Students from Philippine Science High School - Western Visayas Campus (PSHS-WVC) have been undergoing a Science Immersion Program (SIP), wherein scholars are deployed to agencies like the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) where they complete an 80-hour training on scientific works such as research and development. The second batch of the scholar trainees were deployed at the School of Technology (SOTECH) last July 15, 2024, which ended last July 26, 2024.
The 80-hour training consisted of a 3-day training on referencing under the supervision of Dr. Dennis Ong and Dr. Joemel Sumbing and a 7-day training on biodiesel production under the supervision of Dr. Ramer Bautista, with the assistance of his staff and Engr. Paul Arean Sanapo, which includes a series of reviews of literature, experimentations, lectures, and presentations.
The scholar trainees, Charles Louie Nieles, Athena Dione Abes, Freinz Yuri Balquin, John Richard Tabornal, and Precious Therese Tabbay, with the presence of their faculty Engr. Elizalde Miguel Flores, were first welcomed by Dr. Ong, who gave them a short introduction of SOTECH and its ways and hows in research. This was followed by a training on referencing with the use of tools making it easy to cite literature in just a click. The training mostly focused on the biodiesel production where scholar trainees got to experience producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) with considerations to the conventional and yet to be developed techniques for operational procedures and conditions.
As a culminating activity, the scholar trainees presented their experiences with SOTECH, the experiments that they have done, and the results that they gathered and observed, which were assessed by their SOTECH supervisors, Dr. Ong, Dr. Sumbing, and Engr. Sanapo, with the presence of their faculty Ms. Andrea Lucyle Bela-ong.
This is the second year of SOTECH to accommodate PSHS-WVC scholars for their SIP training. Six scholar trainees were part of the first batch. SOTECH is continuously extending its reach to other agencies like the PSHS-WVC, promoting research and development as a sustainable source of continuing education towards scientific and technological innovations.
