University of Southeastern Philippines
Barrio Obrero Campus
Institute of Computing
TRAVEL REPORT
Sept. 20 – 24, 2011
Manila
Field Trip
Overview
As BS Information Technology and BS
Computer Science students, we are educated in order, in the near future; we
will aid to hasten the development of technology. With that said, we should be
exposed with the current and emerging technologies to have an insight to what
is the world giving us, what do we have to develop more, what does the world
needs, and other things but, unfortunately, the university does not have enough
facilities to cater our needs and the region is behind in terms of
technological development. But the academe made an effort to solve this
problem, on our current curriculum that was started four years ago, a subject
called “Field Trip and Seminars” was added along with other subjects. This
subject gives the students the opportunity to be exposed to what the university
can’t give.
We have heard a lot of amazing
feedbacks from our higher years from what they had experienced during their
major field trip in Manila-Laguna-Tagaytay. This added to our excitement. They
always say that we must spend well our time in Manila to use well our spent
money. Unfortunately, due to the new university policy, some of my classmates
were not allowed to take the said subject for they are still 2nd-year
standing. We were really saddened with the news but we had no other choice but
to accept it. After
enrollment, we learned that only 20 students were enrolled in the subject and
our instructor is Dr. Randy S. Gamboa. We had a series of meetings to discuss
where and when will be our fieldtrip as well as how much will we spend. We
conducted a survey to our parents to discuss which set are we going to take.
Majority of us chose Set A which is 1 Major Field Trip, 1 National Seminar, 1
Minor Field Trip and an Interpersonal Skill Seminar. Because we were only
composed of a 20 students where some already had their Interpersonal Skill
Seminar last semester so they are not required to attend this year’s seminar,
we decided rather than having an Interpersonal Skill Seminar, we will just
co-organize the yearly ICEAN Congress along with SITS and CSS. Unfortunately,
our minor field trip did not turned out well. Our class president and the
Office of the Mayor of Davao City had a miscommunication which led for our
minor field trip to be discontinued.
Last September 20, we went to Manila
for our 5-day major fieldtrip to visit different companies to teach us what
technology they are using. We were astonished and happy with what we saw and
learned. We did not expect that the Philippines have obtained such technologies
thus we have acquired a new perspective on the IT industry of our country. We
had a traveling agency to help us which is the Maynilad Tours the same company
that the first batch of Field Trip and Seminars class took. We paid a total of
P16 500 for our major field trip.
DAY 1
Our flight going to Manila was
scheduled around 6:30 in the morning and as a protocol we have to be in the
airport two hours early so I have to wake up earlier than the others because I
was still going to travel from my hometown to the airport that takes about 30
minutes and I had a big problem because there was flood in our subdivision
where I have to walk through it from our house to the street carrying my
luggage, what an unlucky start of the day. Anyway, when I arrived in the
airport there were still only 11 students. Majority of us were first timers to
ride an airplane including me so everyone was excited but it was not my first
time to go to Manila, I already went there before but I was still a kid so I
can’t really remember the time when I was there. WE decided to check-in by
ourselves rather than having a group check-in because Dr. Gamboa said that it
would be another experience if we were the one who will talk to the front desk.
We waited around an hour in the terminal so me and my friends decided to roam
around the floor. Just my opinion, I was a bit disappointed with the airport I
thought it would be more stunning but at least they have a tight security.
During the flight, we were busy taking pictures of each other but there is
still an awkward aura between those who were not classmates before. We were on
board around 6:16 and I have the chance to have a window seat so I had a great
time watching the top view of Davao City when we departed. When we were about to arrive, I
saw the top view of the capital of the Philippines, there were hundreds of
buildings, unlike Davao where you can still see trees, all you can see is
buildings and highways. When we arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International
Airport the pilot told us that we were 19 minutes ahead of time.
When we went out the airport we were
greeted with smiling faces by the Maynilad Tours representatives, Maam Mheanne
Flores and Kuya Byrone We had our breakfast on rode because we have to catch up
with our time to go to our first company visit. As far as I can remember we had
chicken and rice with pancakes, we were very full after the heavy meal. During
travel, Kuya Byrone would share to us the history of Manila and its buildings,
streets, and others. He is really smart to memorize all of those things, well;
I think it also takes years of practice.
Today, I went on a company visit to
Our first company visit which was at the
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company or popularly known as PLDT at
Mandaluyong. We visited their INNOLAB. It is the Innovation Laboratory and
Telecommunications Education Center of PLDT. We were guided by Ma’am Anita
Ferrer, the company’s representative whenever there are students who visit
their company.
