Students help promote a better environment through tech

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

WHILE COVERING the Microsoft Imagine Cup annual software design competition, I got to meet several teams of college students from different top local universities. Their objective: design a software application that would help promote a sustainable environment.

One idea from Team Prairie Watch of the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde involved tagging endangered animals with a little webcam and streaming the
video that this little gadget captures on the web. They had a working prototype that looked promising. Another idea developed by Team Tala was a computer game that would teach kids about the environment. Team Tala was a mixed team of students from the University of the Philippines, Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the Philippine Christian University.

Here’s my video interview with Team Prairie Watch.

And here’s the video interview with Team Tala.

What caught my attention (but unfortunately it didn’t win) was a software application developed by Team IMI 2.0 from Colegio de San Juan de Letran. They developed a software application that applied the “crowd sourcing” idea to calamity and disaster reporting.

As explained to me by the students and their teacher, the software application uses Microsoft Virtual Earth as the user interface to allow people to report calamities and disasters. They could either submit written reports via text or chat, or upload video clips. Designed with the government in mind, the application uses a virtual map to pinpoint areas of disaster and calamaties. If you click on an icon, you will be able to get more information.

This application can best serve agencies like the National Disaster Coordinating Council. This will allow citizens to submit pertinent information (which should go through verification) and contribute to information gathered by the government. In calamity and disaster reporting, verified information is crucial. As their teacher explained, it is like the “911 for calamities and disaster on the Web.” The application hopes to bridge the gap of information from those who want to help and from those needing help during a disaster.

Another interesting software application, which I found intriguing, was called “Gigo,” as in “garbage in, garbage out.” It was developed by the youngest finalists from Team Tibecom of Ateneo. They were freshmen and they won second place. First place went to another team from Ateneo, dubbed Team Pi/4, who developed a system that hopes to help consumers make environmentally-friendly decisions when buying products. Gigo works like “Google for trash.” A widget or gadget is downloaded to a person’s desktop, so that they can conduct searches on common products and find out how these could be recycled. It also empowers people by teaching them how to deal with trash and non-biodegradable products, such as styrofoam.

Here’s the video interview with Team Tibecom.

And here’s the video interview with Team Pi/4.

One thing that I observed after the winners were declared was that students who were able to explain their projects clearly came out on top. So it is also important that ideas are presented clearly. This was the lesson I learned earlier in a bootcamphosted
by Morph Labs.

Share This