UP marine, computer scientists invent semi-automated fish monitoring device

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As seen above, a diver carefully installs a stereo camera for FishDrop, a semi-automated fish census technology developed by UP scientists. (Photo credit: Prospero Naval, Jr., and Laura T. David)

Monitoring the health of marine environments is a laborious activity, but is essential for evaluating the success of reef protection and rehabilitation initiatives. A fish census commonly involves divers swimming along a transect line, usually marked by a plastic cord, and visually counting and identifying the fish species that they encounter. This painstaking process requires trained experts and highly knowledgeable divers to accurately record data on species, size, and abundance.

In 2016, Dr. Laura David of the University of the Philippines - Diliman College of Science Marine Science Institute (UPD-CS MSI), together with co-author machine intelligence expert Prof. Prospero C. Naval, Jr. of the UP Department of Computer Science (UPD-DCS) presented a conference paper entitled, “FishDrop: Estimation of Reef Fish Population Density and Biomass using Stereo Cameras” which proposed a semi-automated method that combines a stereo camera rig and image recognition software to allow for more efficient and accurate reef fish census.

The proposed technology would enable divers with minimal training to obtain high-quality population and species distribution measurements using the specially developed stereo camera rig and fish video analyzer software.

FishDrop promises to help improve the Philippines’ reef resilience and biodiversity restoration efforts, and contribute towards the overall health of the country’s reef ecosystems.

A sample of what FishDrop sees and how it recognizes and logs fish during a census. (Photo credit: Prospero Naval, Jr., and Laura T. David)

This coming Monday, June 26, Dr. David is set to take the iStories stage to expound on ‘FishDrop’ and share their team’s journey not just in developing the technology, but also in successfully translating this groundbreaking innovation into a patent.

“Perseverance is necessary to get the concept and the product translated into a patent and commercial venture. It has not been an easy road,” says Dr. David. Like any other intellectual property and patent applications, the journey for FishDrop has been tedious, nevertheless rewarding. Dr. David hopes that through her sharing, she may inspire others to persevere with their own scientific endeavors despite the trudging process.

 

iStories is a series of innovation-themed talks, storytelling, and activities featuring local and international scientists. The initiative aims to ignite the creativity and inventiveness of young scientists not just from UPD-CS but from other institutes inside and outside UP.

Its fourth session is scheduled for June 26, 2023, 3:00 pm at the MSI Audio Visual Room and will also be live via Zoom. To join, you may register through this link https://bit.ly/iStories3rd.

The iStories series takes place at 3:00 pm on the last Monday of every month. Subscription to individual sessions or the entire iStories webinar series is also possible through the same registration form.



Sources:



Naval, P. C., & David, L. T. (2016). FishDrop: Estimation of reef fish population density and biomass using stereo cameras. In 2016 Techno-Ocean (Techno-Ocean). DOI: 10.1109/Techno-Ocean.2016.7890710.

Run for physical fitness, mental health and family fun at Vermosa’s Green Run on June 25

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The Green Run at Vermosa 2023 is set to take off on Sunday, June 25 – almost a year to the date of the first Green Run in July 2022. Last year’s Green Run invited everyone to lace up and enjoy the outdoors for physical and mental health after being cooped up at home due to the pandemic.

This year’s Green Run invites everyone to be “leaner and greener” as both serious and fun runners build on their fitness gains. Like last year, the Run continues to support the Haribon Foundation and focuses on how everyone can do their share to save the environment.

There are different levels in the Green Run that will appeal to runners of different fitness levels: a 3K run for beginners, 5K for intermediate runners, 10K for serious runners, and a half-marathon 21K level for elite runners and athletes in training. This year, a fun and cute 1K Dog Run has been added to the event, giving pets and their owners a great way to bond and get fit together. Celebrity runners are also expected to participate.

What makes the Vermosa Green Run special is that participants and guests get to enjoy Vermosa’s greenery, open skies and clean atmosphere while pursuing their passion.

“The abundance of wide-open spaces, lush greenery, flat and rolling terrain and well-constructed walkways at Vermosa offer both challenges and rewards for runners,” said Vermosa Project Development Manager Moses John Aragones.

