The Department of Science and Technology-Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) fulfills its commitment of strengthening technological capability among the youth with Imake.Wemake project. Running on its second year, Imake.Wemake is a competition for young Filipinos that showcases their creativity and skill in creating innovative solutions that can help address some of the country’s pressing societal problems.
Sixteen team-contenders have already advanced to the second part of DOST-SEI’s Imake.Wemake competition with an intensive 5-day training proper. With this year’s lineup of proposals strong, the department invited the finalists for a special workshop to integrate computer programming into their proposals. Spearheading the competition’s 2nd day of workshop is Business Development Manager from Acer Taiwan, Kevin Chuang who imparted the use of Acer CloudProfessor in bringing to life the student teams’ creative solutions.
In the face of limited internet connectivity, using advanced technology to solve some of the country’s most pressing issues becomes a challenge. But according to Chuang, despite finite resources in a developing country like the Philippines, innovators can still design and develop innovations to real-life difficulties with the use of Acer CloudProfessor.
“Connectivity is not really a problem, as long as there’s proof of concept. It is a blueprint of a new solution that can be given to any known organization who has a device that can execute the plan, and CloudProfessor does just that. We want developers to create more proofs of concept, that’s why we developed CloudProfessor that makes programming and robotics easy,“ said Chuang.
Most of the participants are programming novices. During the first day of training, the teams were taught how to operate Microcontrollers and Arduino Digital System with the basics in robotics. From learning the basics, they progressed to their hands-on training that made them experience how effortless it is to use CloudProfessor. Dragging built-in JavaScript or Blockly codes for a command execution instead of manual keying of syntaxes saves a lot of time for developers. Unlike the traditional programming, the simpler interface of the CloudProfessor speeds up the process, giving the participants more room for testing, improvement and replication.
Chuang expounded, “We devised CloudProfessor in such a way that users will not need to develop syntaxes, they just have to know the logic on how to run these things. We are in this era where the Internet-of-Things and the Cloud runs most devices and creating more of these would mean the long process of understanding program languages. But with CloudProfessor, even younger people can design the next great invention.”
Ready to utilize the CloudProfessor’s complete accessories that include lights, fans and sensors, these students believe the device can hasten their data gathering process in developing their prototypes.
From the school of 2016’s defending champion, Philippine Science High School Eastern Visayas, Hans Gonzaga shared, “It will be easier for us to collect the information we need, especially with the observing site far from our laboratory. CloudProfessor’s sensors would let us know if our technology will be able to adapt to the conditions present in the site.”
Meanwhile, Elijah Mae Cabug from Masbate National Comprehensive High School added, “We see our proposal coming to life especially with the built-in sensors of CloudProfessor that will notify us of any incidence. These sensors are important for our device to analyze and compute probabilities that will then give us room for constructing the solution.”
What is more inspiring aside from their zest in developing their prototypes are the true-to-life experiences that fueled their interest towards these projects. Ranging from various challenges such as the loss of productivity due to heavy traffic, the accuracy of weather reports and the modernization of the agricultural industry, these students understand the important role that technology plays in providing innovative solutions today.
While it is important for students to be adept to using more advanced tools like the CloudProfessor in breathing life to their ideas, Chuang emphasized that this is just one half of the job. The weight falls more on the willingness of the proponents to do more and keep on making impact to the breakthrough of creative solutions. With the room filled with young minds and blazing fervor to solve real-life problems, Kevin Chuang advises the future developers, “Be adventurous; be innovative. Do not be afraid to get it wrong because getting it wrong is always the first step to getting it right.”
