Synergy: Electrical and Electronics Engineering Summit 2014 Event Highlights

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Synergy is where students from various courses related to the field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, technology, and information meet to learn and share thoughts and ideas on how their fields of study can help the everyday lives of Filipinos. It hopes to inspire students into thinking and building technological and engineering innovations which can further the country's progress. Synergy is mainly envisioned to go beyond learning the concepts and exploring the theories acquired from the academe.

Now on its third year, Synergy presented a four-day gathering dubbed as Synergy: Electrical and Electronics Engineering Summit 2014 held last November 19 to 22, 2014. The event was an opportunity for the future engineers to showcase their potential skills and intellect in a whole new level.

With chosen speakers from trending companies in the technological industry, students also build their career vision and skill potential derived from their interest and key study. The event focused on the development of one’s professionalism, and in turn, as an avenue to be part of building the country.

This year's Synergy was composed of five major events namely Techno Talk, Ingenious Ideas, Revolutionary Robotics, Dynamic Discourse and Corporate Connection.

TECHNO TALK
Synergy: Electrical and Electronics Engineering Summit 2014 was opened by Techno Talk held last November 19, 2014 at the Maynilad Room, Melchor Hall. Techno Talk captured the selected topics of invited speakers from the academe, government, and corporate worlds. The talk was participated by different colleges and universities including University of Pangasinan, National University, Ateneo de Manila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and Don Bosco Technical College.

The speaker from the academe is a professor from the UP EEE Institute, Dr. Michael Angelo Pedrasa. His talk covered the Smart Grid: the transformation of the existing electricity grid using the developing and mature technologies and advanced infrastructure, and the necessity of smart grids in solving the increasing demand in energy services.

The government-related talk focused around Project NOAH. This talk was delivered by Engr. Ian Kaye Alejandrino, a Senior Science Research Specialist at the said project. It is under the Department of Science and Technology, and is an in-depth study of natural calamities in the country using an advanced weather information system. It is a part of a new set of technologies for the prediction of storm surges in different areas days or hours beforehand in order to warn the aforementioned areas.

The last talk was given by Earl Martin Valencia, the President and Founder of the IdeaSpace Foundation Accelerator. He discussed opportunities in leadership and innovation in IdeaSpace. The company helps young entrepreneurs develop their potential ideas that could bring change to the world of Science and Technology. As a professional, he shared his experiences on successfully leading a start-up company, and encourages the participants to build ideas that matter to society.

The final part of the program was a sponsor talk by Indra Philippines, a global innovation company. Indra showcased its own solutions and leading technologies in different fields such as transportation systems, security and defense, communications and radars, and many more. The program for the morning closed with the awarding of certificates to the participants of Techno Talk.

INGENIOUS IDEAS
On the afternoon of November 19, Ingenious Ideas was held in Maynilad Room, Melchor Hall to showcase the decision-making and problem solving skills of participants. Participants will exhibit their ability to think outside the box by crafting their own solution to some issues we encounter in our environment and society. They will conceptualize a product that will address disaster prevention, energy development or technology advancement.

To motivate and inspire participants, an ideation session was conducted by Mr. Dave Del Rosario, a member of the IdeaSpace Events and Community Engagement Team. He stressed that even young people can turn ideas into reality. The participants were then divided into nine teams and were given an hour and forty minutes to conceptualize their product.

During the brainstorming period, Ms. Goldy Yancha, also from IdeaSpace, shared her knowledge about her field of expertise, ideas, and experiences to further inspire the participants. The teams were given equal time to present their product concept and structure. They were evaluated according to the following criteria: 30% creativity, 30% feasibility, 25% social impact, and 15% presentation.

Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ team “Neonizer” was hailed champion with their product concept. The PUP team “Bumblebus” and National University’s team “Tabi-Tech” won 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up, respectively.

The judges who shared their feedback for each product concept were Mr. Del Rosario, Ms. Yancha, Engr. Alejandrino who delivered a talk in Techno Talk, and Engr. Reimark de Guzman from MERALCO. All winning teams received a trophy. The champion, and 1st and 2nd runners-up received P5,000, P3,000, and P2,000, respectively.