“There is also scientific evidence that running outdoors is very beneficial. Doctors say it lessens feelings of isolation, anxiety and stress because running outside is a happy feeling. Powerful hormones that boost mood and combat depression are released especially when you run outdoors. Being out in nature is very calming, and at Vermosa you are surrounded by nature everywhere you go,” added Ayala Vermosa Sports Hub General Manager Lani Tan, who is a sports and fitness enthusiast herself.

Organized by Pinoy Fitness, The Green Run will give proceeds of the Run to Haribon Foundation’s Adopt-a-Seedling Program. Runners and guests get a chance to protect the environment by recycling their plastic bottles at the Sun Life ReCycle PH machine on-site where every bottle donated can earn participants points which can be exchanged for prizes.

Green Run’s exclusive non-life insurance partner, FPG Insurance, will also provide all race participants with a 1-month Personal Accident (PA) insurance coverage, ensuring their safety and peace of mind throughout the event.

Ms. Tan said Vermosa Estates plans to hold the Green Run every year because of Vermosa’s commitment to actively promote sport and an active, healthy lifestyle.

"Our Ayala Vermosa Sports Hub, a state-of-the-art professionally–managed sports facility that has a FINA-standard Olympic size pool, a warm-up pool, an IAAF-standard 400m track oval, a football pitch, athletes’ lounge and a Sante Fitness Lab, all speak about our commitment to fitness, health and overall wellness as well as the development of Philippine sports,” Tan said.

Milo Philippines, SunLife, JGO Mart, DoggoFlask, Alaxan, Seda Hotel Nuvali, Merrell, Fitbar, Runnr, Toby’s Sports, Pocari Sweat and Immuntab, Oishi. O Wow, Healthway Qualimed Hospital Santa Rosa, SS Mnl Pet Store also support The Green Run this year.

Vermosa promotes fitness and fun with fur babies at the Green Run

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The Green Run, Vermosa Estate’s signature run to promote physical and mental fitness by running in the great outdoors, is back and there’s a special treat for dog owners and pet parents this year.

Along with the 25K, 10K, 5K and 3K distance categories, Green Run 2023 has a special 1K race for those who want to bring their doggos along on an adventure. Called The Dog Run, this fun race is open for dog owners who want to hit the lush green trails of Vermosa with their dogs.

Just like humans, dogs need exercise for their health and happiness. Walking or running together is not just fun, it is a rewarding experience, health-wise, for both fur parents and fur babies.

Both dogs and humans will enjoy the beautiful routes at Vermosa that wind through wide open spaces and abundant greenery, made more runner-friendly by wide pedestrian walkways, bicycle and jogging lanes and enhanced greenways. But before they embark on their joint fun and fitness journey, here are a few reminders for dog parents to ensure their dog buddies get the best experience from the Dog Run.


1. Make sure your dog is wearing a back-clip harness instead of a collar. Any pressure on his/her throat while running is potentially dangerous.


2. Warm up before the Run. Do a few minutes of walking or slow jogging before you position yourselves at the starting line. Stretch your dog by letting him/her lie down and stand up several times. Give him or her time to sniff around and take time to poo or pee. Make sure you have waste bags ready.


3. Feel the surface for at least 10 seconds. If the pavement’s too hot for your hand or bare feet, it will be the same for your dog. Wet your dog’s under pad for some protection before you take off. Or use canine booties to protect them from the heat. Booties will also provide protection against any sharp objects on the trail.


4. Take water breaks. If your dog is panting hard, he/she probably needs water. Make sure you have a container that your dog can drink from – like a collapsible bowl or a bottle with a spout for dogs. Making sure your dog is well hydrated – especially in really hot weather – will protect him/her from sun stroke. Just don't let your dog gulp too much water during or after exercise.


5. Don’t give treats right after the run. Give your dog time to recover from all the panting and sweating. Hold off on treats until both of you have calmed down a bit. Don’t give ice water right away. The extreme temperature change may cause vomiting. But praise for your running buddy, petting, a hug and lots of attention will be much appreciated and can be given anytime.


Have fun!

DepEd grants Php 3,000 milestone anniversary bonus to eligible employees

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As part of the weeklong celebration of the agency’s 125th founding anniversary, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced the grant of Php 3,000.00 anniversary bonus to all eligible teaching and non-teaching personnel.

According to the DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2023 entitled “Policy on the Grant of Anniversary Bonus in the Department of Education,” eligible DepEd personnel shall receive an anniversary bonus not exceeding Php 3,000.00, provided that they have rendered at least one (1) year of service in the Department as of the date of the milestone year.

