Symposium Summary

       After four sessions of the seminar, I have definitely learned a lot about the current and future technologies that would be used by the professionals in their respective fields. Although some of the topics are not really "emerging", I still commend the speakers for giving time to share their insights not only to EM-TECH students, but for other visitors as well. With the technologies they presented, whether emerging or not, these would definitely help in the growth and advancement of the business and health sector. The speakers were able to prove that technology would play a big role in the society, by providing aid in research and data processing, and a lot more.

     Being a first timer to conduct a symposium, this activity provided me a lot of learning in having the right skills to search and pick for the best speaker, and making sure that the symposium is running well, and the survey forms are distributed. Being one of the seminar conductors, I am very much proud not only of my group mates, but also to EM-TECH students from the other section as well in providing an informative and useful seminar. Hopefully, we EM-TECH students would use this experience in the future as we conduct our own seminars in the companies were we would work for, and apply what we have learned from the contents of the symposium. :)

EM-TECH Symposium: Day 4

Seminar Date: March 15, 2014

Venue: Bro. Andrew Gonzales Hall, A903/A1403

          On the final day of the EM-TECH seminar series, I have attended 6 talks from both the Health and Business Innovation speakers. Similar to last week’s seminar, the whole day was divided into two parts for the two sections. From the first speaker, I found out that Dr. Maria Enriquez from St. Luke’s Medical Center is actually a professor of GREATWK. I noticed that she really knows a lot about her topic, and it made me realize how technology and health care would make a great team in early detection of cancer. For the next speaker, Dr. Roberto Noche of ADMU, although his talk was quite short compared to Dr. Enriquez’s, he was able to explain the emerging technology of using filter papers and micro carbon tubes as a cheaper yet accurate cancer detection procedure. To sum up the first half of the seminar, I believe the second speaker was able to give a more meaningful talk that is really aimed for the youth. We should not let others turn our ideas down, instead, continuously improve them and seek for the help of other professionals who are willing to lend a helping hand. And as IT students, I think we also have a big potential in participating in research projects, how softwares and hardwares interact that will revolutionize the health industry. 

          The afternoon session was all about business innovation from class S16. The first speaker for the afternoon session talked about technologies in fire protection. Although his talk was quite fast, he was able to discuss about their current products, how they are used, what material are they made of, and more. After him was Mr. Lee Mojado, a professor of the ENTARCH class. From him, I learned why “Big Data” is vital for most organizations, and for data to become useful, we really have to pay attention in analyzing them to become an asset. Afterwards, Ms. Lea Capati talked about MMDA’s Traffic Management System and MWSI’s Subic Water Read and Bill Meter. Both of the technologies play a very important role in the society in keeping the traffic fast flowing and continuous water services to consumers. What I liked about her speech was she brought sample devices and demonstrated how these handy gizmos are used by their employees. Hopefully in the near future, we would be able to see these technologies not only in water bills and traffic lights in the city, but also in the provinces where there are few to none traffic rules and proper water lines. With these compact devices, processing of data will be greatly improved as data is collected and transformed real time. Also, I have a concern with the MMDA’s TMS, currently, some relatively new traffic lights and posts are malfunctioning, and maybe, with faster implementation, such problems will be eradicated because they pose a great risk for the motorists and the pedestrians. Finally, Mr. Jason Acidre ended the symposium with his talk entitled Inbound Marketing. From his talk I learned the different ways how inbound marketing works, and how inbound marketing greatly helps an organization to market their products, or increase their presence through different means of marketing. From the technologies presented in the business sector, I believe most of the companies today would need them and proper orientation about emerging technologies should be made  so they too can learn on how they would improve their services and processes within and outside the company. 

          Overall, I had a pleasant time listening through all the speakers, and we IT students would greatly benefit from the insights that the speakers had shared throughout the EM-TECH symposium series.   

