National issues tackled by 7th SWEEP Awards winners

True to the theme “Empowering Communities through Wireless Technologies”, the winners of the 7th SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards showcased how wireless applications can help address a national concern.

Grand prize winner was the “3D: Dengue Detecting Device” of Bulacan State University. In second place was “Overload Monitoring for Medium-sized Commercial Marine Transport in Davao City” of Holy Cross of Davao College. Third place went to “Smart Farmbihira” of Batangas State University.

This year’s top three winners were chosen from 10 finalists during the culminating activity held by Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) at the SMX Convention Center. Entries were evaluated based on a demonstration of the working models of the wireless applications and a team presentation.

“We looked for projects closer to form, that could already be implemented for the benefit of their target communities,” said Alex Ibasco, Smart’s Strategic Business Development Group Head.

“The students also had to show how they anchored technology with the theme,” added Arlene Romasanta, Senior Research Specialist of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD).

Together with Ibasco and Romasanta in this year’s board of judges were Mark Ruiz, co-founder and managing director of Microventures and Smart’s Gio Bacareza, head of Broadband Internet and Data Services; Teddy Leonardo, Network and Platforms Services Division Department head; and Mitch Padua, head of Developer Communities, Applications and Platforms.

Bulacan State University’s dengue detecting device got the judges’ nod for its potential to address a health problem and for its social relevance. The device could detect dengue fever within five minutes using image processing technology. Faculty mentor Oliver Mariano said that with the correct algorithm, their project can detect other diseases as well and can be turned into a wireless application for smartphones.

The entry of Holy Cross of Davao College, which can help detect marine vessel overloading through sensors installed in medium-sized commercial passenger ships, just might be the solution to prevent maritime accidents due to overloading. Team leader Bobby Jay Carmelotes said they want to further develop their prototype and tap both the public and private sectors for support.

Smart Farmbihira of Batangas State University is an SMS-based automated bucket drip irrigation and fertigation system. According to Roy Brian Sanvictores, their team aims to help farmers increase productivity and save water by 60 percent. They also intend to use the cash prize to enhance the system. Farmbihira also won the Manila Bulletin Innovative Award.

The winning student-teacher teams received cash prizes, while their respective schools were awarded with equivalent amounts in the form of grants: P500,000 for the champion, P300,000 for 1st runner-up and P150,000 for second runner-up.

A special prize for innovation was also given to University of Baguio’s “Self-sustaining Street Lights with Wireless Power Monitoring System”. The team was awarded P20,000 on top of the P30,000 prize given to each of the seven other finalists.

Next in the agenda for this year’s winning teams is to polish their prototypes in the next six months. Both Smart and the DOST-PCIEERD are ready to assist them in getting their entries ready for implementation.

Changes are in store for the next SWEEP Awards. “While we are not deliberately moving away from GSM applications, next year’s competition will include mobile applications,” said Mario G. Tamayo, head of Smart’s Technical Services Division.

“Schools are natural sources of developers because young people have the ability to come up with fresh ideas. And we want to introduce the schools to the opportunity presented by the expected increase in the use of smartphones. We will lead the way for schools to move into that direction,” said Ramon R. Isberto, head of Smart Public Affairs group.

In line with this, Smart will provide supplementary trainings in mobile applications to partners schools under its Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP).

The SWEEP Awards is Smart’s annual search for the best wireless applications developed by partner schools under SWEEP, an industry-academe partnership that seeks to help raise the level of technology and engineering education in the country.

(Published 11 March 2011, Smart Communications, Inc.)