The issuance states that all DepEd officials and employees employed on a full-time or part-time basis, permanent, coterminous, provisional, temporary, casual, or contractual, whose employment is in the nature of regular employee, are eligible for the grant of anniversary bonus.

On the other hand, who are absent without leave (AWOL) or no longer in the service as of June 23, were found guilty of any offense in connection with their work during the 5-year interval between the milestone years, as well as Consultants, Contract of Service, Job Orders similarly situated, is not covered by the grant.

In addition, the issuance aims to provide a multi-year policy guideline on the grant of anniversary bonuses (AB) to all DepEd officials and employees for every milestone year starting FY 2023, and the milestone years thereafter.

DepEd, founded on June 23, 1898, and mandated to provide quality basic education to learners, celebrates its 125th anniversary this year. Milestone years are defined as the government agency's 15th anniversary and every fifth (5th) year after that.

The grant of the anniversary bonus shall not be earlier than June 23 of the milestone year.

For more information on the guidelines, you may refer to https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/DO_s2023_011.pdf.

P.A. Properties offers flexible payment terms, waived penalties to buyers and homeowners to ease financial difficulties

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Laguna-based property developer P.A. Alvarez Properties and Development Corporation (P.A. Properties) offers buyers and homeowners the opportunity to avail of its Penalty Condonation Program to condone penalties of buyers due to non-payment because of financial difficulties.

P.A. Properties’ Penalty Condonation Program waives penalty fees and provides flexible payment terms for buyers and homeowners facing financial challenges due to the pandemic. This program helps individuals manage their budgets and income effectively, offering much-needed relief during uncertain times.

“P.A. Properties knows that the last three years were the hardest that we’ve experienced as a company, much more as a country. Bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic, we understand the struggles faced by our fellow Filipinos. The Penalty Condonation Program is our own way of helping our buyers and current homeowners with their financial difficulties and working budgets.” shares Atty. Marianne Lina-Cruz, President and CEO of P.A. Properties.

 

With this initiative, P.A Properties is committed to be “kasama sa pangarap mo” of Filipinos aspiring and dreaming to become homeowners. 

“We believe that each and every one of us has a role to play to help recover from the effects of the pandemic. For us here in P.A. Properties, we can, at least, help our buyers save their accounts from cancellation through our Penalty Condonation Program. We try to continue to live up with our mission of helping our fellow Filipinos with their homeownership journey.” concludes Atty. Marianne Lina-Cruz, President and CEO of P.A. Properties.

Homeowners of P.A. Properties may access the program online or by visiting any P.A. Properties office to settle their arrears. For more information on the Penalty Condonation Program, please visit the P.A. Properties website (www.paproperties.com.ph) or Facebook page.

AIS partners King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi to launch the First Thailand Cyber Wellness Index

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The key mission of AIS Aunjai Cyber has been to build awareness of the dangers and impacts from going online, by developing solutions and digital services to protect users and promote safety. The aim is to build up knowledge to promote intelligence and skills among digital citizens. Today this is being taken to a new level by building Thailand's first measure of digital skills, the Thailand Cyber Wellness Index, which measures digital knowledge, abilities and skills of each segment of the population.

AIS Chief Executive Officer Somchai Lertsutiwong commented, "AIS operates its business on the basis of sustainability. We have been at the centre of the network to address the issue of cyber threats for over four years. Our ongoing work has given us the insight to remedy the issues efficiently. This is how we came to develop an index of digital knowledge and skills for each segment of the public. This will enable every agency involved to deploy tools and knowledge targeted at each segment of Thai society, and which are appropriate for the issues arising. We prepared the Thailand Cyber Wellness Index, the first of its kind in Thailand, in collaboration with King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and a range of experts in technology, health, mass communication, education and evaluation to design a framework for the study. The survey methodology covered a range of age cohorts and occupational groups from every province all over Thailand, a total sample size of 21,862. The results are processed and analyzed to generate the Thailand Cyber Wellness Index."

The survey found that overall, Thai people's cyber wellness was at the "basic" level, while 44.04% were at the level of "must improve". This shows that Thailand needs to boost its learning and understanding of using digital among the people.

