UP COE Technical Bulletin 2020: PCA and TRA Book of Abstracts

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 83

JEM VALERIE D. PEREZ, PhD.
Robert Cheng/Uratex Professorial Chair

*with co-authors Edgar Clyde R. Lopez, Michael Angelo Zafra, Jon Nyner L.
Gavan, Emil David A. Villena, Francis Eric P. Almaquer

Dr. Jem Valerie D. Perez obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from UP Diliman in 2016. She gained her MS
Chemical Engineering degree last 2012 and graduated magna cum laude in BS Chemical Engineering last 2009,
both degrees from UP Diliman. Dr. Perez is the head of Nanotechnology Research Laboratory and is currently working
on functionalized nanomaterials, nanocomposites, nanotubes, nanofibers, nanosensors, and design optimization for
water treatment applications.

HUMIC ACID FUNCTIONALIZED - SILVER NANOPARTICLES AS NANOSENSOR
FOR COLORIMETRIC DETECTION OF COPPER (II) IONS IN AQUEOUS
SOLUTIONS

Humic acid - functionalized silver nanoparticles (HA-AgNPs) were successfully synthesized and used
to detect Cu (II) ions in aqueous solutions. The HA-AgNPs was shown to have an average
hydrodynamic diameter of 101.4 nm and a polydispersity index of 0.447. The absorbance spectra
of HA-AgNPs showed the characteristic local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of AgNPs at
408.3 nm. The addition of Cu (II) in the HA-AgNPs led to their agglomeration as evidenced by the
change in their surface morphology and their corresponding optical absorbance spectra.
The synthesized HA-AgNPs showed a strong linear response for Cu (II) concentrations in the range
of 0.00 – 1.25 mM with a limit of detection (LoD) of 4.4428 ± 0.1091 mg L-¹, a limit of quantification
(LoQ) of 14.8094 ± 0.3636 mg L-¹, and a limit of blank (LoB) of 0.1214 ± 0.0065 mg L-¹. Statistical
analysis showed that this calibration curve could be used to quantify Cu (II) concentrations within a
95% confidence level. Furthermore, HA-AgNPs was found to be selective for Cu (II) detection based
on the selectivity study against common metal ions found in drinking water. This shows that the
synthesized HA-AgNPs can be used as an environment-friendly colorimetric nanosensor for rapid
and point-of-need quantification of Cu (II) ions in aqueous media.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

84 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

DCHE PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARDS COLLOQUIUM

October 19, 2020

Asst. Prof. Myron T. Alcanzare Dr. Marjorie L. Baynosa
Don Felipe Say and Theresa Chua Say Professorial Chair Maynilad Professorial Chair (5)
A Comparative Techno-Economic Analysis of Different Eco-friendly Synthesis of Recyclable Mesoporous Zinc
Ferrite@Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite for Efficient
Desalination Technologies in Off-Grid Islands. Photocatalytic Dye Degradation Under Solar Radiation.

Dr. Julie Anne D. del Rosario Dr. Rizalinda L. De Leon
Lodevina B. Reyes Professorial Chair Apolonio and Lorna Yson Professorial Chair in Chemical
Hydrothermally Carbonized Waste Biomass As Electrocatalyst
Support for ⍺-MnO2 in Oxygen Reduction Reaction Engineering
Preliminary Optimization and Kinetics of SnCl2-HCl Catalyzed
Asst. Prof. Marlon L. Mopon, Jr.
Cesar Buenaventura Professorial Chair Hydrothermal Conversion of Microcrystalline Cellulose to
Development of CuO-Fe3O4 Based Electrochemical Sensor For Levulinic Acid

Malathion Dr. Arthur A. Gonzales, III
Edgardo Pacheco Professorial Chair
Dr. Joey Ocon In Silico Identification of Bioactive Gibberellin Ligands for GID1, A
Federico Puno 1. Professorial Chair for Energy
Transition Pathway Towards 100% Renewable Energy Across the Soluble Rice-Receptor
Sectors of Power, Heat, Transport, and Desalination for the
Dr. Miguel Francis M. Remolona
Philippines. Elzar Lorenzana Simon DIEOR Golden Jubilee Professorial Chair

Dr. Analiza P. Rollon in Arttificial Intelligence
Oscar Lopez Professorial Chair LABSAFE: AI Information System Integrated Small Scale Safety
Biodegradation and Sorption of 17⍺-Ethinylestradiol in a
Submerged Membrane Bioreactor: Effect of Initial Ammonium Application

Concentration. Asst. Prof. Kristian July R. Yap
Maynilad Professorial Chair (2)
Dr. Terence P. Tumolva Fabrication and Field Testing of a Compact Bioreactor for
Dr. Magdaleno B. Albarracin Jr. UP Centennial Professorial Chair Household Waste Composting in UP Diliman

in Engineering Asst. Prof. Bemboy Niño F. Subosa
Solvent Absorption and Dissolution Kinetics Modelling for the Chua Liong and Loreta Dy Professorial Chair
Reactor Simulation Studies of Base-Catalyzed Coconut Oil
Chemical Recycling of Waste Plastic Laminates.
Transesterification with Methanol
Dr. Mark Daniel G. De Luna
UP KEM Global – Dr. Luz Salonga Dr. Karl Ezra S. Pilario
Cartap Removal from Simulated Water Matrices by Fluidized- Hydro Resources Contractors Professorial Chair
Bed Fenton Process: The Optimization of Process Parameters. Online Fault Prognosis in Chemical Plants Using Regularized
Recursive State-Space Degradation Models and Kalman Filtering
Dr. Jhud Mikhail Aberilla
Benjamin Chua Professorial Chair Dr. Jem Valerie D. Perez
Design and Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Small- Robert Cheng/Uratex Professorial Chair 1
Scale Off-Grid Energy Systems for Remote Rural Communities. Humic Acid Functionalized-Silver Nanoparticles as Nanosensor
for Calorimetric Detection of Copper (II) Ions in Aqueous
Dr. Bryan G. Alamani
Lagman Family Professorial Chair in Engineering Solutions.
Step-wise Intercalation for Organic Inorganic Hybrids

Dr. Florencio C. Ballesteros, Jr.
Maynila Professorial Chair (4)
Nutrient Removal and Biomass Production by Immobilized

Chlorella Vulgaris

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 85

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

86 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

KELVIN BUÑO
Atty. Raul C. Villanueva Professorial Chair

Kelvin Cui Buño is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Philippines
Diliman since 2012. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science in 2009 and Master of Science in Computer
Science in 2011, both from the University of the Philippines.
Working under the Algorithms and Complexity Laboratory of the department, Kelvin's field of specialization includes
Formal Languages and Automata Theory. His primary research interests are Membrane Computing, Distributed
Computation, and Communication Complexity.

SPIKING NEURAL DP SYSTEMS: BALANCE AND HOMOGENEITY

Membrane Computing is a branch of Natural Computing which aims to create computational models
inspired by structures and functions found in nature, specifically that of biological membranes. One
such computational model is the Spiking Neural P system (SNP system), which mimics the way
neural systems in the brain function by use of electrical impulses sent between neurons via
synapses. However, the SNP system model can only receive input from the environment with at most
one neuron. To solve this limitation, SNP systems are combined with the properties of dP systems to
produce SNdP systems, which is a system of multiple SNP systems, called membranes, that can
each obtain input from the environment and communicate with other through synapses.

This work explores some properties of Spiking Neural dP Systems, namely: (1) balance and, (2)
homogeneity. This class of Spiking Neural dP Systems uses Extended SNP systems with Request
Rules. As a case study, this work presents two SNdP systems that accept the language Lww = {ww |
w ϵ {b1, ..., bk}n, n ∞ 1}, where these SNdP systems differ in the balance of the input partition, the
homogeneity of components of the system, or the number of SNP components. An analysis of the
communication cost and running time is given for the two presented SNdP system.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 87

FRANCIS GEORGE CABARLE
Dean Ruben A. Garcia Professorial Chair

Francis George C. Cabarle received his PhD in Computer Science in 2015 from the University of the Philippines Diliman,
where he is currently an associate professor. From 2016 until present he is the head of the Algorithms and Complexity
research laboratory (aclab.dcs.upd.edu.ph/members/francis)
He was a visiting researcher with the Research Group on Natural Computing at the University of Seville, Spain from
2014 to 2015, and did postdoctoral research with colleagues at Xiamen University, China from 2016 to 2019. His
research interests include the intersections of bio-inspired computing, computability, and parallel computing.

A FRAMEWORK FOR EVOLVING SPIKING NEURAL P SYSTEMS WITH RULES ON
SYNAPSES

In this paper, we present a genetic algorithm framework for evolving Spiking Neural P Systems with
rules on synapses (RSSNP systems, for short). Starting with an initial RSSNP system, we use the
genetic algorithm framework to obtain a derived RSSNP system with fewer resources (fewer and
simpler rules, fewer synapses, less initial spikes) that can still produce the expected output spike
trains. Different methods in the selection of parents and in the calculation of fitness are incorporated.
We also try the framework on 5 RSSNP systems that compute bitwise AND, OR, NOT, ADD, and SUB
respectively to gather data on how the framework behaves. Lastly, we discuss the asymptotic
complexity of the algorithm and its effectiveness in generating fitter RSSNP systems based on which
methods were used.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

88 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

CARLO RAQUEL
David B. Sycip Professorial Chair

Carlo R. Raquel is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science, University of the Philippines Diliman.
He is a member of the Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence Laboratory (CVMIG) in his department. His research
interests include multi-objective optimization, evolutionary computation, and machine learning. He obtained his
degrees in Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of the Philippines. He is
currently a PhD Computer Science student.

APPROACHES IN EVOLUTIONARY MULTI-OBJECTIVE REINFORCEMENT
LEARNING

A recent trend in machine learning is borrowing ideas to and from the field of optimization. We can
find this novel symbiosis in Reinforcement learning (RL) and Evolutionary Computation (EC) where
both EC and RL solves an optimization function. The marriage of multi-objective optimization (MO)
and RL is called Multi-objective Reinforcement Learning (MORL) where methods from MO are
incorporated into RL to develop algorithms to learn Pareto optimal policies. EMORL optimizes reward
vectors instead of reward values. Only few multi-objective RL

algorithms have an evolutionary component, and they are called evolutionary multi-objective
reinforcement learning (EMORL) and can be classified according to the type of RL: evolutionary MO
for direct policy search, scalarization functions, evolutionary MO for value function approximations,
hypervolume-based search and multi-objectivization. While these approaches are novel, they inherit
some problems from MO such as being unable to scale up with the number of objective functions. In
this paper, we provide the current state of the field of EMORL and identify research directions for the
field.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 89

HENRY ADORNA
Semirara Mining Corporation Professorial Chair

Henry N. Adorna is a Professor of (Theoretical) Computer Science at UP Diliman since 2007. HNA founded the Algorithms and Complexity
(Research) Laboratory at Department of Computer Science, UP Diliman in 2007. He is a UP Scientist, the Division 2 (Mathematical
Sciences) NRCP Achievement Awardee (2019) and Gawad Tsanselor para sa Natatanging Guro (2015) co-Awardee UP Diliman. HNA spent
two (2) years (from 2000 to 2002) at Lehrstuhl fuer Informatics I of RWTH Aachen under the DAAD PhD Sandwich Program to do his
dissertation on abstract communication complexity of uniform computing models under Prof. Dr. Juraj Hromkovic. HNA went home to
obtain his PhD in mathematics from the UP Diliman in 2002. In 2009, he worked on P systems with Gheorghe Paun (creator of P systems)
at Universidad de Sevilla in Spain. HNA together with Gh. Paun and Mario Perez-Jimenez introduced concepts of communication
complexity in P system. In the same year, he together with colleagues from Universidad de Sevilla introduced matrices to the neural-like P
systems namely SN P systems. From 2009, HNA works primarily on P systems. Other research interests of HNA include algorithmics for NP-
hard problems, particularly combinatorial hard problems in computational biology, discrete mathematics, natural and unconventional
computing models.

