UP COE Technical Bulletin 2021: PCA and TRA Book of Abstracts

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 83

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.

A POLYNOMIAL TIME ALGORITHM FOR THE 2-POSET COVER PROBLEM
Given a set ϒof linear orders, we say that a poset Ha<b=(V, <)is a halfspace of ϒif its set of linear extensions L
(Ha<b) ⊂ ϒand a <Lb for every L −L(Ha<b)and b <La for every L⊆ ϒ\L(Ha<b). In this paper, we devise an efficient
algorithm to expand the halfspace and determine a maximal poset Pin ϒthat supercovers it, that is, L(Ha<b) ⊆ L
(P) ⊆ ϒ. Moreover, the said algorithm paves the way for the improvement of the existing exponential running
time solution in literature for the 2-Poset Cover Problem to a polynomial running time solution.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

84 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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: SYNERGISTIC AND CONFLICTING TARGETS IN 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.

This is done via a panel of experts that serves to evaluate the target interactions, through a web
application that was developed for coloring said edges. Experts are required to have at least five years
relevant experience in 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. Three metrics were explored: positive only, negative only and net interaction
score. Most useful for planning might be the “longest path of beautiful targets” feature, which searches, via a
directed acrylic graph, for a path with only positive or neutral edges, avoiding targets which have red edges
emanating, i.e., a path of targets that have no conflicts with other targets. 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.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 85

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.

MAKING SENSE OF COVID-19 DATA METRICS: A COMPARISON OF THREE CITIES
Ever since the start of the pandemic, DOH is reporting case data on a daily basis. There are instances when
they report different sets of data or when they report the same set of data differently. In this paper, we will
present the various statistics that are used in decision making and that is used by DOH when they report to
the general public. We will explain the meaning of statistic and discuss when a particular statistic is relevant or
not. We will also compare the cities of Manila, Cebu and Davao in terms of the COVID-19 statistics that they
are reporting.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

86 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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).

IMPLEMENTING HIERARCHICAL INDOOR SEMANTIC LOCATION IDENTITY CLASSIFICATION:
A CASE STUDY FOR COVID-19 PROXIMITY TRACKING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Efforts toward COVID-19 proximity tracking in closed environments focus on efficient proximity identification
by combining it with indoor localization theory for location activity monitoring and proximity detection. But
these are met with concerns based on existing considerations of the localization theory like costly
infrastructure, multi-story support, and over-reliance on sensor networks. Semantic location identities (SLI), or
location data stored with additional meaningful context, has become a feasible localizing factor especially in
locations that have multiple spaces with different usage from each other. There is also a novel method of
classification framework, called hierarchical classification, that leverages the hierarchical structure of the
labels to reduce model complexity. The research aims to provide a solution to proximity analysis and location
activity monitoring considering guidelines released in a Philippine context that addresses concerns of indoor
localization and handling of geospatial data by implementing a hybrid hierarchical indoor semantic location
identity classification that focuses on observable events within context-unique locations.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 87

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 ZERO KNOWLEDGE TECHNIQUES AS APPLIED TO DISTRIBUTED LEDGER
TECHNOLOGIES

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is contemplated for application for cross-organization activities that
involve the need for a settlement log for digital and/or physical assets. One caveat for DLT though is that,
within the cross-organization, sensitive information regarding the DLT participants (or nodes) may be seen by
the members of the cross-organization. This is made even more difficult for DLT transactions that would later
on require a third party, say an auditor, to examine the validity of such transactions. In this work, we conduct
initial investigations in the current e orts in the research community in the application of Schnorr-type Zero
Knowledge proofs in the context of DLTs. We looked at how the use of Pedersen commitments may help
preserve privacy and at the same time allow for correct auditing of a system's transactions.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

88 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

VOICES FROM THE LAST MILE: THE PLACE OF EMOTIONS IN THE SOCIAL IMPACT
ANALYSIS OF ACCESS TO COMMUNICATION

While cellular technology has become ubiquitous and effective in bridging the digital divide, billions of
households around the world remain unconnected and unserved. Increasing income and effective
participation in governance are the gold standard in establishing the positive social impact of innovations that
seek to provide access to communication in last mile areas, which are usually geographically isolated rural
villages. Results from the social impact analysis of the Village Base Station Project (VBTS), using culturally-
sensitive oral history, reveal that end-users use emotional terms, such as ginhawa and perhuwisyo in
assessing how access to cellular networks affected their everyday life and social relationships. This article
contributes to the scholarly discussions on the social impact of cellular technology by understanding end-
users’ emotional responses as indicators of social impact. We argue that a more human-centered framework
for social impact assessment requires a careful consideration of emotional evaluative statements from
silenced communities, or of voices from the last mile.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 89

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.

