Central to the discussions was data gathering strategies in Junior and Senior High Schools (JHS and SHS) across Santa Rosa to directly involve learners and their families in making UStaR’s future offerings correspond to their educational aspirations and future plans.

Also present in the meeting were Dr. Seigfred V. Prado, Executive Assistant at UStaR, and Mr. Adolfo C. Ibayan, Planning Officer III of the School Governance and Operations Division.  Catangay and Ibayan expressed their support on the strategic plans of the University for UStaR and welcomed opportunities to collaborate with UST, most importantly, in responding to the urgent demand for quality teachers in the region, recommending that UST consider offering undergraduate and graduate programs in Education.

Beyond academic program planning, DepEd officials shared areas where UST could play a vital role in enhancing teacher training, particularly in Senior High Schools in the City of Santa Rosa. Considering the established strengths of the University as evidenced by the international and local accreditation of its academic programs as well as performance in various educational activities that measure student outcomes, DepEd officials suggested areas for collaboration, which include Values Education, Special Education, Sports Science, Guidance Counseling, Music and Fine Arts, and Technical-Vocational Programs. They also proposed sharing of UST’s best practice in integrating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), technology, and community development into teaching methods.

Looking Ahead: Strengthening Partnerships

Following discussions of mutually beneficial opportunities in broad strokes, the officials agreed to identify specific opportunities in a follow-up meeting in January 2025 at the UST-Dr. Tony Tan Caktiong Innovation Center (UST-TTCIC) with an expanded group of officials from both sides. This meeting will explore immediate collaborative opportunities and lay the groundwork for long-term initiatives that address the City’s educational challenges and determine the wealth of bigger opportunities that can arise from such collaborations. Consistent with the University’s vision regarding its expansion plans, UStaR’s collaboration with DepEd Santa Rosa can help define the University’s role as a key player in the City’s educational landscape.

This engagement highlights UST’s commitment to aligning its future academic offerings with the needs of the Santa Rosa community, fostering meaningful partnerships, and delivering impactful educational programs that benefit both learners and educators with long-term benefits to the City and the CALBARZON Region.

The post UST officials meet DepEd Santa Rosa leaders for future academic programs appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.

In her Messages at the opening of the event, Mayor Arcillas emphasized the initiatives taken by the City from years ago in integrating the SDG global objectives in the City’s local programs, which now culminate to Santa Rosa becoming a pilot city in adopting the UN ESCAP Tool.�� “I wholeheartedly endorse this initiative, cognizant of the prestige and responsibility accompanying our role as a pilot city,” she said.�� She mentioned how she issued Executive Order 13 Series of 2024, creating the Technical Working Group (TWG) that shall be responsible in crafting the City’s VLR.

A few days before the two-day Consultation-Workshop, Prof. Marcelo and other officials of the University met with the Vice-Mayor, Hon. Arnold B. Arcillas, and the CPDO Coordinator, EnP. Ermin V. Lucino, MPM, to align many aspects of the short- to long-term plan for UST Santa Rosa with those of the City of Santa Rosa.  Vice-Mayor Arcillas and EnP. Lucino recognized UST Santa Rosa as an important private Higher Education Institution (HEI) partner of the City, particularly in its initiatives to become a ‘Smart City’, the characteristics of which are consistent with the SDGs.  In his Message at the Consultation-Workshop showing how the City has been continuously pursuing opportunities to collaborate with its stakeholders to achieve the SDGs, EnP. Lucino shared that the City was planning to establish a Technology Business Incubator (TBI). However, “with the University of Santo Tomas bringing their TBI at their Santa Rosa campus, we need not establish our own. We just have to partner with them,” he said.  EnP. Lucino emphasized that this sharing of expertise and resources leading to inclusive economic prosperity is consistent with SDG #17 (Partnerships for the goals) and other SDGs interrelated with it.    

