2 over 5

Day 4 (Field trip in Manila)
October 5, 2010
Today I went on a company visit to:
University of the Philippines
NISMED Auditorium (Seminar)
Department of Computer Science
UP-AYALA Technohub
IBM
SeaChange
What I learned? What I like? What I didn’t like?
We departed from the hotel in the second day of the trip at six, thirty-five in the morning. We were going to the UP campus (University of the Philippines). This time, I belonged to bus number 2. But before we arrived at UP, we had our breakfast first in a restaurant somewhere in Examiner St., Quezon City.
University of the Philippines (NISMED Auditorium)
It was one minute after eight o'clock when we entered the UP campus. It was my first time, of course, to see UP Diliman and I was amazed on how big it was. The building were far from each other. And since it was a huge campus, there were jeepneys that can be used in travelling from one building to another. I think, UP is 2-3 times biiger than our school (USEP-University of Southeastern Philippines Obrero Campus). In there we went to an auditorium named NISMED (National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development) Auditorium where we had our National Seminar which is part of the requirements of the subject. We entered the said hall, and its quite big, a lot bigger than USEP Social Hall. It was very cold there which made me chill for how many hours. In there we had a lot of talks and there were also ice-breakers and prices for those who have questions to the speaker about the topic discussed. The emcee taught us a shout. This shout was also taught during the Y4IT (Youth 4 Info Tech) Seminar/conference last September 2010. The shout goes like this: Shout 'Y' and raise your two hands upward to form letter 'Y'. Then, shout '4' and show four fingers forward. Shout 'I' and again raise your 2 hands upward but this time forming a straight line from the fingertips to the tip of the toes. And 'T' and put your hands sidewards, and shout “ENERGY” while wiggling your hands and body. The seminar started with a welcome remarks from Professor Lemuel Rodolfo Braña of UP. Then, after how many minutes, the seminar-proper started with the speaker named Rose Ann Sale, a MS in Computer Science student in UP Diliman. He talked about writing a winning thesis. And it was in a right timing since there were rumours that we will be having a thesis project next semester. I wasn't sure if it is true because one of my professors said that we will have next semester but my other professor said that we won't have next semester, it will be on the first semester of our fourth year. But even if it's true or not, still, I gain some things from the talk. What I had heard was that the most difficult part of making a thesis is thinking a topic. That was just based on what I heard and the speaker said that the topic in our thesis should be our likes. And we should be interested on it for us to make it with less difficulties. It was written in the programme of the said seminar that every after a talk, a 25-minute talk, there will be a 5 minute open forum. And my 'co-trippers' throw some questions to the speaker. The next speaker was John Boaz Lee, a graduate student at the Department of Computer Science UP Diliman. The title of his topic was “Visualizing Wikipedia Article Evolution with Stream Graphics”. But for me, his main topic was all about VISUALIZATION. The third speaker was a instructor in University of the Philippines. She's Michelle Moscatel, teaching engineering students programming and computer stuffs. She stressed in her talk the Personal Learning Environments. After the talk, we had our morning break and had our snack. There was also a talk about UPITTC and I forgot who delivered the talk. I think, it was a man, I'm not sure, and he talked about UPITTC (UP Information Technology Training Centre), its programs, its offered courses, and the likes. Animation, thereafter, was talked by Len de Gracia. She was an amazing woman who do 3D stuffs. She work on a company doing 3D animations and the likes. I like the way she deliver English words and I admire her for that. She shortly introduced her work and 3D animation like games and videos. Then for me, the most boring part of the seminar was about when Prof. Carlos Bott deliver his talk. It wasn't about the topic, Mobile Device Game Development. It was about how he discussed it. I had difficulties in understanding his English words. It made me felt sleepy again. The last talk of the seminar was delivered by Dr. Ferdinand B. Pitagan. It was about Empowering the Nation through Educational Technology.
The Seminar was ended and we went to UP-Ayala Technohub where we visited SeaChange and IBM Innovation Center.
SeaChange
The SeaChange, according to them, was the largest provider of 'Video On Demand' (VOD). The first part of the visit was the company's presentation of their background, products and the likes. Their customers were big international TV stations. ABS-CBN is also one of their customers. We had a quick pick in their facilities and rooms. Two of their employees showed a demo of what a VOD is. They showed their servers. The actual system, delivery network equipment and the set-up box, these were parts of VOD server components. The also toured us on the working teams of their business like the Broadcast Support Service team, they work on the hardware parts and the installation stuffs, Hospitality Service Network team, the Technical Support Service team and the likes.
IBM Innovation Center
From SeaChange, we went to IBM or the International Business Machines Campany. There, Miss Iris Chiu lead the quick talk. She introduced IBM to us. IBM was established in the Philippines in the year 1937. also stated in the talk that their manufacturing of PC (Personal Computer) was sold to LENOVO which is also their one of their business partner. IBM is a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Company. They had services like, Applications Services, Software Services, Facilities and Networking, Network and Site Integration, System Services and Maintenance, and Technical Services. Their website is IBM.com. Then, one of their persons toured us in their data center where servers were placed. It was enclosed in a small glass-room. They let schools and other small business owners to use their servers for their own purposes. What I like about them is that they really help students and business beginners.
UP Department of Computer Science
After the visits that we had in the Technohub, we went back to the UP campus to be toured in the Department of Computer Science Laboratories. We visited 6 laboratories, the Algorithms and Complexity Lab, Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence Lab, Scientific Computing Lab, Computer Security Lab, Networking and Distributed Systems Lab, Computer Security Lab, and Web Science Lab. Among all of those laboratories that we entered, the most which was really interested in was the Web Science Laboratory. Only this laboratory in where I felt that I'm one of those UP student. I really like things when it comes to web developing and I was so inspired with what UP students had presented to us. I was satisfied with the tour and it was really educational, for me, in general. From the Seminar, to the visit in Technohub and lastly with the Department of Computer Science Laboratories.
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