A3C-GS: ADAPTIVE MOMENT GRADIENT SHARING WITH LOCKS FOR ASYNCHRONOUS
ACTOR–CRITIC AGENTS

We propose an asynchronous gradient sharing mechanism for the parallel actor–critic algorithms with
improved exploration characteristics. The proposed algorithm (A3C-GS) has the property of automatically
diversifying worker policies in the short term for exploration, thereby reducing the need for entropy loss
terms. Despite policy diversification, the algorithm converges to the optimal policy in the long term. We show
in our analysis that the gradient sharing operation is a composition of two contractions. The first contraction
performs gradient computation, while the second contraction is a gradient sharing operation coordinated by
locks. From these two contractions, certain short- and long-term properties result. For the short term, gradient
sharing induces temporary heterogeneity in policies for performing needed exploration. In the long term,
under a suitably small learning rate and gradient clipping, convergence to the optimal policy is theoretically
guaranteed. We verify our results with several high-dimensional experiments and compare A3C-GS against
other on-policy policy-gradient algorithms. Our proposed algorithm achieved the highest weighted score.
Despite lower entropy weights, it performed well in high-dimensional environments that require exploration
due to sparse rewards and those that need navigation in 3-D environments for long survival tasks. It
consistently performed better than the base asynchronous advantage actor–critic (A3C) algorithm.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

90 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

VIRTUAL REALITY TOOL FOR REHABILITATION OF PATIENTS WITH PARKINSON’S DISEASE:
A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN REVIEW

Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive, irreversible disease that is only slowed down with the use of
medications and therapy. These are the only way to slow down the progression of the disease to more severe
situation. Currently, virtual reality is being use on games and entertainment. Some doctors prefer the use of
virtual reality like Wii to help supplement the therapy done on rehabilitation. However, devices to cater virtual
reality for mid-class to lower-class patients cannot afford such devices. An alternative device, usually
accessible to everyone is proposed to cater these virtual reality applications that can help in therapy of
Parkinson’s patients. With that, the capabilities of VR can be accessible to more patients who cannot avail
expense medication and devices for virtual reality

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 91

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 science,
neuroscience, mathematical modeling, agent-based simulation of complex systems, and machine learning methods and
applications.

AMBULATORY ASSESSMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING USING AN EXPERIENCE
SAMPLING METHODOLOGY: PIPELINE

Mental health disorders are prevalent in our society today as they affect one in four people all over the world,
according to the World Health Organization. This necessitates a proactive method of mental health
assessment. Clinical assessments and paper-and-pen reporting are usually done through retrospective
reports, which are subject to memory bias. With the advancement in technology and smartphones becoming
an inherent and integral part of day-to-day life, ambulatory assessment of mental health and well-being would
be greatly improved. In this study, we analyze different methods of mental health assessment, their respective
benefits, and drawbacks, and from which we propose a pipeline based on Experience Sampling Methodology
(ESM). The pipeline is composed of a web application for therapists and a mobile application for patients. The
therapist creates ESM-based assessments to their patients using the web application that communicates with
the mobile application through an application programming interface. This pipeline aims to overcome
retrospective biases in assessing the patient’s mental health and well-being by using more reliable behavioral
patterns from the data. Sophisticated data encryption may be utilized to ensure patient-therapist
confidentiality. The same system is also designed to be used by psychologists to send ESM-based surveys to
their intended participants and perform statistical analysis from the respondents’ data, allowing improved data
security for the respondents. With this capability, generation of data would be faster and safer, and more
research can be done to improve and accelerate analysis and diagnosis of mental health and well-being.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

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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.

EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT OF DOMESTIC PORTS IN THE PHILIPPINES USING DATA
ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

This paper measures the relative efficiencies of select major domestic ports in the Philippines for the year
2018. This study applies the non-parametric model called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to provide the
efficiency scores of the eight identified ports. An output-oriented analysis approach was applied for both the
DEA constant return to scale model (DEA-CRS) and DEA variable return to scale model (DEA-VRS) to
compute for the overall technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency of the ports. Two inputs and three
outputs were used in calculating for the relative efficiency scores. Based on the results, the ports of Calapan,
Ozamiz, and Panay were proved to be consistently efficient. The ports of Tagbilaran and Batangas were
efficient using DEA-VRS but were deemed inefficient in DEA-CRS. On the other hand, the ports of
Dumaguete, Puerto Princesa, and Surigao were identified to be relatively inefficient.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 93

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.

MINIMUM DENSITY RECONSTRUCTION AND EXPOSURE LIMITS FOR FINANCIAL NETWORKS
SYSTEMIC RISK ESTIMATION

This work aims to address the underestimation of systemic risk, as measured through a method following the
work of Huang et.al., by the minimum density reconstruction, shown by the work of Ramadiah et.al.. Two
approaches were considered to reach this objective. One considers the use of the 90th and 99th percentiles
of the observed systemic risk values across the networks in an ensemble. The other considers imposing
exposure limits onto the minimum density reconstruction method. Data from the 2011 stress tests of the
European Banking Authority was used to derive a reference network. The first approach had shown to be
capable of decreasing the number of cases for which the systemic risk of the reference network is
underestimated. However, this result comes with increase in the number of cases where overestimation is
observed and the magnitudes of these increase as the considered percentile is increased. The second
approach shows non-monotonic behavior for the performance of the model in terms of the number of
parameter pairs with underestimation and the average relative di erence between the actual systemic risk
and the estimated systemic risk of the network.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

94 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

WILSON TAN
San Roque Power Corporation Professorial
Chair In Computer Science

Wilson M. Tan is an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science of UP Diliman. He has led research
projects funded by agencies such as the Department of Science and Technology and the Commission on Higher
Education, as well as private companies. His current research interests include embedded networked systems, Internet
of Things, software-defined networks, as well as machine learning techniques applied to computer networks. He has a
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering and an M.Sc.in Electrical Engineering (both from the University of the Philippines -
Diliman), as well as a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Warwick in the UK.

IoT RESILIENCY THROUGH EDGE-LOCATED CONTAINER-BASED VIRTUALIZATION AND SDN
Despite the falling cost of electronics, the adoption IoT systems in households (“smart homes”) is hampered
by their strict reliance on stable and reliable Internet connection, which is not readily available in all places
around the world. This reliance is greater still in sensor-actuator setups that are comprised of products from
several manufacturers or ecosystems, since the packets have to traverse and be processed by different cloud
-based servers. In this paper, we propose a resilient IoT system which enables household IoT systems to
remain functional even in the absence of an Internet connection. The system utilizes container-based
virtualization in locally hosting cloud server functionality and software-defined networking (SDN) in hiding the
packet redirection and providing a seamless network experience for the IoT devices. The system was built
and its performance profiled as it utilized different hardware for its container-based virtualization host.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 95

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).

COMPARING COMPUTATIONS IN R SYSTEMS AND IN P SYSTEMS
Reaction systems (or R systems, for short) are a formal framework introduced to investigate processes carried
out by biochemical reactions. Membrane systems, also called P systems, are also formal models of
computation based on biologically-inspired processes. The focus of this study is to explain how computations
are done in each system, exploring their differences as well as similarities. This paper aims to give insights on
the possibility of coming up with a hybridization idea, which may mean combining the two systems in a certain
framework or simulating one system by the other.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

96 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

MA. ROWENA C. SOLAMO
Filadelfo Panlilio Professorial Chair

Ma. Rowena Solamo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, UP Diliman. She has been with
the department since 2001 educating students in Software Engineering, Database Systems, Computer Programming
and Project Management. She obtained her degree in BS Computer Science at the Ateneo de Manila, and her MS
Computer Science degree at UP Diliman. She is part of the Web Science Research Group under Prof. Rommel Feria,
where they are doing research in the field of Web Science as applied to Health and Education. She is also interested in
UX/UI Design particularly in the field of Persuasive Technology. She is practicing software engineering by participating
in software projects with the university and other government agencies.

