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Filipino technologies bag gold at inventors’ meet in Geneva

Filipino technologies bag gold at inventors’ meet in Geneva

Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) - April 26, 2018 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Two locally developed technologies – one a dengue fever diagnostic kit and the other an electronic sensor system that converts any surface into an interactive system – bagged gold medals at the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Smart Surface electronic sensor system developed by Nestor Michael Tiglao, director of the Computer Center of University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Engineering, bagged a gold medal as well as a jury distinction – one of only 20 awarded during the exposition held from April 11 to 15.

The Biotek-M Dengue Aqua Kit developed by Raul Destura, of UP Manila’s National Institutes of Health, on the other hand, was the country’s gold medal winner in the invention conference.

The Smart Surface provides an innovative, interactive and fun way of learning for students with a portable platform that can convert virtually any flat surface into a tap-sensitive device.The system is composed of a number of sensors and a central controller.

Tiglao’s research and development for the Smart Surface received funding support from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) line agencies Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development as well as the Technology Innovation for Commercialization (Technicom) program implemented by the Technology Application and Promotion Institute.

Destura’s Biotek-M Dengue Aqua Kit is an affordable rapid diagnostic kit that uses the polymerase chain reaction technology to detect the virus in less than an hour.

Destura received funding grants while conducting research and development for the diagnostic kit from the DOST Grants-in-Aid program, Philippine Council for Health Research and Development and Technicom.

Destura and Tiglao are both members of the DOST’s National Research Council of the Philippines.

Science Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said the country’s gold medal haul showed that the inventions and innovations being developed by Filipino scientists and engineers are world-class.

Dela Peña said that the achievement also validated the DOST’s support of R&D efforts of scientists and engineers.

“We had limited our entries to three because of the cost of sending them to Geneva. But we managed to get the two gold medals,” Dela Peña told The STAR in an interview.

The IEI of Geneva is said to be the most important of its kind with 1,000 new inventions and products, 700 exhibitors from 40 countries, 57,000 visitors, 650 journalists, and benefits from the most extensive support and privileges that can be granted to an exhibitor. It is under the patronage of the Swiss Federal Government, the state, the city of Geneva and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

There were 226 entries in three categories and only 20 gold medals with jury distinctions given out, and 95 gold medals without jury distinction.

Destura, in a phone interview, expressed his happiness over the international recognition given his Biotech-M Dengue Aqua Kit.

“I’m simply honored that our Filipino technology has been recognized by the international scientific community as relevant and important, and that it addresses a very common health need such as access to early diagnosis for dengue infection,” Destura told The STAR.

Read more at https://www.philstar.com/business/science-and-environment/2018/04/26/1809380/filipino-technologies-bag-gold-inventors-meet-geneva#f0UMbdyyJC4iFkIS.99

ComVal rubber plantations to expand

By PAUL ICAMINA

April 26, 2018

Compostela Valley is ideal for planting rubber.

Comval for short, it used to be part of Davao del Norte until 1998 when it became a province. With a total area of 4,479.77 square kilometers, the province borders Davao del Norte to the west, Agusan del Sur to the north, Davao Oriental to the east and Davao Gulf to the southwest.

It is rich in rice, coconut, cacao, coffee, papaya, mango, pineapple, durian, banana, gold and now, rubber.

A third of Compostela Valley has a high potential for planting rubber, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Renewable and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines Los Baños.

Zamboanga Sibugay currently has 66,484 hectares of plantation farms, the largest area planted with rubber. It is followed by North Cotabato with 59,387 hectares, according to the study funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development, Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

DOST’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) recently teamed up with government and private groups to push for the optimal use of old rubber wood trees in Zamboanga Sibugay. FPRDI’s three-year, P57-million initiative is funded by DOST’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

Senile rubber wood trees are currently used for making low-value products such as fuelwood, pallets and crates. In Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, however, the material is made into higher value items for housewares, housing components and composite boards.

With 210 hectares of old rubber wood trees, plantations of the Tambanan Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative are expected to yield 31,500 cubic meters of valuable lumber.

The Philippine Statistics Authority estimates that rubber production grew by 8.9 percent from October to December last year.