EM-TECH Symposium: Day 3

Seminar Date: March 8, 2014

Venue:  Bro. Andrew Gonzales Hall, A903

          The third day of the symposium was divided into two parts, the first part was S15’s Health Innovation and the second part is Business Innovation for S16. For the first half of the day, all of the presenters are in-line with health, and I’ve learned a lot from the speakers as they were directly involved with their topics. Personally, I am not that conscious about what I eat, and with the speakers’ talks, it made me somehow realize that we should all be aware of what we eat or what we put in our bodies. For example, in Dr. Eric Punzalan’s talk, I was able to understand why having X-Ray examinations should only be done if needed. Through his talk I also learned how this technology evolved into a new, less invasive way of examining our internal body using the MRI. I believe that although these technologies are already present, I think it will still undergo some more changes before the community will benefit from them. From the next speaker, which was Dr. Jerome Palaganas, he was able to give a list of new technologies and some of which are relatively new to me. Being IT students, in my opinion, we, together with the health professionals would be able to design and come up with better and safer technologies that would greatly contribute to human health. For example, with Dr. Punzalan’s body scanning technologies and Dr. Palaganas’ smart wearable devices, a new trend that combines all these into a compact, light and mobile device which will help us monitor ourselves and transmit these information to our physicians anytime, anywhere and at any place. 

  For the second part of the seminar, it was the time for the Business Innovations speakers to talk. The first speaker was Mr. Mike Garcia and he talked about Data Warehousing. From his talk I learned that storing data is very important especially for big organizations. And through data warehousing, they are able to store, organize and access data easily thanks to a large database with uniform data. I think IT students should be able to know how Data Warehousing works because this is an increasingly popular trend nowadays most especially for companies who value their services to customers. The next speaker was Ms. Cecile Ang and she presented their product called Sweep, a universal card payment solution. From her talk, I realized that today, technology does not only evolve for convenience, but for security as well. Security has always been one of the main concerns why most people wouldn’t want to try these payment options, and with the technology that Ms. Ang presented, I think they were able to respond to these concerns by including multiple layers of validation. After the Sweeper card, RFID technology was then presented by Mr. Celmer Santos. From his talk, I learned RFID is not only used for identification, but in payment as well. Being a "probinsyano", we usually drive in NLEX in going to and from the province, and I've always been fascinated by how that wireless and cashless payment method works. To summarize, I believe the highlights of the second part of the seminar were "Wireless", "Security", and "Convenience".

          Personally, all of the technologies presented are not new to me, but I got really interested when these technologies have been further developed for better use and application to new things. And as IT students, I believe that we also have the advantage of getting to know these technologies faster than other less-techie individuals, and it is also our job to educate people about these technologies for a smarter, safer, and more convenient way of living. 

EM-TECH Symposium: Day 2

Seminar Date: March 7, 2014

Venue: Brother Andrew Gonzales Hall, A703 and A1703

         On the second day of the symposium seminar, the first speaker was Dr. Julia Beltran. In her discussion about the new trends in Women's Health, I have learned a lot of medical terms and technologies currently used in the medical field such as Laparoscopy, Mammography and more. In my opinion, all of these technologies should not only be present at all health care establishments, but also for the masses. Nowadays, healthcare technologies are quite expensive and not all of the patients can afford to avail such services. And I believe that all companies should be able to create cheaper, mobile apparatus to be distributed and be used for free. Hopefully, as INSYS students, we would be able to contribute with the development of these machines in the near future. 

          The second speaker was Dr. Ayedee Domingo from UPCM. From his speech I learned a brief background of Leprosy and a mobile application system for the people to use. Similar to the first speaker, I wanted to know how mobile technologies could help in delivering healthcare for the masses, especially when doctors and hospitals are quite far from the patients’ locations. And with the system that he had presented, I believe that it has a great potential not only for the hospitals and health care professions but also for the government to improve better health care delivery. Also, I think that we INSYS students would also be able to contribute with the advancement of these applications. 

          Dr. Maria Tan started the second batch of speakers for the day. She talked about the Plasmon, and its usage in the medical field. I learned that this helps in producing the right formula for medicines, and as we all know, taking antibiotics are not the same as taking in vitamins. I believe that through the extensive studying of our cells, we may be able to create a machine that would be able to determine the right amount and contents in medicines that are safe for human consumption. 