The City’s VLR TWG is being supported by the UN ESCAP Team led by Mr. Omar Siddique.  The TWG, through EnP. Lucino, recommended to ESCAP to team up with SDG experts from UST to assist in preparing the City’s VLR.  Prof. Marcelo received the recommendation favorably for UST to collaborate with UN ESCAP and the VLR TWG of Santa Rosa.  “The University’s decision to develop UST Santa Rosa as its Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship external facility is precisely to be in a better position to serve in nation-building and in addressing global issues through collaboration and cooperation.  We welcome opportunities such as this.  UST will definitely take part in this landmark endeavor of the City of Santa Rosa every step of the way.  We are proud to be a part of this initiative,” she said.

The activity was organized by the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) of Santa Rosa as lead organizer with support from other offices of the Santa Rosa City government and various national government agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).  It was attended by Santa Rosa LGUs, representatives from the industry, the education sector and other stakeholders of the City.

The post UST Santa Rosa officials provide inputs to Santa Rosa City’s local review of UN SDG achievement appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.

Their paper was entitled “Development of an Electroencephalogram-based (EEG) Brain Computer Interface for Upper Limb Control in Spinal Cord Injury Patients”, a robotic assistive device that decodes and translates brain signals into commands that guide the movement of artificial limbs attached to SCI patients.

“In our research study, we investigate whether the use of data transformation and augmentation techniques, together with Hybrid-scale Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), could allow us to record a few data from SCI patients, and then create a synthetic training data to compensate for the training of CNN while maintaining the desirable degree of accuracy,” Sigua said in the presentation.

Moreover, the ten participants, aged between 20 to 69 years old, were patients with subacute and chronic cervical SCI, and were experiencing restricted hand movements.

In summary, the team proposed a hybrid-scale convolutional neural network (HS-CNN) architecture with integrated data augmentation and, thereby, showed significant improvement in the accuracy of EEG motor-imagery classification of hand movements for SCI patients. Moreover, their proposed method has shown a 23.25% improvement rate to patients with SCI.

Department of Electronics Engineering faculty member Engr. Seigfred V. Prado, MRes, MSc, SMIEEE served as the team’s adviser.

Watch their presentation here:

The post BS-ECE students recognized in NAST 2021 conference appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.

The new batch of faculty members to go on Study Leave was led by the former Supervisor of the Electronics Engineering (ECE) Laboratory, Engr. Josyl Mariela Rocamora (ECE 2011, magna cum laude), who is now working on her PhD degree at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (#29 in Asia per QS ranking, 2016). She received scholarship grant from HK Polytechnic for the duration of her Program to work on wireless technologies. Engr. Rocamora was recipient of the prestigious BPI-DOST Science Award in 2011 and obtained her Master’s degree at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.   

Another ECE faculty member, Engr. Seigfred V. Prado, goes on Study Leave as a PhD student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Neurotechnology for life and health at the Imperial College London (#8 in the World per latest QS ranking; #6 in Top Universities in Engineering and Technology per QS, 2016).  Engr. Prado received EPSRC Studentship. He was on one-year Study Leave previously for his Master’s degree in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (#4 in Asia per QS ranking, 2016), where he graduated with academic distinction.

The Department of Chemical Engineering (ChemE) sends Asst. Prof. George Y. Chao, Jr. on Study Leave as well.  He is the 8^th faculty member to pursue doctoral studies in the Department since AY 2013-2014.  This is projected to increase the number of faculty members with PhD degrees to at least 10 by the end of AY 2019-2020, which is close to 50% of ChemE faculty members.  Asst. Prof. Chao received scholarship Grant from the DOST Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) under its Accelerated Science and Technology Human Resource Development Program (ASTHRDP) to pursue PhD in Environmental Science at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.  Asst. Prof. Chao is the first to receive ASTHRDP doctoral scholarship grant in the Faculty of Engineering.