HNA is currently an Associate editor of Philippine Science Letters (PSL), Philippine Computing Journal (PCJ) and Philippine Information
Technology Journal (PITJ). He served as Editor-in-Chief of PCJ from 2010 – 2015. HNA is a regular member of the Division 2 (Mathematical
Sciences) of the NRCP, full member of Philippine-American Academy of Science and Engineering (PAASE). HNA is also a member of
Computability in Europe, member of the European Association of Theoretical Computer Science and one of the founding members of
International Membrane Computing Society. He is currently in the Board of the Computing Society of the Philippines (CSP).

APPROACHES IN SOLVING COMBINATORIAL HARD PROBLEMS

This report is a continuation of the three-year funded research project entitled “Algorithmic Approaches in Solving
Combinatorial Hard problems” funded fully by the Semirara Mining, Inc. U.P. Centennial Professorial Chair for
Computer Science (2018-2021). This project is an exploratory investigation of one of the most exciting areas on
algorithmic studies, optimization and approximation algorithms for NP hard problems. In particular, we will design
algorithms for hard problems, which is more essential for success in finding their solutions, than any standard
improvement of today’s computing technologies. Thus, our task of solving hard problems is in the core of today’s
algorithmic research from the theoretical and practical point of views. We shall adopt the following steps in solving
computational problems, when applicable: (1) Problem definition, (2) Development of a model, (3) Specification of
an Algorithm, (4) Designing an Algorithm, (5) Checking the correctness of an Algorithm, (6) Analysis of an
Algorithm, (7) Implementation of an Algorithm, (8) Program testing, and (9) Documentation. The main objective of
this proposed investigation is to provide good enough and/or guaranteed solutions to selected NP Hard problems
and to obtain possibly new insights and suggestions on how to attack similar or congruent problem. Specifically,
this research intends to realize and apply various solution techniques (deterministic and non-deterministic;
conventional and unconventional) that would lead to finding good enough and/or guaranteed solutions for some
interesting theoretical and practical problems that are combinatorial in character and are known to belong to the
class NP Hard problems. Also, we would consider algorithmic/heuristic solutions on available model of computation
that claims to provide a better computing time or reasonable amount of memory in performing algorithmic/heuristic
solutions to some NP Hard problems. These computing models could either be conventional or unconventional (Bio
- and Nature-inspired) computing models.

In particular, this is the continuation of the reports on “Some combinatorial hard problems and algorithmic solution”
presented during 2018-2019. We report on the improvements made on Poset Cover problem. Continuation of the
efforts in using heuristics to make sense of MCDS on PPI Networks is reported. We give a glimpse on the idea of re
-optimization and P systems as another technique in solving NP hard problems.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

90 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

VENA PEARL BOÑGOLAN
Cesar Buenaventura UP Centennial
Professorial Chair

Dr. Bongolan is an applied mathematician, who studied natural hazards in her old normal life: landslides, storm surge,
submarine mass failures and tsunamis. She also studied post-disaster recolonization of mangrove stands, and the
effects of eutrophication on seagrass meadows. She continues the study on natural hazards, which now includes Covid-
19, as well as the SDG target interactions.

SDG TARGET INTERACTIONS: THE PHILIPPINE CONTEXT

The United Nations developed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with 169 total targets,
to serve as a plan for solving the world’s problems and achieving a more sustainable future. This
study aims to exhaustively analyze the intra-goal and inter-goal interactions between targets via a
binary comparison that entails over 14000 comparisons, modelled as a graph with the targets as
nodes, and with the interaction between targets as the edges of the graph. The problem is to assign a
‘color’ to an edge, as positive, zero or negative. With a panel of experts to evaluate the target
interactions, a web application was developed for coloring the edges. Experts are required to have at
least five years relevant experience among the fields of sustainability and development issues. The
functionalities of the web application include administering the questionnaire to collect the interaction
scores and insights from the respondents, presenting target interactions between chosen goals, and
displaying the overall state of the network of target interactions. The network of interactions can help
the researchers analyze which targets will enable or constrain each other, what mitigation can be
done to avoid conflicts, or which targets can be beneficial to each other. The insight gained from this
study can help guide the Philippines in its endeavor towards becoming a developed country. This
study can also be configured for sub-national or regional study.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 91

PHILIP CHRISTIAN ZUNIGA
UP Alumni Engineers Professorial Chair

Philip Christian Zuniga is a full time faculty member at the Department of Computer Science, University of the
Philippines – Diliman. He handles courses on Programming, Data Structure and Algorithms, Mathematical Modeling,
Computer Security and Cryptography. He is also a member of the Philippine Interagency Task Force on Emerging
Diseases (IATF) sub technical working group on ICT solutions. As member of the group, he lead the integration of the
various clinical systems used on COVID-19 response.

MODELING THE PHILIPPINE COVID-19 CLINICAL WORKFLOW USING HL7 FHIR

Since the onset of COVID – 19 in the Philippines since January 2020, the country has revitalized its
health care system to ensure that the workflows will be able to absorb the expected bulk of COVID-
19 cases in the country. Several changes in reporting were made, and protocols on centralized
reporting of COVID-19 cases are done. With the standardization of these templates, there is now a
need to develop a way of submitting health data from source applications to centralized applications.
In this study, we present a FHIR model on how the whole data reporting workflow can be
represented.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

92 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

EDGAR FELIZMENIO, JR.
Jesus Ferrer Professorial Chair

Asst. Prof. Edgar Felizmenio, Jr. is currently a PhD Computer Science student under the Computer Security Group of the
Department of Computer Science.

EVALUATING THE VIABILITY OF CIPHERTEXT-POLICY ATTRIBUTE-BASED
ENCRYPTION ON SERVICE-ORIENTED HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE

SYSTEMS

Achieving interoperability in healthcare leads to several benefits that affect consumers and other
stakeholders. With this, several countries have already implemented a Health Information Exchange
(HIE) to enable interoperability in their areas. OpenHIE [5] is an initiative that aims to address the
interoperability challenges in underserved regions, such as third-world countries. OpenHIE provides
a framework for implementing an HIE which is based on the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Its
design has been proven to work, and other countries and organizations have shown interest in
adopting its components. Currently, OpenHIE can provide the de facto standard for securing health
information systems. However, several essential security features concerning the privacy of health
information have yet to be implemented. Here we explore the application of Ciphertext-Policy
Attribute Based Encryption (CP-ABE) on OpenHIE to realize the security features. Results show that
applying CPABE will not only change the implementation of the functionalities of the HIE, but it will
also add an overhead to its non-functional characteristics, such as the number of transactions per
second, memory, and bandwidth usage.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 93

ROMMEL FERIA
Dean Juan L. Tiongson Professorial Chair

Rommel Feria is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of the Philippines - Diliman. A member of
the Web Science Research Laboratory at UP Diliman Department of Computer Science. He was a former Director of the
UP Diliman Computer Center, and currently is the Deputy Director of the UP Information Technology Development
Center (UP ITDC) of the UP Office of the Vice-President for Development. Rom is a senior member of the Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM), and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electonics Engineers (IEEE) and the
Computing Society of the Philippines (CSP).

QUANTIFYING THE SIDE EFFECT OF ’ADTECH’ ON POPULAR WEBSITES IN THE
PHILIPPINES

Online advertisement has existed ever since the commercialization of the web in the mid-1990s. The
effects of having online ads on users merely annoyed them. However, as advertising technology
evolves, the side effects of having online ads have become more serious, claiming privacy as its first
victim. This paper attempts to reveal another side effect that users do not normally perceive, which is
data wastage. Initial findings show an average of 35% savings on downloaded data when using
Firefox or Safari when visiting the top five (5) websites in the Philippines.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

94 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

SUSAN FESTIN
Filemon Rodriguez Professorial Chair

Susan Pancho-Festin is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science and is the current head of the Computer
Security Group. She obtained her PhD from Cambridge University, where she was part of the Security Group at the
Computer Laboratory. Prior to this, she graduated from Royal Holloway University of London with an MSc in
Information Security degree. Her research interests are in security protocols and secure software engineering. Since
2002, she has led several research and development projects, with funding from various agencies such as the UP, DOST,
and CHED. She has also been a recipient of funding from external agencies such as the Austrian Agency for International
Cooperation, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, and Microsoft Research Asia. She is a member of both the IEEE and
ACM.

INVESTIGATION OF DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
CONTEXT OF PRIVACY PRESERVATION

Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) are now being considered for various applications. While
the most popular DLT, the blockchain, started out as a means to enable cryptocurrency, we now see
DLTs used in health records, financial transactions, and Internet of Things (IoT). However, this wide
range of potential use of DLTs has exposed security issues not previously considered or relevant: the
problem of safeguarding privacy and integrity in the context of a shared, and possibly public, ledger.
In this paper, we review the different DLTs and identify the privacy and integrity risks inherent in a
decentralized and shared ledger. Lastly, we present current efforts in the research community as to
how some of these privacy risks may be mitigated. These mitigation mechanisms will allow the
consideration of DLTs in more varied applications.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 95

CEDRIC ANGELO FESTIN
Dado and Maria Banatao Institute Professorial
Chair

Cedric Angelo M. Festin is a Professor of Computer Science at UP Diliman. He holds the Dado and Maria Banatao
Professorial Chair and is also a Senior Member of the IEEE. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from University
College London and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and BS degree in Computer Science from the University of
the Philippines. He was the UP-Dado Banatao Fellow at UC Berkeley in 2008 where he worked with Eric Brewer and the
TIER group. He is currently the team leader for the multi-year CHED-PCARI project Village Base Station. He was also a
former Chairman of the Department of Computer Science from 2005 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2014. In 2008, he was
awarded the Gawad Chanselor Para sa Natatanging Guro (Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Teacher), University of
the Philippines Diliman.