          After Dr. Maria Tan, it was Dr. Angela Camagun’s turn to speak in front. Her topic was about the emerging technologies in skin tightening lasers. At first, I was thinking that she might not be able to present well because some would not be interested in such machines. But as soon as she progressed through her slides, it became even more interesting when she showed how effective the machines were. By the way I see it, these machines of today are not only used for beauty enhancements, but they have other purpose as well. I realized that while some think it is just a waste of money, I do strongly believe that with the help of lasers, ultrasounds, and others, we are able to preserve the health of our skin which is actually very important as they serve as the first layer of defense against viruses and diseases. In the near future, I hope that the inventors would be able to make other uses of them such as detecting skin disease causing germs and cancers. As IS students, although the topic was somewhat far from Computer Science, still, I think we could build a system that incorporates all the technologies and machines to create a single skin care solution for the masses.

            Finally, the last speaker for the day was Dr. Gil Santos with his speech entitled Nanotechnology in Health. This is one of the topics I am really interested currently, with different applications, nanotechnology could be implemented in different ways. But with Dr. Santos’ speech, I found out that professionals from De La Salle University can already produce nanotechnology products today such as heat resistant glass coating. And somehow it made me realize how nanotechnology could also be used in surgeries wherein the apparatus and other components would be made even smaller to fit in the trickiest part of our bodies.

           To summarize the symposium, I believe that all of the speakers were able to deliver their speech well, although there was a strict schedule to follow, some are still able to finish their presentation while making them enjoyable to hear. 

EM-TECH Symposium: Day 1

Seminar Date: March 1, 2014

Venue: Bro. Andrew Gonzales Hall, A1703

          On the afternoon of March 1st, we are among the three groups who would be inviting a speaker from the corporate world to share their experiences with the technologies that they are currently or would be using in the future. For the first group’s speaker, which was from Maynilad, I liked how she delivered her speech to the audience, she was clear, concise and she tried to keep the class attentive by inserting jokes and cool facts from time to time. She gave a brief yet informative background of where she works, and from there, one by one she introduced the technologies they use in providing water line services to the Filipino households. I noticed that some of the technologies they use are existing already, but tailored fit to their organization. For example, they use a software somewhat similar to Google Maps to track the water pipes and fire hydrants. For ordinary persons, Google Maps might only be correlated with asking for directions and such. She explained that without a mapping software, Maynilad would not be able to serve their customers efficiently. As simple it may sound, softwares could really help in the growth and development of a business.

          The second speaker invited by Group 2 was from PLDT. He started off by playing a video about the latest high speed internet plan offer. After the video, he introduced himself and his wife to the audience, and my first impression was he really love his wife and his job. I could tell by the way he delivers his speech and he really knows a lot about his topic which was about the growth and development of PLDT, and what technologies they utilize. The technologies that he presented are current and he explained how PLDT is gradually improving and adapting to newer standards. However, I was not able to follow all the terms he was using because they were somewhat interrelated but I know he did his very best to simplify these terms for the audience to understand. I also appreciated his effort to engage with the audience, for example, he let us participate through reading his powerpoint presentation, asked questions from the listeners and he also said some jokes that made the audience laugh and be lively. However, at one point during his talk, it may seem like was advertising the company as he repeatedly mentioned about us subscribing to their services and all. Nevertheless, I still think he did a great job in providing the audience some background and history of how the PLDT grew into one of the largest and leading voice, data and television service providers in the country.

          Finally, it was the turn of our speaker Mr. Regnas from Accenture. Mr. Regnas, although he could still be considered as a fresh graduate, had shared his experiences about working with SAP. He mentioned that he considers himself lucky because he is part of the SAP GRC project which only a few people could participate in. From his talk, I learned how SAP works, what does it do to a company, and how this technology would help the company be more efficient, track down people with unauthorized access to their system, prevent losses in terms of data and finance.

             Overall, the seminar was very informative, the speakers were engaging, and although there was not enough time for the audience to ask the speakers, the last speaker was able to entertain and answer one of the audiences’ question about SAP. I think more people should come in the seminar so they could also hear the speakers.