Raising the quality of Philippine education is a Smart move
MANILA, Philippines - Helping raise the standard of education in the country remains one of the main advocacies of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart).
In 2012, the company pursued a significant number of programs geared towards complementing formal classroom learning, from elementary to college levels, to help enhance the quality of Philippine education.
The innovative and non-traditional Dynamic Learning Program (DLP) that was pioneered by Ramon Magsaysay Awardees and renowned physicists Dr. Chris Carpio and Dr. Marivic Carpio-Bernido continued to gain ground with more schools adopting the teaching method.
The telco offered the 2nd SWEEP (Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program) Technology Scholarship Program to 22 deserving but financially constrained graduating IT/ECE students from partner-schools nationwide. The scholars had a meet-and-greet activity with Smart officials led by chief wireless advisor Orlando B. Vea at the JUMP Center in Megamall.
Last February, Smart staged the 8th SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards for both SWEEP Services (Wireless Applications) and Mobile Applications. An all-girls’ team from the Mapua Institute of Technology won the coveted grand prize for its Wearable Obstacle Detection System and Braille Cell Phone for the Blind. The application was seen helping the visually impaired experience both ease in mobility and communication in one device.
Ten finalists from partner-schools vied for the top prizes in the 9th SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards last Feb. 14. With the theme “Technology in Nation-Building,†the awards program aims to develop applied wireless solutions that enhance and develop the capacity of Filipinos to improve their lives.
Over the past eight years of the SWEEP Awards, nearly a hundred applications have reached the prototype stage. The telco is now providing these applications the opportunity to become start-ups.
So far, developers of three SWEEP apps have already signified their intention for their prototypes to be transformed into commercial products. These are Mapua’s Wearable Obstacle Detection System and Braille Cell Phone for the Blind (grand prize winner, 8th SWEEP Awards); Ateneo de Zamboanga University’s TimeFree (finalist, 6th SWEEP Awards); and Ateneo de Manila University’s Pasagoods (grand prize winner, 5th SWEEP Awards).
IdeaSpace Foundation, Inc. (ideaspace.ph), the non-profit incubator arm of the group of companies led by business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan which includes Smart, is providing these applications the extra push to become start-ups. Through funding from Smart, IdeaSpace will provide business incubation and assistance for incorporation and intellectual property rights, mentoring, training and other resources as well as a chance to link up to potential investors and partner companies.
As part of efforts to digitize campus journalism, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between Smart and DepEd to include Journ.ph as a platform for the National Schools Press Conference, the nationwide competition for elementary and high school campus journalists.
The telco also hosted the DepEd’s My Teacher, My Hero website.
Smart was recognized for its efforts. It bagged the Anvil Merit Award for Project Rain Gauge and Excellence Award for CommuniTeach.
The SWEEP Technology Scholarship Program and Dynamic Learning Program each won for Smart the Quill Excellence Awards, plus another Quill Merit Award for the DLP AVPs.
