Bohol furniture maker’s success credited to local invention

 News
Sep 282017
 

Bohol Furniture and Lumber Supply has risen from being a fledgling small lumber retailer to a major company, thanks to a local Filipino invention.

Cirilo Sumampong’s company in Dauis now commands a gross income of PhP 1.16 million a month after using the Department of Science and Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute’s (DOST-FPRDI’s) furnace-type lumber dryer (FTLD).

Sumampong relates in a DOST release, “During our first years in the business, we were producing nothing but door jambs and air-dried lumber, and earning only Php 1,500 a month. Sales were good only between September and December each year. Now, with our kiln-dried wood, we make trusses, floor planks, doors, door jambs and all kinds of furniture – beds, chairs, dining sets. Thanks to our number one client – the hotels and beach resorts that have sprung all over Bohol in recent years – our products are in demand all the time.”

The Bohol firm decided to expand in 2012, getting a Php 1 million help from the DOST Small Enterprises Technology Upgrading Program or SETUP. By 2014, the company grossed PhP 2.5 million.

“Our product lines grew and because we knew that we were using quality materials, we gained confidence in dealing with our buyers,” shared Sumampong about their experience.

The clients of the company multiplied and the company was able to pay back the grant after one year, eventually expanding its store and showroom.
The dryer technology used by the Bohol furniture maker was also credited for helping create jobs for the community as they trained and hired operators.

The post Bohol furniture maker’s success credited to local invention appeared first on Good News Pilipinas.

Innovative weaving technology helps special needs students

 News
May 172017
 
Innovative weaving technology helps special needs students

Special needs students can now work with portable therapeutic handlooms designed to develop their physical, mental, and social abilities. Special needs students using handlooms [via DOST] The Portable Therapeutic Handloom features a hand-held lever that takes the place of pedals, to facilitate the interchange of harnesses during weaving of yarns. With this strategic mechanism, the handloom will now only require eye-hand coordination thus streamlining the handweaving process. Ten of these special handlooms designed by the Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI), in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology-National Capital Region (DOST-NCR), were turned over St. Francis School-VSA Arts Philippines for special needs students. This PTRI-designed technology is envisioned to aid the productivity of St. Francis School-VSA Arts students, as they design and create their own fabrics. Many of their outputs are developed into apparel, accessories, and other merchandise. Through this project, PTRI and DOST-NCR hope to empower them with livelihood opportunities, apart from therapeutic rehabilitation. Established in 1996 with the assistance of Japan, St. Francis School-VSA Arts specializes on special-needs education through various approaches—particularly speech and language development. Their K-12 curriculum is enhanced with extra-curricular activities, such as dancing, martial arts, acting, and urban weaving; providing their students other avenues of learning and expression. Their urban weaving program highlights saori, the Japanese art of handweaving that focuses on unique, freestyle designs, made by the school’s special needs students. Its premise is to provide them with creative therapeutic expression; the more mistakes, the better. Rebecca Santos, Executive Director of St. Read More …

UP is new home for Project NOAH’s disaster risk-reduction system

 News
Apr 212017
 
UP is new home for Project NOAH’s disaster risk-reduction system

The University of the Philippines Diliman has setup the new home of Project NOAH, the successful hazard and risk monitoring program previously developed and run jointly with the government’s Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Now known as the University of the Philippines Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (UP-NOAH), the program comes back to UP as a multidisciplinary research center housed in the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences and directly under the Office of the President in UP. “In a sense, Project NOAH is coming home,” said UP President Danilo L. Concepcion in a UP publication, noting that the project was conceived by the DOST with the help of UP professors, led by its executive director Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay from the National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS), and that most of the project’s staff have come from UP. Project NOAH began as a research program under the DOST in 2012 following the Typhoon Sendong tragedy in 2011. Having delivered its research results and after two extensions, the project was scheduled to end when UP stepped in to continue it. “The project’s benefits go far beyond its research value,” said Concepcion. “It has literally been a lifesaver for millions of Filipinos threatened by natural disasters like floods, landslides, and storm surges. It deserves a new lease on life, and UP is happy to welcome it into its fold.” Project NOAH was designed to harness technologies and management services for disaster risk-reduction activities offered by the DOST through PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, Read More …