The growth in production was due to an increase in the number of tappable trees and more tapping activities due to the high price and adequate rainfall in SOCCSKSARGEN (North Cotabato); more tapping activities due to less rainfall compared last year in Caraga (Agusan Sur); and an increase in tapping activities due to more productive trees in Davao Sur, Davao City and Compostela Valley.

The top-producing region during the period is Zamboanga Peninsula, accounting for 42.7 percent of the total rubber production of the country. SOCCSKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Cotabato City, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City) came in close with 41.8 percent contribution while the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had 6.7 percent share in the national production.

According to the ARMM Regional Board of Investments, rubber planters in the Philippines are predominantly smallholders. It estimates that a farmer owns an average of three to 10 hectares of rubber farm.

About 70 percent of rubber produced in the country is absorbed by the tire and footwear industries.

Rubber grows best at tropical places with temperatures ranging from 20-28° Celsius and a well-distributed annual rainfall. It grows on almost all types of soil provided that the drainage is adequate.

Mature rubber trees are usually 20 meters to 30 meters high. Depending on local conditions, the rubber would usually take five to six years to reach maturity when tappers could start collecting the latex or the milky sap. The yield is around 1 ton per hectare per year to almost 2 t/ha/year dry rubber.

The Philippines isconsidered a minor player in rubber production in Southeast Asia and in the the Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC). Among the ANRPC, the Philippines ranks 8th in terms of natural rubber production, behind Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Vietnam, China and Sri Lanka, from 2006 to 2011.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Philippines produced 200,000 metric tons of rubber in 2015. Approximately, 80 percent of productions are processed for the domestic end-users and 20 percent are exported to foreign rubber companies for high-grade processing.

DOST projects to counter disasters, climate change

By: Philippines News Agency

April 29, 2018

science01-042918 — In Photo: Science Undersecretary Renato U. Solidum

Government scientists are working on 27 new projects for disaster-risk reduction and climate-change adaptation and mitigation, Science Undersecretary Renato U. Solidum said on Tuesday.

These projects are part of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) National Research and Development agenda for 2017-2022.

“We expect most of these projects to be approved this year,” Solidum said at the recent National R&D conference held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

He added seven of the projects are for monitoring and forecasting, four are for hazards, vulnerability and risk assessment, two are for warning and risk communication, and the rest are for technology solutions—areas that are among the DOST’s priorities.

Solidum said DOST-attached agencies have also partnered with universities in developing projects related to disaster-risk reduction and climate-change mitigation.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), for instance, has partnered with the Mapua Institute of Technology for the development of an earthquake intensity-monitoring system. The project also targets to monitor active fault movements. To monitor hydrometerological phenomena and related hazards, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has partnered with the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (UPLB) for rainfall monitoring and landslide warning. The partnership targets heavy-rain monitoring and forecasting in mountainous areas and early warning for landslides. Solidum said Phivolcs is working with UP to enhance damage-estimation capabilities using building-specific analysis.

“This is a feature-based earthquake-analysis toolset for urban-response estimation,” he said.

Among the Phivolcs’s projects is the ground-motion modeling, he said, noting that specific earthquake-ground motion would help enhance the seismic resiliency of residential and medium- to high-rise buildings in Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.

Pagasa has also teamed up with the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) for rain monitoring, where a novel rain-acoustic sensor would be developed.

“Pagasa is currently enhancing its hydrometeorological hazards monitoring and risk assessment, as well as its information-sharing capabilities,” Solidum added.

AdMU was also tapped for the development of a groundwater resource-management plan and monitoring system for Zamboanga City and surrounding areas.

Mapua, meanwhile, was tapped for the development of an automated real-time monitoring system for the Magat Dam, as well as for the development of the Philippines’ Structural Integrity Monitoring System for Critical Infrastructures in Metro Manila. This is for earthquake mitigation, according to Solidum.

Mapua is also the partner university for the development of a high-frequency doppler radar ship tracking algorithm software for maritime search, surveillance and rescue. For some of the other projects, the DOST has tapped the expertise of state universities and colleges in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.

Image Credits: Stephanie Tumampos

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