HNU College of Engineering wins big in Smart national awards By Jennifer L. Halasan
The Holy Name Unuiversity College of Engineering team bagged the 6th Sweep Innovation and Excellence Awards held on February 5 and 6, 2010 in Makati City with the theme “Empowering Communities through Wireless Technologies.†SWEEP or Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program is SMART Communications’ first-of-its-kind industry-academe partnership that seeks to improve the level of technology and engineering education in the country, particularly in the field of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE). The program is designed to complement the school’s existing ECE programs by providing training and lectures on the latest developments in wireless technologies.
HNU’s team with its project entry, “Water Supply Management through Wireless Technology†emerged as the national winner among the 10 SMART partner schools that made it to the top ten finalists after the regional short-listing in October last year. HNU bested the other leading universities in the country.
The project is made up of two separate systems. One is located on the pipelines, which by itself is made up of several systems. These systems, called remote devices are made up of sensors and switches wirelessly connected to the control panel using GSM technology. The other system called control panel is a software that makes use of the data gathered by the remote devices to provide, among other things, water leakage detection, valve switching, and subscriber messaging.
Ramon Isberto, head of SMART Communication’s Public Affairs said they decided to focus the contest that will cope with the possible problems of the local communities. That is research projects with community value, according to him. “When you develop an application, you don’t develop it in a vacuum. It must be needs-driven.†he said. Taking into consideration what the community needs, the school can improve the chances for its application to be used.
The HNU team was represented by its team leader, Eldwin Shieldon Ytac and members Gerald June Dagondon, Johnry Daquipil, Wilmer Malanog, Gina Palomares, and Joseph Tabaranza, all fifth year Electronics and Communications Engineering students with their adviser, Engr. Justiniano Villocido, Jr.
For the feat, the winners received P500,000 cash prize, 80% of which went to the team while 20% went to the faculty-adviser. The same amount went to Holy Name University in a form of a grant intended for use of a research study which will be conceptualized by the College of Engineering. The HNU Team also received a trophy and certificates.
The second prize however, went to Ateneo de Davao University with project entry “Development of a Fish Density Detection System for the Fisher Folks of Lianga Bay.†The project uses a vibration meter to detect density of fish in an area and then alert a central station to inform members of the Barobo Fishers’ Association.
On the other hand, the third went to Ateneo de Manila University with project entry “SMART Bantay Barangay,†a system that allows citizens to use Internet and mobile technology to report issues to authorities.
The two winning entries will receive P300,000 and P150,000 cash prizes respectively. The same amounts in a form of school grants will be given to the said two partner schools.
The other top finalists were “Channelize Election Process†by Notre Dame of Maribel University, “Development and Field-Testing of a Digital Agricultural Land Mapping System in Southern Mindanao,†also by Ateneo de Davao University, “Low Cost Microcontroller Based Mobile Home Automation with Bluetooth†by Mindanao State University, “SMART Karwats†by Batangas State University, “SMART Voting for Cleaner Election†by University of St. La Salle, “S-Mart.com†by Ateneo de Manila University, and “TimeFree†by Ateneo de Zamboanga University. They will receive a merit prize of P30,000 each.
Accordingly, the “Water Supply Management through Wireless Technology†project prototype will be displayed to the public in a project exhibit of the HNU College of Engineering on March 4 and 5, 2010 at the Atrium of BQ Mall this city.
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