“There was a time when we used to emphasize on instruction as our sole role in the landscape of educational institution in our country. But today we inaugurate the fact that we also emphasize not only in instruction but of the other mandates of a higher educational institution which is research and extension,” so said Chancellor Sukarno D. Tanggol in his welcome address during the Opening Program of the 2016 TECH-nnovation Fair at the College of Engineering Amphitheatre.
This was the second TECH-nnovation Fair of MSU-IIT held on August 30-31, 2016. The TECH-nnovation Fair, with its theme “Advancing Technopreneurship and Innovation in Mindanao”, is the highlight in celebrating August as Innovation Convergence Month in Iligan. The Tech-nnovation Fair include activities such as Exhibits, Tech-novation lectures and workshops, Cluster Closed Door Presentations, and a university-industry linkage meeting between MSU-IIT and Fluor, Philippines.
The opening of the program on August 30 kicked off with a ceremonial cutting of the ribbon at the Exhibit Area situated at the Institute Gymnasium. Some MSU-IIT faculty, staff, students, Tech Fair exhibitors and viewers looked on as Chancellor Tanggol, Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension Jinky Bornales, and Chief Executive Officer and President of Hybridigm Consulting Ma. Antonia Odelia Arroyo cut the ribbon. With them were Chief Operating Officer at Hybridigm Consulting John Christopher Orlina and Intellectual Property Unit-Innovation and Technology Support Office (IPU-ITSO) General Manager Marietta Esperanza Cruz.
A series of lectures on Innovation, Technopreneurship and Commercialization followed.
In his opening remarks, Chancellor Tanggol said that the Institute is now into the mode of doing research, innovating products and finally commercializing them.
“The bottom line is to improve the goods and services to our people. One of those means is helping our businesses innovate their products so that they will offer good services to the public,” he said.
Arroyo gave her keynote lecture about “Gaining changing greatness: How combining science and business can change the world.”
“You have to dream the difference,” she began. She shared her pre-entrepreneur experiences and her achievements and encouraged the audience that “failure is part of the process, don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to fail.”
Arroyo said that the difference she wanted to make was high impact entrepreneurship. She saw that Filipinos travel abroad and become OFWs and the country loses its best professionals and families are torn apart. She believes that this is the root cause of crime, drug abuse, corruption, and lack of moral fiber that affects the entire country.
The biologist, entrepreneur, teacher, all rolled into one, pointed out that “for the last 30 years we have been pursuing a policy where we export our wealth, we export our peace of mind and we guarantee poverty.” Arroyo believes that the only realistic solution is high impact entrepreneurship.
According to her, in order to have high impact enterprise, it has to be built around innovation. For her, innovation, in relation to poverty, is that intersection between what is desirable, what is achievable and what is perceived as crazy. She further said that if innovation is not commercialized or that a commercialized research is not inventive, it will yield nothing.
“When you have high impact entrepreneurship, you combine technology development, with business development and with community development,” she explained. “That is the only way we can truly become part of the ASEAN region and make our country great again.”
She told the audience that the country needs inclusive innovation which requires radical collaboration. That’s why one of the goals of their innovation ecosystem is to create people in Iligan who will invest in people from Iligan. Arroyo asserted that people in Iligan should solve the problems of Iligan.
Towards the end of her lecture, she encouraged everyone to become the best Filipino they can be. She remarked that no one is going to love the Philippines other than Filipinos. Furthermore, she mentioned that Filipinos need more discipline which means “choosing what we want more instead of what we want now.”
Arroyo revealed that startup life is hard. One has to figure out if he or she is worthy, that if one wants to do the right thing and make money, it will take time with diligence and perseverance. She went on convincing the audience that when one tastes significance, when one becomes important to somebody else, the person will never be again satisfied with success. The person will be busy serving the people and that envy and belittling others will have no place because the person is happier.
“Ending poverty and disease in this country is a long hard struggle. Therefore, we have to work together because none of us is as good as all of us. Let’s forget the little differences and work together,” she concluded.
Three other speakers were also invited to give a talk, namely: Philip Adrian Atilano, founder and CEO of Time Free Innovations, Inc.; Carl Vincenzo Mamawal, co-founder of Nyfti, Inc.; and John Christopher S. Orlina.
Atilano lectured on Problems and Opportunities: It’s a Matter of Perspectives, persuading the participants to see problems as opportunities. He shared the five lessons he learned while running his startup business.
Mamawal explained what problem his company is trying to solve. Nyfti, Inc. is a mobility company which invented the foldable bicycle. The idea was born out of frustration over traffic. During his lecture, he showed the Nyfti bicycle he brought along. The bike is designed as foldable so that it is easy to take anywhere.
Orlina discussed his topic on Market Validation: Built to be Bought. He explained the general approaches to Tech Commercialization. He talked about the transfer of innovations to external partners for the benefit of the community and the general public and presented examples.
After the lectures, there was an open forum. IPU-ITSO General Manager Cruz gave the closing remarks.
Dr. Reynaldo M. Vequizo, IPU-ITSO’s technical expert, hosted the program.
The College of Business Administration and Accountancy (CBAA) and the School of Computer Studies (SCS) partnered with IdeaSpace Foundation, Inc. to bring a technopreneurial ecosystem in Iligan City.
The #Technopreneur Bootcamp @Iligan 2.0 held at the CASSalida Theater on November 28 that aimed to fuel the impetus of students, professionals, and aspiring startup founders.
The first half of the bootcamp was a morning of sharing from now successful entrepreneurs in their startup journeys. The rest of the day was spent on ideation workshop, mentoring sessions, and a pitching competition.
