Silliman University launches iOS Apps Laboratory

CEBU, Philippines – There is one laboratory that challenges students to innovate, nurtures mistakes and transforms them into an opportunity to learn and create an impact in the community.

This was the vision of the Apps Incubation and Development Laboratory, located at the Uytengsu Computer Center of Silliman University that was inaugurated last October 27.

The Apps Lab, established with funding from the Uytengsu Foundation and in partnership with Apple, Inc., can be among the first in the country, geared towards empowering the youth to tinker with their creativity in putting what can initially be “bold and wild” ideas into mobile iOS applications.

Equipped with 31 iMacs, 31 iPads and a state-of-the-art projection system, the Apps Lab was intended to draw in students and young people from around Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental province in creating mobile iOS applications that will aid in academic learning and respond to community needs.

Silliman University president, Doctor Ben Malayang III, described the Apps Lab as the “beginning process of hauling our students to tinker with the world. This facility is intended to provide the university with the space for translating what is in your brain and heart into something that can be useful to our community.”

Malayang said that, unlike other usual laboratories, the Apps Lab is the cradle of ingenuity. “We don’t see this as merely a simple laboratory. It is a place for creativity — not just for testing but for innovating.” He said this will encourage students to test out their ideas, without being afraid of committing mistakes.

“The university is the only place ever in your life where you pay tuition in order to make mistakes. Here, when you make mistakes, you will be appreciated because it is part of the learning process. When you are in the workplace later on, you will be punished when you make mistakes. In the university, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. This is a place for creativity, therefore dare to make mistakes. In the context of experimenting with ideas, not to make mistake could be a big mistake,” said Malayang.

Earlier this month, the College of Computer Studies dean, Dr. Dave Marcial, currently coordinator of the Apps Lab, rolled out a trainers’ training for some Silliman faculty and staff for them to be familiar with both Apple technologies and the iOS operating system.

During the Lab inauguration, Marcial said the facility will further pave the way for possibilities and opportunities for the SU to forge more partnerships in innovative learning in the global market, as the university envisions courses and special programs on iOS apps development to benefit more of those outside the campus.

With the mobile apps industry being a billion-dollar industry, Marcial said the Lab can also serve as an outsourcing hub that will provide opportunities for faculty, students and other interested people to develop commercial iOS apps.

Also present during the inauguration were Professor Rommel Feria, Apple Distinguished Educator and director of the Information Technology Development Center of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, and Ms Chezka Yap of iStore Philippines.  (FREEMAN)