ROBOTICS: Expert trains enthusiasts on web-enabled programming

Computer Driven Enthusiast Club members and selected Computer Engineering students at University of San Carlos (USC) showcase their “cars” applied with web-enabled programming. | Contributed Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Selected Computer Engineering students and members of the Computer Driven Enthusiast Club at the University of San Carlos (USC) learned about web-enabled programming, initially with applications on a car.

Engr. Mark Lven Palejaro, a USC BS Computer Engineering alumnus now based in Singapore, shared his expertise with the students last July 12 at the USC Science and Technology Library located at the school’s Talamban campus.

The USC Library System, Computer Engineering Department and American Corner-Cebu organized the workshop in collaboration with Maker Initiative Singapore.

Dubbed “Library MakerSpace: Web-Enabled Programmable Car (WeP-C),” the training was designed to empower the next generation in their creativity and innovation as well as to promote educational technology.

The Library MakerSpace series is also meant to promote sustainable living through Science and Technology Engineering Arts and Math (STEAM), according to USC SciTech librarian Marciana Mariñas, MS.

WEP-C deals with the program that allows participants to experience firsthand web-enabled programming to better understand the meaning of robotics in the context towards the fourth industrial revolution.

The participants first learned to assemble, create and design the car and continued with programming later in the day.  They completed web-enabled programmable car and exhibited their output before librarians led by the Director of Libraries Maxie Doreen L. Cabarron and some USC community members.

Holograms

Maker Initiative Singapore gave out an Intel Galileo, micro-controller board for Robotics, to Andre Kimberly Trish D’Silva for being the first to reach the finish line challenge.

As runner-up, Charm Johannes Relator got a Google Card Board that creates virtual reality viewing while Daryl Butar received a special award for having won the best design and the tidiest and sturdiest car.

Engr. Linda Saavedra, MEng and chairperson of the USC Computer Engineering, also joined the workshop with her professors: Engrs. James Michael Cañete, Thairell Imperial, Alvin Joseph Macapagal and Jan Dave Campañera.

Campañera assisted in facilitating the one-day workshop with the speaker’s sister, Engr. Mae Lennyvie T. Palejaro, also a USC alumnus in BS ECE.

A Major in Digital Systems Design when he graduated at USC in March 2009, Palejaro first worked as senior software engineer at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), a US firm operating in Biñan, Laguna. In 2014, he became an advanced software engineer at Kulick & Soffa Pte Ltd. in Singapore.

While at HGST, he earned its Innovation Award and Hi 5 Award for Innovation and Execution. He also won first prize in the Hackathon @ SG by the Infocomm Development Authority with the International Testing Services Center and second prize in Startahon 2.0 by Ideasinc at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

Palejaro is a co-founder of Pocket Hologram, a project that promotes the creation of holograms with mobile application, and an active volunteer in One Maker Group, Sustainable Living Lab, and resource person in various National Geographic Channel events. | dcb