduate dean, RDE coordinators, the Facilitative and Administrative Society (FADS) President, and Punong Barangay of SLSU-Sogod pilot extension site Milagroso.

What’s New

The most salient feature of the revisions is the shift to the promotion of science and technology-based research, development and extension.  The revised manual also now contains the inclusion of good governance in the RDE Thrusts and Priorities, aside from livelihood generation, biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation & disaster risk management.

Other changes are the more active role to be played by the academic RDE Coordinators and the demand to produce more research outputs from faculty members with ranks from Associate Professor to Professor based on DBM and NBC 461 guidelines. The higher the academic rank, the greater is the expectation of research and extension output.

Cash incentives are also now offered for extension outputs that will be published in refereed journals and for patents on inventions and copyright for innovations and discoveries.

Other changes are slight modifications in the workload units for extension activities and multiple authorship of researches, and new guidelines in the submission of journal articles, editorial review process, and peer review process.

Seven-Year Development Plans

February was also a busy month for the academic department heads and their faculty members in creating the Seven-Year Development Plan (SYDP). 

While VP-RDE Francis Ann Sy, RDE Director Veronica Reoma and R&D Unit Head Marie Khul Langub were in SLSU-San Juan for the RDE Review and Evaluation on Feb. 9, Extension Unit Head Nestor Morales met with academic department heads and RDE coordinators to address concerns in the crafting of the SYDP. 

 

Assorted Research Trainings Held in February

A string of trainings were held in February in the area of writing publishable papers, agent based modeling, and journal management. Two sets of trainings were held in Feb. 17-19, one in Cebu City and one at Sogod campus. The Cebu training was on writing a publishable paper, attended by nearly two dozen faculty members from Sogod campus. The Sogod training which was handled by Tomas Oppus’ campus statistics instructor Joey Caraquil and Sogod R&D unit head Marie Khul Langub, was an echo-seminar on agent-based modeling, and was attended by close to two dozen faculty members, mostly from the other campuses.

Anacleta Dagaas presents a paper for critiquing by consultant Roberto Padua during the Training for Trainors on Writing a Publishable Paper in Cebu City.

Simultaneous trainings on research journal publication were also held on Feb. 22-25. University RDE Coordinator Tamar Mejia and VP-RDE Francis Ann Sy attended the 2^nd National Seminar-Workshop on Research Journal Management at Subic, Zambales while Engineering Department RDE Coordinator Julius Paler attended the Training Workshop for Reviewers and Editors at Cagayan de Oro City. SLSU publishes two peer-reviewed CHED-accredited Category B journals, the Journal of Educational and Human Resource Management and the Journal of Science, Engineering and Technology (JSET).

 

 GAD Plan and Budget Workshop

 A Gender and Development (GAD) Plan and Budget Workshop  was held for SLSU’s GAD focals and financial personnel on Feb. 22, 2016 at the SLSU-Sogod Plenary Hall. In attendance were GAD focals, RDE unit heads and some faculty members from the five campuses. The activity was also held in line with the 2016 National Women’s Month Celebration. The workshop was led by university GAD focal person Veronica Reoma and SLSU-San Juan Chief Administrative Officer Marianne Medilo. 

  

Seminar on Extension Programs and Extension Proposal Development

 A Orientation – Seminar on Extension Program/Project/Activity (PPA) Proposal Development and Extension PPA Implementation Strategies, was held on Feb. 23 to help faculty members, RDE coordinators and Extension Unit Heads improve the quality of their extension outputs. The seminar was handled by Visayas State University Director for Extension Efren Saz, who is also the President of the SUC Extension Managers Network, which is currently promoting to CHED guidelines on the conduct of extension by SUCs. After the seminar, a planning session was held on Feb. 24 for critiquing and improvement of each campus’ RDE Plan.

 For membership to the SUC Extension Managers Network, see RDE-Sogod R&D Unit Head Marie Khul Langub for registration and other details. 

 

 First RDE Review and Evaluation of 2016

 The first RDE Review and Evaluation for the year was held at SLSU-San Juan campus on Feb. 9. This was also the first time an external panelist was brought on board to examine SLSU proposals and ongoing researches together with SLSU’s Research, Development and Extension Review and Evaluation Committee (RDEREC) which is composed of RDE directors from all the campuses. Ludito Ramirez, the research director of Naval State University was tapped to serve as an external evaluator during the Review and Evaluation. This was also an effort of the office of the Vice President for Research, Development and Extension in heeding the suggestion to have an external expert in RDE Review and Evaluation activities to increase the objectivity of the evaluation and enhance suggestions in improving the research proposal.

 

 Rubber Distribution Extension Project

 SLSU held talks with several interested farmer cooperators during the orientation on the Rubber Seedlings Extension/Distribution to Sogod Bay Farmers on Feb. 11. The project orientation was led by RDE Extension Unit Head Nestor Morales and SLSU Vice President for Administration and Finance Valerio Cabalo who was the then Vice President for RDE when the rubber project in SLSU was initiated.

 The would-be rubber seedlings beneficiaries, who mostly heard about the project orientation through broadcast on radio DYSL, are entitled to receive rubber seedlings based on the type of land the farmer has and the amount of seedlings his lot can accommodate. Further, the farmer can pay SLSU for the seedlings at a later time, due to the Plant Now Pay Later scheme adopted in the rubber distribution project. 

Orientation attendees check out the SLSU Sogod rubber nursery.

For the full story on SLSU’s rubber dispersal project, check out our online article Plant Now Pay Later – SLSU’s Rubber Distribution Project.