Sweep winners visit silicon valley

MANILA, Philippines - Laurence Arguelles and Mark Anthony Colentava, fresh graduates of Bataan Peninsula State University, recently went on a weeklong tour of Silicon Valley as grand winners of the 10th SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards of Smart Communications Inc. Among the places they visited were the Google headquarters (left) and HP Garage (far left), a private museum where Hewlett-Packard was founded and is considered ‘the birthplace of Silicon Valley.’ SWEEP, short for Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program, is the first-of-its-kind partnership between the industry and academe that seeks to enhance the quality of engineering and IT education in the country. The duo and their team developed CoinSaver, a kiosk-like device that allows users to save up for an aspired product or service by dropping coins. Linked to the user’s mobile number, a short messaging service voucher will be issued once the amount is saved in full. The team also won P500,000 plus the equivalent cash grant for their school. The team also gets the chance to take the start-up route under the tutelage of incubator and accelerator IdeaSpace Foundation Inc. of the First Pacific group of companies in the Philippines, including Smart. Also joining the Silicon Valley tour were Dr. Delfin Magpantay, Bataan Peninsula State University president, and engineer Faye Baret, faculty mentor. For more details on CoinSaver and SWEEP, visit www.smartsweep.ph.