RP takes silver in World Robot Olympiad

by Alexander Villafania
from INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines took home the silver medal at the recently held World Robot Olympiad 2008 in Yokohama, Japan.

The Philippine team known as “Gracean Whizkids” from Grace Christian Elementary School beats 21 other schools.

The team is composed of Joseph Aldrin Chua, Edrich Hans Chua and Dominique Hannah Sy. They were coached by Melanie Tizon and Warren John Ong Pe.

Their project, dubbed “The G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World,” included 12 different types of robots doing various types of activities to save the environment.

The Open Category required contestants to create robots under the theme, “Saving the Global Environment.”

Teams were judged according to appearance, uniqueness, interactive behavior, good engineering and stability.

All the robots were made from parts of LEGO toys.

South Korea took the gold medal in the elementary school level for open category, while Malaysia won bronze medal.

South Korea also won gold medals for the Regular Category in the Elementary and High School Levels.

The country was also represented in WRO 2008 by Benigno Aquino High School and the International School of Manila. They took 6th place in the Open Category in the High School and Elementary categories, respectively.

This is the first time that the Philippines won a medal in the Elementary Level Open Category.

The country had won medals in the High School Open Category in previous years.

Filipino-made robot wins in China tilt

by Marlon Ramos
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Mac, the Filipino-made explosives disposal robot, has just succeeded in first mission.

The one-armed, night-seeing robot developed by students from the Mapua Institute of Technology won the top prize in the recently held First World Cup of Computer-Implemented Inventions in Shanghai, China, said Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Makati City police chief.

“We have prepared a hero’s welcome for Mac and the team,” Cruz said over the phone Wednesday.

According to Cruz, Mac beat entries from 84 countries which joined the event.

He said Mac — short for mechanical anti-terrorist concept — and his team of creators from Mapua led by John Judilla–arrived Tuesday night via Philippine Air Lines.

Cruz himself commissioned the development of the robot to help members of the city’s Bomb Disposal Unit handle bomb threats that business establishments in Makati receive every week.

The robot was unveiled in Makati’s business district last week.

RP ranks 10th in IT competitiveness

by Anna Valmero
from INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines ranked as the 10th most competitive IT industry environment in the Asia-Pacific, a recent study showed.

Based on the 2008 IT Industry Competitive Index, the Philippines moved up one rank from last year but still remains 47th worldwide, a study by the Economist Intelligene Unit commissioned by Business Software Alliance (BSA).

Now on its second year, the study shows how IT competitiveness can drive growth in economies, Jeffrey Hardee, vice president and regional director of BSA Asia-Pacific, said.

Understanding these key IT competitiveness indicators can help the government draft a roadmap for strengthening its global economic position, he added.

The study used six categories with 25 indicators to measure a country’s IT competitiveness.

The study found that the Philippines performed strongest in human capital, followed by providing a favorable business environment, support for IT industry environment and legal environment. However, it remains lagging in two: IT and telecommunications infrastructures as well as low spending in research and development (R&D).

“Of the six, the Philippines is strong in human capital. It has a large and rapidly growing young population who are well-educated in the tertiary level and has good English-speaking skills,” said Hardee.

A huge proportion of this young population is in the sciences, which is dubbed to provide good employment base for the country’s future IT sector.

The Philippines ranks fourth in Asia-Pacific today in terms of having a huge number of IT workers with respect to the overall working population.

The country however needs to beef up its efforts in encouraging R&D activity, a good IP framework and increasing PC ownership per capita for it to better its environment for global IT competitiveness.

In R&D, the Philippines dropped 10 places from last year now placing 62nd in the global list. According to the study, the Philippines has very few patents registered each year. The government allots only $1.2 for every 100 person in R&D. The figure is not at par with neighbor Asian countries—China with $20, India with $15.6, Thailand with $7 and Malaysia with $6.7 for R&D expenditure per 100 individuals.

This in turn reflects the low number of patents registered in the country, which Hardee said is a lost for the country. He stressed the need to focus on this area because local individuals and companies often have produced or already have their own IP but failed to register it.

“It is also important to realize the Philippines can produce IP. That’s where the higher value-added is going to come in,” said Hardee. Once IP is produced and registered, the person or company gains copyright protection and over time, get profit from it through license fees. If done, this will help the country move up the IT value chain and expand its offering from back-end services such as outsourcing.

Key to achieving this is legal environment for IP rights as well as increased awareness in the benefits of protecting IP portfolios, said Hardee. At present, there are pending bills in the Senate which if approved will implement the WIPO Treaty and help increase domestic IP registration, he said.

The deployment of a good IP framework will also work as platform for cyber security environment. According to Atty. Bienvinido Marquez, Philippine consultant for BSA, campaigns are conducted to make companies aware on proper software usage and RA 8293: The Philippine IP Code to help curb software piracy. At present, the rate of software piracy in the country is at 69 percent, down from over 90 percent in 1995.

“The IT industry is still at an infancy stage, there is so much going on and the Internet can open up a lot of opportunities for collaboration among industries and countries,” said Hardee.

