/PNA
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The director of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) 10 (Northern Mindanao) said he is optimistic about the region becoming Mindanao’s innovation hub.
DOST-10 Director Alfonso Alamban said Northern Mindanao has been considered as four of the pilot regions for inclusive innovation hub in the country, which will support the innovation ecosystem so that new technologies could be developed and promoted.
Alamban was the keynote speaker of the Innovation Forum and Roundtable Discussion organized by the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) here Thursday.
The regional director talked about how vital science, technology, and innovation are to the competitiveness and the economic growth of a country, to dozens of participants that included representatives of the academe, private and government sectors, as well as students and innovators.
Alamban said the region is ripe for a much-needed transformation as the breeding ground for technological and entrepreneurial advancement, given the atmosphere of innovation cultivated mostly by local academic institutions.
“We have a responsive business sector and what we need to do is really support them (innovators),” Alamban said on the sidelines of the forum.
Among the many innovations that are gaining recognition in the region, he said, is on food processing.
Research and development
“We are initially looking at enhancing the food innovation center at USTP. There are a number of food products developed already, and the challenge now is to have a more appropriate equipment for commercial production,” he added.
Aside from food innovation, there are also a few technologies being introduced by local developers, such as Streetby — an application for hotel and dining reservations.
However, Alamban said a major challenge for such institutions as DOST and USTP would be the dwindling research and development (R&D) funds that may affect product innovation. He said budget cuts may hinder research and development works that are mostly being conducted in universities.
For this year, some PHP20 billion has been allocated for R&D. With the proposed cuts in the 2019 budget, funding for research and development may be slashed as well, he said.
Startup community
Engineer Bronson Mabulay, head of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) at USTP, said schools play an important role in developing potential entrepreneurs who may be working on an innovative idea.
“The old mindset is changing,” Mabulay said, referring to the long-held belief that students go to school to learn and get a job after finishing school.
Inside the confines of the campus, he said that students can explore opportunities to apply their ideas.
For Ericke Rafael Gallardo, 23, an Information Technology at USTP, the CET has helped him come up with a technology that allows students and professionals to use their smartphones without charging it.
Calling his innovation “BFree”, Gallardo made a cellphone casing that houses a spare lithium ion battery, which he can remove and replace with a new one once it is drained.
The used battery will then be charged using a special charger, which he will include as part of the “BFree” package.
“I’ve been using my phone for four months now without charging,” the IT student said, who started putting his idea to good use in July.
Now that he has the product, Gallardo said he needs funding from the government or private entities “so we could mass produce and sell our products.”