The company will continue to join forces to bring this index to the network of cyber-security that includes both the government and the private sector. This index is the property of the Thai public and is a compass showing the path to develop Thai digital skills safely and responsibly, with efficiency and sustainability in the future.

Source: AIS - Advanced Info Service

BingoPlus is one of PH’s top apps in 2023

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BingoPlus, the first live-streaming bingo in the country and the most popular, was the most downloadable app in the Philippines, according to the recently released 2023 State of Mobile reports of data.ai (formerly App Annie). The second ranking is a scale-up run from its 4th rank during the last quarter of 2022.

BingoPlus was launched in January 2022 to deliver the perfect alternative bingo experience for Filipinos. The app enables players to enjoy playing bingo at their convenience from home or anywhere else just by using their mobile devices and a stable internet connection.

“The breakthrough of being a top app provides high command to BingoPlus to further advance its mission to bring more fun and entertainment to Filipinos who subscribe and support it,” said Jasper Vicencio, president of AB Leisure Exponent Inc.

“BingoPlus ignites the fun of playing bingo in an online space with its rich promotional activities and bonuses. To date, more than 2.3 billion pesos worth of jackpot prizes have been given away,” Vicencio added.

To experience the fun and entertainment, download the BingoPlus App from Google Play and the App Store. Visit www.bingoplus.com for more details.

Pinoy appointed editor of esteemed int’l journal

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For the first time in its 77-year history, the esteemed scientific publication Optik: International Journal for Light and Electron Optics will be helmed by a Filipino scientist.


Prof. Percival F. Almoro of the University of the Philippines - Diliman College of Science National Institute of Physics (UPD-CS NIP) was appointed Section Editor of the Optik journal by international scientific publishing house Elsevier as of June 2023.

Established in 1946, Optik is an internationally-renowned scientific journal, having published in its pages works by famous physicists including R. W. Gerchberg and W. O. Saxton, for whom the phase retrieval algorithm is named. It is also the official journal of the German Society for Applied Optics, which counts among its honorary members Nobel Prize winners Stefan Hell (2014, super-resolved fluorescence microscopy) and Denni Gabor (1979, holography). As of 2021, Optik showcased an above-average impact factor of 2.84.

In his new editorial capacity, Almoro will have final responsibility and the last word on the journal’s specialized content in areas ranging from optical metrology and interferometry to phase retrieval.

“This editorship stint is a great honor not just for me but also for all Filipinos,” Almoro said. “It is a recognition on the international stage that researchers in the country can carry out good quality research.”

Sleep Crisis in Southeast Asia: Almost 3 in 4 Southeast Asians are not getting a good night’s sleep

While a deep slumber may help prevent memory loss or the onset of Alzheimer’s disease for older adults, it seems that almost 3 in 4 Southeast Asians are experiencing sleep problems. Milieu Insight, Southeast Asia's leading consumer research firm, has released a sleep tracker study revealing that 46% in Southeast Asia face sleep problems at least a few times a week, with the highest prevalence observed in the Philippines (56%). Several sleep problems are more common among Thais, including excessive daytime sleepiness (46%) and increased movement during sleep (40%). Additionally, the study highlights that 59% of individuals in Southeast Asia sleep for less than seven hours.

The most common sleep problems that respondents picked were: “difficulty falling asleep” (49%); “waking up often at night” (39%) and “Irregular sleep and wake cycle” (38%). Vietnam (80%) and the Philippines (79%) had the largest number of respondents with sleep problems.

The popularity of sleep trackers was highest in Vietnam based on number of users (26%), and regionally, 14% of respondents indicated they were using a sleep tracker. Of those currently using sleep tracker apps, 10% and 47% said that these apps have helped to improve their sleep quality to a “great extent” and “some extent” respectively. In Singapore, users seem to observe less effective results, with 2% and 28% sharing similar sentiments.

Overall, the top 3 functions/data that were used to monitor sleep patterns were sleep duration (61%), sleep quality (i.e amount of uninterrupted sleep) (60%) and sleep phases (i.e light or deep sleep phases) (46%).

Personal privacy was not much of a concern as 89% of respondents were either “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” when asked if they were comfortable to share their sleep actvity data with sleep tracker apps.

Sentiments among Thailand and Vietnam respondents were largely positive and around 3 in 10 indicated that they were “very comfortable” - Thailand (37%) and Vietnam (32%).