Other teams included “Replace-IT!”, “Transparent Solar Panels”, “Barya-bols”, “TBA”, “Electric Consumption Updater Application”, and “Smart Classroom”. The awarding of certificates of participation was led by Charie Raynon and Wendy Apawan, the heads for Techno Talk and Ingenious Ideas.


REVOLUTIONARY ROBOTICS
The event for the second day of SYNERGY: EEE Summit 2014 was Revolutionary Robotics, the
country’s first inter-collegiate robotics competition. It was held at the Philippine Social Science Center
(PSSC) Auditorium, Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City last November 20, 2014.
Revolutionary Robotics started at 10:00 AM. One of the heads of SYNERGY 2014, Shakira Arguelles,
delivered opening remarks. This was followed by the introduction of judges, and the explanation of
the mechanics, guidelines and prizes. Four teams composed of three from the National University
(NU) and one from the Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) competed in the said event.

Each team built a classic line-follower robot which they modified throughout the contest to fit the
tracks used in the three rounds that comprised the competition. Via drawing of lots, it was determined that the order by which teams ran their mobots on the track was NU Team 1, NU Team 2, DBTC, and, lastly, NU Team 3.

The four teams were given 30 minutes to prepare for the Easy Round. After the Easy Round, a lunch break was made at 11:30 AM. This break was used to prepare the track for the Average Round. The program then continued at 1:00 PM. At the Difficult Round, DBTC conceded which left only the teams from NU to compete. The program ended at 3:00 PM.

NU Team 2 is ranked 1st place where they garnered an outstanding score of 99.332. On the other hand, NU Team 2, NU Team 3 and DBTC settled for 2nd place, 3rd place, and 4th place, respectively. The champion team was awarded P15,000 and a trophy, while the 1st runner-up was presented with P10,000 and a trophy, and the 2nd runner-up was given P7,000 and a trophy. The 4th runner-up was given P3,000.


DYNAMIC DISCOURSE
To expose the students to EEE-related companies, SYNERGY 2014 brings Dynamic Discourse, a whole day company tour with the help of MERALCO and the Wholesale Electric Spot Market (WESM). The participants left the Engineering Lawn via the transportation bus provided by the UP Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity.

The bus arrived at past 8 o’clock in the morning in MERALCO. A talk, featuring videos, the history, and other information about the company, was given by Engr. Eugene Araullo, the head of the MERALCO Power Academy.

During the tour, the participants were divided into groups that explored some of the MERALCO laboratories, the Solar PV Center, and the MERALCO Museum. On a couple of the tour sites, there were short talks on e-vehicles and charging stations, and how they worked.

In the afternoon tour, there were two batches of participants who visited WESM. After the registration of the first batch in the tour, they took a tour around the company, followed by a talk by WESM. The second batch arrived at around 3:00 in the afternoon, and enjoyed the same set of activities as the first batch. The participants left the company at around 4:00 in the afternoon and went back to UP Diliman.


CORPORATE CONNECTION
The culminating event of SYNERGY 2014 is Corporate Connection held on November 22, 2014 at Balay Kalinaw, UP Diliman. The final gathering for this year’s participants began with dinner at 6 o’clock in the evening. After an hour, the program officially started with an opening remark given by the UP ERG Vice President for External Affairs, Eula Frances Bugayong. It was followed by the insights of a professional from
UP EEE Institute Assistant Professor, Dr. John Richard Hizon. He gave an inspirational speech as an Electronics Engineer on doing something different from others that will create an impact to our country.

 

The next highlight of the event was the Networking Session. This provided an avenue for participants to interact with those from other universities. Each individual would be given five minutes to talk with others situated on the same table. After these five minutes, they are then requested to move to another table with another set of participants that they can converse with. Some, especially those who were graduating, shared their experiences and learning with other students.

After the networking session, the recipients of minor and major awards were announced. The following special awards were also given during the night: DZUP Kasali Ka Hashtag Award, IdeaSpace Social Media Award, and Accenture Be > You Imagine Awards.