UPD rocks! Six winning student teams from UPD at the 2008
Microcontroller Applications Design Competition celebrate their
achievements with their faculty advisers, namely Prof. Marc Talampas
(extreme right, first row), Dr. Joel Marciano Jr. (extreme left, top row),
Prof. Percival Magpantay (extreme right, top row) and Dr. Luis Sison,
MADC Overall Chair (extreme left, second row).
Inventions of six student teams from the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) bagged the top prizes in the 2008 Microcontroller Applications Design Competition (MADC).
The MADC is a test of engineering and design skill designed to foster interest and innovation in microcontroller-based products among Filipino engineering students. A microcontroller is a computer-on-a-chip frequently used in automatically controlled products and devices such as automobile engine control systems, remote controls, office machines, appliances, power tools and toys. It contains a central processing unit that is much less powerful than the one in a desktop or laptop; however, its small size and low cost make it suitable for many commercial products.
Now on it seventh year, the current competition had two categories: the Open Design and the Mobot or mobile robot races.
Two inventions were awarded the top prize in the Open Design Category. Chosen as Best in Technology was the project Accelerometer Sensor Array Column for Slope Stability Monitoring by Rudolf Dumo, Earl Anthony Mendoza and Wilfredo Sepulchre with Marc Talampas, MSEE and Michael Lochinvar Abundo, MSEE as advisers.
The project seeks to protect lives and property in any geological site by devising “a method for monitoring substrate deformations by logging the shape and orientation of an accelerometer array column. The shape and orientation of the column was monitored by reading the tilt, with respect to vertical, of each segment of this column along the length of a borehole upon which this column is installed.”
Named Most Commercializable was Axel Activity Monitor Phase 2 by Raissa Aranas, Virna Mae Dizon and Stephen Alfred Quedi with Engr. Michael Lochinvar Abundo, MSEE and Engr. Marc Caesar Talampas, MS EE as advisers.
Best in Technology. A team
member demonstrates the use
of the Accelerometer Sensor
Array Column for Slope Stability
Monitoring, the project named
Best in Technology in the Open
Design Category.
This is the second phase of an earlier project seeking to provide a low cost and efficient physical activity monitor to aid in the management and rehabilitation of post-surgical patients and those with common diseases. The current phase aims to remove the existing shortcomings encountered in the earlier version by improving the device’s battery life, increasing the speed of data transfer and interpretation and incorporating an alarm which is triggered when a strenuous activity has been detected.
Two inventions were also cited under the Open Design category.
Sugpo: Mobile Robot Platform for Disaster-Stricken Areas by Lawrence Y. Lee and Oliver John N. Tizon with Engr. Menandro D. Roxas as adviser was named Runner-Up for Best in Technology. The project seeks to develop an all-terrain robot platform with stair-climbing abilities which is necessary in search and rescue operations. Its mechanical design is patterned from Shrimp, a rover manufactured by the Institute of Robotic Systems of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Another Runner UP for Most Commercializable is TexTag : RFID Tracking System for TB Kits, by Rosanno JC de Dios, Earl Anthony Mendoza, Joshoua C. Esmenda and Mark Andrew S. Mateo with the following advisers: Michael Lochinvar Abundo, MSEE, Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., Ph.D. and Dr. Nathaniel Libatique.
The project aims to develop an efficient inventory system designed to read RFID tags from a RFID reader and sends data through the GSM network for remote inventory applications. Applied in the monitoring of valuable packages, the device will help reduce the work load and the error in inventory.
In the Mobot Races, the entry “Biochi “was declared Champion in the Maze race. The entry was designed and developed by Gabriel Villorente, Menandro Roxas and Percival Magpantay.
The contenders. Entries for the
motorized robot race, all equipped with
Zilog microcontrollers, have been
painstakingly developed, tweaked and
upgraded through workshops and
support provided by Zilog, DOST-
PCASTRD,CHED and the MADC steering
committee.
Finally, the entry Gailie placed third in the Classic Line-Following race. Gailie was developed by UP Information Technology Training Center students Michael Vincent Rabana and John Baligod as advised by Engr. Emmanuel Rex T. Rodriguez.
The 2008 MADC was launched in November last year by Zilog Electronics Philippines, Inc. (ZEPI) with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Philippine section as technical co-sponsor and with support from the Department of Science and Technology's Philippine Council for Advanced Science and Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCASTRD).
The Commission on Higher Education - Zonal Research Center (CHED-ZRC) for the National Capital Region and Region 3 provided travel support for out-of-town participants. E-Gizmo and Canon Information Technology also provided additional support.
The recent competition was held at the Alabang Festival Mall on February 28.
The MADC was initiated in 1999 by Alex Sy of Alexan Commercial, Inc. and IEEE. A non-profit organization, IEEE (www.ieee.org) is the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology. It has more than 370,000 members, including 80,000 students in 160 countries.
In 2002, ZEPI commenced partnership with IEEE to further promote the program's objectives among various schools and universities in the Philippines. Zilog (www.zilog.com) is a design center of the US-based semiconductor company founded in 1974 by Federico Faggin, the inventor of the world's first microprocessor. ZEPI is Zilog’s test engineering and shared services facility in the Philippines.
ZEPI's major contributions to MADC are the provision of Zilog development kits to partner schools and universities and support for training workshops.
Some of the teams in competition this year were from the following: Adamson University, Asia Pacific College, Ateneo de Manila University, Notre Dame of Dadiangas University, Mindanao State University-General Santos City, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Rogationist College (Cavite), University of Baguio, University of the Philippines Diliman and Wesleyan University-Philippines (Cabanatuan).