In anticipation of the launch of Pokemon Sleep, respondents were asked about their interest in trying Pokemon Sleep to track their sleep patterns and 72% responded positively (20% very interested; 52% somewhat interested). Interest in Vietnam ranked the highest (82%), followed by Thailand (76%) and the Philippines (76%).

Top 5 words that respondents used to describe what they think about Pokemon Sleep:

1. Interesting (51%)
2. Unique (32%)
3. Useful (32%)
4. Fun (28%)
5. Indifferent (13%)

With its captivating premise, Pokémon Sleep is poised to reshape the landscape of sleep tracking with 7 in 10 respondents in Southeast Asia either very/somewhat interested to try the app. There are promising opportunities for other companies to use gamification to drive behavioural change for users to track their sleep data and we expect to usher in a new era of health-conscious technology.

About Milieu Insight Milieu Insight is Southeast Asia's leading consumer research and data analytics company, renowned for its expertise in providing brands and businesses with valuable insights and market research data. Operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, Milieu Insight’s industry-transforming solutions were awarded several prestigious awards, including Campaign Asia’s Market Research Agency of the Year (Gold) and Tech MVP 2022. Its one-stop insights platform, Canvas, offers tools for analysing and visualising consumer opinion data across a multitude of lifestyle topics and sectors, powering businesses to make better, more impactful decisions and strategies. Methodology: Based on Milieu Insight surveys with N=500 respondents each in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, conducted in April 2023.

From Silicon Valley to Cebu: Japanese tech leader on AI’s potential in the Philippines

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Fujikura is leading Sansan’s expansion into the Philippines and in charge of hiring up to 100 staff at its new Cebu development center by next year



Starting his career at the Silicon Valley (California, USA) subsidiary of Japan’s Osaka Gas Company, Fujikura Shigemoto witnessed first-hand the exciting joint venture projects between Japanese and U.S. companies. He worked on developing cutting-edge technology and bringing it back to Japan, with colleagues who wanted to change the world. It also filled him with a vision of deeply changing the world through technology. He quit his California job and returned to Japan.There, he joined a young innovative startup called Sansan, which has since gone on to become one of Japan’s leading technology companies following a 2019 IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TYO:4443).

As Sansan’s 18th employee, Fujikura worked as an engineer/developer in infrastructure design and server architecture, before being asked to become a manager and then Chief Technology Officer. Today, he is in charge of directing all tech matters at Sansan and was the leader pushing for a global development center overseas as far back as 2019. Then COVID hit, and plans had to be postponed. Fast forward to today, he is leading the company’s expansion into the Philippines via a new development center in Cebu that opened last year. He brings with him a unique international perspective having lived in the US, Japan, and the Philippines, as well as academic excellence with a Master of Science (MSc) in Intellectual Creation Systems from the Kanazawa Institute of TechnologyKanazawa Institute of Technology.

Fujikura Shigemoto, Director and CTO at Sansan Global Development Center, is available for media interviews to expand on the above as well as discuss:Generative AI has been a big change for the industry to grapple with, forcing companies new and old to think about how to use it in their own business processes.

Technology by itself is neutral, and can be used poorly or well depending on leadership. A change of mindset is required if firms are to take advantage of the powerful capabilities, or get left behind. Software engineers will be expected to develop their own AI in-house, so it’s vital for them to understand how to use AI optimally in development.

The Philippines needs to educate its engineering talent pool and new graduates on using AI technology, and universities must take time to incorporate this into their syllabuses. There will be opportunities for government agencies that still rely heavily on paper invoices and contracts to leverage AI to help them go more fully digital. The country’s senate is already actively debating the impact of AI on jobs.

 
Sansan, the listed Japanese tech leader, has been using optical character recognition (OCR) informed by AI to increase contextualization and enable 99.9% accuracy in its document scanning, as a core capability of its cloud platform since day one. Today, AI plays an important role in Sansan understanding the vast amounts of data that exist on its platform.

 
While the company has no immediate plans to develop its own generative AI, its teams in Tokyo have started using GPT4 as a layer running in the background. For example, in its Contract One service, which digitises contracts for SMEs and corporates, Sansan is leveraging generative AI to provide users with better suggestions. In future, Sansan expects to roll out more such capabilities across its invoicing and other services, and its technical team is actively exploring ways to incorporate machine learning to match duplicates in the Sansan contact management and digitally transformative cloud database.

