The state of Science and Technology in the Philippines

[grovestreet]

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i hope the open source community would change all this.

i recommend people to watch the video.

YouTube - Prometheus Bound Part 2 a documentary about the state of science and tech in the philippines.

matod pa ni carl sagan.

"Despite plentiful opportunities for misuse, science can be the golden road out of poverty and backwardness for emerging nations. It makes national economies and the global civilization run.

Many nations understand this. It is why so many graduate students in science and engineering at American graduate schools - still the best in the world - are from other countries.

The corollary, one that the United States sometimes fails to grasp, is that abandoning science is the road back into poverty and backwardness."

[fritzd]

grovestreet,

Awesome share! hehe!

As I am also in the field of science, all I can say is that this is very sad. I've met a lot of brilliant Filipino scientists and engineers in my current journey. Most of them you don't even know of. Most of them are just hiding around the world.

Normally for an aspiring scientist or engineer who just finished his undergraduate, he/she would look for possible opportunities to study abroad and broadened his/her knowledge in a masters degree which may eventually lead to PhD. Then go back to his respective country to contribute in anyway possible. This is what the advanced countries have done. I have brilliant indian, chinese, japanese, etc.. colleagues here who all have the same plan. Learn from the best, then apply what you learned and innovate in your respective country.

The problem in our nation is that the government doesn't do enough recognition to provide opportunities for returning scientist or engineer. Most people don't even know what science really is and how important it is important to everything. When I was taking my undergraduate course, I would normally just say I'm taking engineering to anybody who asks because they wouldn't understand what Applied Physics is. Some of my friends would even tease me that I would replace our old high school teacher in physics. Most Filipino people lack awareness on science which may the reason for science and technology getting neglected.

I'll share my experience in the physics department in USC-TC. (I'm sure the other Physics/Applied Physics graduates of USC know about this, hehe) [It's quite a long post. Sorry bout that.. hihihihi... click lang mo if interested. hehehe] :-]

Spoiler! 

Years ago, there was a program from the Dutch government called Physics Development project (PDP) to fund and and train physics departments in developing countries. Fortunately, the Physics department in USC was given a hefty sum of money plus there were around 4 Physicists from the Netherlands who came and taught courses. And faculty also were sent abroad to obtain their PhDs. This is the reason why I studied in USC. And because of that, the Physics department of the USC became very very good and also globally competitive. Now the idea of the PDP was to train our physics deparment that when its ready, the department can be self sustaining. The project ran for 10 years. In the span of 10 years, a lot of great things have happaned for the department. There were industrial tie-ups. A world renowd optical cooling experiment was setup (During that time, the setup was 1 of the 10 experimental setups in the world). During my 1st year in USC, they would always tell us that somebody who just finished his Phd will come back and you will be under him. Of course, as an aspiring scientist this would get you excited. But the problem was, when the 10 year funding was nearing its completion, none of these scientist ever came back and the Dutch physicists were starting to leave. The department was only headed by one PhD. For a Physics department, this is not enough.

I was there during that time. The PDP ended and unfortunately, the situation came to a critical point. Our department head looking for many possible funding sources. But later, is seemed impossible in the Philippines. One of my mentors who finished his Masters in ICTP (international center for theoretical physics in italy) wanted to do his PhD. If he left, nobody who take care of the specialized courses, that only a few people can even teach. And because of that, he put his PhD application on hold and waited a few years so that we could graduate. He also waited for his friend, a PhD graduate (specializing in Atomic and molecular spectroscopy) to finally arrive in the department.

Since the time I had left the department to pursue my Masters elsewhere in the hopes of coming to share what I have learned, I have heard of wonderful news about the department. The guy my mentor was talking about finally came back. And he was also hoping and looking for another funding. As of now, I don't know anything yet. All I know is that soon there will be more PhDs in the department and they are also hoping for a funding from the european union which is quite possible. I hope it will indeed be true.

From what I've learned, foreign bodies are better at aiding our pursuit of science and technology. This is the sad truth. It feels like our government has abadonded us.

[coolnezz]

P.I. government: F.A.I.L
they lack in everything... brain power, money, common sense, integrity.
they can barely feed the people and you expect them to fund R&D? lol.
what is the top school in the philippines? UP? what kinda research is going on there?
probably nothing significant.
the politicians got other priorities, like stuffing their own pockets.

it's up to private corporations to fund R&D.
maybe they can fund private colleges/universities.
but most if not all of these private schools are a joke too.
99% of the students are immature and they care more about what's going in the media
and latest fashion than doing scientific research. Heck, for most, the immaturity, pettiness, and unprofessionalism even follows all the way through their careers.
in short, Scientific Research & Development in the Philippines is an oxy*****.

[fritzd]

P.I. government: F.A.I.L
they lack in everything... brain power, money, common sense, integrity.
they can barely feed the people and you expect them to fund R&D? lol.
what is the top school in the philippines? UP? what kinda research is going on there?
probably nothing significant.
the politicians got other priorities, like stuffing their own pockets.

it's up to private corporations to fund R&D.
maybe they can fund private colleges/universities.
but most if not all of these private schools are a joke too.
99% of the students are immature and they care more about what's going in the media
and latest fashion than doing scientific research. Heck, for most, the immaturity, pettiness, and unprofessionalism even follows all the way through their careers.
in short, Scientific Research & Development in the Philippines is an oxy*****.

