Eighteen Qualified Entries Move Up to Next Stage in PCIEERD Electronics Design Competition
As announced during the PCIEERD 3rd anniversary celebration last June, two competitions are now underway that intend to spur innovations and stimulate or challenge the tinkering ability of young minds particularly engineering students and researchers. The Electronics Design Competition, which kicked off in July, challenges engineering students in the electronics, electrical and computer engineering fields to create practical applications of electronic products that are designed and manufactured in the Philippines. The Nowcasting Competition, on the other hand, aims to attract and encourage students to embrace the science of Meteorology by utilizing their research and computer programming skills in short-ranged weather forecasting.
“We believe that competition brings out the best among the universities and researchers.” This was the message of Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, Executive Director of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD) when she announced the competitions last June 2013. She added that thru competition, students and researchers will enjoy in taking up the challenge, learn more from the experience while aiming for the big prizes at stake - P200,000.00, P100,000.00 and P 50,000.00 for first, second and third winners, respectively. The faculty advisers will get 25% of the total prize.
76 Entries for Electronics Design Competition
According to Engr. Nelson P. Beniabon, chief of PCIEERD’s Emerging Technology Development Division (ETDD) which is shepherding the competition, there was a big turnout of 76 entries from colleges and universities nationwide. The entries revolved around the theme “SmarTer Energy” which is anchored to the DOST program on SmarTer Philippines that promotes the interplay and connectedness of science, technology and innovation to economic development. The program looks forward to smarter ways of developing technologies that will provide solutions to pressing national problems. The high cost of energy is a perennial problem of the Philippines. This situation impacts on the competitiveness of industries especially those whose operations require substantial amounts of electricity input. It is envisioned that electronics would be able to offer solutions to this situation by developing electronic products that will improve efficiencies in energy generation, distribution and utilization.
On the overall, the PCIEERD launched the competition to prepare students who may later on contribute in providing services to the semiconductor industry through the DOST’s Advanced Device and Materials Testing Laboratory (ADMATEL), and the upcoming Philippine Electronic Products Development Center (EPDC) and the Philippine Integrated Circuit Design Institute (PICDI).
The 76 entries has been narrowed down to 18 qualified entries which passed rigid evaluation and deliberation by a select panel of judges composed of representatives from the private and government sectors. The 18 qualifiers will move up to the next qualifying round which is the design implementation stage. Notably, these entries came from a teams of 3-5 undergraduate students from universities and colleges in the Philippines with a faculty adviser. The qualifying entries came from the following schools:
- Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) - 2 qualified entries
- University of the Philippines – Los Baños (UPLB)
- Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP)
- De La Salle University (DLSU)
- Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) - 3 qualified entries
- Samar State University (SSU) - 2 qualified entries
- Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation (MSEUF)
- Marinduque State College (MSC)
- University of the Philippines - Diliman (UPD) - 2 qualified entries
- Rizal Technological University (RTU)
- Batangas State University (BSU)
- Bulacan State University
- Westmead International School
The competition is slated from July 2013 to March 2014. This means that the qualified entries will start to implement their designs and come up with working prototypes from November 8, 2013 – March 8, 2014 with a financial support of P10,000.00 for materials and supplies. The final judging will be based on the demonstration of the working prototypes.(Maria Elena A. Talingdan, DOST-PCIEERD)