VMware’s Comprehensive Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Solution Empowers IT Teams with Data-Driven Insights to Improve Employee Experience and Achieve Valuable Cost Savings

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New feature enhancements with DEEM and ITSM Connector for ServiceNow further advance VMware’s Digital Employee Experience solution and empower IT teams to operate with efficiency and agility



Digital employee experience (DEX) technology has become essential as it not only enables organizations with the tools needed to provide great employee experiences, but also empowers IT teams to work more efficiently, yielding tangible cost savings. But present DEX solutions are fragmented and require multiple technology platforms and vendors to measure, analyze, deliver, and remediate workplace experiences. A unified approach is needed, and today, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) is announcing four unique enhancements to further its comprehensive DEX solution: the general availability of DEX for 3rd party managed devices, DEX for VMware Horizon, AI-driven Guided RCA, as well as the intent to expand Workspace ONE ITSM Connector for ServiceNow support of available remediation actions. These innovations combine to advance VMware’s commitment to deliver the only holistic DEX solution, which helps to increase productivity and provide faster issue remediation, enabling higher employee engagement.

“Organizations across industries are struggling to keep up with the increased IT incidents and growing employee turnover rates as they navigate the new challenges brought on by hybrid work. Successful organizations must prioritize technology that enables IT teams with the right tools to not only resolve issues faster, but prevent them from happening in the future,” said Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “VMware’s comprehensive DEX solution uses automation to enable IT teams with data-driven insights that enable improved efficiency and great experiences for employees.”



Scalable Platform Supports a Diverse Set of Use Cases

VMware progresses its DEX solution by unifying employee experience measurement across all endpoints, whether physical or virtual and VMware or 3rd party managed. Today, VMware announced that its Digital Employee Experience Management (DEEM) solution is now generally available for Windows devices managed by 3rd party solutions. With this update, VMware’s entire DEX offering, including Intelligent Hub, DEEM, and Assist, is now available for these devices. Even if a customer has standardized on other management solutions, this capability provides customers with more flexibility in how they deploy and grow their DEX solution.

For customers ready to extend measurement to virtual apps and desktops, VMware today announced that DEEM is also generally available for VMware Horizon. Customers can measure and analyze end-user experiences using Horizon virtual apps and desktops, bringing together network performance, log on time, and VM performance. If the experience score for Horizon changes, IT will be proactively alerted with automated notifications, enabling teams to more efficiently resolve issues impacting employee productivity using the Horizon platform for work.


A Comprehensive DEX Approach Allows IT to Remediate More Issues and “Shift Left”

Organizations cannot achieve a seamless employee experience without also controlling experience delivery and issues remediation. Today, VMware offers the only comprehensive solution that creates a closed loop cycle that allows IT to shift left, leveraging holistic experience data to proactively resolve issues and continuously improve employee experiences. With the VMware Workspace ONE award-winning unified endpoint management capabilities, customers have access to the broadest scope of remediation capabilities available today.

When experience issues arise, service desk teams are the first line of support for employees. By extending the same experience data that IT views in Workspace ONE into ServiceNow via VMware’s ITSM Connector, service desk teams can troubleshoot and resolve issues more efficiently. Today, VMware unveils further innovations to ITSM Connector including experience scoring, an expanded set of unified endpoint management actions, and the ability to trigger workflows created by IT teams in VMware Freestyle Orchestrator. By leveraging experience scores, the service desk can proactively resolve other potential issues impacting a user before it escalates and hinders workflow. These expanded remediation actions and workflows will continue to help decrease the time required to troubleshoot and resolve each issue.

“Our business runs on 200,000-plus smartphones and tablets deployed for our corporate users and frontline workers, visiting all citizens in France and through our distribution network (17,000 point-of-sale),” said Olivier Bombe, Head of Digital Workspace, Groupe La Poste. “With an integrated approach provided by VMware Workspace ONE, we give our IT and service desk teams visibility into issues impacting employee productivity, simplified troubleshooting, and automated remediation. Our service desk is empowered to improve Service Level Agreement for issues, and this has resulted in savings in engineering hours.”