EXPLORING THE PERSUASIVENESS OF AN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TRAINING
APPLICATION USING U-FADE

The research explores the persuasiveness of an emotional intelligence training (EIT) mobile application, called
Maintein, using the Unified Framework for Analyzing, Designing and Evaluating Persuasive Systems (U-
FADE), which asserts the need to have a before-and-after analysis of attitude and behavior during the period
of using the application. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is used for this analysis. An experiment has been
conducted with twenty-five (25) student volunteers who are tasked to use Maintein for a period of seven (7)
weeks. The TPB Preliminary Questionnaire is answered before the experiment. The TPB Post Questionnaire
and Persuasiveness of U-FADE System Features Questionnaire are answered after the experiment. Maintein
supports reflective journaling, active listening and goal tracking as the EIT exercises, and the monitoring of
emotional and mental well-being states. To inform its persuasive design, the study reveals (1) that messages
using past behavior may be used to encourage initial and continuous performance of the EIT activities, and
the monitoring of emotional and mental well-being, (2) that the Active Listening Module needs to be
reanalyzed and redesigned, (3) that simple interactions that lead to its ease of use should guide
implementation, (4) that tailored content is needed for prompts in reflective journaling and active listening, and
(5) that further analysis on the frequency, timing and message framing of reminders and praise needs to be
conducted so that they can be used not to impede but rather to encourage performance of the EIT exercises
and monitor emotional and mental well-being states.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 97

ROSELYN S. GABUD
Jesus Ferrer Professorial Chair

Lyn Gabud is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering,
University of the Philippines Diliman. She has been teaching at DCS since 2011 as a Senior Lecturer and has been
reclassified to Assistant Professor after five years. Her research interests include text mining, natural language
processing, biodiversity, and ecological informatics. She previously worked on projects related to data mining and
chronobiology. For more than ten years now, her career has focused on scientific research that has instilled in her the
value of shaping the nation’s future

LITERATURE MINING ON DIPTEROCARPS: TOWARDS BETTER INFORMED NATURAL
REGENERATION AND REFORESTATION IN LUZON, PHILIPPINES

Access to comprehensive information is critical in Natural Resource Management (NRM). While information
resources largely shape the decision-making process of conservation policy regulators, significant barriers
could present themselves at any point along the NRM information supply pipeline. Similarly, these barriers
could appear in the management of the natural regeneration and reforestation of lowland dipterocarp forests
in the Philippines. Moreover, the supra-annual mass flowering of dipterocarps occurs in irregular intervals,
thus predicting the likelihood of their natural regeneration, to subsequently make plans for reforestation, is an
extremely complex task. This study aimed to address information gaps by utilizing text mining, which is the
automatic process of extracting structured information mining, which is the automatic process of extracting
structured information from documents such as scientific publications, books, and agency reports. The results
were based on a preliminary version of the annotated document collection or corpus. The reliability of the
corpus was determined by inter-annotator agreement (IAA). Satisfactory IAA was obtained for taxon and
geographic location concept types with 90.35% and 93.82% F-scores, respectively. This corpus could provide
NRM policy-makers with a searchable database on the distribution and mass flowering of Philippine
dipterocarps for dipterocarp species regeneration and reforestation.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

98 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS



100 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS ON WATERSHED-BASED FACTORS INFLUENCING TRENDS IN
TOTAL SUSPENDED MATTER IN MANILA BAY

Remote sensing provides an opportunity to examine the spatial and temporal variations of water quality. One
can examine the spatial distribution at submeter to kilometer scales. In term of the temporal aspect, the
assessment of water quality can be made from satellite images from every ten minutes to multiple number of
days in between images. Due to cloud cover issues, studies utilized mosaics of water quality layers to produce
cloud-free images indicating distribution of total suspended matter (TSM) and other water quality parameters.
Going beyond spatio-temporal analysis, it is important to assess how TSM distribution over space and time is
influence by factors such as rainfall intensity and vegetative cover of the watershed. It is well known that TSM
will increase as rainfall intensity increases and vegetation cover decreases. This can be seen in various
temporal scales, particularly for rainfall events. For long-term analysis, the TSM (in most cases monthly)
values are directly compared or correlated with monthly rainfall data and land use land cover data. In this
study, we examined the relationship and influence vegetative cover (and lack thereof) and rainfall on the TSM
in Manila on a longer term by detrending and deseasonalizing the TSM time series using the classical
decomposition model. The TSM time series were extracted from series of monthly TSM layers generated from
Sentinel-3 images acquired from 2017 to 2020. These were then compared with the trends observed in
normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), bareness (based on threshold on NDVI), and rainfall within
subwatersheds. Results indicate that the trends in TSM near the river months are correlated with trends in
vegetative cover as well as trends in rainfall. This study highlight the importance of land cover management in
reducing soil erosion, sediment discharge, and TSM.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 101