Engr. Hyson Peter David (EE 2013, magna cum laude) received Australia Awards (AA) scholarship grant to pursue Master’s studies in Curtin University in Western Australia.  He is the second faculty member in the EE Department, and one among a total of eight in the Faculty of Engineering, to receive the same prestigious scholarship grant since 2016. Engr. David has been the coach of the Electrical Engineering Quiz Team, which won the national championship last year – for the first time in about two decades. He now works on Smart Grid as specialization in his Master’s Program.

The Civil Engineering (CE) Department’s Engr. Rocel A. Pioquinto (CE 2011, summa cum laude) received the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)-Australia Awards scholarship grant to study for her Master’s degree in Structural Engineering at the University of Sydney (#41 in Top Universities in Engineering and Technology per QS, 2016).  She is the first in the Faculty of Engineering, and in the University, to receive said scholarship grant.

The past immediate Chairperson of the ChemE Department, Engr. Mark Emile H. Punzalan, received invitation as a non-degree student to the Department of Food Science of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. Engr. Punzalan will work on his thesis in Cornell for his Master’s degree at the UST Graduate School. Cornell University is one of the eight Ivy League universities in the USA. It is ranked #14 in the world per latest QS world ranking, and #3 in Agriculture and Forestry.  Engr. Punzalan received financial assistance from the UST Engineering Alumni Association, Inc. and other alumni donors who support the Faculty Development Program if the Faculty of Engineering.

The post Engineering sends six more faculty members to finish higher degrees appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.

Throughout each day of the conference, parallel oral presentations were held and three of the seven research papers from the UST ECE were presented in the parallel sessions:

On November 23, Engr. John Paolo C. Tuazon, an alumnus from the UST ECE Department, presented the paper titled An Improved Collision Avoidance Scheme using Artificial Potential Field with Fuzzy Logic, co-authored by other alumni, namely, Engr. Ken Gilfed V. Prado, Engr. Neil John A. Cabial, Reeann L. Enriquez, Engr. Francesca Louise C. Rivera, and Engr. Kanny Krizzy D. Serrano, M. Sc., a faculty member of the UST ECE Department.

On November 24, Engr. Josyl Mariela B. Rocamora, M.Sc., a faculty member from the UST ECE Department, presented Analysis of Traffic Information Dissemination using Vehicular Ad Hoc Network Simulations, co-authored by the following alumni: Engr. Neil Calvin C. Roque, Angelica Mari D. Guico, Elladine Faye C. Mondia, Engr. Arianne Louise P. Garing, together with Engr. Edison A. Roxas, M.Sc., also a faculty member from the UST ECE Department. Another research paper was presented on this day by a former UST ECE Faculty member, Engr. Bernice Mae Yu Jeco, who is now affiliated with University of Tokyo, Japan. Their research titled Acquisition and Analysis of Electrocardiogram Waveforms with Diagnosis is co-authored by several alumni, namely, Renz Vergil Doma, Michael Anthony Morales, Elisha Grace Tarroza, Ma. Fatima Villaflores, and by several UST ECE faculty members, namely, Assoc. Prof. Angelo R. dela Cruz, Ph.D., the Department Chair of UST ECE Department, Engr. Emmanuel C. Guevara, M.Sc., Asst. Prof. Ryan Rhay P. Vicerra, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. Ma. Luisa T. Asilo, M.Eng.

Along with the parallel oral presentations, oral interactive fora were also held to provide an opportunity for the researchers to showcase their research works in the form of posters. The other four research works from the UST ECE Department were presented in oral interactive fora:

On November 23, Engr. Josyl Mariela B. Rocamora, M.Sc. presented their research work titled Development of a DC-DC Converter with Current Mode Control for Multi-Source Renewable Energy Harvesting System, co-authored by Engr. Edison A. Roxas, M.Sc., Engr. Japhet Alfeo Niño D. Ang, Engr. Ralph Raymond D. Borja, Engr. Rahl Steven C. Diaz, Engr. Sarah Denise O. Samson, and Engr. Jesica Lourds A. Sanchez.