COMMUNITY CELLULAR NETWORKS IN THE PHILIPPINES: ASSESSING IMPACT
AND NEXT STEPS

This presentation is derived from the project of the Commission on Higher Education Philippine-
California Advanced Research Institutes entitled Connecting Communities Through Mobile
Networks: The Village Base Station Project Institute for Information Infrastructure Development -
2017-31. The project is a 5-year collaborative effort between UP, UC Berkeley and affiliated
researchers from different US based institutions as well as in the Philippines. The work spans many
disciplines including the technical, economic and social aspects of deploying first time cellular
networks in 7 remote areas in Aurora province. We review the status of the project and talk about the
technical pivot to accommodate the needs of the community. In addition we report on some of the
findings of the economic and social impact of the project.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

96 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

MARIO CARREON
Marubeni Professorial Chair

Mario Carreon is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Philippines,
Diliman. He has been teaching with the department since 2001 after graduating cum laude in BS Computer Science. He
got his MSCS in 2006 in UP Diliman, and his MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, UK.
His thesis in Cambridge involved the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) strategies to computer
languages. Since 2017, Prof. Mario has been working on Project Marayum with the Department of Linguistics, focusing
on studying NLP with languages in the Philippine context. He is also leveraging computer gaming to enhance how he
teaches his classes.

AN ATTEMPT TO PROGRAMATICALLY MERGE TWO LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES
IN PROJECT MARAYUM

Project Marayum is DOST funded community-built mobile phone based online web dictionary for
Philippine Languages. As part of the project's work with the Asi speaking peoples of Romblon, the
team was able to get an English to Asi dictionary and a separate Asi to English dictionary. In this
paper, we describe these two dictionaries, the attempts to consolidate, and the generation of a seed
dictionary through pattern matching database search.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 97

PROSPERO C. NAVAL, JR.
Dado and Maria Banatao Institute Professorial
Chair

Prospero C. Naval, Jr. is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of the Philippines Diliman
and Laboratory Head of the Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence Group of the same department. Prof. Naval
received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines
Diliman as well as a graduate degree in Computer Science at the Kyoto University, Japan. He did his post-doctoral
studies at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, on swarm robotics, under the ERDT Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program.
His current research interests revolve around applications of Deep Learning, Probabilistic Machine Learning and
Decision Making, Swarm Robotics and Computation to problems in Environment, Healthcare and Education.

USING DEEP-BELIEF NETWORKS TO UNDERSTAND PROPENSITY FOR
LIVELIHOOD CHANGE IN A RURAL COASTAL COMMUNITY TO FURTHER

CONSERVATION

Overharvesting of terrestrial and marine resources may be alleviated by encouraging an alternative
configuration of livelihoods, particularly in rural communities in developing countries. Typical
occupations in such areas include fishing and farming, and rural households often switch livelihood
activities to suit climate and economic conditions. We used a machine-learning tool, deep-belief
networks (DBN), and data from surveys of a rural Philippine coastal community to examine
household desire to change livelihood. This desire is affected by a variety of factors, such as income,
family needs, and feelings of work satisfaction, that are interrelated in complex ways. In farming
households, livelihood changes often occur to diversify resources, increase income, and lessen
economic risk. The DBN, given its multilayer perceptron structure, has a capacity to model nonlinear
relationships among factors while providing an acceptable degree of accuracy. Relative to a set of 34
features (e.g., education, boat ownership, and work satisfaction), we examined the binary response
variables desire to change work or not to change work. The best network had a test set accuracy of
97.5%. Among the features, 7 significantly affected desire to shift work: ethnicity, work satisfaction,
number of persons in a household in ill health, number of fighting cocks owned, fishing engagement,
buy-and-sell revenue, and educational level. A cross-correlation matrix of these 7 features indicated
households less inclined to change work were those engaged in fishing and retail buying and selling.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

98 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

JAIME CARO
UP Alumni Engineers Centennial Professorial
Chair

Dr. Jaime Caro is Professor of Computer Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman and heads its Service Science
and Software Engineering Laboratory. His past positions include Assistant Vice President for Development of the UP
System for 14 years, President of the of the Computing Society of the Philippines (CSP), President of the Philippine
Society of Information Technology Educators (PSITE), Vice President of the Game Developers Association of the
Philippines (GDAP), President of the UP System Information Technology Foundation (UPSITF), Vice President of the
Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP), and Chairman of the CHED Technical Panel on Information Technology
Education. Dr. Caro is also Chief Academic Officer of Techfactors, Inc. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in
Mathematics from the UP and spent a year as a postdoc research fellow at the University of Oxford in the United
Kingdom.

ADAPTIVE VIRTUAL REALITY DISASTER SIMULATION FOR COMMUNITY
TRAINING

Disaster Risk Management is very important, especially for places that are more prone to disasters.
Some places, like the Philippines, are more prone to land, water, and weather phenomena that are
oftentimes disastrous. Unfortunately, such places are not always fully equipped to handle these
disasters. The lack of preparedness stems from the lack of disaster risk management (DRM)
education. For many years now, virtual reality (VR) has been used to build immersive training
simulations using minimal resources. It shows potential to be a promising alternative teaching
method to bridge the logistical and educational gaps of the established DRM lectures, drills, and
trainings.

This paper detailed a preliminary design for an adaptive VR game for training members of a
community to identify the best practices for their household should they find themselves in typhoon
or flood situations. The game personalized its content by collecting information from the user. This
personalization of content was found in the quantities of certain items that the user was tasked to
collect, and particular tasks that were given to the user. Adaptive features were implemented in the
game. By tracking the users’ activity and behavior, the game adapted to users by showing hints that
aimed to help the user proceed. Finally, the Wilcoxon S-R test indicated that the post-test scores
achieved by the respondents after playing the game were statistically significantly higher than the pre
-test scores they achieved before playing the game, suggesting an improvement in knowledge of the
content featured inside the game.

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 99

JAYMAR SORIANO
Prof. Dominador Ilio Professorial Chair

JM Soriano is an assistant professor and the current chair of the Department of Computer Science. In 2018, he earned
his doctoral degree from Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Japan working on computational models for brain
activity, particularly for epilepsy. He also graduated with BS Physics and MS Applied Mathematics degrees from the
University of the Philippines-Diliman.

He has advised and co-advised several undergraduate and graduate projects under the Scientific Computing
Laboratory. His fields of interest and expertise include computational neuroscience, mathematical modeling, agent-
based simulation of complex systems, and machine learning.

FEASIBILITY OF FOCAL BRAIN COOLING FOR PARTIAL EPILEPSY WITH
SECONDARY GENERALIZATION: A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY

Experiments with animal models of epilepsy have consistently shown that focal cooling of epilepsy-
induced brain region reversibly suppresses or terminates epileptic discharge activity. Recently, we
formulated a physiologically plausible temperature dependence in a neural mass model that can
reproduce the effect of focal cooling on epileptic discharge activity. This can be used to implement a
temperature control in an implantable cooling device for thermal neuromodulation of the
epileptogenic zone in patients with partial epilepsy when seizure activity is detected. However, there
have been no experiments that looked into the effect of focal cooling in animal models of epilepsy
with secondary generalization in which the seizure activity spreads from the pathologic region to
other regions of the brain. Using the temperature-dependent neural mass model and a physiological
coupling model, we show that focal cooling stops the propagation of low-frequency discharge
activity; on the other hand, it increases the amount of coupling required to propagate high-frequency
discharge activity. Moreover, discharge activities that are propagated with cooling are lower in both
magnitude and frequency compared to those propagated without cooling. These results suggest the
feasibility of focal cooling as an effective alternative therapeutic treatment for medically intractable
partial epilepsy even with secondary generalization.

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100 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

JOHN JUSTINE VILLAR
Dean Reynaldo Vea Professorial Chair

John Justine S. Villar, PhD is currently an Assistant Professor and a regular member of the Scientific Computing
Laboratory at the UP Department of Computer Science. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on
mathematical and numerical methods in computer science and engineering, as well as graduate courses in
computational systems biology. He is also a Research and Extension Fellow at the UP National Center for Transportation
Studies, where he is an active faculty member of the newly established Intelligent Transportation Systems Laboratory
(ITSLab). Here, he currently leads the DOST-PCIEERD funded project entitled "Maritime Transportation Information
System (MARIS)", which aims to develop and design a system for an effective route capacity measurement system, as
part of MARINA’s modernization plan for the Philippine maritime industry.

He graduated with a PhD in Computer Science at UP Diliman in 2018. He also obtained a BS Applied Mathematics
degree at UP Los Baños and an MS Applied Mathematics degree at UP Diliman in 2009 and 2012, respectively. His
research spans topics from computational systems biology to microscopic and macroscopic traffic flow modeling in
transportation engineering.

SEQUENTIAL INTERMEDIATE DESTINATION APPROACH TO ROUTE CHOICE
SET GENERATION

The problem of route choice set generation have always suffered from the trade-off between
accuracy and complexity. Most approaches focused in generating choice sets from a modeler's
perspective. These methods search route choices in a large universal set, resulting to increased
running time. This research presents a method of generating route choice sets from the mindset of a
traveler. Relevant nodes within an elliptical constraint, called "intermediate destinations", were
introduced to mimic traveler's spatial behavior in choosing a route. Intermediate destinations were
determined using a hierarchy-based scoring of network nodes. Modified hill-climbing algorithm was
used to determine an optimal main branch from the intermediate destinations. A simple graph
construction involving the main branch using shortest paths finally generates the route choice set.
Results were verified against network constraints. It was found that the method chooses reasonable
routes when applied to a controlled network. Also, the method is reasonably selective even if the
number of intermediate destinations chosen was increased indefinitely.

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 101

ADRIAN ROY VALDEZ
Vidal A. Tan Professorial Chair

Dr. Adrian Roy L. Valdez is an associate professor of the Department of Computer Science. A mathematician by training,
he obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematics in the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 2007 studying the effects of the
diffusion coefficient on the speed of traveling front solutions of reaction-diffusion equations of KPP-type. His attraction
to the application of mathematics in different fields started with his exposure to Mathematical Economics, and later on,
on Mathematical Ecology on special schools offered at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy in
the early 2000s. Attendance to Centre Internationale de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees (CIMPA) Schools on Partial
Differential Equations and its applications introduced him to different physical, engineering, social and economic
problems that motivate the development of new mathematical techniques and theories to address them. Interest in
such problems was strengthened when he became a researcher at the Jacques-Louis Lions (formerly Numerical
Analysis) Laboratory of the University of Paris 6. He went on to pursue post-doctoral research in Mathematical Finance
at the University of Padova in 2009 focusing on utility-indifference pricing of financial derivatives. Currently, he heads
the Scientific Computing Laboratory whose research focus on complex systems. He teaches algorithm and design, and
engineering-related mathematics from fundamentals like partial differential equations and numerical analysis to
advanced topics like optimal control theory, linear and non-linear optimization, information theory and game theory
among others.

