DEVELOPING AND STRENGTHENING ACADEMIC INITIATIVES IN EMERGING FIELDS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Closing Remarks by UPOU Chancellor Felix Librero during the campus briefing by the team of UP Academic Vice President Amy Guevara on the program DEVELOPING AND STRENGTHENING ACADEMIC INITIATIVES IN EMERGING FIELDS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, at UPLB on 26 May 2006.
A closing remark is not merely a statement to end a human social and communication activity. It is more a statement of the implications of what has transpired that has come to a close. This is what this Closing Remark shall be.
Earlier this week I participated in the first International Symposium on Information and Communications Technology in Social Development in Jakarta. This symposium was organized by the ASEAN Foundation and participated in by some 50 ICT experts from various parts of the globe. My keynote address focused on the innovative uses of SMS technology for mass information and mass education, particularly on the issue of the Avian Flu across the ASEAN Region. The Avian Flu could become pandemic, especially if it is true that the virus can transfer from human to human like it is suspected in Sumatra. Now, this is where upstream research in biotechnology, as pointed out by Dr. Alvin Marcelo, could be important.
In the course of my discussions with academics from North America, Europe, Oceania, and the ASEAN Region, it was very clear that we have not seen the end of the technological revolution in the communications area. In fact, all were agreed that what we are seeing now is simply the start of a much more mind-boggling, rapid technological development not only in application but more so in basic knowledge generation much of which is going on worldwide now.
For example, the direction toward which research in electronics is going in other parts of the world is clearly toward more miniaturization – quickly moving towards pervasive computing as Dr. Joel Marciano has said, and into instrumentation as emphasized by Dr. Cesar Saloma. As well all know, the gadgetry in human communication is becoming tinier and tinier, and yet much more powerful in reach, quality and performance.
What seems interesting to me is that it is in this arena of the emerging technologies that Filipinos can participate actively and become known the world over not only as Mount Everest climbers but scientists as well. We have a lot of world-caliber scientists, but not known internationally because they are less published compared to their counterparts in the developed countries.
The Filipino is not lacking in creativity, but much of this creativity is perhaps harnessed more in other areas of interest rather than in the pursuit of scientific endeavor. In the field of communication, for example, we Filipinos are extremely creative. Why, we even have been able to break the Da Vinci Code. Just as I was going to present my keynote address in the Jakarta symposium I got a text message from the Philippines. It contained what was referred to as the Da Vinci Code, which is composed of three lines, as follows: first line: Capital letter Y, 6, capital letter M; second line: 62, space, capital letter Y, small letter o, small letter d, 6, small letter d; third line: small letter n, small letter I, capital letter M, 6 small letter L, 6, 2.
Then to break this code, the text message said, put your celfone in front of a mirror and read it from there.
Lo and behold, it read: MaY baboY sa salaMin. Imagine, if we can only put that creativity into scientific work!
The advocacy that Vice President Amy Guevara has taken to push UP academics to undertake significant research in the emerging technologies, I believe, is unprecedented in the University of the Philippines. As far as I can recall, and I’m probably the most senior here chronologically, this may be the first time that the UP System has actively and openly pushed UP faculty and researchers alike to take off and do the basics.
In the scientific arena, while the application is important, it is in the basics where the thinkers and the geniuses are often recognized. It is the academics who push the frontiers of basic scientific inquiry that are recognized, for example, by the Nobel Prize. Filipino scientists, of whom the best are in the University of the Philippines, can and must compete in this arena.
Dr. Cesar Saloma highlighted the need for trained scientific manpower. Let me comment on this briefly.
To further elevate the capability of our faculty and researchers, I wish to suggest that we also look seriously at an idea, which I recall I have brought to the attention of some academic administrators of UPLB, particularly the Dean of the Graduate School, in the mid-1980s. That time, I had asked the simple question: We are graduating Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degree holders, how sure are we that these individuals are well grounded on the meaning and philosophy of science? The least we can do is offer at least one course on the sociology of knowledge, and another on the philosophy of science.
A course on the sociology of knowledge may be considered the GE for master’s degree students, while the course on the philosophy of science the GE course for PhD students. This would contribute, I hope, to pushing our graduate students to become generators of rather than mere appliers of scientific knowledge.
Another idea that we have suggested together with these courses was to require graduate students to publish their theses and dissertations. The UPLB, I understand, has adopted this as an option. My discussions this week with academics from North America, Europe, Oceania, and ASEAN clearly puts on top of the agenda the need to publish. Graduate theses and dissertations, we all agreed, must become part of scientific knowledge, and the only way this can happen is when these are published and accessible to other scientists to comment on and the public to use. If they are not published, therefore, they are considered non-existent.
I wish to push the idea further. May be it is about time that we require graduate students to get their graduate research results published before they are awarded their respective graduate degrees. Graduate students must be able to write their research in publishable format and get it published. I know that in some universities abroad, theses and dissertations are written in publishable format so that you can have a dissertation that is only 40 pages. I feel that this is the way to go. I question the logic of tenaciously and blindly clinging unto the tradition of writing theses and dissertations the way they are written today and have them gather dust in the bookshelves of the library and the bodega of the Graduate School where they are not accessible to the public.
This is too tough and inconsiderate? Well, we must understand that graduate education is not a right. It is a privilege, and along with it is a set of rigorous responsibilities and social expectations.
As academics and researchers, our responsibility does not end after we have generated new knowledge. An important part of this responsibility is to tell the public what knowledge we have discovered or generated and to educate the public to use this new knowledge for human development and disciplinary advancement. To my understanding, this is an important component of the moral intention of the UP Scientific Productivity System that has been put in place in the university.
Now, that’s a long closing remarks, but I hope we take the things I highlighted seriously. And I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Vice President Amy Guevara for taking the lead in the endeavor to push our academics to elevate their own skills and capability to generate new knowledge especially in the emerging technologies that will have untold implications to human living in the future. I also congratulate and thank the members of the Committee for their foresight and deep scientific thinking that led to the identification of the areas of concern that the Filipino scientist must participate in. This is a new dawn for the Filipino academic. Let us all embrace it.
With that, I hereby bring this program to a close. Thank you and good day to all.
