Proudly Pinoy

You may have heard it in the news, and may have ignored it at some point. And then you hear it again, and again, and again.

Seems like there's no stopping them.

We're talking about these young kids from the Philippines, besting them all, bagging the plum awards in international competitions, making their mommas proud, and yes, making the Philippines proud.

Up close, these are veritably fresh-from-babyhood young whizzes , waddling away in their fresh gradeschool years of milk teeth and baby fat, blabbering what seems like juvenile gibberish, but harrumphing and wheezing their way into worldwide recognition in the field of science and technology.


Check out the videos:

RP students win at World Robotics Olympiad

RP students win in robotics competition



Last November, it was the Grace Christian High School gradeschool kids led by Grade 6 student Joseph Aldrin Chua and Grade 5 students Edrich Hans Chua and Dominique Hannah Sy, young Filipino-Chinese geniuses who wowed them all in Yokohama, Japan , bagging the Silver Award in the 2008 World Robotics Olympiad, with the theme “Green Whiz Community and the G-Tech Robot Engineering a Better World."

Their winning entries:

"A lightweight hydrogen car, H2O Treatment Robot which is designed to filter waste water fr om a factory for safe disposal, E-Sorter, a robot that sorts biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage using color coding of container ; Paper Recycling Area (PRA), a factory robot that recycles used paper into something usable; Iced Sub-Zero Robot, a robot that makes melted ice in the polar region back into ice form; and Forest Surveillance Robot, a robot with a built in camera that guards forests and waterfalls from illegal loggers and hunters."

Other Filipino high schoolers, this time from the Benigno Aquino High School and the International School of Manila in the Open Category of the High School and Primary Levels, bagged sixth place of the same international robotics event.

Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) Director Dr. Ester B. Ogena said the Philippine team’s triumph is "proof that Filipino students could be at par with pupils around the world ... Our students have shown their best and given more opportunities like these, we could tap more potential in the field of robotics.”

And this April, hugging the headlines, once again, are young Filipino geniuses showing the whole world what they've got.

With their Pinoy-made robot Larry Labuyo ( Labuyo is Filipino for "wild rooster" ) created by the 43-man Philippine team Team Lagablab -- composed of Filipino high school students from the Philippine Science High School Main Campus (PSHS), and mentors from the SEI (Science Education Institute of the Department of Science and Technology) , the De La Salle University and the University of the Philippines -- they proved to the international community that more and more Filipino talents are out to prove that there's more guts, chutzpah and resounding bravado to this very much underrated brown race.

Larry Labuyo and Team Lagablab ( Team Flame), the only Southeast Asian to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition held in Hawaii, bagged the “Rookie All Star Award" and the Highest Rookie Seed Award," besting 33 high schools from the United States and Mexico, according to the official FRC website and DOST. These Filipino kids won over their competitors from Brazil, the US, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico and Turkey.

FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology , a US-based organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 aimed at inspiring young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.

The Hawaii regional event – held from March 26 to 28 – is one of the 42 regional competitions participated in by high schools students from Brazil, the US, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Mexico and Turkey. Winners for each regional event would advance to the final round to be held in Atlanta, Georgia from April 16 to 18.


Before leaving for Hawaii, PSHS Elmer Dadios explained during the launching of “Labuyo" at the PSHS campus in Quezon City in February that his team had shelled out P2 million to construct the robot.
Standing at exactly four-feet, Labuyo was programmed and designed by a group of third year PSHS students from materials available in hardware stores.

“We have found in Hawaii a treasure trove of talents and I am sure that there is more to tap in the Philippines. We have truly shown to the world that we can do it and we can make it big in international competitions, especially in robotics."


Sounds like a whopping slambang double whammy.

By 2010, the World Robotics Olympiad takes place in the Philippines, and so our young Pinoy geniuses are getting ready.


DOST-SEI's Ogena says:

“Preparations are underway for this grand event and we are very excited with the privilege that we would be hosting the WRO two year s from now... The WRO is a good training ground for future engineers who would to improve the way of living in the world through robotics. Our end goal in supporting the WRO is to entice our students to venture into science careers and beef up the critical mass of scientists and engineers our country needs."

Meantime, our Hawaii winning rookies, Team Lagablab, also gears up for the final round of the FIRST Robotics Competition Championship, set to compete with other regional event winners for the "final countdown" in Atlanta, Georgia this mid-April.

Go Team Lagablab! Go young Manila Futurists!

(Email to the MFS Yahoo!Group last June 2008)

Hi Manila Futurists!

Just reminiscing about our happy FEU experience for “The High Tech Future of Global Business and Computing In the 21^st Century” , our MFS-sponsored event at the said university last June …

More than 300 FEU and FEU East Asia College students trooped to our seminar at the FEU University Conference Center last Thursday , June 25^th --- filling the venue to the brim , coming in throngs and wondering what the MFS event is all about.

MFS was on its 10^th leg of its campus tour seminar-series, hopping from one campus to another each month as part of its objectives of giving free education seminars as our gift to the community ---- for its vision of establishing a well-informed, empowered , optimistic and intelligent community .

Ateneo De Manila Unversity’s Rafael Saldana PhD led the lecture as our invited special guest speaker : associate professor of applied mathematics and computing in the School of Science and Engineering, Ateneo de Manila University ; Editor-in-Chief of the Philippine Information Technology Journal (PITJ) and immediate past president of the Computing Society of the Philippines (CSP). His lecture concentrated on his research interests grid and high performance computing --- being co-principal investigator of two international projects related to grid computing: ONCO-MEDIA Project (funded by the French Government’s ICT Asia Regional Program) and EUASIAGRID Project (funded by the European Commission FP7 Program).

