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Are you a nursing graduate looking for a rewarding career? An artist with a talent in creating game and animated characters? A fresh graduate aiming for a call center job? Or, are you aspiring to become the next Diosdado Banatao – the Pinoy whiz in Silicon Valley currently making waves as a venture capitalist and ITpreneur?

The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector may be the silver bullet for your career concerns.

To guide fresh college graduates and professionals seeking new career paths, twin events focused on the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry, startups and e-commerce are set to get underway on July 25, 2013 at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

The “Startup Forum" scheduled from 1:00 to 3:15 PM, and the “ITBPM Career Talk” slated from 3:30 to 6:00 PM, are organized by the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

The “Startup Forum” aims to give aspiring ITpreneurs an overview of starting a business via online media. The forum will tackle trends in ITpreneurship and guidelines for selling business ideas to industry investors.

To share their knowledge and experiences are industry experts and ITpreneurship pioneers from the Philippine Software Industry Association, IPO Philippines, Technology Application and Promotion Institute, Plug and Play Tech Center, and Ideaspace Foundation, Inc.

“We hope that this will inspire the youth to explore building their own startups and maximizing the use of ICT not only as a social/ lifestyle tool but also an instrument for a profitable career option,” said DOST-ICTO Deputy Executive Director Monchito B. Ibrahim.

Meanwhile, “IT-BPM Career Talk” will present various career options, perks, and rewards offered by the industry, as well as the skillset required.

“Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) has a wide array of employment opportunities in different fields for people with varied educational backgrounds and preferences,” Ibrahim added. “This will be a venue for them to see which sector they find best maximizes their talents and skills.”

Featured speakers are from the different ICT Associations namely: Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines, Animation Council of the Philippines, Game Developers Association of the Philippines, Health Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines, Contact Center Association of the Philippines, and Philippine Software Industry Association.

“Startup Forum” and “ITBPM Career Talk” are among the activities lined up for Expo Science 2013 or the National Science and Technology Week organized by DOST. Bearing the theme, “Science, Technology and Innovation: The Road to a Smarter Philippines,” the annual event showcases the different DOST-developed top-flight technologies and projects that provide solutions to pressing national issues including industry competitiveness and employment.

For more information, log on to nstw.dost.gov.ph and science.ph.

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In celebration of the National Science and Technology Week dubbed as Expo Science 2013 on July 23-27, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) puts the spotlight on its technology innovations and support initiatives to various industries in line with its theme “Science, Technology and Innovations: The Road to a Smarter Philippines.”


In particular, these are the various technical service facilities and test laboratories offering product testing, analyses, and calibration services to enhance manufacturing companies’ product quality, industry growth and global competitiveness.


One of these is the Standards and Testing Division (STD), one of the technical service divisions of the DOST attached agency, the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI). Aside from its chemical, physical and biological testing and analyses services, STD also performs research and development activities on other testing methods that may fit clients’ needs.


Another facility is the National Metrology Laboratory of the Philippines (NMLP), also under ITDI. The country’s virtual custodian of all units of measurement standards, NMLP conducts calibration and testing services to private firms on various measurements of mass, volume, pressure, force, length, density and volume, among others. NMLP is also the first and only laboratory in the Philippines to be accredited under ISO/IEC 17025:2005 by the German accreditation body, Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle (DAkkS), for its technical competence in facilitating calibrations on electrical, mechanical and thermodynamic quantities.


Also to be featured in Expo Science 2013 is the Advanced Materials and Testing Laboratory (ADMATEL), a first-of-its-kind laboratory in the country which puts the Philippines on the international map of semicon and electronic parts testing by offering cost-effective services and shorter turn-around time for clients’ production processes. With its cutting-edge testing and materials analysis facilities. ADMATEL drives the industry up the value chain -- from the manufacturing and assembly phase, to the testing component, thus upping the ante for a sector viewed as one of the Philippines’ major economic drivers.

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The Department of Science and Technology-Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) and its industry partners will present at the National Science and Technology Week July 23-27, 2013 more information on the country’s game development industry. This is to help drive the Philippines into the league of top providers of game developers in the world in the following years.