On November 24, two alumnae, namely, Engr. Anna Patricia G. Perez and Engr. Nikka P. Veron, presented a poster for their research work titled A Comparative Study between DWT-ANFIS and DWT-SVM in ECG Classification, co-authored by Assoc. Prof. Angelo R. dela Cruz, Ph.D., Engr. Czarina Isabelle M. Cruz, Engr. Jastine P. Marasigan, Engr. Joana Erika V. Pillejera, Another alumna, Engr. Kristianne Viktoria B. Torres, presented their research poster titled Development of a Variable Negative Pressure Jamming Gripper through Visual Object Size Classification and Artificial Neural Network, co-authored by Engr. Kanny Krizzy D. Serrano, M.Sc., Engr. Philip Ronald B. Fajardo, Engr. Veronica Frances S. Genoves, and Engr. Jonathan G. Libiran, Engr. Reggie Boy T. Ortiz.

On November 25, Engr. Nikka P. Veron also presented the research poster titled Development of Intelligent Transportation System for Philippine License Plate Recognition by Assoc. Prof. Angelo R. dela Cruz, Ph.D., Engr. John Paolo D. Dalida, Engr. Jean Louise M. Vallester, Engr. A-Jay N. Galiza, Aleck Gene O. Godoy, and Engr. Masaru Q. Nakaegawa.

The aforementioned papers were collaborative research works by faculty members and students. The UST ECE Department annually produces several Scopus-Indexed research works.

Technologies for Smart Nation is this year’s theme of the IEEE TENCON. The international technical conference organized by IEEE Region 10 brought together researchers, educators, practitioners and students from across the academia, government, industry, and non-governmental organizations to discuss current trends and accomplishments in the fields of power electronics, wireless communications, signal processing, machine learning, computational intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and intelligent transportation systems. All proceedings of the conference are published in the conference thumb drive and will appear in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, a Scopus-Indexed online database.

IEEE Region 10 covers different 57 sections, 6 councils, 21 subsections, 514 chapters, and 1159 student branches in the Asia Pacific Region.

The participation of the Thomasian delegates was made possible with the help of Engr. Manuel L. Dinio, a B.S. ElE 1965 alumnus and the president of J & O Realty and Development Corporation.

The post Electronics Eng’g. faculty, alumni present research papers in IEEE TENCON 2016 appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.

Eight BS Electronics Engineering (BSECE) and BS Chemical Engineering (BSChE) students from the , namely, fourth-year BSECE students Christian G. Garcia, Jim Darrel M. Clomera, Jude Neos Kim B. Carpio; fifth-year BSECE students Kevin Jansen G. Abu, Bien de Guzman; fourth-year BSChE students Patrisha Beryl T. So, Nikki Joy S. Tanya; and fifth-year BSChE student Christian Abaoag, participated in the International Summer Program on Academics, Research, and Culture (iSPARC) hosted by National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST) from July 20 to 27, 2016.

iSPARC is part of the internationalization programs of the University to expose its students to a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment combining a series of activities related to academics, research and culture, as part of our holistic approach to learning. The delegates toured the research laboratories at NTUST, attended lectures on Macroeconomics and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), and even had the chance to build their own solar cells. They were introduced to the culture of Taiwan through weaving at the National Dong Hwa University.

The students were accompanied by Engr. Seigfred V. Prado of the  and Engr. Erica M. Ocampo of the . They also arranged a meeting with NTUST Chemical Engineering Department Vice-Chair Prof. Meng-Jiy Wang, and with the department chairs of NTUST College of Engineering and College of Electronic and Electrical, and Computer Science (CEECS) to discuss some future research collaboration and other opportunities for UST students and faculty. These opportunities include faculty exchange and research immersion program, summer research internship program, student exchange program, dual degree programs (BSc. and MSc.), and summer camp program for NTUST students who will be sent to UST.

UST, along with NTUST and Widya Mandala Catholic University in Indonesia, are the three universities that sent students to attend the summer camp.

The post Eight engineering students participate in int’l. summer program in Taiwan’s NTUST appeared first on University of Santo Tomas.