S&T leads the way

The accomplishments of the Department of Science and Technology get little attention from the media compared to the mileage given to beauty pageants, boxing tournaments, killings in Mindanao, quarrels between celebrity spouses, whistle blowers, corruption, and firing of government officials without just explanation.

Science and technology, however, is the engine that drives economic growth, improves industry competitiveness, accelerates delivery of government services, and enhances the country’s capacity in emerging technologies.

A relaxed dinner meeting with Science and Technology Secretary Mario G. Montejo (at XO, a media favorite restaurant in Makati) revealed how economic progress is propelled by S&T. The secretary talked about the department’s programs covering a vast field of concerns, from transport to weather prediction to a simple device that drives dengue-carrier   mosquitoes away, clean water, a harvester of water hyacinths, a compost reactor, testing food for spoilage and goat’s milk, among many others.

There’s DOST’s Advanced Transport Program, which consists of the “Road Train” that will move people in up to five interconnected coaches traveling on rubber tires similar to normal vehicles.  This may help decongest EDSA’s traffic mess, designed, as it is to run on major highways. Although the Road Train’s functions are similar to tram in other countries, it is mainly powered by a hybrid diesel-electric system, hence, it is not dependent on electricity and will not require the usual suspended cables used in trams, the Secretary said. The road train will have a wide, fully-air conditioned interior that can carry up to 120 passengers per coach. The system can move 650,000 passengers per day of operation if fully implemented.

Another transport easing program whose prototype is also scheduled for completion by year-end is the retrofitting of 40 idle trains donated by the Japanese government. DOST engineers are now remodeling the coaches’ bodies and overhauling their power systems to reactivate the trains and make them suited for PNR tracks.

Recently, DOST’s Automated Guideway Transit or AGT   completed the first trial run of the first Filipino-developed train servicing the UP Diliman campus. The fully automated driverless people mover is being developed by DOST in consultation with UP experts. A bigger, regular version in Bicutan, Taguig, will be completed by yearend.

Another DOST flagship program is the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, also known as Project NOAH, which, said Secretary Montejo, now serves “as the country’s leading edge and integrated defense strategy against natural disasters and calamities. By using advanced weather monitoring tools strategically located across the archipelago, Project NOAH provides early warning to communities, thus helping lessen the loss of lives and properties.”

 One important aspect of Project NOAH, we were told, is “the creation of highly detailed three-dimensional maps through the use of state-of-the-art LIDAR technology, to generate flood models for the country’s 18 major river basins – areas most at risk from deadly floods – and a wealth of allied applications that benefit the country. With NOAH, DOST shows its commitment to disaster mitigation, making the country  “a recognized regional front-runner in disaster preparedness and risk reduction.”

Secretary Montejo brought along samples of the Ovicidal-Larvicidal (OL) trap designed to curb the population of mosquitoes that spread the dengue disease. It is a simple kit consisting of a black container, a lawanit paddle where mosquitos lay their eggs, and a pack of pellets used to make a solution that kills the eggs and larvae of mosquitoes.

The traps are based in schools and checked weekly by monitors who report to the DOST the number of traps that contain mosquito eggs and larvae.  Previously, the monitors filed tedious paper-based reports, but now they only text their reports to DOST, which are then automatically encoded into the website (http://oltrap.pchrd.dost.gov.ph). The trap is now available in drug stores.

Of great help to communities along river banks and handicraft manufacturers is the improved DOST version of Harvester II, a machine that collects water lilies or hyacinths that clog the waterways around the country.

Another recent project beneficial to the food industry is the development of a process called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which easily detects organisms present in spoiled food.

Secretary Montejo mentioned projects supported by DOST grants, such as those involving goat milk production, sweet sorghum as a possible energy alternative,  and e-bamboo production standards.       

 I have to go to the Pasay City market on Taft Avenue to check on its adoption and use of a bioreactor that converts wastes (of which the city has mountains) into fertilizers. DOST-NCR and the Industrial Technology Development Institute funded the fabrication of the 500-kg capacity bioreactor.

DOST has also led the way in the production of fiberglass rescue boats to ensure effective and efficient rescue operations in CALABARZON.

Of great importance is DOTC’s development of AMATEL, or the Advanced Device and Materials Testing Laboratory, the country’s first testing facility expected to enable scientists to create more globally competitive products, attract more foreign investors, and fuel the industry to achieve world-class status. President Benigno Simeon Aquino III gave words of praise at the ADMATEL’s launch in Taguig City, saying the facility “will pull our semiconductor industry up the value chain, and move them closer to their target of becoming a P50-billion dollar industry by 2016.”

With state-of-the-art equipment, ADMATEL offers affordable quality testing services, enabling semiconductor companies to save money otherwise spent on sending parts and samples abroad for testing of their products. Based on the study of the semiconductor Electronic Industry of the Philippines, Philippine semiconductor companies spend $9 million to $18 million annually for testing abroad.

ADMATEL is one of DOST’s pioneering projects and technologies to be highlighted at the DOST-organized National Science and Technology Week, also billed as the Philippine Expo Science 2013. The expo, slated to run from July 23 to 27 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, is an annual celebration featuring the latest breakthroughs in the Philippine science community aimed at promoting industry competitiveness, enhancing social services, and achieving food security for the Philippines.

 Not to be forgotten is DOST’s commitment to support the country’s science scholars. Recently, some 3,597 high school students who qualified as DOST-Science Education Institute undergraduate scholars for the incoming school year 2013-14 gathered at a ceremonial presentation at the department’s compound in Bicutan, Taquig City. This year’s passers represent 7.1 percent more than the 3,359 qualifiers last year.

“We are optimistic that these future big placers will help us in creating S&T-based solutions for us to achieve a ‘smarter’ Philippines,” Montejo told the students. He challenged “the next generation of game changers . . . to use research development principles to produce more mass transit systems like the AGT in UP and other possible industries to create more value in the country. “To look for a world-class solution is to resolve our local problems,” he said.

Montejo knows whereof he speaks. He earned his BS major in mechanical engineering from the University of the Philippines, and placed sixth in that year’s engineering board examination. He then went into the fields of engineering design and innovation that span 22 years.

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