UP Debate Society Launches the 15th Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The University of the Philippines Debate Society (UPDS) will welcome 320 debaters and judges for the largest national debate competition in the Asian Parliamentary format, the Philippine Inter-Collegiate Debating Championship (PIDC). On its 15th year, PIDC will run from April 17-22 at the University of the Philippines, Diliman campus and the Asian Development Bank. Eighty teams will compete for the coveted national title and at the end of the five-day tournament, Philippine's top ten debaters and top ten adjudicators will be awarded along with the tournament champions.

PIDC also celebrates diversity through the Sinag Cup. The Sinag Cup pools four non-Manila representatives from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It promotes regional camaraderie and celebrates diversity. To this day, the Sinag Cup remains to be a coveted prize.

The motions of PIDC cover a wide range of pressing topics, from perennial issues on minority rights, state paternalism, and religious exercise to recent issues on economic integration, technological development, and medical breakthroughs. The topics to be debated, called motions, are crafted by the prestigious adjudication core. This year's adjudication core is composed of: Allan Cabrera from Ateneo de Manila University, Garie Ouano from University of the Philippines Diliman, Kevin Ganchero from Far Eastern University, Karlo Antonio from San Beda College, and Paolo Franco from De La Salle University Manila.

Strengthen Couple Bond with the LoveByte App

 

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LoveByte, the mobile app that specializes in helping couples improve their relationship and stay connected, aims to make dating and communication fun, even beyond Valentine’s Day.

As a niche private app for two people, couples can chat in the app, share every detail of their life as photos, notes and dates. However, LoveByte offer special features that improve couple bonding and communication to be even more personal and unique.  

Apart from sending each other cute stickers, couples on LoveByte can also send secret messages to each other. The recipient gets to rub the screen to unveil what is being sent, like a scratchcard. Inside it, the message can get as creative as the sender plans it to be; ranging from a spontaneous date invitation, or a simple I Love You.

UP and Nokia Open World-Class Learning Facility in Telecommunications Engineering

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The University of the Philippines (UP), the country’s premier higher education institution, in partnership with Nokia-Manila Technology Center (Nokia-Manila TC) has recently inaugurated a new engineering laboratory in its Diliman campus in an effort to provide quality hands-on education and training to telecommunications engineering students.

Located within the university’s Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI), the UP-Nokia Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory features Nokia Networks’ state-of-the-art equipment, including a radio access network that can connect user devices to one of Nokia Networks core network in Asia. A full class can experience the equipment, providing them with real-life experience on telecommunications operations.

The new learning facility helps the state university stay true to as one of the few centers of excellence and development in the Philippines. "Wireless and cellular telecommunications are normally just taught from textbooks,” said EEEI Director Dr. Joel Marciano Jr. “But with the new laboratory our students will actually see the interaction between mobile phones and base stations. It’s experiential, hands-on learning that will be even more effective.”

The laboratory also marks a new chapter in UP and Nokia-Manila TC’s long-standing partnership when the two institutions first launched the Teach In the University Program with the same aim of raising the country’s telecommunications education.