He said that if the Philippine government and the IT industry can address their recommendations in the study, the Philippines will have the ingredients to succeed in the global IT arena like its neighbor Taiwan. Taiwan was the biggest mover this year, ranking second in the global IT Competitiveness list, up from sixth place last year.

In 2007, the IT sector represented $1.1 trillion in economic activity and in terms of employment, supported 1.1 million in the IT businesses. The industry amounts to $230 billion in Asia-Pacific.

Doctor in Guinness record one of RP’s 10 outstanding physicians

Eva Visperas and Sheila Crisostomo
Philippine Star

A Filipino doctor who landed in the Guinness Book of Records was among the 10 awardees for The 2008 Outstanding Filipino Physicians (TOFP) honored Monday night at the Centennial Hall of Manila Hotel.

All the TOFP awardees displayed patriotism and contributed to the advancement of the medical profession, organizers said.

Thirty-eight nominees from various medical fields underwent a rigorous search and screening process, handled by the 2008 TOFP National Steering Committee, with Junior Chamber International (JCI) Senator Melandrew Velasco as national chairman.

This year’s awardees are Doctors Elvira Henares-Esguerra, Mark R. Kho, Edward Wang, Victor Dumaguing, Rimando Saguin, Egidio P. Elio, Blesilda dela Rosa-Salvador, Leonor Cabral Lim, Anthony Leachon, and Lorenzo Rommel Cariño.

Esguerra landed in the Guinness Book of Records for gathering 3,541 mothers, the most number of women breastfeeding simultaneously in one site, in partnership with the City of Manila in 2006.

The feat was repeated in 2007, breaking the same world record for gathering 15,128 mothers breastfeeding in 295 sites in the country, in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

On the other hand, Kho, after five years of training abroad, came home and continued working at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) even without compensation. He went on to help establish and maintain the Philippines’ first Surgical Oncology Division in the country at the Department of Surgery of the UPCM-PGH Medical Center, the first of only two training programs in this field.

Wang gathered doctors from different disciplines and set up the UP-Musculoskeletal Tumor Unit (UP-MuST Unit), also the first of its kind and a model of multidisciplinary medical cooperation. Wang traveled the country setting up similar units and training other doctors. He pioneered the training program at the PGH where doctors from around the country could come for intensive training.

Dumaguing joined the University of the Philippines Concert Chorus as a tenor to finance his pre-med studies. He established the MOM (Medics on Mission) Foundation composed of volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, and other allied health professionals whose main mission is to reach out to as many Filipinos and spread the value of preventive medicine to the poor.

Saguin also founded PROJECT: R.S.V.P (Reconstructive Surgery for Victims of Polio) in 1981, whose aim is to provide surgical treatment to post-polio disabilities and enable them to attain maximum function and become productive members of society.

Elio, a urologist, organized and led the Philippine Urologic Manpower Program (PUMP) from 1995-2000, after discovering the scarcity of urologic doctors in the country and continued to promote the advocacy of bringing urologic services to the unserved and underserved areas of the country.

Salvador, an obstetrician/gynecologist, has made her mark as a health educator through media wherein for more than 10 years, she continues to bring medical information to people from all walks of life through radio, TV, and the Internet via her Teleradyo program “Doctora Bles at Your Service.”

Lim is a neurologist-epileptologist who has spent the last 25 years not only in clinical practice but also as an educator, leader, researcher and advocate of continuing health education.

Leachon is described as a hero for supporting universal and preventive health care, spelled out in Executive Order 595 or the Health Education Reform Order of 2006 (H.E.R.O. of 2006) President Arroyo approved and signed on Dec. 27, 2006.

Lastly, “Miracle Doctor” Cariño, who earned his moniker after leading a team of surgeons in successfully operating on First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo for 14 hours, had performed over 1,300 open-heart surgeries since he passed the cardio-vascular licensure test in 1992.

TOFP officials said a common thread that binds this year’s awardees is the fact that they have chosen to practice their profession in the country, despite great and promising possibilities of attaining wealth and stature overseas.

Often, a number of this year’s TOFP awardees even shared their expertise and medical services for free.

3 Pinoy students bag gold in science poster-making contest

from The Philippine Star

Three Filipino students bagged first prize of the poster-making competition in the recently concluded Asian Science Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, the Science Education Institute (SEI) reported yesterday.

The winners were Joey Mangadlao, a senior BS Chemistry student at the University of the Philippines-Diliman; Raymund Lorenzo Abejuela IV, a BS Physics student at the University of the Philippines-Los Banos; and Elvis Chua, a BS Chemistry student at the Ateneo de Manila University.
The group bested 50 other participating teams.

The winning Philippine entry entitled “DNAzymes: Gene-Carriers of the Past, Catalysts of the Future” was inspired by the lecture of Rizal Fajar Hariadi of the California Institute of Technology on molecular machines made of and fueled by DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the SEI said.

The team received certificates and three million rupiah as prize money, it added.

“This is another shining moment for the Philippines. Our students are not only good in science and math but are also able to express it in the arts,” said SEI director Ester Ogena.

SEI is an agency under the Department of Science and Technology mandated to develop a critical mass of competitive S&T workers and professionals.

– Helen Flores