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Technews

EVERY MONDAY May 14, 2012

PhilDev Scholarship Tragets Promising Studes

By JONATHAN KEVIN CASTILLO

Top Technopreneurs To Offer First Entrepreneurship Camp In Cebu City

Filipinos From Silicon Valley, Intel And Microsoft To Share Concrete Steps, Real Tips And True Stories To Success
Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon) and the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) are pleased to announce the first-ever Entrepreneurship Camp in Cebu City, Philippines on May 14, 2012, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Casino Espanol. Winston Damarillo, Founder of DevCon, and Dado Banatao, Chair of PhilDev are both excited to show why the best targets for entrepreneurship endeavors might be right at our backyard, and how we can enable a world-class environment for local entrepreneurship. We at PhilDev believe that truly sustainable economic development can only be realized when we have achieved a critical mass of Entrepreneurs in the country, said Banatao, who founded three start-ups himself before funding other start-ups with great potential through Tallwood Venture Capital. It is important that we provide a pathway for our technologists and engineers to become entrepreneurs, said Damarillo, himself a highly successful technopreneur having founded software companies Morphlabs and Exist Global, Inc., before founding Developers Connect to discover and nurture the natural capacity of the Filipino to innovate and create. Our talent pool is scarce and fleeting - it is important to maximize our potential through entrepreneurship. Co-hosted by the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) and the Developers Connect (DevCon), the Entrepreneurship Camp offers mentoring opportunities from the top technopreneurs in the industry. This event also provides a venue to discuss and advise the attendees of the current startup trends and practices. The Entrepreneurship Camp will also feature Eric Manlunas (Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Siemer Ventures), and Alvin Gendrano (Director of Microsoft) who will be sharing concrete steps and real tips on how to start and succeed in your own business. Entrepreneurship Camp is the final event to the Start-Up Weekend Cebu, also supported by DevCon. The Entrepreneurship Camp is free-of-charge. The speakers will also discuss the PhilDev SuperFund Scholarship Grant, which aims to provide 151 brilliant Filipino students with P1M each to complete degrees in the fields of science and engineering: an important step in the course of learning and contributing to the industry and society. The Entrepreneurship Camp is also a teaser/trailer to a bigger PhilDev event: Silicon Valley Comes to the Philippines, being planned in Cebu or Manila this October 2012.

hilanthropist, entrepreneur, engineer and multibillionaire Filipino, Diosdado Dado Banatao, whose inventions of microprocessors revolutionized every computer as early as the 80s and the same technology being used up to this day, with PhilDev are now seeking bright and innovative engineering students for the Superfund Scholarships for Science and Engineering (S&E). We have a sickness here that we need to solve, Dado Banatao said, Theres a lot of poverty. There are cities like Manila who have means and so on and there is the countryside that are really very poor and we cannot continue to be that way. We need to grow our middle income. And so we have that problem, its about education, its about science and technology, but you know we talked about why technology, well from productivity, from health, to food it just surveys everything. Dado Banatao is a strong believer that science and math are the keys to economic and technological development for the country. He said, We are not afraid to make a good case of this issue, maybe were stupid but we need to solve this issue, this science and technology problem. Start with math, start with science, going to engineering, and create technology. Theres no shortcut, so we need to discover all of the Philippines for naturally talented scientists and engineers. With poverty on a significant level, education is becoming harder to come by. Even if the country is moving forward, it is doing so at a slow pace that Philippines is being left behind. That scholarship, the superfund starts again with a very much needed requirement for Philippine development, it has been shown that a developing country has to tap the global market, because if all you have is your own economy, youre basically circulating the

Dado Banatao

same thing, Dado Banatao said. The global market is huge, almost unlimited in context. Research has shown you need technology to tap the global market and for foreign investments. Banatao recalled countries like Germany and Japan were decimated after the Second World War. But these two countries had great scientists and engineers, Banatao said, and they created and used their technology to tap the global market. From nothing to where they are today, amazing! So, Phildev is focused on that strategy. The S&E is funded by the Philippine private sector, partnered with different universities throughout the country. Scholars will receive a mass amount of benefits to further their career, so long as they contin-

ue to work their hardest and display innovation. Included in the scholarship program, the student is entitled to a full tuition coverage, book allowance, dorm accommodations, mentorship, summer activities, internships, and the best of them lot, employment upon graduation. The Philippines need science and engineering to develop our capability our expertise to tap the global market and when you are finally able to get there, the nice thing about there is that the global market is you learn about more market knowledge and then because of that you are more capable of creating more products and services in tuned with global demand. According to him, this is going to be a long term mission. The process of this would be generational; mean-

ing a single generation would not be enough to solve the entire problem around Philippines. Time is dependent of course in how vigorous we are in solving the problem, if we accelerate this, if we truly accelerate this, truly get serious spend the money and really um work this through, hopefully its less than a generation. But, if we do it, just casually, it uh may never happen. Im so worried about that. If people think that they are good

enough, that is a problem. We are not even good enough, he said. PhilDev is gaining sponsors from the government. For Dado, they are acting fast, and they understand the issue at hand, and the only thing that is moving slow are the issues that have been there for a long time. It is a process that isnt geared for fast action right now but they did understand it, its just a matter of time therefore, he said.