What I learned?
Before we started the tour, Ma’am Ferrer
first discussed the history of PLDT through their Memorabilia section. Their
history is quite really inspiring, how they stand up from their destruction and
evolve to be one of the biggest companies in the country. There is no need to discuss the
details of their history so I will just summarize it through their headings:
1928 – 1938 (AGE OF BIRTH), 1939 – 1948 (AGE OF DESTRUCTION), 1949 – 1958 (AGE
OF HOPE), 1959 – 1968 (AGE OF CHANGE), 1969 – 1978 (AGE OF CONTROL), 1979 –
1988 (AGE OF REVOLUTION), 1980 – 1998 (AGE OF GATE KEEPER), 1999 – 2008 (AGE OF
TRANSFORMATION), and 1909 – Beyond (AGE OF FAST FORWARD).
Our next activity was an IT Lecture that
was given to us by Engr. Edmund Mamboyo from Technical Training. His
presentation is entitled “PLDT Business Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”. He
discussed to us Data Networking and how important CISCO Networking Academic
Program for students who wants to venture to the networking field. In the
“Yesterday” slide, PLDT before was at its most basic form, a Public Switch
Telephone Network. It was very tiring manual switching of lines where errors
were just normal. In the “Today slide”, PLDT evolve to become a Fixed Business
in DataCom, internet,and VoIP (Voice over IP). In the “Tomorrow” slide, they
will have the NGN or the Next Generation Network. He discussed to us the
introduction of telecommunications where “tele” means distant and
communications mean exchange of info. We learned the early forms to telecommunications
and its’ types. He also discuss the basic elements of communication where we
already learned that during our English 1. Engr. Mamboyo was bombarded with
questions with students which he politely answered it all. However, he lacked
in time that is why he did not finish his presentation but he cordially gave
his contact information to us if ever we have more questions.
Next we went to their breath-taking
Business Solutions Center; it is where they try out new technologies developed
by other people in partnership of course with PLDT. They have this technology
where you can control your appliances remotely via internet, and a device that
measures rain then send its data wirelessly to a computer to be analyzed.
Another fun part was we had the chance to sit in their amazing conference room,
where at a moment we felt like we were bosses. Our tour guide also showed us
their enormous war room. If I’m not mistaken there were about 12 projected
screens on one wall and people are analyzing the current news and trends that
can affect the company.
What I like?
I liked everything about the PLDT.
Especially their Business Solutions part of the tour.
What I dislike?
I think the only disappointment was they
did not let us bring our cameras to take a pictures but I think it was for
security and confidentiality issues so we had no other choice.
Next, we went on a company visit to
As we were on the path going to SPI
Servisoft at Parañaque City, we had our lunch on the road – again. SPI is
worldwide Filipino-made business processing company.
What I learned?
We were welcomed by a human resource
representative who discussed to us what is SPI and what service do they offer.
They give Solutions to companies, made by skilled and experience People, and
systems that are adaptive to Innovations. After that we had our IT Talk with
Mr. Joselito de Luna a Network Engineer he discussed to us the basics of
networking: LAN and WAN, Configurations, VPN tunnel and others. Next was Mr.
Justine a representative from IT Service Desk. He explained to us how service
request are managed. If the severity of one issue can give Production Outage
then it must be dealt quickly within 15 minutes. If it can give Production
Impairment, it must be solve within 30 minutes. But if it can produce
Non-Production Impairment issues den they can just solve in 3 hours or they can
also let it pass until tomorrow jokingly said by Mr. Justine. We also learned
the Standard incident Escalator: 1. Indentification and Logging; 2.)
Categorizing, 3.) Prioritizing, 4.) Initial Diagnosis, 5.) Outage Assignement
and 6.) Notification.
What I liked?
Lastly, we had a tour on their IT Floor
were leaders of each group explained what they do and what thing they need that
the get from other group and what things they give to other groups. It was
actually a remarkable view seeing large groups working together to develop both
software engineering and content solutions.
What I disliked?
The IT Floor Group Leaders were not
prepared on our arrival but still they managed to explain their respective part
of work well.
After taking a leisurely walk inside
Mall of Asia and a long tiring day, we arrived in our hotel, Kabayan Hotel, and
we checked in. it was really a nice hotel. Our tour guide always compliments
the hotel that it was built in a strategic place because it was built under the
intersection of MRT and LRT and the Mall of Asia is just one short ride away.
Everyone liked their rooms. After taking our dinner, we roamed around Baclaran
until we reach the famous Baclaran Church. We went back to the hotel around
10:30 pm.