It's not fair also to put all blame on the government. hehe! From the video posted by the TS, we all need to unite. This is the only solution. Despite us being a country, we still have some petty arguments within our islands. We are also the ones putting the people in the government into power. hehehe!

UP is doing some pretty significant things in their labs. I know this for sure. But the things they are doing are just on the labs. Some of their work are sold as US patents.

The way the industry works here in EUROPE is that they have university-industry tie ups. For example (since I'm a physicist, I will give an example involving a physicist), physicist Jack (lets call him Jack), just finished his PhD in Physics specializing in Semiconductor Nanostructures. He then goes out into the world looking for a Laboratory to work in. He finds an amazing lab somewhere and works as a Postdoctoral researcher. The lab he is working in is a top University lab. The lab is funded part of a research tie up probably with some top semiconductor company. Jack then discovers that he is becoming very well. He then gains a lot of friends from companies. He then creates a proposal for a project to create a lab for a particular purpose probably in some university interested in his proposal. He then starts looking for companies who want to fund his research. He finds his a company. He gets millions of euros to complete his project in 5 years.

This works for all fields in science and engineering. That is how they do it. Top companies do not really involve themselves in high level research. They just let university labs do everything for them. Then they collect the results and profit from it. That is how the process works. And this is also lacking in the Philippines. And usually their governments are one of the top funders for research.

[grovestreet]

Does that mean that companies are just funding the competitive universities who have top notch research equipments?

Then i guess one of the problem is that, most of the top companies here in the philippines are from Western countries. If i were them, I wouldn't waste my money on universities who just started their research program unless i have a humanitarian heart and just want to help these universities. correct me if i'm wrong.

This is why i said, that maybe the open source community has a huge potential to help change all this. They encourage people to work on their ideas. We will no longer be constrained by patenting.

[coolnezz]

open source is just a tiny part of it. you want all these researchers working on linux? free software?
there's more to R&D than just working on free software. (don't get me wrong, i love linux. my laptop and workstation runs Red Hat & Fedora)
the philippines would do well on Marine Research, Agricultural Research, and perhaps Alternative Energy Research.

[fritzd]

Does that mean that companies are just funding the competitive universities who have top notch research equipments?

Then i guess one of the problem is that, most of the top companies here in the philippines are from Western countries. If i were them, I wouldn't waste my money on universities who just started their research program unless i have a humanitarian heart and just want to help these universities. correct me if i'm wrong.

This is why i said, that maybe the open source community has a huge potential to help change all this. They encourage people to work on their ideas. We will no longer be constrained by patenting.

Not exactly... They fund universities who give feasible proposals. Take for example this guy, Roel Baets. Staff
Most of you don't know but he is very famous in the Silicon Nanophotonics industry. Why? Because he is simply so good. Look at his number of publications and patents. He is also the big boss of the masters program that I am in right now. He has funding from almost from everywhere. Not because his lab is really advanced but his lab contains some of the great minds in the world. The good thing they have in here in EU is that if they need something to be analyzed they usually have other contacts and collaborations from outside to help them with something equipment which they don't have.

For them, they have IMEC. " IMEC is Europe’s largest independent research center in nano-electronics and nano-technology. " - taken from their site
Welcome at IMEC.be
So Prof Baets has a big tie up with IMEC. So when it comes to things that he doesn't have, his scientists go to IMEC.

If you look are their lists of projects on the link below.
Projects
You can see that each project involves many universities and companies. The ideology of each university is that they try to specialize on something which different from others. If they try to specialize on a very hot topic then must be able to top the others doing research on that topic. So they all try to find something unique and work together. Although competition is always there, but for them working together is more important. And you won't also find two research groups here working on exactly the same problem. They could be working on the same field but different problems. They always find ways to collaborate.

You can see in Prof Baets' group's project that his group has completed so many projects already which is why he is very reputable in the field. hehehe! I was under him for one subject. It's not about technology for them because they know if they need something badly they can either look for ways to use a particular equipment or simply buy it.

open source is just a tiny part of it. you want all these researchers working on linux? free software?
there's more to R&D than just working on free software. (don't get me wrong, i love linux. my laptop and workstation runs Red Hat & Fedora)
the philippines would do well on Marine Research, Agricultural Research, and perhaps Alternative Energy Research.

you are right. it is different for the software technology. but i was talking about highly hardware technology. This is where university-industry collaboration is strong because it usually involves very new concepts and ideas that just came from a research publication. And most companies can not do this on their own so they find collaborations. Sometime it is just a small part of the bigger picture but usually it is the most important aspect for making a product work. I guess it is different for different industries. hehe

[grovestreet]

actually the open source community have expanded. Thanks to the people who started open sourcing software they have inspired new breeds of visionaries that are from different fields like architecture, robotics, agriculture, etc. in developing what they call a post-scarcity global civilization. I know that's a very far out goal but the things they are working on are tools that would at least help people's homes and communities transition into becoming more self-sufficient homes and communities.