Tangible ROI through Data-Driven Experience Management

IT teams are expected to manage more with less resources than ever before. VMware’s DEX offerings empower IT through Insights, Guided Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and Automation, enabling a proactive approach to IT. With AI-driven insights, IT organizations have immediate visibility into issues that are impacting employee productivity by using statistical machine learning models to automatically detect and score anomalies in experience. Guided RCA, now generally available, uses AI to identify the likely root cause of an issue with an associated confidence score. This helps reduce the time and effort required to identify the problem source. With integrated automation workflows, the appropriate remediation actions can be taken moving forward, scaling issue resolution and proactive employee notification. Recently, a VMware customer experiencing a pervasive laptop crash was able to identify the root cause using Guided RCA. Working with their application teams, the customer was able to resolve the issue quickly, saving them hundreds of engineering hours in lost productivity troubleshooting.



“VMware IT has been using DEX to shift to a more proactive, data-driven IT approach,” said Pam Cocca, vice president, IT Colleague Experience and Technology, VMware. “Not only has this saved engineering hours in resolving issues faster and at scale, but it has created colleague confidence in our IT organization. Using DEEM for Insights and proactive support, VMware IT has realized, on average, 35% reduction in mean time to resolution of support issues over the past six months1. This saves valuable IT time and returns employees to productivity quicker.”

Agam-agam sa Agham: The current and future prospects of science communication in the Philippines

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What can be done to improve weather and disaster reporting in the Philippines? How are scientists portrayed in Pinoy movies and pop culture? Where can we find the best examples of science communication for Filipino online viewers? When can we hope to develop a science-appreciative Filipino culture?

Explore the answers to these and other questions at "Agam-agam sa Agham: The current state and future prospects of science communication in the Philippines". This free public lecture is a joint initiative of the UP Diliman College of Science (UPD-CS) and Science Communicators Philippines (SciCommPH). it will be held on June 30 (Friday), 2pm - 5pm at the UPD-CS Auditorium. It will also be streamed live to registered participants.

You can reserve a slot at the event and receive the Zoom login details by registering here: https://bit.ly/SciCommLectureReg

The list of distinguished speakers includes:

Inez Z. Ponce de Leon, PhD, holds undergraduate and master's degrees in molecular biology and biotechnology from UP, and a PhD in science communication from Purdue University. Her research centers on science and risk communication, and the public understanding of science. She teaches classes in qualitative research, science and risk communication, and belly dance as an associate professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. She is also a public speaker, writer, novelist, and weekly columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.


Garry Jay S. Montemayor, MA, a faculty member and former Chair of the Department of Science Communication, College of Development Communication, UP Los Baños. He has been teaching for 16 years now, usually handling courses on science communication, communication research, and information and knowledge management. His diverse experience with various local, national, and international organizations includes development work in health, agriculture, and environment. He has authored over 45 scholarly papers and publications, the most recent of which is a chapter in a book about science communication in the Philippines, published by the Australian National University Press. His masters' thesis is about the portrayal of scientists in Philippine cinema and pop culture.


Kamila Navarro, MSc, the Scientific Writer and Editor of the National University of Singapore’s (NUS') Synthetic Biology for Clinical & Technological Innovation. Previously, she was Science Editor of award-winning science and technology publication, Asian Scientist Magazine. Kamila also helped pioneer a curriculum for Science and Risk Communication in the Philippines, and published an article and book chapter on the state of Philippine science communication; both works are regularly cited and used by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology in their outreach activities. Currently, Kamila runs the day-to-day operations of Pinoy Scientists, a platform highlighting the unique scientific stories of Filipinos worldwide. She is also a member of the International Science Council’s Panel of Experts for the Public Value of Science


Ingrid Espinosa, MSc, received her degree in Science Communication from Imperial College London under a Chevening scholarship She has worked for over half a decade in public health research, studying public health programs and helping inform policy, and currently works as a Senior Strategic Communications Specialist for the National Institutes of Health and Co-Director for Comms & Events at GradMAP Philippines. She’s interested in science journalism, science and society, and improv theater.


Timothy James M. Dimacali, SM, heads the Science Communications Team at the UP Diliman College of Science and is Vice President for External Affairs at SciComm Philippines. He received his MS in Science Writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Fulbright scholarship, and is the founding editor of GMA News Online's Science and Technology Section.

SciCommPH is a non-stock, non-profit national organization of scicomm practitioners and researchers, journalists, and scientists.