DAY 2
Today, we visited
All of us woke up early because the
tour guide told us to in order to prevent traffic and our destination, the
University of the Philippines Diliman Campus, is quite far. We had our
delicious breakfast at the hotel. Everyone was eager to visit the number one
university in the Philippines. We were all in the bus before the departure time
so our tour guide was happy to depart the hotel ahead of time. We chose to go
to UP Diliman because the yearly event, Philippinr Youth Congress for Information
Technology or Y4IT was being held there. It is a national gathering of IT
students and practitioners to disseminate
innovations and current researches in the field of IT, while discussing
solutions to upgrade the country’s state of technology.where
speakers from all around the world were invited to share their knowledge. The
event was simultaneously held at four separate buildings. We decided to go
first to UP Theatre. When
we enter the said building, we were amazed on how big the theater was. It took
a long time before the event started so some of my classmates took a quick nap.
When the hosts finally arrive, they made their roll calls not by schools but by
regions, this simply proves that the event is nationwide. Only a few cheered
for Region XI, I think we were the only ones from region and the others were
just having fun cheering for every region.
The Opening Remarks was given by the
Philippine Society of information Technology Educators President and a USeP
Professor, no other than – Dr. Randy S. Gamboa. We were proud to see our
teacher deliver his speech in front of hundreds of people. He said that may
this event be a way to make new friends and he thanked the sponsors for making
the event possible and successful. A keynote Talk was delivered by an actor and
senator, Hon. Vicente Sotto III. It was really funny when people were shouting
“Pinoy henyo!… Pinoy henyo!…” then
he just answered, “Mamaya pa
yun..” and everyone laughed.
In his speech he discussed the possible rebirth of Department of Information
and Communication Technology of the Philippines. And he also gave his
observations that led him to say that IT changed the world. He also said that
the Filipino youth must not lose their values along the technological development
of the country.
What I learned?
The first talk was about Windows Phone
7. It was not really our first time to encounter such topic because it was
discussed to us before during last years’ Developers Connect in our school. The
only difference was the talk in UP included minor programming tutorials. Next
talk was about Game Development in Cloud Computing, this was the reason why we
went to the UP Theatre first. The talk includes the current technology that is
used by the Gaming Industry whether players now can have Asymmetric Games,
where multiplayer games can now let players play not simultaneously at one
game. Another was Augmented Reality Game where players can feel more like they
are in the game using different tools and gadgets.
We had our lunch inside the bus
because our professor said that it will be impractical if we will eat outside
the campus because we might miss the first batch of afternoon topics. After
resting a bit in the bus, we decided to go to a different venue thus we land at
the UP Film Center. When we arrived the first talk already started. Ms. Christy
Tsang talked about Linux Certification with a presentation entitled “Plan your
Future. Stay Ahead of the Game. Get certified”. She said that the Philippines,
as the 3rd largest
economy in Southeast Asia, has great potential to excel in the IT industry.
Their goal is to build and maintain a professional skill standard that is
supported and applied throughout the world through Linux Professional
Institute, a global certification organization for Linux Professionals. It is a
member of the IT Certification Council (ITCC) where some of their members
include Microsoft and Oracle. Out of 300, 000 exams that were take only 10,000
passed and now are certification holders. The
next speaker was Mr. Yong-Cheol Byun and his topic is SMART Life and SMART
Applications. At first, I thought he was an affiliate of the Smart
Communications but I was wrong. He talked about Smartphones and Smart Devices
and what are their usages. He discussed how SMART Applications can be
beneficial in one’s life by making himself an example. He uses applications
like Sleep Cycle App, Dolphine App, Soung Hound, Awesome Note, Drop Box and
many more in a day-to-day basis. His talk was about how people can live well by
simply downloading applications to their smartphones to do almost everything.
After that, Dr. Rafael Saldaña of Ateneo de Naga delivered his talk about
Competitive Computing. It is an elective subject in their school that is
centered on the development of strategies, techniques and skills used in
competitive contests. It really took my attention when Dr. Saldaña said the
description of the topic. I was amazed how their school is putting great effort
for their students to be competitive in contests
to the point that they made a subject especially for it. Their school has been
entering the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, an
annual multi-tiered computer programming competition among the universities of
the world. The contest is sponsored by IBM. Their school had a chance
in to be the representatives of the Philippines for the asia autonomous region
and last year’s winner contest for who will represent the country is from
University of the Philippines.
What I liked?