Open Source Ecology Weblog

they have made brick pressers, a multi-purpose tractor, permaculture farming, hydroponic farming, solar concentrators etc. The guy who initiated all this is actually a physicist. He said that during his graduate school, he got impatient about "changing the world" that after finishing his graduate school he started working on the most practical and feasible tools they could think of with a few scrap metal.

[binarypill]

abysmal

also, filipinos are great mimics: prometheus bound? atlas shrugged!

[vernie]

DOST = Department Of Sayang ang Technology.
Mao na permi ang masulod sa akong hunahuna kung makadungog ug makakita ko ug DOST. Ambot ngano pero tinuod man pud sumala sa akong naobserbahan nga mga panghitabo.

Una sa tanan, asa diay ning AGHAM nga group dire sa Cebu? Naa bay mga activities ani nga group dire sa Cebu like sharing of research and implementing it aron makatabang sa panginahanglan karon?

Alang sa tanan nga gusto ug kausaban aron mag improve ang atong kahimtang, alang sa mga makamao ug adunay mga initiative, ug alang sa mga inventor or innovator karong panahona, dako kaayo 'ta ug mahimo aron matuman ang atong mga kaayohang tinguha.

If ever naa kay nahimong improvement, innovation or kaayohan nga makatabang sa kadaghanan, kalimti ang paghunahuna nga ipapatent na nimo. It would be better to open source it aron di na mapatent sa uban.
Make use of the money to improve further what you have instead nga imo lang unta igasto for patent processing. Pakig istorya sa ubang nga mga tao nga adunay similar interests sa imong gikalingawan. Bulahan 'ta karon nga panahon nga naay internet access, we can share with other experimenters, scientists and innovators from different parts of the world. Communication is very important aron madali ang research and development and we already have it today. Instead sayangon na nimo ang money pag text sa walay pulos nga mga messages, make use of it wisely.

Collaboration with other people, helping each other regardless of distance is very much possible today through the internet. We've done it and we're still doing it and have proven time and time again nga mas mapadali ang research and development.

Doing open source is the real science and this is what we should do in any aspect of life aron madali ang pag improve sa atong kahimtang. Pag share ug resources aron less ang gastohan ug makasave ka sa time. More heads thinking on similar interests and goals is very powerful and very effective in terms of research and development. Sa karon nga panahon nga padulong pa ug transistion period for the better ang atong kahimtang, padayon lang kung unsay imong primary nga panginabuhi pero start ug gahin on contacting others of similar interests and goals aron makasugod ug tinabangay. Gawas na panagsa sa imong lungga aron sugdan ang kausaban nga gikinahanglan.

Ang government di na angay pang huwaton nato kay ang karon nga situation iya pa na sa mga politikong negosyante. Let's start moving sa family ug sa barangay level by sharing what we can mga makatabang sa atong palibot. Usa sa panginahanglan karon sa kadaghanan other than the basic needs is a better air and water kay dako ang problema karon sa pollution. No need for us to wait for anyone nga molihok para nato, kita na ang angay molihok aron maminusan ning pollution sa atong palibot. Primary contributor sa air pollution is the inefficient use of fuel and improper disposal of automotive lubricants and other waste. Naa nay solution aning mga butanga ug sayon ra kaayo that you don't need to spend an arm and a leg for it.

Kung naa kay silingan nga mag sige ug haling or kung ikaw mismo mag sige ug sunog ug basura, patuyang ug labay bisan asa, palihug undanga na. Undang lang una 'ta ug sige ug rally sa kadalanan, mas maayo sugdan nato ang kausaban gamay nga luna sa atong palibot. Gather everyone of the same goals aron paspas ang pag lihok, later nalang na silang dili interested molihok, they will follow later. Kung unahon man gud nimo ang mga tao with the same interest ug goals nimo, walay mag supak supak ug paspas ang inyong mga plano ma implement para sa kaayohan. Later on, ang nauwahi nga sige ug panaway ug sige lang walay pakialam, mabiyaan na sila ug magdali dali ra na sila ug apil. That is pinoy nature ug angay na natong sabton nga di gyud kalimod daghang gahi ug ulo at first.

Kung naay gathering dire sa mga engineers and innovators of similar interests in improving the science and technology in our country, let everyone know about it aron magkatapok tanan for a common goal. Later nalang 'ta sige ug bagolbol ug sige ug reklamo, we don't need that for now. What we really need is plan and implement it aron mapuslan sa kadaghanan sa local community. We cannot change the whole country without starting within our own community. We cannot change our country if we go abroad and work as a slave there. We have to work locally aron madali ning gusto natong kausaban.

Tuod, please be aware pud nga the science that we know in school is not the real science that we have to implement to make this country better. Real science is not in school, it is after you're out of school. The science that you know nga gitudlo sa school sukad pa sa una, gi designed na aron ang imong isip limited lang ug aron ang imong vision naa ra ka sa sulod sa box. You have to start thinking out of that box aron maabot nimo ang tinuod nga kausaban.