by Bryan Justine Dela Cruz || Photo Credit: DOST-TAPI

Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus (PSHS-EVC) proves once more that it is unrivaled in research and innovation in Region VIII  after securing first place in the Sibol Award for Outstanding Student Creative Research Category High School at the Regional Invention Contest and Exhibits (RICE) Eastern Visayas, held last November 12. 

The competition was organized by the Department of Science and Technology – Technology Application and Promotion Institute (DOST-TAPI) in collaboration with DOST Regional Office No. VIII to recognize exceptional contributions and ingenious innovations of young Filipino inventors and select qualified research projects for the National Invention Contest and Exhibit (NICE). The competition allowed students from public and private schools around the region to showcase their research projects and served as an avenue for the youth to engage in research and development. 

Dunn Zander Alpar, Angelo Ryan Dolina, Israel John Peñalosa, and Nico Quimsing, recent PSHS-EVC graduates, represented the school in the said competition with Mr. Jesse Estoque, a Computer Science teacher of PSHS-EVC, as the team’s adviser.  

During the awarding ceremony, which was streamed virtually on the DOST-TAPI official Facebook Page, the team’s entry “Project FRIES: Freshwater Morphology Information Gathering System” was announced as the First Prize Winner from among several entries with an average score of 83%. They won 20,000 pesos and the chance to represent Eastern Visayas on the national stage of the competition in 2022.  

“Pisay’s curriculum trained us for the panel defense since the intensity of the competition was similar to what we had gone through in STR. Honestly, we are just glad that we were able to present our research in front of esteemed engineers and researchers around the region and bring home another trophy,” Dolina said. 

Mr. Estoque said that he had a positive experience working with the team and was confident that they would do an excellent job defending their device during the panel interview since they worked on Project FRIES for more than two years. “Winning was a beautiful bonus,” he added. 

“Supervising them was a breeze actually, most probably because they have already been trained under Engr. Vinci Gabumpa. I also saw their eagerness to participate in the event,” Mr. Estoque shared. 

The team members hope to inspire the next generation of innovators and researchers from PSHS-EVC to explore the complexity of technology and the ideas in their minds just waiting to come alive. “I hope more students from EVC will appreciate research, particularly tech-related projects, since they can really change the world,” Dolina mentioned. 

Despite pursuing different career paths and attending separate universities across the country, the members will continue improving Project FRIES.  

“As for the next step of Project FRIES, since our research qualified for NICE, we might opt to add the features that the engineers suggested during the panel defense,” Dolina replied when asked about the future of Project FRIES.