After listening to
three straight talks, we decided to transfer to UP Bahay ng Alumni, where
stalls of different companies are lined up to showcase their products and
services. I also bought an “Insert Your Code Here” T-Shirt there. We then went
to the UP Oblation by riding the popular UP Ikot Jeep; then we went back to the
UP Theatre to get our certificates. We then went to the COOP to buy some UP
items. I only bought cell phone strap because the other items were very
expensive.
What I disliked?
We did not have a chance to visit
their laboratories unlike the previous batch.
After another leisurely walk
at another mall, we went back to our hotel and have our dinner.
DAY 3
Today, I went on a company visit to
On our third day in Manila, we visited
Fluor Daniel Incorporatin in Alabang. It
is one of the world's largest,
publicly owned engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services
companies.
What I learned?
We were welcomed by Ms. Marren a
representative from their Human Resource Department. We went through to their
conference room on the third floor of the building. While waiting for the
speakers, Ms. Marren gave us tips on how to make an excellent resume. You
should first have put your basic information: name, address, cell phone and
landline numbers and email account; then you put your achievements; then your
competency and skills; your researches; and after all of that you will put your
educational background and personal information. This way the Human Resource
representative that will look on your resume can go straight and see what you
have already done and not hire you based on your school. And you must never
forget to have a proper haircut. The first talk was about Safety specifically
when you are trapped in an elevator. They made this talk first to prepare us if
there were problems during our stay in their company. First, you must stay calm
and help your companions to stay calm too; Second, check if the elevator moves
if you press the buttons, if not; Third, call the persons concerned using the
emergency phone in the elevator and wait until help comes. The next topic was
about Value Creation in a good team. It is composed of six values namely:
Purpose, Process, Communication, Involvement, Commitment, and Trust.
The next talk was about the overview
of the company. They have received multiple recognitions around the world and
they say that they are the best at what they do. The next talk was from Mr.
Angelo Cagaton, IT Service Manager. He explained the technological development
of the company over the years. Before they were using concrete models to build
plants and other things which is quite tiring where as today that they are
using software like PDS and AutoCAD to develop their simulated view of the
project. He explains that he considers IT as a living organism. He explained to
us the process from acquiring request to the final system product. It was quite
detailed so I can’t remember bits of the process. He also claims that the future
of IT is the Cloud Computing, the delivery of computing as
a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources,
software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as
a utility over a network.
What I liked?
After the heavy and delicious snack
that they gave to us, we had our company tour, we were divided into two groups,
our group went first to their IT floor where you can see people working hard
but they still gave time to say hello to us. Next, we went to their data center
where the security measure is at high priority. You can only enter by having
swiping your ID and by biometric recognition. They explained to us the usages
of different networking components like the blade servers, virtual servers,
EMCs, high-end routers and switches, cables and they are still using tapes for
archiving. In the room you can see fiber optic cables linked to the US and
other parts of the country. Our visit there was amazing. Almost everyone said,
after the tour, that they wanted to work there!
What I disliked?
There is nothing to dislike in Fluor
Daniel. They warmly welcomed us to their company. And they were very
accommodating.
We had our lunch – not
on bored. Yipey! We went to a nearby mall which is the Fiesta Mall and they
gave us P200 each as our food allowance.
Next, I visited
Our next stop was in DOST – Science
Technology Information Institue in Bicutan. I was really excited to go there
because I was hoping that they could tell us the contributions of Filipinos
especially students to the technological development of not only in our country
but in the whole world.
What I learned?
We ended up having an
IPv4 vs IPv6 talk with Mr. Muleta, an IT specialist of DOST. It was really a
big disappointed on my part but I have no choice but to listen. He also
discussed their systems like the SCINET and ELIB that they personally developed
and the Starbook a kiosk for made especially for schools. After that we went to
their museum to see the line-ups of Filipino Inventors.
What I disliked?
The talk was very short. And as I
wrote above, It did not met my expectations.
DAY 4
Today, I went to a company visit to
On our fourth day, the people were
feeling a little bit sad because it was the second to the last day that we will
stay in Manila. We arrived at the Social Security System at East Avenue, Quezon
City around 8:30 am.
What I learned?
Ms. De Quiros explained to us the
features of SSS which are:
1. Compulsory
Coverage
a. Employee
who are not over yet 60 years old
b. Self-Employed
and
c. Voluntary
Coverage
2. Shared
Contribution between Employer and Employee
a. The
duties and responsibilities of every person is to secure a SSS number and
ensure that their deduction does straight to SSS.