Philippines to establish National Space Agency

 News
Mar 032017
 
Philippines to establish National Space Agency

The Philippines is creating a national space agency to consolidate all space-related research and programs by various government agencies. Diwata Satellite likeness [by JAXA via Pinoy Techno Guide] The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) announced its intent to push for the coordinated space program in a bid to become South East Asia’s space technology hub. DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Peňa said the space program is a multi sectoral concern that needs central coordination and that legislative bills for its creation should be priority this year. “When you deal with this space technology… it is not only DOST. There’s the agriculture angle, resources angle, settlements and human resource angles. So it will require some kind of a national agency,” Dela Peña said in an Inquirer interview. In response to the DOST call, the nation’s lawmakers have recently approved the formation of a technical group that will work on consolidating proposed bills to establish Philippine Space Agency or PHILSA. The country’s first space agency is proposed in House Bill 3637 and Senate Bill 1211, ordering a Philippine Space Development and Utilization Policy and the creation of the Philippine Space Agency (PHILSA). DOST said the project will not merely focus sending Filipino astronauts to space, as it will also benefit people and organizations through technology and communication enhancements like weather monitoring, disaster operations, and other crises. The government agency is currently working on its projects with their National Space Development Program, which is behind the successful launching of the country’s first micro-satellite Read More …

Electronics sector eyes $37-B exports by 2016

 Economy
Feb 182014
 
Electronics sector eyes $37-B exports by 2016

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade department plans to hold consultations with players in the electronics and semiconductor industry on the proposed Product and Technology Roadmap that would enable the industry to transition to value-added activities. The proposed roadmap would enable the industry to raise the annual export value of goods to as much as $37 billion in 2016 from the current level of around $23 billion. By 2022, the value of electronics exports are seen to rise by $52 billion through value-adding and by 2030, value of exports are seen to rise to $112 billion. The Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) expects revenues from shipments of electronic products to have reached between $20 to $21 billion in 2013 from $23 billion in 2012 as the performance of the sector remained weak. “The electronics sector, a growth pillar of the manufacturing industry and also one of the biggest job generators, has through the years contributed significantly to the country’s aggregate exports, often dominating the majority share of export products,” said Trade undersecretary and Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. “SEIPI is assured of our continued support and their plan for a supplemental roadmap will be facilitated through the mobilization of resources in collaboration with relevant government agencies,” he added. The proposed roadmap would guide the electronics industry as it moves up the value chain, develop new growth areas and seize opportunities in Southeast Asia as free trade in the region is implemented in Read More …

DPWH to tap DOST’s Project NOAH, DREAM data for infra planning

 Entertainment
Jan 202014
 
DPWH to tap DOST’s Project NOAH, DREAM data for infra planning

Aerial shot of the province of which was heavily damaged by super typhoon Yolanda (MNS photo) MANILA (Mabuhay) – To make roads, bridges and flood control projects will be weather-resilient, the Department of Public Works and Highways will partner with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the University of the Philippines (UP) Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry. DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson said they are learning from the destruction caused by the southwest monsoon, last year’s Bohol quake, and cyclones such as Sendong, Pablo and Yolanda. “Intensive trainings for DPWH concerned personnel shall be conducted nationwide to teach them on how to use these available technologies as basis for planning and monitoring,” the DPWH said. Singson directed the DPWH Planning Service, Project Management Office for Major Flood Control projects, regional directors and planning officers and district engineering offices to maximize the high-resolution flood hazard maps, landslide hazard maps, Digital Surface Model, Digital Surface Model and other planning tools. The DPWH recently held a briefing attended by key officials, along with Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, who explained DOST’s Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (Project NOAH). Lagmay explained NOAH’s component projects such as Hydromet Sensors Development, DREAM-LIDAR 3-D Mapping Project, Flood NET-Flood Management Modeling Project, Hazards Information Media, Strategic Communication Intervention, Disaster Management using WebGIS, Enhancing Geo-hazards Mapping through LIDAR, Doppler System Development, Landslide Sensors Development Project, Storm Surge Inundation Mapping Project, and Weather Information – Integration for System Enhance (WISE). Also, Lagmay said these tools or data sets Read More …

DOST launches gov’t email system, cloud

 Entertainment
Jun 162013
 

MANILA  (Mabuhay) – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on Monday launched key information and communication technology (ICT) applications and services, to kick off ICT Month. Among the apps and services introduced are the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), government-wide email system (GovMail), government cloud (GovCloud), Agency Records Inventory System (AgRIS), and Government Website Template. […]