Day 2

Day 2

(October 5, 2010)

This day was allotted for our national seminar and company visits.

First we had our eat-and-run breakfast at Grills and Sizzles and headed directly to the University of the Philippines for the UP-USEP Information Technology Symposium 2010. This symposium talks about several things related to our courses.

Prof. Lemuel Rodolfo Brana former president of the oldest and largest IT association in the Philippines gave the welcome remarks. Then followed by the first speaker Rose ann sales. The title of her topic was “Writing a Winning Thesis”. She always emphasized the importance of keeping things cool while working on something, like what they did while they were working with their thesis. She also said that it would be better if you let everyone know about your thesis by publishing articles.

The next speaker was John Boaz Lee. The title of his presentation was “Visualizing Article Evolution With Stream Graphs”. He said that though people say that the information given by Wikipedia is not that reliable since anyone can edit the contents, Wikipedia is still reliable according to researches. He had shown different stream graphs that they had made from the data that they have collected. He said that it would be better if they show it graphically so that it would be understood easily.

The next speaker after John Boaz Lee was Michelle Lee Moscatel. She is one of the instructors of UP Diliman Department of Computer Science. Her presentation was all about Personal Learning Environments.

Then the next speaker was Len de Gracia. Her topic was quite interesting because it was all about animation. She said that in animation, grades do not matter; what one needs to do is to focus with one’s portfolio.

After which was Professor Carlos Bott. His presentation was all about mobile device game development. He said that he started with zero knowledge about programming and mobile device game development. But with determination to learn, he was able to gather knowledge and information from the internet. While he was presenting, he looked like he really mastered his field. He said that in mobile device game development, one must have a good foundation with the basic programming like C++. The next topic was all about, Empowering the nation through educational technology.

After the UP-USEP Information Technology Symposium 2010 and had our lunch, we immediately went to the UP Technohub for company visits. Everyone was quite tired after the symposium. We even did a power nap at the bus. The company that we had visited was the Seachange. They first presented a little background about their company. After which, they divided us into several groups for company tour. They toured us to several parts of their building. After the company tour at Seachange, we went to our next destination which was IBM. The place where we were toured at IBM was quite small. They only showed us their server and explained how it works. After that, Ms. Iris Chiu gave us a background and history of their company.

After visiting the UP Technohub, we went back to UP Diliman for a tour to their computer laboratories. In every computer laboratory that we visit, there were several undergrads that were working for their thesis projects. They even gave several information about the thesis that they were currently working on.

What I have learned?

I have learned that it is very essential to have a good foundation in C++ and other basic programming if one wants to pursue in programming a mobile game application. I have also learned that animation and programming in a game application is very different from each other. With animation, it is more on designing, while programming works with the movements and actions.

After the tour at the laboratories of UP Diliman, I have learned that UP really has a very high standard when it comes to thesis making.

I have also learned that there is an existing company like Seachance that most TV Stations make use

With the brief presentation of Ms. Iris Chiu of IBM, I have learned that IBM has sold their hardware proprietary to Lenovo. And that IBM has already focused with software and IT outsourcing.

What I like?

I really like the topic delivered by Ms. Len de Gracia. Though she did not deliver her speech in a formal way, she still did catch everyone’s attention. She was so kind that she even gave her email address for questions that she was not able to cater because of the limited time that we had. I also like the topic of Professor Carlos Bott.

With the computer laboratories tour, what I like most were their computer units. All of their desktop units were Apple. I was also amazed with the thesis that they had presented to us. They all had a very complicated but useful thesis projects.

I also like the company visit at Seachange because they had shown and explained well their product and services. They even gave us a demonstration with some of their products that are not yet available in the Philippines.

What I didn’t like?

I don’t have anything to complain for the activities that we had for this day. Everything went fine, except for the part where I got sick and had a fever the whole afternoon.