UNIVERSITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Fr. Selga St., Davao City
Philippines
TRAVEL REPORT
March 1-3, 2012
De La Salle – Canlubang
Biñan, Laguna, Philippines
Seminar Overview:
In partial fulfillment to the requirements of IT410 – Information Technology Advance Seminar 1 and IT420 – Information Management Advance Seminar Practicum 11, we attended the 12TH PHILIPPINE COMPUTING SCIENCE CONGRESS on March 1-3, 2012 at De La Salle – Canlubang, Biñan, Laguna, Philippines. Incidentally, the congress coincided with the 100th Centennial Celebration of the De La Salle University.
Randy S. Gamboa, our dearest professor was with us all throughout the course of the seminar.
By rationale, the conference was organized by the Computing Society of the Philippines to enable local computing educators, researchers and ICT Practitioners, as well as students to interact and share their work.
The event features, among others, special lectures by prominent researchers and educators in the field of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Presentations of research papers, as well as poster presentations are the other highlights of the congress.
A special tribute to ALAN M. TURING, regarded to be the Father of Computing Science are among the important features of the three-day activity, focusing mostly on his life and achievements.
DAY 1 – March 1, 2012
Today, I went to…..
It was the first day of the congress. I feel relaxed and comfortable considering the fact that we were just about few meters away from the session hall as we opted to stay in the De La Salle Dormitory. Having into a series of seminars with the Department of Education (DepEd), I have carefully arranged my schedules so as not to interfere meddle official business, which is the three-day congress and the planned tour with the significant landmarks of the place.
At De La Salle Dormitory Room 206, the group, consisting of J. Pellazar, S. Pascual, E. Acedillo, J. Villarin, M. Macasalong, and R. Naraiso felt excited on the first day. In fact, we were so happy taking our breakfast at the school canteen that seemed to resemble to a mall food court.
We register ourselves and we were provided IDs and other documents.
I was o amazed how professional CSP people are. The congress started on time with the participants arriving ahead of schedule.
Talks and discussions to me are extremely interesting as compared to the ones provided by DepEd. Perhaps, it is because most of the topics are areas discussed were basically new to me, unlike in the previous seminars and conferences that I have attended where subject matters were seemingly recycled.
I could even feel the sincerity of the message of Dr. Julius Maridable, the De La Salle-Canlubang Chancellor, especially in his attempt to narrow the gap of digital divide.
It is just so touching how the school poured its heart in donating second hand computer units to a public school that seemed to have nothing but chalks and blackboards in providing learning to students.
The topics that were discussed on day 1 are the following, to wit:
o Natural Language Processing (Dr. Stephen Beale)
o “Graphics and Non-Graphics GPU Applications” (Dr. Tan Tiow Seng, NUS)
o “On Turing Machines” (Dr. Eliezer Albacea, UPLB)
o “Support Vector Machines and Rule Extraction from Neural Networks” (Dr. Rudy Setiono, NUS)
Dinner was served at Guilly’s Island, Paseo de Sta. Rosa at around 7:00 PM
What I learned?
Honestly, I have learned a lot. Not only from the lectures, but, I have learned values as well. The value of punctuality paves the way for our professor RANDY S. GAMBOA to win a BROTHER PRINTER in the raffle draw for the early birds.
On the other hand, when Dr. Beale presented his Linguist Assistant program, I come to realize that he is attempting to provide a better and improved version of the Google Translate. Its primary goal is to lessen the task of documenting, representing and translating the many languages and dialects.
Likewise, I have also learned the importance and significance of GPU relative to the IT industry and how it would benefit to software engineers. On the other hand, invited guests from Singapore did not only attend the seminar but to invite teachers and students to teach and study at NUS.
What I liked?
The venue is certainly very conducive to learning, as well as it is an ideal site to affairs and activities like the PCSC. It is a venue where focus to activities would require lesser effort as it proved during the course of the 3-day activity that there were no distractions to consider.
From the dormitory, the canteen, the conference venue, the hosts, and the people of De La Salle – Canlubang are truly wonderful.
Accommodations and the general schedule of activities were well planned and well carried out. Time was an important factor, giving us the opportunity to finish the activities as scheduled.
I guess, not a moment was wasted. Dinner for day 1 was fantastic, affording us the opportunity to explore PASEO at night.
But, what I liked the most was that it was from our contingent that the first winner for the Brother Printer was called.
What I didn’t like?
Day 1 was seemingly perfect. I suppose I have nothing to dislike except for the fact that I did not won a prize.
While it seem boring for other speakers to discuss algorithms, I am convinced that it is purely on the fact that I was not exposed to such topics, making me hard, really harder to absorb learning on certain occasions.
Day 2 – March 2, 2012
Today, I went to…
Hoping that this would be my lucky day, I was one of the few participants who went to the venue early. Needless to say, still luck is not on my side.
The second day was scheduled for the breakout sessions. I decided to attend the session on Visualizing correlations between Features and Classes Using Self-Organizing Maps and on the Emotional Model of Academic Affective States for a Filipino Embodied Conversational Agent.