Starting the program was a unique rendition of National Anthem via the FEU Pangkat Kawayan ---- which sounded like my childhood flashback of that “bamboo band” sound when I first heard it , with FEU students playing the music onstage.

Secretly, albeit unique and definitely Filipino flavored music, I was thinking about the bamboo band music’s complete 360 degrees contrast to our own music , on how the audience’s reaction would be once we start our own 21^st century pop music background ( Flo Rida hiphop rap , very Western and girly Fergie music ) for our AVP powerpoints --- as intro for the MFS group.

Next came the opening prayers/ invocation , enter onstage black T-shirt clad teeners, in full-emote mode line after line , like a melancholy drama in dance rendition , interpreting each prayer line into their own “inspirational dance”.

Meantime, the audience’s thoughts were sidetracked from focusing on the prayer to having their attention on the dramatic dance rendition --- as the dancers sashayed, morose-faced, as if in angst and anguish at what’s in store for them --- our one-hour lecture ..

After bamboo music and an anguish-laden prayer dance, enter our AVP powerpoints, seemingly a much welcome 5-minuter visual feast for them --- with mod pop music by Fergie and Flo Rida , putting smiles on their faces and getting the attention of the teen-populated audience.

MFS’ new friends from FEU ---- AVP for Academic Affairs Ms. Cecille Anido , FEU Research Center Head Anabelle Verdote , and FEU Institute of Nursing Associate Dean Arquiza took turns in giving opening remarks, closing remarks, and giving introductions ( including introduction for me as MFS Moderator) . Onstage, I saw the big audience filling the capacity of the big conference center to the brim, and I can even hear their excitement onstage ( “ ah, futurists pala galing sa US” ) , and other loud murmurs from the teen students.

After my first introduction (getting an introduction as MFS moderator for the first time) , we also got another first from FEU : a Certificate of Appreciation for me , and also another Certificate of Appreciation for Dr. Raffy Saldana. Wow! The FEU warmth and hospitality is really something else…

Also catching my attention was how even the professors and students were smiling at us and our group, just like some VIPs dropping by unexpectedly but welcome just the same, dropping by at their territory but treated as special guests . FEU’s trademark humility and their gracious welcome for us is really amazing.

The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Research Center even gave us a lunch treat --- including Dr. Raffy Saldana, Institute of Nursing Associate Dean Arquiza, Institute of Nursing Associate Dean Dr . Belinda Buenafe, myself, Research Head Anabel Verdote, AVP For Academic Affairs Ms. Cecille Anido, also including AGHAM and MFS member Natalie Pulvinar.

Stretching their hospitality to the max, Ms. Cecille asked her staff to give us a quick tour at the FEU Institute of Nursing’s impressive and yes, very expensive virtual lab --- a whole floor --- with life-sized mannequins with human body parts costing millions , but with the objective of having an effective education for the students.

We also toured their e-learning classrooms --- imagine an ocean of computers --- and students seemingly nonchalant as Dr. Raffy and I took photos of the whole scenario ( with the main objective of reliving our experience in our blogs ) .

Dr. Raffy gamely trudged with us during the whole tour , albeit his aching right foot due to the absence of Planax ( pain-reliever medicine) in his system that morning, and we guffawed and laughed hilariously at the mannequins’ interchangeable reproductive organs ( “pwedeng boy , pwedeng girl”) , and had our jaws dropping at the discovery of the amount of the mannequins ( millions in Philippine pesos) shipped from the US just to have the best for the FEU students.

My whole experience with the warm and friendly FEU group reminded me of our initial FEU experience --- last October 2007 at the FEU East Asia College , when we had Ryan Belir’s group ( now also subscribing to our MFS mailing list, Hi Ryan ) who showed us their very warm and sweet hospitality , especially with their gentle and self-effacing demeanour, kindness and patience even with our technical problems , helping us out with our registration, giving us FEU memorabilia gifts ( for each of us MFS members and for visiting Las Vegas futurist-scientists VIPs Gilda Cabral and Mike Korns) , and even a bouquet of flowers for Gilda .

As we bid them adieu, I whispered to Research Head Anabelle that we’d love to be back , hopefully within the year, and she gamely said “Yes” right away, without batting an eyelash. I thought to myself that I might be pushing my luck too far with FEU , but , darn, they were just so nice and sweet . Can’t help but ask for a second helping .

We’re moving to Ateneo ‘s Leong Hall Auditorium on July 25^th --- as MFS partners with the Ateneo Business Cluster Group --- an umbrella organization of a variety of business student organizations --- who agreed in co-presenting our event for the Ateneo community. Dr. Raffy gave word that he’ll be sure to be around (fresh from his Paris trip) , expressing his eagerness to meet our futurist founders Gilda and Mike.

Here’s to more successful Manila Futurists’ events as we move on to our monthly campus tours. See you there !

Cheers,
Lei

Look For Goodness
In everything, goodness is there, our goal is to find it. In every person, the best is there, our job is to recognise it. In every situation, the positive is there, our opportunity is to see it. In every problem, the solution is there, our responsibility is to provide it. In every setback, the success is there, our adventure is to discover it. In every crisis, the reason is there, our challenge is to understand it.

By seeing the goodness, we'll be very enthusiastic and our lives will be richer.