Josenians represent PH in tri-country workshop on robotics in Taiwan

CEBU CITY–Six Josenians represented the Philippines on a tri-country workshop on building self-driving cars and robotics in Taiwan on August 12 to 16, 2019.

They are Jay Ann Dela Cerna, Francis Louie Alolor, Noel Daniel Seldura, Kevin Cerdon, Jesury Thomas Gadiane, and Temothy Homecillo, BS Information Technology students of the College of Information, Computer, and Communications Technology (CICCT).

The students were accompanied by CICCT faculty members namely Engr. Carmel Tejana and Ahdzleebee Formentera.

They participated in the third International Project-Based Learning (i-PBL) multinational training camp.

Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) Chairman Juvilyn Cuizon said that it was the first time for the Philippines to join the i-PBL since the training camp for the past years has been between Taiwan and Japan only. Considering the partnership agreement between STUST and USJ-R since 2018, USJ-R was invited to join the i-BPL.

With this development, three universities take part in this workshop. They are USJ-R from the Philippines, Osaka Institute of Technology (OIT) from Japan, and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST) from Taiwan. All of which have varying backgrounds.

The third International Project-Based Learning workshop was subsidized by the Ministry of Education Office of Higher Sprout Project and STUST.

According to CICCT Dean Gregg Gabison, the focus of the workshop is to provide students with the ability to build self-driving cars and robotics.

Seldura, one of the participants, said that the workshop is about how to work with a ROS (Robotic Operating System) that enables the robots to follow lanes using visual recognition without human intervention.

To test the results of their robots, students competed against each other during the last day of the workshop. The groupings were mixed with other universities to challenge students to cross borders where they can observe how other students work and eventually learn from them.

The competition has five categories: (1) self-propelled car racing, (2) robotic arming, (3) road obstacles (slope/tunnel), (4)fastest time without the obstacles, and (5)map navigation.

The Josenians admired Taiwan because they gained new experience through ROS with the cultural exchange with Japan and Taiwan. They also gained a strong network among the workshop’s participants. Moreover, they were able to experience a cultural tour of the nation and they enjoyed the food because it was affordable but delicious.

In 2021, the University of San Jose- Recoletos (USJ-R) will be hosting the i-PBL multinational training camp trough the tripartite agreement among the three universities namely OIT, STUST, and USJ-R.

The CICCT dean said that hosting the said event will be a heavy task but it is worth it because the university will be able to get a lot of inputs back in terms of new content that professors cannot deliver on a normal classroom setting in Cebu. It will also allow the school to dig deeper into the research area especially in robotics with the application of self-driving.

The tripartite agreement focuses on student exchange, faculty exchange, and research.

For a university who is aiming for global status, Gabison said USJ-R is willing and open to engaging more in non-traditional schemes.

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Written by Frence Debbie M. Nombrado (AB LIACOM Intern)