DOST-ICTO believes this can be done as it starts and sustains several programs to attract the youth and enhance their skills to several levels. The agency is also mapping out strategies to attract stakeholders to invest in establishing game development companies in rural areas. If done, the U$50-million outsourced projects in 2012 could be surpassed this year, according DOST-ICTO deputy executive director Monchito Ibrahim.


“With an estimated 4,000 workers that are currently in the industry, the Game Development Association of the Philippines (GDAP) is targeting to increase this number to 10,000 by 2015 and hopes to reach 15,000 workers in three years,” Ibrahim said.


Forums that encourage the youth and other interested individuals to pursue careers on game development, as well as in other fields of the IT-BPO sector will be held July 25, 2013 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City. Through career talks, speakers from the industry share their knowledge and experience on the industry, including several career options for aspiring game developers.


Further, in collaboration with various local ICT councils, DOST-ICTO will be scheduling series of road shows within the year to promote the IT-BPO industry. One of the objectives is to introduce the other fields of the Information Technology Business Process Management (formerly known as Business Process Outsourcing) industry which, aside from the already popular call centers, has other services that can offer career opportunities, including game development. Other job opportunities up for the taking include programmer/developer, game producer, QA analyst/tester, game designer, artist (2D/3D0, animator/rigger, art producer, sound engineer and game manager/community support.


Also featured in the DOST-ICTO series of road shows are the exhibits of several games and mobile applications made by Filipinos. Ibrahim said that the activities are designed to encourage the youth, especially high school students to take IT and other computer-related courses, and present to them the wealth of opportunities available in this industry.

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Planting and harvesting will soon be easier for local farmers, even in the face of climate change, with the advent of more reliable and technologically advanced weather forecasting methods.

These high-impact solutions come in the form of the Department of Science and Technology’s (DOST) newly acquired supercomputer complemented with the latest weather modeling software.

This development was revealed by DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo during the recent Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel in Roxas Boulevard, Manila.

“The first significant development is that we already have a supercomputer which will be operational this fourth quarter of this year. With this type of facility, we will be able to use advanced weather modeling software that will not only enhance weather predictions from three days to six days, but it could also be more accurate, it could be area specific, and what we are working on is to have a seasonal weather outlook on specific areas for three to six months to help our farmers,” said Secretary Montejo.

The three- to six-month weather projections, to be issued by DOST’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Service Administration (DOST-PAGASA), will be on top of its weekly weather forecasts. This will provide farmers with information on the amount of rainfall on specific areas within the next three to six months.

Also, these top-flight technologies will enable PAGASA weather scientists to come up with integrated weather pattern information specifically to guide farmers on the best time to plant and harvest crops, thus greatly aiding them with their farming-related decisions and activities.

These groundbreaking developments, said Sec. Montejo, will take off by 2014 with the supercomputer’s initial operation on the fourth quarter of 2013.

Agricultural losses caused by climate change
Erratic weather conditions, an after-effect of global climate change, have affected many farmers resulting in billions worth of damaged agricultural products annually.

In 2012 alone, an estimated total of Php30 billion worth of agricultural products were lost in the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha (Pablo). The Department of Agriculture reported that an estimated Php197 million worth of rice crops were damaged due to the typhoon.

Rice, a staple food in the country, is normally grown for three to six months depending on the rice variety, and requires an average of 2,000 liters of water per kilo of rice for its growth.

The Philippines ranks 8th among the world’s rice producers. In 2007, the country produced an average of 3.8 tons per hectare of rice, more than what Thailand produces.


SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE AT THE KAPIHAN SA DIAMOND HOTEL

Department of Science and Technology Secretary (DOST) Mario G. Montejo (middle) describes to veteran columnist Neal Cruz (right) how DOST can help farmers mitigate agricultural losses during monsoon season at the recent Kapihan sa Diamond Hotel in Roxas Boulevard, Manila. Sec. Montejo explained that DOST-PAGASA is continuously enhancing its weather forecasting capabilities by providing a three- to six-month coverage period for weather projection and weather pattern information dissemination on specific areas of the country. Also in photo is DOST-PAGASA Officer-In-Charge Vicente Malano. (Photo by Joy M. Lazcano, S&T Media Service, STII)