WELFARE MAXIMIZATION UNDER A THREE-CHOICE MINORITY GAME MODEL
FOR ENERGY DEMAND ALLOCATION

Microgrids have been increasingly researched as a promising solution for providing energy to off-grid
rural communities. Among the challenges of deploying microgrids to these communities is the
problem of developing simple demand management schemes so that peaks and troughs in the
consumers’ load demand can be minimized. A usual demand management scheme involves
awarding consumers who utilize energy at times of low demand and penalizing those who utilize
energy at times of high demand. Such schemes, however, may not always maximize user welfare. In
this work, welfare analysis for a three time-window scheme for a simple microgrid is conducted. The
study investigates whether ideal agent distributions that maximize social welfare across these time
windows of energy usage can be computed assuming homogeneous agent utility and linear costs. A
three-choice minority game was then developed as an allocation scheme for the grid. The game was
simulated to determine whether these ideal agent distributions can be achieved within the game.
Simulation results show that agent attendances over time approach the ideal agent distributions for
some penalization schemes. The developed model therefore has a promising potential to be applied
as a demand management scheme.

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102 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

WILSON TAN
San Roque Power Corporation Professorial
Chair In Computer Science

Dr. Wilson Tan is an associate professor and the current assistant chair of the Department of Computer Science. He also
heads the Undergraduate Committee program of the Department and advises undergraduate thesis students under the
Network and Distributed Systems Group.

OPPORTUNISTIC LoRa-BASED GATEWAYS FOR DELAY-TOLERANT SENSOR
DATA COLLECTION IN URBAN SETTINGS

There are several ways that sensor nodes in a smart city setting can get data to a base station for processing.
Sensor nodes that need not report their data to the base station in real time can opt for a delay-tolerant
networking or data muling setup. If the data collector itself would send the data to the internet through its own
(mobile) backhaul link, we can consider the data collector to be a mobile gateway. The choice of radio
technology for the link between the sensor or end device and the mobile gateway is important: it would affect
the number of mobile gateways needed, the required mobility pattern for them to provide a certain level of
delay guarantees to the data, and the overall efficiency of the scheme. LoRa, with its long range and relatively
low power consumption, can potentially decrease the number of gateways needed in the system, while
decreasing delays. This study explores opportunistic, mobile LoRa-based gateways using a pull-based transfer
of data to implement a low-cost system in terms of communication and the hardware used. We present a MAC
layer protocol, for use with the LoRa radio/physical layer, with three gateway operation modes: Independent,
Pure Pass Through, and Instruction-based.

Comparison with a more traditional baseline system with push-based transfer of data reveals that our
pull-based system performs better in terms of percentage of data points that are successfully sent by the end
devices to the network server. We also evaluate the performance and scalability of the three modes using a
small campus-wide deployment and discrete-event simulations. Experiments reveal that of the three modes,
the Instruction-based mode is the most balanced in terms of computation power requirement and
communication costs.

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 103

NESTINE HOPE HERNANDEZ
Vea Technology for All Professorial Chair

Asst. Prof. Nestine Hope Hernandez is currently a PhD CS student at the Department of Computer Science. She is
working on natural computing research (Membrane Computing, Quantum Computing) and combinatorial
interconnection networks (combinatorial algorithms on graphs).

MATRIX REPRESENTATION AND SIMULATION ALGORITHM OF SPIKING NEURAL
P SYSTEMS WITH STRUCTURAL PLASTICITY

In this paper, we create a matrix representation for spiking neural P systems with structural plasticity
(SNPSP), taking inspiration from existing algorithms and representations for related variants. Using
our matrix representation, we provide a simulation algorithm for SNPSP systems. We prove that the
algorithm correctly simulates an SNPSP system: our representation and algorithm are able to
capture the syntax and semantics of SNPSP systems, e.g., plasticity rules, dynamism in the synapse
set. Analyses of the time and space complexity of our algorithm show that its implementation can
benefit using parallel computers. Our representation and simulation algorithm can be useful when
implementing SNPSP systems and related variants with a dynamic topology, in software or hardware.

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104 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

DCS PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARDS COLLOQUIUM

October 26, 2020

Asst. Prof Kelvin Buno Asst. Prof. Edgar Felizmenio
Atty. Raul C. Villanueva Professorial Chair Jesus Ferrer Professorial Chair
Spiking Neural dP Systems: Balance and homogeneity Evaluating the viability of ciphertext-policy attribute-based
encryption on service-oriented health information exchange
Assoc. Prof. Francis Cabarle
Dean Ruben A. Garcia Professorial Chair systems.
A framework for evolving spiking neural P systems with rules on
Assoc. Prof. Rommel Feria
synapses. Dean Juan L. Tiongson Professorial Chair
Quantifying the side effect of ‘Adtech’ on popular websites in
Asst. Prof. Carlo Raquel
David B. Sycip Professional Chair the Philippines
Approaches in evolutionary multi-objective reinforcement
Prof. Susan Festin
learning. Filemon Rodriguez Professorial Chair in Computer Science
Investigation of distributed ledger technologies from the context
Prof. Henry Adorna
Semirara Mining Corporation Professorial Chair in Computer of privacy preservation.

Science Prof. Cedric Festin
Approaches in solving combinatorial hard problems Dado and Maria Banatao Institute Professorial Chair
Connecting isolated communities: Quantitative evidence on the
Assoc. Prof. Vena Pearl Bongolan adoption of community cellular networks in the Philippines
Cesar Buenaventura UP Centennial Professorial Chair
Asst. Prof. Mario Carreon
SDG target interactions: The Philippine context Marubeni Professorial Chair
An Attempt to programmatically merge two language
Asst. Prof. Philip Zuniga dictionaries in Project Marayum
UPAE Professorial Chair
Modeling the Philippine COVID-19 clinical workflow using HL7

FHIR

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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 105

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

106 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

RANSIE JOY A. APURA
Vicente and Juanita Hao Chin Professorial
Chair

Assistant Professor Ransie Joy A. Apura has been a full-time faculty member of the UP Department of Geodetic
Engineering since 2017. She is also a member of the Environmental Systems Applications of Geomatics Engineering
(EnviSAGE) laboratory.
Her research interests include urban GIS, geographic accessibility, facility location problems, sustainable transportation
and geostatistics.
Asst. Prof. Apura both obtained her MS degree in Geomatics Engineering and BS degree is Geodetic Engineering from
the University of the Philippines Diliman.

GEOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF HEALTH CARE FACILITY REFERRAL SYSTEM:
THE CASE OF MANILA CITY

Anecdotal evidence suggested that there is a skewed spatial distribution of health care facilities in the country
with most of the facilities with higher functional capacity located in selected highly urbanized areas. The
resulting overcrowding in these facilities affects the effectivity of referrals. To geographically evaluate the
distribution of health care facilities in the city of Manila with regard to its functioning hierarchical referral
system. Network distribution is assessed using an identified spatial separation and a geographic travel
standard/threshold.
Data on functional capacity, location and referral services were collected. From these data, specific spatial
separation from one facility to another were generated with several travel scenarios (to account for varying
nature of road traffic in the study site). Analysis of generated spatial separation were then used to
geographically evaluate the health care facility referral network. For scenarios 1, 2 and 4, driving time from
any health center (with or without attached lying-in clinic) and any hospital to any hospital are within the
geographic travel standard. For scenario 3, driving time from any health center (with or without attached lying-
in clinic) to at least one general hospital is within the geographic travel standard while driving time for any L1,
L2, L3 and specialty hospitals to at least one L3 hospital are within the geographic travel standard.
Based on the analysis of generated spatial separation for considered health care facilities, this study conclude
that the study area has a good spatial distribution of health centers (with or without attached lying-in clinic)
and hospitals for existing hierarchical referral system. The geographic evaluation could be improved by
including other types of mobility and use of actual road traffic data.

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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 107

LOUIE P. BALICANTA
Felipe F. Cruz Professorial Chair in Geodetic
Engineering

Louie P. Balicanta received his MA degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the School of Urban and Regional Planning and BS Geodetic
Engineering at the UP Department of Geodetic Engineering. As a geodetic engineer industry practitioner, Engr. Balicanta has been involved in
numerous projects that made use of GNSS technology such as ground control-point establishment for ortho-photo mapping, construction projects
and hydrographic surveys. He is also a property survey practitioner that uses both conventional methods and new methods such as RTK and UAS
for the delineation of land parcel boundaries. As a member of the academe, he has been involved in providing trainings to GE practitioners and
planners in the realm of surveying and physical planning - teaching undergraduate students in geodesy, surveying, land development and
valuation; teaching graduate students cadastral data management and geodetic adjustments; and advising several undergraduate students and
graduate students. His research track includes topics related to planning such as the Guiguinto Land-Use Determinant (GoLD) Model and Site
Selection for Subdivision Development; and related to surveying and geodesy such as High-Ordered Differential Levelling with Total Station using
Modified Field Techniques and Systematic Error Correction, local geoid modelling, RTK-GNSS for Property Surveying and UAS for land survey, to
name a few. He was involved in different research projects with UP TCAGP such as DOST’s National LiDAR Program specifically in the LIDAR data
acquisition, validation and bathymetric survey activities; with UP TCAGP and NAMRIA’s Research on the Modernization of the Philippine Geodetic
Reference System; and with UP TCAGP and DENR-LMB’s Land Sector Modernization Research Projects 1 and 2. The Geodetic Engineers of the
Philippines Inc. (GEPI) National and the NCR, respectively, awarded Engr. Balicanta as the 2018 and 2019 Most Outstanding Geodetic Engineer in
Academe for his exemplary efforts in supporting GEPI’s program of improving the practitioners through sharing of research outputs in various
GEPI conventions. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Geodetic Engineering in UP Diliman and served as the chairman of
the department and director of the Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry from 2017 to 2020.

LANDS MODE 2: PROPERRTK

As the use of RTK-GNSS has been prevalent in the country due to the multiple satellite system
available in Southeast Asia. The need to come up with policies and standards has become more
critical as the influx of related outputs must be checked and documented systematically by our land
agencies. Through the LandS Mode 2 research project, one of the component dealt with such
challenges. The ProperRTK component provided the documentation, methodology design, tests and
implementation in the data gathering, up to processing of RTK-GNSS outputs specifically in the use
for property survey.