BS Information Technology students Imarie J. Ignalig, Bynn Jessa H. Yting, and Nikky Sharmaine Eya won the project pitch with their startup idea “Appoint”, an app that would manage setting one’s doctors’ appointments.
According to CBAA’s Dr. Pamela Resurreccion, technopreneurship is a new approach and business model that IIT is beginning to adopt. Through such activity, Information Technology and Business students were encouraged to collaborate in coming up with technology-based startups.
The objective of Ideaspace in conducting a series of boot camps all over the country is to reach out to the masses in informing and inspiring new ideas and stories in entrepreneurship that would lead to high potential ideas subject for feedback and pitching.
The one-day boot camp concluded in a pitching competition where the winning team will become part of the Top 100 IDEAS entries of the National Competition.
“Advancing Innovation and Technopreneurship In Mindanao”, the theme for the Technnovation 2014 fittingly describes the intentions of the Organizers in conducting the MSU-IIT First Innovation and Technology Fair dubbed Technnovation 2014 at the Institute Mini-theater on September 25-26, 2014.
The activity hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension in coordination with the Intellectual Property Unit ( IPU) – Innovation and Technology Support Office ( IPU –ITSO) and the Commission on Higher Education – Philippines Higher Education Research Network ( CHED- PHERnet ) Center was co-sponsored by MSU-IIT’s industry partners. USAID STRIDE, Mabuhay Vinyl Corporation, Holcim Cement, PILMICO, Nutra Tech Biopharma and PhilDev provided the prizes, trophies and other support during the activity . Industry partners also served as judges for the various competitions done during the Technnovation.
Technnovation 2014 showcased science, technology and engineering R & D results, developed technologies, innovations and inventions of Institute graduate and undergraduate students with their faculty advisers. It is an initiative directed towards creating a vibrant technology marketplace for the creative undertakings of the academe.
Twenty seven ( 27 ) teams exhibited their projects and were categorized into 4 clusters. Cluster A are technologies and innovations pertaining to Energy; Computer Apps/ Games & Animation while Cluster B is for R & D on Environment, Cluster C is on Health and Pharmaceuticals / Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Cluster D is Food & nutrition /Education research results. Awards were given per cluster to the Best Project, Best Display, Industry Choice, Best Elevator Pitch and Best Video Pitch.
Aside from the exhibition, lectures on innovation and technopreneurship, workshop on innovation and technology Pitching and panel discussions on the role of the academe in fostering innovation were tackled during the two-day event.
The event was also an opportunity to heighten awareness on innovation. The talk of Dr. Gary Wnek , a professor of the School of Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio who delivered his lecture via Skype summarized the present innovation climate in the academe. According to him, “we (academe) are not doing a very good job at innovation”… . He added that we should train students to be innovators and prepare them for success outside the academe. This contention was substantiated by the Creative Productivity Index report of the Asian Development Bank and Economic Intelligence Unit published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on September 12, 2014. The article reported that the Philippines placed 18th among the 22 Asian Economies including USA and Finland for comparative purposes. The index shows the efficiency of countries to convert their creative inputs into innovations.
Participants also listened to some success stories of researchers who, through perseverance and continued innovation, were able to market their products.
Dr. Henry Ramos of UP Diliman talked on his TiN Coat technology. Two MSU-IIT alumni were also among those who shared their success stories, Engr. Rolly Michael R. Racsa of Nutra Tech Biopharma for his pharmaceutical products and Engr. Gil Michael Regalado who dabbled on IT innovations. Wilfredo Dimamay, the Immediate Past Director of the MSU-IIT Computer Center shared how they were able to innovate and create the e-SMS ( School Management System) at the center.
The panel discussion on the role of the academe in fostering innovation discussed the advantageous requisites for increasing innovation output in the academe such as incentives to innovate, bigger budgetary allocation for R & D, fostering teamwork and multi-disciplinary collaborations among others. The panelists were Dr. Alita T. Roxas, the Dean of School of Graduate Studies as Lead Discussant and panel members composed of Dr. H.Ramos, Engr. Racsa, Dir. Dimamay, Engr. Regalado and the Director of Research, Dr. Franco G. Teves. mepcruz, IPU-ITSO for OC-OPI
The First Innovation and Techno-preneurship Workshop in Mindanao held on November 7- 8, 2013 at the MSU-IIT aimed to build an innovation ecosystem and nurture a culture of entrepreneurship within an academic institution. Participants experienced two days of mentoring from the resource speakers Dr. Luis G. Sison and Dr. Henry J. Ramos in the innovation process and value creation of researches.
Sison, a professor at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute of the University of the Philippines, Diliman and the program leader of the DOST-UP Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship where he advises startup companies on technology and business strategy while Ramos is an internationally-recognized scientist in Plasma science and who established the Plasma Physics Laboratory at the National Institute of Physics – University of the Philippines-Diliman.
For their part, Dr. Ruel Paclipan, the Provincial Director of DTI- Lanao del Norte Provincial Office and Ms. Emily Pascua, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation of Iligan, Inc. served as the industry panels. They provided additional inputs on industry opportunities and priorities and commentaries on the participants’ workshop output – the innovation and business model canvas.
Clustered into eight teams, participants sketched the innovation and business model canvass of their identified innovation opportunity and presented these to the resource persons and the industry panels for critiquing.
The workshop was conducted through the efforts of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension together with MSUIIT IPU-ITSO and MSUIIT College of Business Administration and Accountancy, CHED PHERNet MSUIIT in partnership with DOST- UP Enterprise Center for Technopreneurship.
