by Michelle Jeanne C. Caracut, OPI

Prof. Sasha Anne Valdez, CSM Assistant Dean, with Mark Jezreel Orbe
“I was inspired by corporate branding and then I realized, with my years of stay in IIT, there is a need for growth in design and I wanted to give a professional image to IIT, and suddenly just hours before the deadline, lines came to my mind and I traced the logo,” so said BS Information Systems alumnus of MSU-IIT, Mark Jezreel T. Orbe, who won in the Premier Research Institute of Science and Mathematics (PRISM) Logo Contest.
The event was sponsored by the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM). Orbe’s winning entry will be the official logo of the research institute and will be placed at the facade of the PRISM building.
Orbe explained that the logo “symbolizes how the diverse fields of science and mathematics can both be complex and beautiful at the same time as represented by the spiral structure, but when viewed from a different perspective it can also be simple as portrayed in the minimalist logo.”
“Influenced by the parameters of the Institute, PRISM bears the image of the MSU-IIT’s Seal of Excellence (a triangle), the tilted triangle represents the passion to explore and discover, the spiral structure has two ends: the tail represents the will to look beyond the status quo, and the core represents where all studies lead to—knowledge, which forms PRISM’s identity. The triangle forms a ‘P’ figure for PRISM.”

A total of forty-four (44) submitted logo entries: 13 students, 4 faculty members, 3 staff members, and 4 alumni and these were reviewed by the PRISM Committee and the top 5 entries were then reviewed by the Innovation and Technology Support Office (ITSO) for possible copyright infringement.
Consolation prizes were awarded to four other winners, namely: Prof. Louie T. Murcia, faculty member of the Physics Department, first runner-up; William Dale B. Santander, fourth year BS Information Technology, second runner-up; Pablo Bruno Manuel I. Celdran, IV, first year BS Accountancy, third runner-up; and, Dan Cristino S. Bajalan, fourth year BS Information Technology, fourth runner-up.
Orbe is currently working as the Institute photographer and staff of the Office of Publication and Information headed by Acting Director, Dr. Christine F. Godinez-Ortega.
With the need for adequate space to house state-of-the-art equipment and research facilities, along with the need to create a conducive academic and research environment, the PRISM was conceived and is designed to house all the research laboratories of CSM. This is a move which strongly encourages collaboration between research groups to produce quality researches beneficial to both the institute and the community. PRISM members are Institute faculty members who are actively doing quality researches in Science and/or Mathematics.