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108 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

ARIEL C. BLANCO
Reciñas-Simon Professorial Chair

Dr. Ariel C. Blanco is a professor of Geodetic Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He holds the
following degrees: BS Geodetic Engineering (1997) from UP Diliman, Master of Applied Science in Geographic
Information Systems (2003) from the University of Melbourne (Australia) and Doctor of Engineering (2009) from the
Tokyo Institute of Technology. He is the founding head of the Environmental Systems Applications of Geomatics
Engineering (EnviSAGE) Research and Development Laboratory. Through EnviSAGE, he has mentored numerous
undergraduate students (BS GE) and graduate students of MS Remote Sensing, MS Geomatics Engineering, MS Energy
Engineering and MS/PhD Environmental Engineering. Dr. Blanco successfully led R&D programs and projects including
the MECO-TECO Multi-Sensor Cross-Platform Water Quality Monitoring (MCWQM) Project and the Project GUHeat
(Geospatial Assessment and Modelling of Urban Heat Islands in Philippine Cities). He is currently serving as project
director of the JICA-funded BlueCARES Project (Comprehensive Assessment and Conservation of Blue Carbon Ecosystems
and their Services in the Coral Triangle), program leader of the DOST-funded Integrated Mapping, Monitoring,
Modelling and Management of Manila Bay and Linked Environments (IM4ManilaBay) Program and project leader of
the World Bank-funded Plastic Monitoring in Pasig River Project.
He is a UP Scientist I (2015-2017, 2018-2020) under the UP Scientific Productivity System.

MODELLING OF LAND SURFACE TEMPERATURE USING GRAY-LEVEL CO-
OCCURRENCE MATRIX AND RANDOM FOREST REGRESSION

Modelling of land surface temperature (LST) is conducted to be able to explain the spatial and temporal variations of LST
using a set of explanatory variables. LST in a previous study was modelled as a linear function of vegetation cover and
built up cover as quantified by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized difference built-up
index (NDBI), respectively, and other variables, namely, albedo, solar radiation (SR), surface area-volume ratio (SVR) and
skyview factor (SVF). SVF requires a digital surface model of sufficient resolution while SVR computation needs 3D
volumetric features representing buildings as input. These inputs are typically not readily available. In addition, NDVI and
NDBI do not fully describe the spatial variability of vegetation and built-up cover within an LST pixel. In this study,
PlanetScope images (3-m resolution) were processed to provide soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) and VgNIR Built-
up Index (VgNIR-BI) layers. The following gray level co-occurrence matrices (GLCM) were generated from SAVI and
VgNIR-BI: mean, variance, homogeneity, contrast, dissimilarity, entropy, second moment and correlation. Random Forest
Regression was run for several cases with different combinations of GLCM features and non-GLCM variables. Using
GLCM features alone yielded less satisfactory models. However, the use of additional GLCM features in combination with
other variables resulted in lower MSE and a slight increase in R2. Considering NDBI, NDVI, SAVI_GLCM_contrast, VgNIR-
BI_GLCM_contrast, VgNIR-BI_GLCM_dissimilarity and SAVI_GLCM_contrast only, the RF model yielded an MSE = 1.657
and validation R2 = 0.822. While this 6-variable model’s performance is slightly less, the need for DSM and 3D building
models which are necessary for the generation of SVF and SVR layers is eliminated. Exploratory regression (ER) was also
conducted. The best 6-variable ER model (Adj. R2 = 0.79) consists of SVR, NDBI, NDVI, SAVI_GLCM_second_moment,
VgNIR-BI_GLCM_mean and VgNIR-BI_GLCM_entropy. In comparison, OLS regression using the 6 non-GLCM variables
yielded an Adj. R2 = 0.691. The results of RFR and ER both indicate the value of GLCM features in providing valuable
information to the models of LST. LST is best described through a combination of GLCM features describing relatively
homogenous areas (i.e., dominant land cover or low-frequency areas) and the more heterogenous areas (i.e., edges or
high-frequency areas) and non-GLCM variables.

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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 109

FLORENCE A. GALEON
Cristy R. Hernandez Professorial Chair in
Engineering

Engr. Galeon is a licensed geodetic engineer and board placer in the 1990 Geodetic Engineering Board Exam. He
finished BS Geodetic Engineering degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman and Master of Engineering
Science in Remote Sensing from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia.

He once served as chairman of the Department of Geodetic Engineering and director of its training arm, the Training
Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry (TCAGP).

Being in the academe, his research interest is in the fields of geomatics and spatial technology applications. He is also
working as a consultant of Aviso Valuation & Advisory, a valuation and advisory firm assisting top corporations in the
fields of real estate, development finance, hospitality, infrastructure, power and manufacturing, among others. He has
done several Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded projects in property market studies. He is an
academe member of the Philippine Real Estate Appraisers (IPREA) and the Geodetic Engineers of the Philippines (GEP).

DETERMINING CORNER EFFECT IN LAND VALUATION

The value determinants of real estate have long been studied and constitute a significant portion of
the literature published in real estate journals. Knowing the factors affecting urban land value is so
important in determining the future of urban development and anticipating potential changes. This is
a study to gather and tabulate physical and economic property market data for the determination of
corner effect in land valuation. The sampling strategy applied is stratified systematic random
sampling. The subject area is strategically divided or segmented into seven (7) regions or strata then
sampling locations or areas of interest are systematically selected in each stratum. From each
sampling locations, samples of residential and commercial areas are randomly selected using various
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) operators. After 60 working days of doing fieldworks by
twelve field valuers, a total of 817 samples are collected and encoded utilizing various spatial-based
technologies. The output is a master database with an interactive GIS map integrating the coordinate
location of samples and the land value parameters. The gathering and tabulation of physical and
economic property market data is both very laborious and challenging. The results of the study
produced something unexpected. There is not enough evidence that corner lots are valued more
than any lot in the middle of the block. Majority of the comparable lots, corner and non-corner lots,
turned out to have the same market values.

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110 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

OLIVER T. MACAPINLAC
RASA Surveying Professorial Chair

Engr. Oliver T. Macapinlac is an assistant professor of the Department of Geodetic Engineering, University of the
Philippines Diliman. He is a graduate of the academic programs, BS Geodetic Engineering in 2001 and MS Remote
Sensing in 2008 from the same home department. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Geoinformatics in ITC, University of
Twente, the Netherlands.

His research interests involve geoinformation R&D such as developing recommender systems and spatial computations
applied to practical fields such as in agriculture and land use. With focus on geoinformation, he has inclination to
develop software and applications that culminates in providing the right spatial information to the stakeholders and
technical personnel of those fields. These, together with his knowledge and skills in GIS, web and mobile programming
and spatial databases, create research opportunities in various fields that requires geospatial information processes
and analysis.

BUILDING KNOWLEDGE BASES FOR COLLABORATIVE LAND USE PLANNING

The decision mapping system of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) intends to
monitor the extent of development in a specified land use/ zoning area. This process is done by
comparing the location of projects with locational clearances and development permits to an
amended zoning map of the local government unit (LGU). For this to operationalize, three important
datasets are required in the analysis: (1) zoning map, (2) agricultural reclassified map (with these two
resulting to an amended zoning map) and (3) point location of projects with corresponding attribute
information. This data is originally captured by authorized land use monitor, usually officials from the
local government unit. However, the nature of the data can actually be generated by any citizen in
the locality. This important data when integrated, filtered and assessed can be an integral part of the
assessment and development of the land use plan of a locality. In this paper, we present how a web
portal, a QGIS plugin system and a mobile data collection tool are designed and built to implement
the building knowledge bases for land use planning. The Land Use and Zoning Information System
(LUZIS) is an information system (IS) intended to operationalize data gathering and organization and
monitoring function of development projects within a municipality/city. With a GIS-based and web
portal framework, LUZIS can generate reports on how compliant or deviated the development of an
area to the existing land use. Hence, LUZIS can be used as a decision tool in revising succeeding
land uses and zoning of an area.

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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 111

EDGARDO G. MACATULAD
Robert Cheng - Uratex Professorial Chair

Asst. Prof. Edgardo G. Macatulad is a faculty of the Department of Geodetic Engineering since 2013 and holds a degree
of BS Geodetic Engineering and MSc Geomatics Engineering (Geoinformatics) from the University of the Philippines.

He is a member of the Environmental Systems Application of Geomatics Engineering (EnviSAGE) research laboratory in
the department, and his current field of interest is towards geomatics for built environment analysis, modeling and
simulation including 3D and indoor GIS, geo-visualization, geo-simulation and urban environment modeling.

APPLICATION OF GIS NETWORK ANALYSIS FOR INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE
EVACUATION ROUTES IN BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY

The foremost goal of evacuation planning and management is to ensure the safety of the people in
the event of a need to evacuate due to disasters, such as an earthquake. This is especially
challenging in populous and complex spaces, such as in highly-urbanized areas like the Bonifacio
Global City (BGC), where the high density buildings leave little room for evacuation areas and also
present possible obstruction in case of building collapse. The high population that can be equated to
such business centers would require proper pedestrian evacuation planning and management. BGC
currently has no defined city-wide emergency and evacuation procedures, although they have
identified the American Battle Monument at the southern portion as their evacuation site. Evacuation
drills are of course the primary means to familiarize the pedestrian of the evacuation routes and
evacuation areas in the city, but through the use of GIS processes such as network analysis,
assessment of the evacuation routes can be done and related spatial analysis can be incorporated,
such as approximation of debris from possible collapsed buildings. The urban network of areas like
BGC is seen as another factor that may be investigated to get an understanding of the pedestrian
movement in the area, which can be an additional input to improving their evacuation plans. In this
paper, GIS network analysis is used including metrics generated from the Urban Network Analysis
(UNA) tool to perform initial assessment of the evacuation routes in BGC for different case scenarios.

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112 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

ROSEANNE V. RAMOS
Sy Ling Chat Professorial Chair in Engineering

Roseanne V. Ramos is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Geodetic Engineering in the University of
the Philippines. She obtained her MSc degree in Geomatics Engineering with a specialization in Geoinformatics and BS
degree in Geodetic Engineering in the same university.
Her research interests include the use of geospatial technologies such as remote sensing (RS) and geographic
information systems (GIS) for environmental applications (e.g. water and air quality monitoring).
She was awarded the Most Outstanding Engineering Instructor in 2019 and is currently the Institutional Linkages Officer
of the UP College of Engineering.

SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF NO2 LEVELS IN METRO MANILA USING
SENTINEL 5P SATELLITE DATA

Monitoring of air quality in highly urbanized cities such as Metro Manila is essential due to its significant
impacts on the environment and human health. Ground monitoring stations are being managed and
maintained in the region but there is limited availability of air quality measurements and the few stations fail to
characterize the ambient air quality at a finer scale. In this study, the criteria pollutant NO2 is mapped and
analyzed based on satellite data. This paper presents an alternative and supplementary method to the ground
air quality measurements to comprehensively report air quality at the city level, and to determine ambient air
quality concentrations using publicly available remotely sensed data. Tropospheric NO2 based on Sentinel 5P
satellite observations are utilized to provide a spatial and temporal characterization of the pollutant
concentrations that can aid in comprehensive monitoring and reporting of the ambient air quality of the Metro
Manila area. The near real-time measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI)
sensor of Sentinel 5P utilized in the spatial and temporal analysis are provided daily in terms of total vertical
column densities. Google Earth Engine (GEE) scripts were created to access and extract NO2 values and
meteorological parameters such as wind velocity, air temperature, land surface temperature and cumulative
rainfall from satellite observations and global climate reanalysis data. Temporal variations of satellite-based
NO2 were characterized using descriptive statistics based on daily and monthly areal averages. NO2 levels
were lowest during January, February and August and relatively high variations occurred during March and
May. Relatively low levels of NO2 were observed during the implementation of the Enhanced Community
Quarantine (ECQ) protocol in the region. NO2 concentrations have the highest correlation with wind speed,
with the Kendall correlation coefficient τ = -0.42. Clusters or high concentrations of tropospheric NO2 were
observed in the central parts of Metro Manila and statistically significant clusters were determined using local
Moran’s I. Prevailing wind conditions in the region influenced the variations in the location of these clusters of
high NO2 concentrations.

