8 U.P. Newsletter
MARCH 2011
UPOU anniversary exhibit opens (Continued from page 5)
UPOU faculty member Myra Jill Siason asks students to participate in her online learning lecture.
UP ITTC holds 8th YCIT ARLYN VCD PALISOC ROMUALDO
Thousands of high school and college students and educators flocked to the UP Film Institute (UPFI), the UP Theater and Aldaba Hall in UP Diliman, Quezon City last February 17 and 18 to know the latest technological innovations, learning breakthroughs and career opportunities in the information technology (IT) industry. With the theme “Think IT, Do IT,” the 8th Youth Conference in Information Technology (YCIT) had three keynote speakers. They were UP Vice-President for Development Elvira Zamora; Prof. Leticia Catris, officer-in-charge of the Department of Science and Technology Science Education Institute; and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. Zamora stressed the need not to forget the “I” in IT which is information. She said that technology should always be a tool available and accessible to all. Catris noted the significance of IT in today’s world. Trillanes, for his part, talked about three IT-related Senate bills he has filed, which are the proposed Mandatory Computer Education Act, the Cybercrime Prevention Act and the Consumer Protection against Spyware Act. The lectures delivered during the first day of the conference at the UPFI were
“IT is Power: The Relevance of IT in Today’s Age” by Prof. Elson Manahan, senior lecturer at UPD College of Engineering (CoE); “Online Learning” by Myra Siason of UP Open University Faculty of Information and Communication Studies; “F[ree] and O[pen] S[ource] S[oftware] in Education” by Noel Feria of UPD College of Education; “Teaching Computer Science with Games” by Prof. Mario Carreon of UPD CoE; and “The Art of Voice Acting for IT” by Pocholo Gonzales, managing director and chief executive officer of Creativoices Productions. Simultaneous lectures were also held at the Aldaba Hall on the first day. These were “IT Project Management” by Lemuel Braña of UP Information Technology Training Center (ITTC); “Information Visualizaiton” by John Boaz Lee of UP ITTC; “Getting into SQA” by Sonia Pascua of UP ITTC; “Personal Learning Environment” by Michelle Moscatel of UPD CoE; “Color Assistance through Real-time Color Recognition for Android Phones” by Charmane Santiago, a UPD Computer Science major; “WiiPoint: An Alternative Finger Tracking Setup” by Mark Morada, also a UPD Computer
Science major; “Using Unity3D in Game Production” by Prof. Carlos Bott of UP ITTC; and “ICT at Warp Speed: How do we remember the past?” by Joel Yuviengco of Asian University Digital Resource Network. The final day of the conference featured eight lectures at the UP Theater. These were “Nanotechnology” by Braña; “Computer Science for Science and Engineering: Models and Simulations” by Wilson Tan of UPD CoE; “Why Choose Computer Science” by Adrian Angeles of UPD CoE; “Automated Flood Reporting and Monitoring System” by Janelle Lagmay and Alvin Austria, Computer Science majors at UPD; “Games and Computer Science” by Rose Ann Sale, a UPD MS Computer Science student; “Software Engineering and Service Science” by Prof. Paulo Paje of UP ITTC; “Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence” by Prof. Tristan Basa of UPD CoE; and “Games in Facebook” by Bott. The 8th YCIT was organized by the UP ITTC in cooperation with the UPD CoE Department of Computer Science and the UP System IT Foundation. It was endorsed by the Department of Education.
PSHS sweeps computer programming competition ARLYN VCD PALISOC ROMUALDO
Teams from the Philippine Science High School (PSHS) System swept the First Philippine Programming Olympiad held the UP Alumni Engineers Centennial Hall in Diliman, Quezon City last February 18 by getting four of the top five spots. The Olympiad was jointly organized and hosted by the Department of Computer Science and the UP Information Technology Training Center. PSHS Team 2 answered eight out of 10 questions correctly and placed first with 88 points. Team 1, on the other hand, finished second with 76. Both teams are from the main PSHS campus in Quezon City. Third place went to Team 2 of St. Stephen’s High School, Manila with 64 points. PSHS Region 2 Team 3 ranked fourth with 54 The fifth slot was occupied by the lone team of PSHS Central Mindanao. The other participating schools were Aurora National Science High School,
Grace Christian High School, and Manila Science High School. The Board of Judges was headed by Prof. Adrian Roy Valdez and composed of Prof. Tristan Basa; Prof.
Mario Carreon; and instructors Adrian Angeles, Michelle Moscatel, and Wigi Oliveros. The overall coordinator was Prof. Philip Zuñiga.
Participants of the Programming Olympiad do their assigned problem sets.
produced videos and other promotional materials that were disseminated in social networking sites. The activity was designed to develop skills for and appreciation of the advocacy for environmental management. ENRM 211, meanwhile, is a course on environmental planning and management. One class produced videos that aimed to inform preschool children about renewable energy. Students used photographs and animation in their videos. The Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) course of UPOU created blogs that featured student experience, activities and thoughts on good citizenship and community service. The CWTS blogs discuss their work for Gawad Kalinga and Foundation Awit. Research and Development Management (R&DM) 251 is a course on technology evaluation and its presentation was about a webquest activity. A webquest is a form of learning where most, if not all, of the information students use are online. Students of this specific R&DM class were tasked to provide assessments of various technologies using different perspectives. Online resources must support these assessments. Natural Science (NATSCI) 1 is a course on the foundation of natural sciences, specifically Chemistry and Physics. One class created a video using online materials to better understand and appreciate the advances in both scientific fields and how these make way for the creation of new materials that are necessary to everyday living. A video produced by a NATSCI 2 class, on the other hand, described geologic events and formations in certain areas. The students adhered to the thorough and meticulous process of data gathering, analysis and processing. Information Systems (IS) 226 deals with web IS, particularly electronic commerce, online databases and Web programming. The project of one class centered on technopreneurship that enabled its students to be familiar with different client environments and needs, as well as teach them how to come up with solutions to technical and social problems. Development Communication (DEVC) 207 is a course on the design and production of audio-visual development communication materials. The DEVC class that participated in the exhibit projected their short films onto the background of the stage at Oblation Hall for visitors to watch. Finally, students of Multimedia Studies (MMS) 173, which tackles photography in multimedia, collected their photographs and presented them in video format. The MMS course not only taught students the principles and techniques of photography but also trained them on how to package their work as multimedia products as well. The anniversary exhibit was opened by UP President Alfredo Pascual and his wife, UP Diliman College of Fine Arts alumna Carmen Martinez Pascual. They were accompanied by UPOU Chancellor Grace Javier Alfonso and former UP President Emil Javier.