Tech Wishes For The Philippines

In this day and age, almost everything can be found in the realm of the Internet and done through the aid of technology. Sadly, the Philippines is not one of the technological leaders in terms of usage, implementation, and innovation. For my article this week, let me enumerate some of my observations and thoughts on a couple of basic tech upgrades I wish our country to have. Online check-in and itinerary retrieval are very important features of airline websites. This airline company is known to be one of the firsts in Asia, and one of the major airlines with the biggest number of aircrafts. However, it is disappointing that until today, they still havent completed their online check-in facility. Theres no way to print itineraries or e-tickets too. To think, their affiliate a budget airline already has this capability on their website. Whats taking them so long? Paying for buses, trains, taxi rides, convenience store purchases, etc. is such an easy task in countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore, thanks to their onecard-pays-all innovation. Whenever abroad, I am able to save a lot of time by loading just one card, which then can be used in stores apart from the different transportation means. If they can do it, why cant our country implement it too? Traffic is a big issue in the Philippines, especially in Manila. Korea has already rolled out their virtual convenience store, where train passengers use their smartphones to scan the picture of the items they want to purchase. This virtual store is posted on the walls of their train stations, which allows consumers to choose what to buy as they wait for the train to arrive. Once paid using their phone, it will be delivered to their houses. Isnt it cool and convenient? Telecom institutions in our country have a lot of improvement and upgrades to do. Other countries are able to provide good signal strength and data connection to users even when underground. Here in the Philippines, simply going through a tunnel will already show SOS and zero reception on phones. How frustrating can that be? This may seem to be a problem with the government, but I really wish our country could implement a universal ID for all of our government mandated memberships. If not, then I hope most offices can upgrade their websites to allow Filipinos to file new memberships and search for membership numbers within the confines of their home. And maybe utilize email to notify that the cards are ready for pickup. Dont you think its already time? I can go on and on in listing down my wishes for our country in terms of technological advancements, but one thing I would like to encourage everyone to do is to be in the know and learn as much as you can with the Internet. Dont go online simply to dwell on Facebook and Twitter; make it more worthwhile by reading, connecting with people, and getting ideas to help the Philippines be a more hi-tech country. (Glenn Richmond Ong)

Boomer Gen

Jose Ma J Fernandez

Keeping Coffee Hot All Day

ne habit of mine that always seems to annoy the mistress of the home is a penchant for looking for the perfect coffee mug or cup, or the ultimate vacuum flask (or Thermos, as we tend to use the brand name in the generic sense) to keep my coffee hot or my drinks cold. Unfortunately, the search ultimately turns sour when these mugs or flasks flunk real world tests. Even those horribly expensive coffee flasks being touted by name coffee chains seem to do the job well only for a while, and fail to perform beyond 6 to 8 hours. As a result of all this experimentation, our home now is a repository of a large range of mugs, cups, and flasks of different brands and sizes. And to prove that the search is not over, I am still looking for a properly sized vacuum flask that can store my insulin pen during the day. It seems that the many containers I have accumulated are either too small or just a tad short of the ideal size, i.e., length. Because of this, I may just have to implore my endocrinologist to prescribe to me a newer type of insulin pen that can be carried around at room

temperature. A review of various vacuum flasks by someone probably more obsessed than I am about keeping coffee warm and drinks cold has unearthed a new version of the venerable Thermos series of fine jugs and flasks. This is called the ThermosWork Series, and as its name connotes, is probably intended for those ordinary joes like you and me who prefer to carry our own brew or drink to work or to all-day situations. Best of all, the Work Series Thermos boasts of a realworld ability to keep coffee hot for 24 hours, and do the same for cold drinks. Furthermore, the same container can handle both hot and cold drinks (not at the same time, of course), a capability that is not always present in competing brands. It seems that a few die-hard afficionadosof hot and cold drink containers put quite a few brands and models to the test, and the Work Series of Thermos came out on top. The manufacturer boasts of several key features for their product, among them: TherMax double wall vacuum insulation for maximum tempera-

ture retention, hot or cold Tempered 18/8 stainless steel body is dent-resistant and rugged for ultimate durability Cool to the touch with hot liquids Big 40 oz. capacity holds 25% more than similar size quart bottles Unbreakable stainless steel cup fits most automotive cup holders Rubberized handle with oversize metal links provide strength to withstand the most extreme conditions Lifetime limited warranty The Thermos Work Series is priced around $20 30 in the US. If we go by the normal exchange rate plus a factor for tax and profit, a decent model can cost from P1000 to 2000. Pricey, but considering that I also spent close to the low of that range for my other experimental purchases, it seems worth the price and trouble. I look forward to finding this brand and model of the venerable Thermos line in the market soon.