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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 113

ROSALIE B. REYES
Policarpio and Nenita Alberto Professorial
Chair in Geomatics

Dr. Rosalie B. Reyes has been a regular faculty member of the Department of Geodetic Engineering since 2014. She was
previously employed at the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) for 23 years. She earned
her Master of Science in Environmental Engineering at the University of the Philippines. Under the sponsorship of DOST,
she was able to obtain her Doctor of Engineering in Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System at the Asian
Institute of Technology in Thailand. She had post-doctoral research studies in Geodesy at Denmark Technical University
and Remote Sensing at Yamaguchi University in Japan.

Her research interests include geodesy, microwave remote sensing, GNSS, satellite altimetry and surveying.

LAKE WATER LEVEL VARIABILITY DETERMINATION FROM SAR BACKSCATTER
OF DISCRETE OBJECTS, GNSS LEVELING AND SATELLITE ALTIMETRY

In the absence of enough gauging stations for monitoring lake water level, three (3) methods are presented in this
research: (1) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) backscatter from discrete object using double bounce scattering
mechanism; (2) Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) leveling; and (3) satellite altimetry. The availability of
data that can be exploited for this purpose can be cost-effective, albeit with limitations. The use of SAR remote
sensing satellites for lake water level determination is a relatively new application. GNSS is a ubiquitous technology
and provides 3-dimension measurements. Recently, algorithms for retracking altimeter data near the coast and
inland waters made them usable for monitoring water level. The most important result of this research is
demonstrating that the Laguna Lake water level is not homogeneous but instead varies at different locations. This
has great impact on understanding the lake’s hydrology that has been modeled as one continuous water level.
GNSS leveling was used to measure lake level at selected locations along the coast and inside the lake. The
measurements showed that water level varies from -0.64 m to 1.26 m from water gauge data. Water level
determination using SAR used the fish pen guard house as discrete object for double bounce scattering. It
required, however, correlation and calibration with the in-situ gauge data. A correlation of 0.86 was computed
between the gauge data and sigma 0 from a nearby guard house that exhibits strong backscatter. Since only one
object provided good reflection, water variability from this method was not determined. The equation derived
through linear regression, however, was used to predict water level from SAR images acquired at different times.
The satellite altimeter data from SARAL from March 2013 to March 2016 correlated with water level from graduated
staff at 0.97. The difference between the two datasets was about 0.29 m. Sorting the altimeter data based on
latitude showed an increasing water level trend from north to south. The same results were also manifested by
GNSS leveling. The use of remote sensing data is cost effective compared to water gauge establishment but is
limited by temporal resolution and presence of a consistent reflector for method using SAR. GNSS leveling is the
most practical and economical method but this required establishing permanent GNSS stations along the coast and
moored buoys inside the lake transmitting data in real time.

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114 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

CZAR JAKIRI S. SARMIENTO
Ariston I. Delos Reyes Centennial Professorial
Chair in Engineering

Dr. Jak Sarmiento is an assistant professor of Geodesy at UP Diliman. He holds a PhD in Surveying and Spatial
Information Systems from the University of New South Wales where he trained under the historied Satellite Navigation
and Positioning (SNAP) Laboratory of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) president-elect, Dr.
Chris Rizos.
For the past decade, he was involved in a number of internationally- and locally-supported, geodetic research projects.
He is the founder and managing director of the Research and Development Laboratory for Computational Geodesy
(CGRD Lab) He is also currently serving as the chairman of the UP Department of Geodetic Engineering and director of
the Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry.

A LOCALIZED DEMONSTRATION OF A GRAVIMETRIC-GEOMETRIC GEOID
MODEL TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TIME-DEPENDENT VERTICAL

WORKING SURFACE

This paper, written for the Professorial Chair Award, expounds on a development scheme for a geoid
model with gravimetric and geometric elements that enables a more descriptive determination of
locational uncertainty. This method uses geodetic datasets that are limited in volume and precisional
homogeneity, but sufficient in form for evidentiary value. This paper also introduces the concept of a
vertical working surface, a concept that bridges the transitional gap between the previous and the
next generation height systems. On the formation of such, this scheme expands literature towards
the next generation Philippine Height System.

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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 115

DGE PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARDS COLLOQUIUM

October 21, 2020 November 25, 2020

Florence A.Galeon Rosalie B. Reyes
Cristy R. Hernandez Professorial Chair in Engineering Policarpio and Nenita Alberto Professorial Chair in Geomatics

Determining Corner Effect in Land Valuation Lake Water Level Variability Determination from SAR
Backscatter of Discrete Objects, GNSS Leveling and Satellite
Edgardo G.Macatulad
Robert Cheng/Uratex Professorial Chair Altimetry
Applications of GIS Network Analysis for Initial Assessment of the
Evacuation Routes In Bonifacio Global City Jeark A. Principe
UP Diliman Centennial Professorial Chair
Ransie Joy A.Apura Regional Assessment of Solar PV Power Potential: A Holistic
Vicente and Juanita Hao Chin Professorial Chair
Geographic Evaluation of Health Care Facility Referral System: Approach using RS and GIS

The Case Of Manila City

Oliver T. Macapinlac
RASA Surveying Professorial Chair
Building Knowledge Bases for Collaborative Land Use Planning

Louie P.Balicanta
Felipe F. Cruz Professorial Chair in Geodetic Engineering

LandS Mode 2: PropertRTK

Czar Jakiri S. Sarmiento
Ariston I. Delos Reyes Centennial Professorial Chair in

Engineering
A Localized Demonstration of a Gravimetric-Geometric Geoid
Model Towards The Development of a Time-Dependent Vertical

Working Surface

Ariel C.Blanco
Reciñas – Simon Professorial Chair
Modelling of Land Surface Temperature Using Gray-Level Co-
Occurrence Matrix and Random Forest Regression

Roseanne V. Ramos
Sy Ling Chat Professorial Chair in Engineering
Spatial and Temporal Analysis of NO2 Levels in Metro Manila

Using Sentinel 5P Satellite Data

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116 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD
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DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 117

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118 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

JOANNA Z. RESURRECCION
Marubeni UP Centennial Professorial Chair

Dr. Joanna Resurreccion is a tenured faculty of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research of the
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, particularly teaching undergraduate subjects under the Industrial
Engineering program and graduate-level subjects under the Industrial Engineering and Environmental Engineering
programs.
Dr. Resurreccion finished her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and master’s degree in Industrial Engineering
under the Operations Research track from the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She graduated with a Doctor of
Philosophy in Systems Engineering from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Her field of specialization covers economic and disaster risk analysis, systems engineering and operations research. Her
research interests include economic and environmental input-output modeling for disaster risk analysis, simulation and
modeling of transportation, distribution and health care systems, and system performance evaluation and analysis.

DECISION AND ECONOMIC RISK MODELING FOR IMPLEMENTING REGIONAL
QUARANTINE POLICIES AFFECTING THE LABOR FORCE AMONG
INTERDEPENDENT ECONOMIC AND SERVICE SYSTEMS

Health risk mitigation policies in times of a pandemic encompass the reduction, if not the complete halting, of
the labor force who may have been (1) directly affected by the pandemic or (2) obligated by a quarantine
policy to mitigate exposure to health risks. Consequently, the closure of major establishments providing
products and services and related infrastructure follows from the unavailability of work force. Moreover,
underlying regional sector interdependencies may cause these policies to induce ripple effects through
disruption in the functions of existing economic and service sectors. The effects may vary from income losses
and decreased utilization to mounting debts and hunger to the workforce. Decision support and economic
impact analysis to minimize these ripple effects while keeping infection rate within healthcare capacity are
necessary especially for disruptions that affect highly interdependent systems. This research evaluates the
criticality of individual sectors resulting from partial to full disruption of operations due to quarantine policies
preventing access to the labor component. A work force-based inoperability input-output (WFIIO) model is
applied to determine the direct and indirect economic impacts in a network of interdependent sectors for the
National Capital Region. The WFIIO model has been made capable to accommodate variations in quarantine
policies based on modifications in the proportion of the labor force that may be made available over a given
period. A case is demonstrated for the ongoing Corona virus pandemic from 2019, a truly unprecedented
event of the times. The model can help policy makers and enforcers estimate the economic consequences of
quarantine policies as well as prioritize critical sectors for government support programs. It has flexibility and
scalability over other disruption-events and other economic regions that deal with related work force
disruptions.

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DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 119

RAYMOND FRETH A. LAGRIA
Dr. Luis D. Pascual Professorial Chair in
Systems Thinking and System
Dynamics

RAYMOND FRETH A. LAGRIA is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations
Research, College of Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman. He received his bachelor’s degree in In UP
Diliman in 2011. He recently obtained his master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, major in Information Systems, also
in UP Diliman in 2019. He was a Technical Consultant for HP Philippines in 2011-2013. After that, he has been a
resource person for many analytics training programs including the recently developed program SPARTA: Smarter
Philippines through Data Analytics R&D, Training and Adoption by the Department of Science and Technology. He
specializes in the areas of Business Analytics, Data Warehousing, Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, and
Discrete Events Simulation.

A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH TO SOLVING THE EDSA TRAFFIC PROBLEM

Metro Manila is considered the worst city in terms of traffic as it has the highest congestion value in
the world. The Philippine authorities provided measures in the past to hopefully alleviate the traffic
congestion but due to the continuous increase in Metro Manila’s population, an increase in the
number vehicles that traverse EDSA is also observed. This paper proposed a Systems Dynamics
approach to solving traffic congestion in EDSA as well as to eventually aid authorities in policy
making. The analysis showed that urbanization and Metro Manila population are the major factors
that affect traffic congestion in EDSA.

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120 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

SIMON ANTHONY D. LORENZO
UPIEAA Professorial Chair

Simon Anthony D. Lorenzo is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations
Research of UP Diliman. He obtained his B.S. Industrial Engineering and M.S. Industrial Engineering degree (with a
specialization in Operations Research) from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has been involved in consulting
projects with banking and financial institutions, and has conducted training on analytics and statistics. His research
focuses on optimization studies, particularly in network and simulation models.

