Several DOST Regional Offices, namely, the DOST-Provincial Science and Technology Center (DOST-PSTC) Rizal, DOST Region 6, and DOST-National Capital Region (DOST-NCR)conducted technology transfer forums or webinars for their stakeholders that feature the DOST-Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI)’s developed technologies. These included the technologies such as the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Kooha Application, Gul.ai Technology, Meteorological Data Acquisition Station for Information Dissemination (MASID), and the know-how of Web and App Development. The Technology Licensing Office (TLO) also gave an overview of the technology transfer, collaboration, and business opportunities with the DOST-ASTI.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System

The ERP System was presented by Ms. Camille Larios and Ms. Angelica Paz from Knowledge Management Division (KMD), wherein they discussed ERP solutions that may help government offices improve their productivity and efficiency through developed enterprise resource planning. Different modules used in the ERP system as well as how it works were also shown to the participant of the events.

These modules include personnel records, knowledge assets, reservation, procurement, inventory, repair and maintenance, FAQs, and some configurations. The personnel records are where the human resource unit manages employee records such as pass slip, leaves, and signing of Daily Time Record (DTR). The knowledge asset is where the document posting and tracking could be found. The reservation is where assets like room, vehicle, and equipment are reserved. For procurement, this is where procurement generators like abstract of lease and canvass, RFQs, purchase requests, etc. The inventory on the other hand is the record list of equipment and supplies.

Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Engr. Roel De La Cruz and Mr. John Keithley Difuntorum from the DATOS Project covered the discussion on earth observation and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and satellite images for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Agriculture. Their team also developed a software for training and object detection of AI models to accelerate an AI-enabled mapping.

This software makes it easier for the user to train AI model because all processes such as time series analysis (CPU Processing) where voice recognition is used, and object detection (GPU Processing) which is executed like the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) model, are already included in the system. Since it is also important that the users are knowledgeable how to create a proper training data to run the software, the DATOS Project provides Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation (AI4EO) workshop to its stakeholders.

Kooha App

Mr. Elson Crisologo, Jr. from the Computer Software Division (CSD) presented the newly developed Kooha App, a mobile application which enables real-time participatory photo and sensor data collection through use of smartphones. The targeted users for this application are students, researchers, and scientists who are interested in using sensor data for research purposes, policy making, business, environment and health, and transportation and telecommunication.

Kooha is a social sensing application wherein the sensor data from images captured using the app are shared to the public for further study. Some sensor data collected are those available in the user’s smartphone such as location, temperature, gravity, and light to name a few. These are embedded to the image captured which will go through the servers for the Kooha App via a research network which will be available through API Gateway or web services.

Gul.ai Technology

Gul.ai technology is an AI and IoT-Assisted Automated Phenotyping Platform presented by Mr. Rother Jay Copino of CSD. The technology aims to promote Crop Science and ICT among youth by applying Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology in plant phenotyping or collecting and distinguishing significant characteristics in different crops being studied through Experiment Platform Unit (Plant Box).

Gul.ai technology also utilizes AI and IoT to implement statistical methods in analyzing multivariate data, such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, pH level, light intensity, and water level, from the platform. These data can be used to generate plant growth model which will help researches and farmers develop more efficient process and system in growing crops.

Meteorological Data Acquisition Station for Information Dissemination (MASID)

The MASID technologies presented by Ms. Jasmin Jane Yabut from the Embedded Systems Group, features several weather monitoring stations which were deployed and designed to automatically gather weather data or to alert the community during an approaching disaster. The different types of these weather stations are Automated Rain Gauge (ARG) Station, Automated Water Level Monitoring Station (WLMS), Automated Weather Station (AWS), Agrometeorological Station (Agromet), Disaster Early Warning System (Flood Alerting Station), and Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS Alerting Station). Around 2,000 of these stations were deployed by DOST-ASTI from 2010-2017.

Over the years, these weather stations continuously developed. In 2011 ASTI researchers created and designed a data logger which is commonly known as Advanced Remote Data Acquisition Unit (arQ^TM) which is used for collection of data from the automated weather stations. The data gathered from stations can be accessed through the Philsensor website of DOST-ASTI.

Web and App Development

Ms. Michelle Neverida from CSD shared with participants the differences between the web app and mobile app, as well as discussing the software development life cycle, roles of individuals in a development team, tech stack in certain platforms especially ASTI developed technologies, and finally, development costs for starting up applications.

The web and mobile app development involve choosing where the application will be available such as the web browsers (for web app) and app marketplace (for mobile app). When application build is chosen, next step is to undergo software development life cycle which is a step-by-step process that the development team will go through to produce the web or mobile application. The phases are elicitation, analysis, design, coding, testing, and deployment and maintenance. Given this, what individuals will be part of the development team must be considered which are project manager, business analyst/systems analyst, UI/UX designer, programmer, tester, and systems administrator. After identifying roles for each one, the development team proceeds with creation of their product. For the web applications the technology stacks for front end and back end are used as tools to build the development team’s product. Meanwhile, for mobile applications the technology stack used is based on the platform being created for (iOS or Android users).

All mentioned technologies were discussed either during the fourth series of Technology Fora with various DOST RDIs, organized by the DOST-PSTC Rizal on 18 September 2020, the webinar series on Transformational Technologies for Sustainable Cities and Communities which tackles smart governance through smart technologies, organized by DOST Region 6 last 25 September 2020, and the iFWD PH: TeknoKonsultasyon Para sa Makabagong Bayani which focuses on the consultation of ICT and Electronics, organized by the DOST-NCR on 09 October 2020.

The webinars were attended by people coming from academes, local government units, OFWs in the ICT sector, and people in the research and development (R&D) field. These events were made possible and successful through continuous collaboration of the DOST Regional Offices and DOST-ASTI to further promote knowledge in R&D innovations to the research community even in the face of the pandemic.