A testament of synergy between the two dynamic institutions, the newly signed ADI Professorial Chair Award Donation, totaling to one million pesos over the course of five years, will further empower the Faculty of Engineering to undertake projects that will boost excellence in the field of research, as well as to pave way for professorial chair lectures that will distinguish a faculty member’s academic excellence and recognize his/her service to the University.

On behalf of the University, Vice-Rector for Finance and Faculty of Engineering Regent Rev. fr. Roberto L. Luanzon, Jr., O.P., SThD and Office of Grants, Endowments, and Partnerships in Higher Education (OGEP) Director Rev. fr. Maximo P. Gatela, O.P., PhL led the MoA signing alongside the ADI’s representatives, Mr. Miles Ramirez, Country Manager, and Ms. Cindy Cabezas, Human Resource Director.

The formalization of ties was witnessed by Faculty of Engineering Dean Prof. Angelo R. Dela Cruz, PhD; Assistant Dean Asst. Prof. Cristina Tiangco, PhD; Faculty Secretary Asst. Prof. Ma. Luisa T. Asilo; Department of Electronics Engineering Chair Asst. Prof. Edison A. Roxas; Industry Government Academe and Alumni Relations Program Representative Engr. Maria Sharlene L. Insigne; Physics Laboratory Supervisor Engr. Gabriel Rodnei M. Geslani; OGEP Executive Assistant Mr. Levine Andro H. Lao, PhL-MA; and Networking and Liaison Officer of UST Research and Endowments Foundation, Inc. (REFI) Mr. Christian L. Naval.

ADI has established a longstanding partnership with the University, with the Department of Electronics Engineering being a beneficiary of the support. The said institution also provided high-performance computational devices, staged training to students and immersion to faculty members, as well as granted MS-ECE scholarships.

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The event was attended by the members of the ECE Alumni from Batches 1960 to the present, including ECE students who participated Via Zoom.

“While the different discipline-based alumni associations are continuously expanding and progressing, we hope that we are all still one and true to the vision and mission of the University in serving our main stakeholders,” UST Faculty of Engineering (FoE) Dean, Prof. Angelo R. dela Cruz, Ph.D., PECE, mentioned in his opening remarks.

This was followed by a message from the UST Engineering Alumni Association Inc. (USTEAAI) President Engr. Jason L. Ong.

“Andirito tayo to form the ECE Alumni and once again the formation of this alumni association per department is to strengthen the participation of each department as well as to give equal representation to the engineering alumni association,” Engr. Ong uttered.

ECE Department Chair Asst. Prof. Edison A. Roxas, Ph.D. also gave his message stating, “this is the moment to reminisce all your experiences behind the walls of the Roque Ruaño building both good and bad but definitely memorable.”

“May the establishment of the ECE Alumni Organization be the first step to continuously connect and collaborate to keep the flames of the UST ECE alive and burning,” he added.

An audio-visual presentation about the department, its milestones, and accomplishments over the past years, was shown after their speeches.

Engr. Amante Garcia from Batch 1993 shared how the group was created and started.

“This event would not be possible without the support of all the core group members of the batch representatives and even students. So lahat ng kabuuan ng UST ECE department ay parte po ng pagiging successful na event ngayon,” he said.

The awarding of the Certificate of Appreciation to the members of the ECE Core Team during the process of creating the UST ECE Alumni association by-laws was then administered.

Four Thomasian Hall of Famers from the ECE Department namely, Engr. William Bello (Batch 1973), Engr. Norberto Viera (Batch 1977), Engr. Manuel Dino (Batch 1965), and Engr. James Velasquez (Batch 1988) were acknowledged.

Engr. Bello and Engr. Viera shared their sentiments during the event.

When asked about his sentiments on going back to his alma mater after 18 years in an interview, Engr. Viera said, “It’s like a de ja vu. When I was here in 1972 when I enrolled here for my course in engineering, it was really nice, it feels good about it, to see everybody developing.”

With a 216-1 vote during their online voting, the by-laws have now been approved and ratified, concluding the formation of the ECE Alumni Association.

Current Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the USTEAAI Monina Evangelista of Batch 1994 and former UST Engineering Student Council (UST ESC) President John Marvin Morante from Batch 2014, hosted the onsite event while Denisse Cunanan from the ECE Department was the virtual host.

The event concluded with the singing of the UST Hymn followed by a photo opportunity.

A former scholar of the Pinoy Dream Academy RJ Jimenez from Batch 2006 with his five-year-old daughter Ellie Jimenez and 4th year ECE student Juan Carlos Castro entertained the audience during their dinner.

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The handwriting tool project was headed by Engr. Edison A. Roxas, the UST ECE department chair.

In an interview, Engr. Roxas stated that the project idea was conceptualized even before the pandemic. When asked about what i-SULAT aims to be, he said that “The iSULAT envisions itself as the future standard in handwriting evaluation for the Filipino children.”

He also mentioned that the project’s main target is to assess developing school children’s handwriting skills.

According to DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” de la Peña in a recorded report, the project aims to solve problems of inter-tool scoring variations, inconsistency, incongruence, and assessment time. He added that the number of handwriting problems in developing children reached an approximated 5 to 25 percent range.

“Handwriting is still the most immediate form of graphic communication. [F]ailure to attain handwriting competency during the school-age year results in far-reaching negative effects on both academic success and self-esteem,” de la Peña said.

Furthermore, DOST-PCHRD mentioned that the project can be used to examine the handwriting of people suffering from various medical, neurological, and psychological illnesses including stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and even early-onset depression.

The project will run from April 1, 2022 through June 31, 2024.

First reported in

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The team’s project was called “Vision-based Face Mask and Face Shield Detection using YOLOv5”, a proposed automated solution engineered to reduce exposure of authorities who are checking temperatures in public spaces, as well as providing a fast and efficient monitoring.

Asst. Prof. Edison A. Roxas, PhD, PECE of the Department of Electronics Engineering and Research Center for Natural and Applied Sciences was the team’s adviser.

Watch their presentation here:

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The multi-sectoral project aims to engage university students in helping uplift the country’s smallholder farmers, particularly by engaging the former in community extension work that uses Design Thinking and Social Innovation Methodologies.

The outputs for the project will be at least 30 students engaged in the initiatives; four faculty members certified as LeX facilitators; at least three innovations developed for the FEP beneficiary groups; and the implementation of a school-wide agriculture advocacy project.

As an initial step, University faculty members were trained in Singapore Polytechnic from October 1-4, 2019, on the module “Learning Express Foundation Training on Design Thinking.” Representing the University were (Assistant Manager of the TOMASInno Center and Lead Coordinator of the project) and LeX_FEP facilitators (); Asst. Prof. Nancy C. Bartolome, PhD (); (); Ms. Propa-Joy R. Santor (); and Mr. Patrick Joseph C. Amulong (Coordinator of the TOMASInno Center).

UST is joined by the University of San Carlos (Cebu) for the project. On UST’s part, the FEP partner communities and their respective commodities are: 1) Pangil, Laguna (kangkong); 2) San Antonio, Quezon (hot peppers); and Magallanes, Cavite (green bell peppers). The local implementing partners are Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. for Laguna, and the local government units of San Antonio and Magallanes.

#ThomasianPartners #ThomasiansGivingBack

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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.

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