AN OPERATIONS RESEARCH APPROACH TO EVALUATING TOURNAMENT
STRUCTURES USING MATCH COMPETITIVENESS

Tournaments are important tools in selection processes. Multiple formats have been over the years,
such as single elimination, double elimination, and round robin. An emerging format is the two-
bracket format, which is a variant of double elimination. Each one was evaluated in terms of number
of matches, winner predictability and match quality. It was found that the round robin had the highest
winner predictability over most skill distributions, although the two-bracket format can achieve similar
results with far less matches. In terms of match quality, only the seeded single elimination is better
than the two-bracket format. The paper concludes that the two-bracket format provides a good
middle ground between the single elimination format and the round robin format, for all three metrics
tested.

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DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 121

ADELINE A. PACIA
Juan Jr and Rosario Halili-Quintos Professorial
Chair

Prof. Adeline Pacia is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of the
Philippines Diliman – of which she is also a proud alumna. She holds a postgraduate degree in Technology Management from UPD,
and specializes in Project Management, Information Systems Management and Technology Management.

In June 2020, she was appointed to a three-year term as UP Diliman Vice Chancellor for Administration. Prior to her current stint,
was Director of the UP Diliman Technology Transfer and Business Development Office under the Office of the Vice Chancellor for
Research and Development. She also previously served the University as the Deputy Executive Director of the UP National
Engineering Center, which under her leadership earned its first Philippine Quality Award for total quality management.

Prior to joining the academe, Prof. Pacia spent over two decades in corporate, most of which in leadership roles at local and
international technology corporations. She started her IT career in Computer Information Systems. Her stint with SAS Institute as
Professional Services Group Manager, Country Manager and Asia Pacific Education Manager, honed her skills in project
management and decision support systems. Prof. Pacia is also a certified Project Management Professional from the Project
Management Institute.

THE UP DILIMAN RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

As the national university, the University of the Philippines is mandated to perform its unique and
distinctive leadership in higher education and development. UP Diliman, (UPD) as the main campus,
should thus take the lead in setting academic standards and initiating innovations in teaching,
research, and faculty development. The UPD as the flagship campus of the national university also
took the lead in responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its COVID-19 Response
Framework shows the different areas of the university’s response in order to minimize the socio-
economic impact of COVID-19 on the UP Diliman community. The four major areas of the Response
Framework are: Ensuring Good Health and Safety, Ensuring adequate and continuous flow of UPD
Services, Supporting Academic and Research Activities, and Effective Communications. The
Response Framework is designed for the short-term to mid-term period to address the COVID-19
pandemic but may be updated to provide long-term response as we transition to the next normal.

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122 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

LOWELL LORENZO
Stephen D. Sy Professorial Chair

With co-author Rona Rufino

Asst. Prof. Lowell Lorenzo has been with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research since 2002.
His current research interests are in the fields of Scheduling, Supply Chain Management and Simulation. He obtained
his MS degree in Operations Research from Case Western Reserve University and BSIE degree from the University of the
Philippines Diliman.
1Rona Rufino is a graduate student at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of
the Philippines Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines
2Lowell Lorenzo is with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of the Philippines
Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines

DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPTIMIZED STARCH PORTFOLIO SELECTION MODEL
FOR VARIOUS FOOD APPLICATIONS IN HIGH VOLUME FOOD PRODUCTION

Starch is a natural polymer which is used in many food applications in a high-volume food production
setting. With the vast offerings of food items provided to the consumer, a corresponding number of
starch SKUs are also available to meet these different food product requirements. Since raw material
selection is a vital input in the attainment of a combined cost/quality efficient food product, there is a
need to rationalize the starch portfolio in order to streamline the applications of starch for these
various food applications. A goal programming model is developed and tested to assist the decision
maker in formulating an optimized starch portfolio based on conflicting objectives during the
selection process.

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DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 123

BENETTE P. CUSTODIO
Dr. Maria Aura Teodora Castillo Matias DIEOR
Golden Jubilee Professorial Chair in Human
Factors and Ergonomics

With co-authors San Juan N., Abaa K., Fernando E., Custodio B.

Benette Custodio is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering, with specialization in Ergonomics,
from the University of the Philippines. She has been teaching in the IE Department since 2010 and currently works
under the Human Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory.

Her research interests include work study and measurement, ergonomics, and user-centered design. She has been
involved in projects and consulting works on productivity, time and motion studies, life cycle assessment, office
ergonomics, ergonomic assessment, and usability evaluation.

AN ERGONOMIC ANALYSIS ON THE NEW E-TRAYSIKEL

Tricycles, consisting of a motorcycle for the driver and a sidecar for passengers, are a staple of
Philippine transportation. With the amount of CO2 produced by tricycles, the Department of Energy
and the Asian Development Bank spearheaded the creation of the “E-Traysikels”. While being
environmentally friendly, it is also important for the design to be ergonomic, thus, the study aimed to
assess the fit and comfort to Filipinos of the “E-Traysikel”. Dimensions of the e-tricycle were
compared to corresponding Filipino anthropometric dimensions. Postures of selected passengers
and drivers were taken and assessed using Rapid Entire Body Assessment and Rapid Upper Limb
Assessment. Perceived comfort when riding the e-tricycle were also gathered. Results showed
multiple parts of the “E-Traysikel” are smaller than corresponding anthropometric measurements.
REBA and RULA scores range from acceptable to medium risk. Recommendations were provided to
increase the comfort of the “E-Traysikels” for the passengers and drivers.

*International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics; AHFE 2020: Advances in Human Aspects of
Transportation pp 283-290

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124 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

IRIS ANN G. MARTINEZ, PhD
Fortunato T. dela Peña Professorial Chair in
Productivity Engineering

*With co-authors Christian John Immanuel S. Boydon and, Lowell L.
Lorenzo
**with co-author Regine A. Tejada
***with co-authorsJhunievieve Soriano, and Eugene Rex Jalao

Dr. Martinez obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering for Production from the University of Tokyo, her Master of
Engineering in Precision Machinery Systems from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and her Bachelor of Science in
Industrial Engineering cum laude from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is currently Professor 12 of the
Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research of the University of the Philippines Diliman. For more
than 20 years now, she has been teaching graduate and undergraduate Production and Service systems courses.
Furthermore, she has been doing research on forecasting product demand, planning for the proper capacity, managing
inventories, planning for the optimum manpower complement, scheduling production or service and managing the
supply chain. Alongside these, she has been helping organizations in food, fast moving consumer products, healthcare,
utilities and entertainment industries improve their operations management systems. Dr. Martinez is an Associate
Editor of the Philippine Engineering Journal.

LINEAR AND CONDITIONAL LOGIT MODELS OF DEMAND SHIFTING FOR THE
TIME-VARYING CAPACITY-DEMAND-IMBALANCE PROBLEM

We study the capacity-demand-imbalance problem occurring in manufacturing and service systems
in which capacity is constrained but demand is time-varying. We construct profit optimization models
using three different demand shifting functions and two different approaches. The demand shifting
functions differ in the behavior (i.e. linear or conditional logit) as well as in the factors that affect this
shift (i.e. price, demand difference, time difference). The approaches differ in the situation mainly as
seen from how customers react upon seeing a fully utilized system (i.e. either they balk/leave
immediately or wait in line until a server is free). We then perform numerical experiments on derived
data from a real-life service system to study the practicality of these models in terms of profit
improvement and computational effort. We find out that the parameters of the models affect profit
improvement in a certain trend and that price settings which result to profit improvement can be
computed in a fast time. In practice, a manufacturing or service system should aim to estimate these
parameters based on actual demand shifting behavior and then determine the optimal price setting
using the model that best approximates the real-life system.

*International Journal of Operations Research Vol. 16, No. 4, 105-118 (2019)

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DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 125

A TWO-STEP APPROACH INVOLVING FORECASTING PREFERENCES
INTEGRATING CURRICULUM, RANK, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND
INTEREST, AND ASSIGNMENT TO SHORTEN TEACHER-COURSE ASSIGNMENT

PROCESS

In a university administration process involving preference determination, e.g., teacher-course
assignment, the collection of teachers' preferences is difficult and time-consuming. To shorten the
time to collect and reprocess the teacher-course assignment, this paper proposes a two-step
methodology: (1) forecasting the teachers' preferences and (2) assigning teachers using the
forecasted preferences. Forecasting is done using data mining techniques that integrate curriculum,
teacher's rank, educational attainment and interest to teacher's history of teaching a course, profile,
and performance. After forecasting, the assignment problem is solved to maximize the satisfaction of
forecasted preferences and minimize the deviation from a target workload. The solution is executed
via integer linear programming. The proposed methodology was validated using real data and results
show that the generated assignments are satisfactory, as reported by the planner. The proposed
model also shortens the assignment generation time, primarily because of the elimination of the
collection of teachers' preferences.

**2020 IEEE World Conference on Engineering Education (EDUNINE), Bogota, Colombia, 2020, pp. 1-6

INTEGRATED EMPLOYEE SCHEDULING WITH KNOWN EMPLOYEE DEMAND,
INCLUDING BREAKS, OVERTIME, AND EMPLOYEE PREFERENCES

Purpose: This research paper introduces an integrated employee scheduling problem that considers
various real-life problems such as varying employee demand, different employee working conditions,
and individual preferences regarding schedules.
Design/methodology/approach: The proposed model, which is a combination of Analytic Hierarchy
Process and Mixed Integer Linear Programming, is used to solve the problem with multi-dimensional
objectives
Findings: Results show that the proposed model generates optimal and feasible solutions for weekly
employee schedules.
Originality/value: Many employee scheduling problems in literature are able to solve the employee
scheduling problem to a large extent but still do not fully reflect current realistic organizational
problems such as varying employee demand per hour interval, different employee working
conditions on disjoint shifts and breaks, and individual preferences regarding schedules all at the
same time.

***Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, [S.l.], v. 13, n. 3, p. 451-463, Sep. 2020. ISSN 2013-0953. Available
at: <https://www.jiem.org/index.php/jiem/article/view/3126>

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126 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

EUGENE REX L. JALAO, PhD
Diliman Integrative Technical Consultancy Inc.
Professorial Chair

With co-author Rona Rufino

Dr. Eugene Rex L. Jalao is a Professor of Analytics and Industrial Engineering in the University of the Philippines Diliman,
Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. He specializes in Decision Support Systems, Business
Analytics Solutions, Data Mining, Optimization and Systems Simulation. He obtained his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering
from Arizona State University (ASU) in May 2013. Additionally, he obtained his Masters of Science in Industrial
Engineering degree as well as his Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of the Philippines
Diliman in 2009 and 2007 respectively. He was inducted into the Alpha Phi Mu, Industrial Engineering Honor Society in
2012. His ten years of work and research experience are in the fields of business analytics both here in the Philippines
and in the United States of America, specifically in the Banking, FMCG, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Healthcare,
Telecommunications and Information Technology industries. Also, he is the current director of the Business Analytics
Certification Program of UP National Engineering Center. Furthermore, he was part of 50-person APEC team that
drafted the Recommended Data Science and Analytics Competencies last May 2017 in Singapore. He is also a certified
SAP ERP Materials Management consultant, a Matlab computing associate and an advocate of the R and Python
Programming language.