3. Pooled
funds for member’s benefits
4. Earnings
related benefits and
5. Inter-generational
for cross-subsidiary
They have two programs
which are Social Security and Employee’s Compensation. And their plans are to
enhance financial and benefits stability and improve the delivery of service.
After that we were introduced to Ms. Malto, a representative from their IT
Department. She discussed to us the evolution of the networking of the SSS over
the years that contributed to the development of the services rendered by the
company to the public. In
1983 - 1986, they started their outsourcing process; in 1986 - 1992, they
started using the Oracle RDBMS, in 1992 - 1996, SSS went to full
computerization; during 1997 - 2003, the begun web implementation and text SSS
implementation and during 2003 - 2009, decommissioning of SSS revenues and
their recovery system and at present, SSS also added some features in their web
implementation and text SSS implementation, the MYSS, SSS connect, SSS query
and the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). SSS has 132 local branches
and 14 foreign branches. They told us that if ever we want to work in SSS we
should first pass the certification exam from the National Computing Institute
located in UP Diliman.
What I liked?
We were escorted to a
building where transactions are being done like loans, payments, and the SSS
Card System. It was a centralized building for all SSS transactions which
included a computer where you can check how your profile in SSS. For example,
you can check your balance from your previous loan and other things. In the SSS
Card System they told us that they acquired a third party to do the job because
it would be cumbersome for them to personally produce the IDs.
What I dislike?
Their talk was very short and boring.
They should have made a way to get the attention of the audience by having some
eye-catching presentations
Next, I went on a company visit to
After lunch, we went to Exist Global
at Ortigas Center, the last company visit! The center itself was very amazing
tall buildings gathered in one area. Anyway, we first learned what the company
was all about. Exist Global is a global software development and technology
services company that specializes in developing enterprise software, interactive
web applications, and technology software solutions. They have been doing these
jobs since 2011.
What I learned?
Jools Briones discussed
about Building a Career in the ICT Industry. Included on the discussion were
the possible career opportunities that we can enter like network systems,
information support and services, programming and software development and interactive
media. She also discussed
to us the Exist Code Camp it is where they train chosen people, people who
passed their test, on specific topics like Ruby on Rails for about six weeks.
And the people who will teach are the ones working in the company. Next we had
a discussion about Open Source. He discussed to us what we can gain in using
Open Source: Motivation, Freedom, Knowledge, and Free Work. And in order to
help we open source community by contributing, or give some modifications, or
to create new open source software. He gave us a tip before he ended his
presentation: It is not important what you know instead the drive to know.
What I liked?
I liked how they included in their
talk on how not to be intimidated by the people around us but rather use it to
move forward and exel.
What I disliked?
Their talk was again too short. It was
like they were not prepared for us.
We ended up early in
Exist Global and our bus was caught up in traffic so we took the time to have
picture taking in Ortigas Center. After that, we went to Divisoria! We waited
three days to come here because of the low prices of items. And we were not
dismayed, they did have a big selection of low-priced items. I bought a head
phone and a bag. I also bought T-Shirts for my siblings and me and my
classmates decided to buy pasalubong for our classmates. We took our dinner at the hotel and
after that we packed our luggages.
DAY 5
The last day of our field trip. You
can see the sadness of the faces of our classmates. But rather than being
gloomed by the idea, we just enjoyed ourselves on our free day! First we went
to Luneta Park, The burial site of our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, which is
just in front of the Quirino Grandstand where the President takes their oath of
office. We walked around the park and we had a chance to ride a kalesa that roamed us around the park. We
took a lot of pictures from the monument to the horses in the park. After that
we visited the National Museum, we were really amazed with the things we saw
there were old pots and jars, figures and others that were excavated from the
different parts of the country. Also they had artifacts of the tools used by
primitive people before. They also have preserved insects and animals lined up
in one room. We were really amazed of what we saw. We did not expect that the
Philippines had preserved such artifiacts.
After that, we requested to go back to
Divisoria to buy some additional pasalubong.
I bought sandals for my mother and older sister and flip-flops for my father.
My friends also bought items for their families. We went to the airport two
hours ahead of time. When we got there we were really hungry. The prices of
their products were outrageously expensive. But we were really hungry and we
still have an hour flight so we bought siopaos. While waiting we killed the
time again by taking some pictures and the awkward aura of each other vanished
away during the trip. We did not only gained new knowledge and experience but
also new friends.
We arrived in Davao around 7 pm, I think. And we bid ourselves good bye to each
other as we go straight t our homes. I hope I can still have the opportunity to
go back there with my friends and just take the time of our lives.