After the break, I elected to attend the presentation on image processing – Generating Screened Manga Sketches from Colored Photographs.
Other topics discussed were An Approach to Discriminate Hand Dorsal Vein Patterns for Low-Cost Biometric Identification and Stochastic Modeling of Rice Seed Shape Analysis.
In the afternoon, there was another raffle draw. This time, luck seemed to remain elusive…a number of our classmates were called as winners whose prizes were later forfeited because they are not still around.
Several topics and presentations were tackled, including the following, to wit:
o I-POIS: Intellignet Posture Identification System
o reLATED: A Resource Lean Analyzer of Transcript of Educational Discourse
o Design and Implementation of Plant ArthroDB: A Plant and Arthropod Interaction Database System for Mt. Isarog Natural Park
Three (3) outgoing officers of the Philippine Computing Society were reelected on that same afternoon when the group holds its election of officers.
On the later part of the afternoon, poster presentations were made and we were invited to the lobby for the poster viewings. It was really fun.
What I learned?
It seemed to be a very tiring schedule, but because of the fact that it has a list of interesting topics, I find the day interesting.
This day, I have come to realize a number of things about Alan Turing. His life to me is extraordinary, and not too many people have known it, even to IT students.
I have likewise learned the uniqueness of the hand dorsal vein pattern and it can be used as an effective medium in identifying people. Moreover, an efficient database PlantArthropod could perhaps help save our mother planet.
The biggest learning for day was when it was disclosed that Alan M. Turing was a gay and that he committed suicide because of the humiliation he felt.
What I liked?
I suppose no one would argue that the most liked portion of the congress was the raffle draw, because it affords us excitement and serious interest to the point that we come rushing to the venue with the hope of having luck in our side.
Of course, the lunch and dinner is something that I could not ignore because it was served in a somewhat unique way, giving us the taste of an outdoor picnic.
What I didn’t like?
I would sound so arrogant if I would say that I have a number of things that I did not truly like. Let us just put it this way, the organizers may just have overlooked few important points that has to be considered.
That, there are possible participants that do not eat certain kind of foods because of religious belief or upon medical advice and recommendation; for instance, in the case of our group, sandwich were served with pork, inside and that there should have been variations when it comes drinks.
Nevertheless, these are minor issues that do not truly warrant things to be disliked.
Day 3 – March 3, 2012
Today, I went to…
At long last, this is the final day of the congress. I went to the venue with high hopes that I would be lucky enough to win the laptop, or at least one of the printers. But, then again, it was another sad day for me, at least as far as the raffle draw is concerned.
The final day features presentations for the best paper nominees of the following, to wit:
o Numerical Simulation of Earthquake Cycles Using Depth-Depended Frictional Parameters
o Neutral Network Classifiers for Natural Food Products
o Finding Near-Optimal Routes for Multiple Security Patrols in a University Campus Road Network
o Proving and Implementing the Effectiveness of iDnc for Optimal 4D Data Signature-based Cluster Models for NLEX Traffic Density Data Sets
o Data Association of an Adaptive Multi-Target Particle Filter Tracking System
What I learned?
Day 3 will likely be classified as the most intense. I have realized that the big three – La Salle, UP, and Ateneo, do not have only rivalries in basketball, but of other aspects as well.
It may not be too obvious, but I could sense the competition between these schools.
The Numerical Simulation of Earthquake Cycles Using Depth-Dependent frictional Parameters, if perfected could possible complement the current facilities we have in predicting and measuring the intensity of earthquakes.
Somehow I have learned that there are bright ideas that are certain to make an impact in our society. Perhaps they just need guidance and support, at least financially so they may be able to present viable and tangible outputs.
All the best paper nominees are indeed worthy of commendation.
What I liked?
What I really liked about this seminar is that they provide possible impact to the society. I also like the fact that the organizer, as well as every presenter were afforded strict time frame as to which they should complete their presentations.
What I didn’t like?
I hate the fact that the congress should come to an end. I feel I was like a VIP. Moreover, I would love to see presentations done in PREZI rather than the typical and traditional POWERPOINT presentations.
APPENDIX
What can I recommend for the improvement of the advance seminar program of UIC?
What else can I say? It was a perfect experience on my part. I would just suggest that UIC would intervene with the regards to the preparation of its students in attending seminars and conferences. Assistance in the booking and accommodation, as well as providing them information relating to travel must be afforded by the UIC.
I should say that some of our classmates acted immature when faced with unpleasant circumstances. Tempers sometimes go beyond control prompting them to act unprofessionally.
It is important that we should be in control of ourselves, especially at areas where we are unfamiliar.
My advice to those who will take their advance seminar program in the future…
Take the opportunity. Learn from the experience. It is more than just mere classroom instructions. And in the course of the travel, always gather enough information as to your route.
Do travel in groups. It’s more fun to laugh together. While it is a given opportunity to make side trips, plan you travel so you will have the maximum time available to enjoy without sacrificing your attendance to the seminar.
Submitted by:
KHASKIE O. CLERIGO
Masters in Information Technology
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