INTEGRATED EMPLOYEE SCHEDULING WITH KNOWN EMPLOYEE DEMAND,
INCLUDING BREAKS, OVERTIME, AND EMPLOYEE PREFERENCES

Purpose: This research paper introduces an integrated employee scheduling problem that considers
various real-life problems such as varying employee demand, different employee working conditions,
and individual preferences, regarding schedules.

Design/methodology/approach: The proposed model, which is a combination of Analytic Hierarchy
Process and Mixed Integer Linear Programming, is used to solve the problem with multi-dimensional
objectives

Findings: Results show that the proposed model generates optimal and feasible solutions for weekly
employee schedules.

Originality/value: Many employee scheduling problems in literature are able to solve the employee
scheduling problem to a large extent. However, these studies still do not fully reflect current realistic
organizational problems such as varying employee demand per hour interval, different employee
working conditions on disjoint shifts and breaks, and individual preferences regarding schedules all
at the same time.

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DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 127

ERICKSON L. LLAGUNO
Focus Global, Inc. Professorial Chair in
Engineering

Erickson L. Llaguno is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
(DIEOR). He is also the Program Leader of the Lean Six Sigma Certification and Training Program, a collaboration
between the department and the UP National Engineering Center. He also handles training on Risk Management,
Project Management, Productivity Improvements and Reliability-Centered Maintenance, among others. He has also
engaged in consulting work with both public and private organizations on customer feedback and satisfaction studies,
water demand and total systems studies and process improvements. His research interests are generally in the areas of
quality management, customer experience and operational excellence.

ASSESSMENT OF THE ‘CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE’ OF THE UNDERGRADUATE
STUDENTS OF UP-DILIMAN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING PROGRAM

Customer experience plays a key role in the success of a business. It is this experience that will either make the customer come back
and wanting for more of the product or service or simply leave and transfer to the competition. This experience starts the moment the
customer uses the company’s product or if it is a service, the time the customer interfaces with the company’s people or its systems
and procedures.
In the context of education, students are termed as both internal customers and as active inputs to the learning process. They are also
eventually considered as one of the outputs of the institution. There is the perception that public educational institutions may not be as
actively addressing student customer experience concerns, unlike their private counterparts.
From the perspective of the customer, UP as the premier university in the country offers the best education in the country and at no
cost insofar as tuition fee for undergraduate students is concerned. No other value proposition combination –best education and no
cost- can top that. The increasing number of applicants yearly is a testament to this.
Specifically, the BSIE program of the University offers premier industrial engineering education in the country since the program's
inception in the 1960s. This study looks into the customer experience of students in the BS Industrial Engineering program from the
moment they qualified in the program until they graduate and become part of the alumni community.
Essentially, the ‘pain points’ identified by the students starting from freshmen orientation, visit to website, freshmen registration,
delivery of instructions and as member of the alumni community are noted. Proposed interventions at various stages of the student
journey are also enumerated. These include the following: updating of content on all department online platforms, benchmarking of the
website with leading universities abroad, the conduct of regular program and career orientations, documentation of usual problems
and issues encountered during registration and come up with FAQs on these, faculty to keep abreast with new developments and
technology, industry leaders to give talks to faculty, keeping of database for student projects, consistency of syllabi, revisit teaching
styles of faculty to harness the full potential of students, the conduct of mentorship and set-up of job placement assistance program
through close coordination with the alumni association, among others.

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128 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

DIEOR PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARDS COLLOQUIUM

October 27, 2020

Erickson L. Llaguno
Focus Global, Inc. Professorial Chair in Engineering
Assessment of the ‘Customer Experience’ of the Undergraduate Students of the UP-Diliman Industrial Engineering Program

Virginia J. Soriano, Ph.D.
Jose Edgar Manrique Professorial Chair in Industrial Engineering
A Systems Thinking Approach To Explore Strategies for Sustainability of Cultural Landscapes: The Case of the Rice Terraces of the

Philippine Cordilleras
Raymond Freth A. Lagria
Dr. Luis D. Pascual Professorial Chair in Systems Thinking and System Dynamics
Topic A Systems Dynamic Approach to Solving the EDSA Traffic Problem

Benette P. Custodio
Dr. Maria Aura Teodora Castillo Matias DIEOR Golden Jubilee Professorial Chair in Human Factors and Ergonomics

An Ergonomic Analysis on the New E-Traysikel
Simon Anthony A. Lorenzo
UPIEAA Professorial Chair

An Operations Research Approach to Evaluating Tournament Structures Using Match Competitiveness
Lowell L. Lorenzo

Stephen D. Sy Professorial Chair
Development of an Optimized Starch Portfolio Selection Model for Various Food Applications in High Volume Food Production

Adeline A. Pacia
Juan Jr and Rosario Halili-Quintos Professorial Chair
The UP Diliman Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 129

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

130 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

BINOE E. ABUAN
H.B. Reyes Mechanical Engineering
Centennial Professorial Chair

With co-author Rona Rufino

Binoe E. Abuan is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UP Diliman. He earned his
bachelor’ s degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2013 and his Doctorate from the University of
Sheffield in 2017. He has been serving as a full-time faculty member of the Department since 2013 and he is the current
Graduate Program Coordinator. His research interest is on fluid mechanics particularly on the application of
computational fluid dynamics to study renewable energy systems like wind and tidal turbines. His latest researches
include tidal turbine blade design and its performance in unsteady flow.

A VALIDATION STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A HORIZONAL AXIS TIDAL
TURBINE (HATT)

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model of the Sheffield HATT, a tidal turbine designed to
perform better in varying flow velocity, was created in order to predict its performance in unsteady
flow using ANSYS FLUENT. Several mesh independence tests were performed to determine a
suitable mesh for the problem under study. The final CFD model was used to do simulation of a full
tip-speed ratio (TSR) sweep to determine the performance curve of the turbine. It was shown that at
Reynolds number, Re=125,000 (which is the same Re at the wind tunnel experiment), the shape and
the trend of the performance curve has the same shape when compared to that of the initial Re at
1,350,000. Lower values of CP were obtained which agreed with a separate Blade-Element
Momentum study where CP values go down as Re decreases. Brake torque experiments (using
spring balance) in the wind tunnel were conducted at Re=135,000 to obtain a power curve that is
plotted against the CFD simulation results. It was shown that there is good correspondence between
the experimental results and the CFD results which in turn gives more confidence for the numerical
data obtained from CFD simulations.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 131

JUVY A. BALBARONA, PhD.
Renato M. Tanseco Professorial Chair

Dr. Juvy A. Balbarona is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She earned her B.S. and
M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and Ph.D. in Energy Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Her research interests include energy conservation in built environment, surface modification techniques for thermal
systems applications, and nano technology. Her latest research includes surface functionalization of copper and brass
using oxidation methods for heat transfer applications, and energy modelling of light rail systems. She is currently the
Associate Dean for Student Affairs.

DROPWISE CONDENSATION ON SURFACE MODIFIED COPPER SHEETS

In this study, a two-step surface fabrication technique is used to modify the wetting characteristics of
copper (Cu) sheets for heat transfer application. The two-step process consists of oxygen plasma
treatment that results in the formation of surface nano structures, and a post- functionalization
process using self-assembled monolayer coating. The Cu samples were characterized by contact
angle measurements, and atomic force microscopy. Results showed that surface roughness,
described using hybrid and functional roughness parameters, varies with irradiation power. Results
also showed that the treated Cu samples became superhydrophobic with water contact angles
ranging from 150₂ to 160₂. Condensation experiments were conducted to explore the influence of
surface wettability on condensate formation. Results showed that droplets formed on the
superhydrophobic Cu sheets were smaller and more mobile with sweep events that are 9x more
frequent compared to those on untreated Cu sheets. Sweep events were also shown to be
influenced by surface porosity, which was defined using standard roughness parameters. It was
demonstrated that the higher the surface porosity, the higher is the sweep interval.

UP COE TECHNICAL BULLETIN - PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING & RESEARCH GRANTS

132 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AWARD

MENANDRO S. BERANA, PhD.
Lim Seh Leng ME Centennial Professorial
Chair

Dr. Menandro S. Berana is a professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of the Philippines
Diliman (UPD), Philippines. He obtained his Doctor and Master of Engineering degrees, both major in Mechanical
Engineering, from Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan, and his Master of Science, major in Machine Design, and
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the UPD. He is currently the laboratory head of the HVACR
laboratory and the Administrative Assessment and Development Officer of the department. Among his previously
handled administrative positions are associate deanship for the UPD College of Engineering (COE), project leader for the
UPD COE of the Engineering Research and Development for Technology Program and chairmanship of the department.
His research interests include HVACR, thermal power conversion, engineering education and humanitarian engineering.

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF INCORPORATING TWO EJECTORS FOR
COMPRESSION RECOVERY IN THE INLET AND OUTLET POINTS OF THE

COMPRESSOR IN A VAPOR COMPRESSION SYSTEM

In a refrigeration system, an ejector device is known to improve the performance of a vapor-compression cycle by
recovering the work of expansion and converting it into an additional compression occurring before the inlet of the
compressor. The current study adopts the compression capability of an ejector by integrating it after the
compression process. This study deals with the mathematical modeling and investigation of a modified vapor
compression refrigeration system with the incorporation of two ejectors. The resulting system is a combination of a
compressor-driven ejector refrigeration system and a heat-driven ejector refrigeration system that is able to
generate a refrigerating effect at higher coefficient of performance (COP) than the conventional vapor compression
cycle (VCC). The modified system uses two ejectors with one ejector essentially acting as a second-stage
compressor and another ejector for expansion work recovery that essentially acts as a pre-compression process
before the actual compression in the compressor.
R134a, R290, and carbon dioxide was used to investigate the full possible extent of the proposed cycle. A program
was developed in Maruo 9.0 to simulate the proposed system. The performance analysis of the base cycle was
calculated, and parametric analyses were done. Among the 3 refrigerants used, R134a yielded the highest
performance for both coefficient of performance (COP) and economic coefficient of performance (ECOP) at 0.72
and 6.24, respectively, followed by carbon dioxide and R290 with COP at 0.63 and 0.28, respectively. The proposed
cycle was also compared to other related refrigeration cycles using the same refrigerants. The cycle showed an
improvement of COP over the heat-driven ejector cycle while an ECOP improvement is observed compared to the
vapor compression and compressor-driven ejector cycles. The most significant effect is from the evaporator
temperature which improves both the COP and ECOP with an average increase of 2.97% and 17.77% on COP and
ECOP, respectively.

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