NEWS|Trojans triumph in 3rd PNP ITMS Hackathon

Trojans triumph in 3rd PNP ITMS Hackathon

Roxan D. Resuello

Going head-to-head with licensed professionals and other students from institutions around the country, PHINMA-University of Pangasinan rose as champion in the Information Technology Management Service Hackathon (ITMS) for proposing an Asset Tracking and Dispatch Platform.

Held on October 18, 2022, the coding event pushed through on a hybrid set-up where some teams are hosted on-site at the Camp Crame, and the remaining teams are present virtually.

Created for the purpose of canvassing ideas from IT enthusiasts, ITMS Hackathon is a program launched by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2019 and has since been conducted annually.

This year’s Hackathon leans on creating digital mechanisms to solve policing problems. The teams are given five challenges on which they can base their innovation. These include Asset Tracking and Dispatch Platform, Plate Number Recognition and Tracking System, Cyber Threat Intelligence Platform, Digital Forensics Investigation Platform with AI/Machine Learning Integration, and Predictive Policing Systems using AI.

Composed of five students from the College of Information Technology Education (CITE) Vanessa Milamor Baldueza, Dave Charm Bulaqueña, Gabriel Dela Pena, Vanessa Mei Junio, and Francesco Armand Sanarez, developed S.P.I.T which propelled their team into victory.

The S.P.I.T: A coding marvel

The S.P.I.T, or the Service Patrol Intelligent Tracker, operates both as a mobile app and web app used mainly to track patrol cars under the PNP’s agency.

The app is attached to patrol cars and is to be used by patrol officers on duty. To ensure the authorized use of the system, the mobile app is geared with a facial recognition feature to verify the identity of its users.

More so, the mobile app can track a patrol car’s location in real-time operation using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.

In an online correspondence with 3rd-year Information Technology student, Mr. Dave Charm Bulaqueña, he says that S.P.I.T can search for suspected vehicles. ''The user can also update their status whether they are patrolling, on scene or on standby. The mobile app also has the ability to receive notifications of current incidents happening and also have a chat feature.’’

He went into details on the difference between the mobile app and the web app. While the mobile app is utilized by patrol cars, the web version, on the other hand, is used by the control center or police stations.

Equipped with packed monitoring capabilities, the web app can view the list of the officers who used the patrol car. It also provides a direct communication channel from the station to the vehicles through a chat/message feature which helps confirm notifications of ongoing incidents sent from the base.

Bulaqueña explains that the web app can search the database for suspected vehicles and missing persons. ''The web app also has the capability to add incidents to the database, and in case that incident is currently happening, they can pin the location on the map and see the fastest route of the patrol cars they picked to respond to that incident.’’

In addition, the web app also boasts access to incident data and can provide data analytics through graphs.

When asked about the inspiration behind the development of the team’s winning entry, Mr. Dave recounts that the team ‘’considered building a simple, not too ambitious, but a realistic solution that the PNP can use. In that sense, we picked the challenge of asset tracking and dispatch platform in which we focused on tracking the patrol cars.’’

Initially focused on tracking whether the patrol cars are used for its official use, S.P.I.T progressed to what it is now as the team added features that would make PNP’s mobilization more efficient.

A championship built on a 2-week team prep

According to Mr. Francesco Armand Sanarez, the pre-development of S.P.I.T began two weeks prior to the Hackathon. He recalls that initial plans and designation of tasks for their entry were made during the first team meeting.

‘’We were separated into two teams: the website and the application, and within the two weeks of pre-development, we were able to have a prototype of the program we decided to make as our entry for the said event.’’

In an interview, Team leader, Vanessa Milamor Baldueza, furthered into the member’s roles in the team.

‘’The developers were given the task to gather information about the required APIs and machine learning that we will useFirebase and TensorFlow. And for me, as the team leader, my tasks were to write the software requirements specification document (SRS). This details the project plan for the development of the PNP Service Patrol Intelligent Tracker, and was the basis of our developers and pitchers. Aside from those, I also made wireframes for the android and web application.’’

To prepare accordingly for the event, she says that their team researched valuable information regarding past winners of the PNP ITMS Hackathon to have a background on what to expect during the event. The team was trained and guided by CITE Dean Aristotle Liwanag, Sir Francis Gonzales, and Sir Jan Salvador Sebastian.

Mr. Dave Bulaqueña commends the CITE department for engaging with competitions like this. He says CITE gives full support and lets students experience this competition.

He believes their department will definitely have an entry if given a chance to compete in another Hackathon or IT competition.

The team’s leader and the only senior member of the group reiterated the importance of academic events similar to PNP-ITMS. Baldueza says that the Hackathon challenged them to work on their IT-related skills, including coding, web development, android development, and designing user interfaces in a limited time.

‘’You will be also developing soft skills such as communicating with the other members, handling pressure from time constraints, project management, and critical thinking. These knowledge and skills are important for our career as IT. These kinds of events helped us to prepare for the real world, they pushed us to be better and reach our potential.’’ she states.

A total of 39 teams participated at the event. Competing universities include De La Salle Univesity, Mapua University, National University, Far Eastern University, PHINMA-UPang College Urdaneta, and Cagayan State University, among others.