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

HEDONIC LAND PRICE MODEL
The real estate is very important in the economy of a nation. Being able to establish the factors affecting land
value is significant in determining the future of urban development. The hedonic pricing models (HPM) infer
the impact of attributes on the values of a property. Applications of HPM have been used to estimate different
land value attributes. This is a study to find the effect of a variety of characteristics on the price of the land and
identify which factors or parameters are significant. There are 91 sample lots identified in Quezon City for
analysis using a bivariate linear regression. The results show the coefficient of land use as the best predictor
of sale price. Other factors include road width, road easement, proximity to the mall, present FAR, distance to
train station, sewage provision, garbage collection, internet availability, government center proximity,
neighborhood formality, informal settlements distance, accident rate, road width, road condition, road
easement and corner effect. Out of 26 parameters or variables tested, 15 came out to be statistically
significant at 95% level.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

102 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

FROM FIELD TO DESKTOP TO WEB, A ROADMAP TO MONITORING LAND DEVELOPMENT
Monitoring and evaluating land development are essential steps towards sustainable development. With land
use planning, competing land developments are considered and are allocated to locations of sometimes
conflicting land uses. Planning seeks to optimize the use of land resources for sustainable development.
However, planning without proper monitoring and evaluation often leads to poorly implemented land use
plans. Status of current development and other feedback are essential information when designing the
succeeding deviations and adjustments of land use plans. Most local government units (LGU) perform
monitoring through traditional paper-based enumeration of field information. Although for several years this
was the traditional operational process for monitoring land development, spatial information technology can
augment the shortcomings of these operational processes.
Real-time monitoring has been one of the primary targets of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban
Development (DHSUD) since the development of the Land Use and Zoning Information System (LUZIS).
LUZIS is an information system designed and developed to augment data organization and monitoring
function of land-related information such as land use, zoning ordinances and location of development
projects. With LUZIS comprising three GIS platforms: Web, Desktop and Mobile, it provides a wide range of
GIS functionality for various user roles from LGU field enumerators to national-level decision-makers. LUZIS
modernizes the operational processes in monitoring and evaluating land development and land use in the
Philippines.
This paper highlights the use of LUZIS from collection of geo-tagged locations of project development to
visualization and integration of these geo-tagged information to other existing layers of spatial data. It
discusses how monitoring and evaluation are performed from a technical perspective. Finally, an actual LUZIS
application is presented to showcase a working case of monitoring and evaluation of land development.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 103

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.

QUANTIFYING THE EFFECT OF ROAD INTERSECTIONS TO TRAFFIC USING A GIS-BASED
TRAVEL-TIME MODEL

When thinking about transportation and mobility, one of the ever-present concern, especially in cities is
regarding traffic. Primarily defined as the movement of vehicles or pedestrians along a route, traffic greatly
impacts the day to day travel of people going to and from destinations, as well as of goods or produce
delivered to different places. Traffic congestion is still among the biggest problems in highly urbanized areas
in the country. Traffic flow is usually assessed and reported as road vehicle counts or densities, but in relation
to travel the effect of traffic may be represented by the “delay” it adds to the travel times along a particular
route. Several travel time and delay studies have already been done to develop functions to relate the spatial
design and characteristics of road networks to the estimated travel times. With these functions, the effect of
factors such as road width, road length and intersection characteristics to traffic can be assessed through a
measure of travel time delays. In this paper, travel time and delay functions were incorporated to network
analysis in GIS software along a segment of the Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City in order to quantify the
impact of the different intersection characteristics to the traffic flow along the route. The effect of increasing
road lane was examined by computing travel time and delay using increased road width. The methodology
performed may be used to further develop GIS-based traffic model for assessing travel time.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

104 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

SPATIOTEMPORAL ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK FOR SATELLITE-DERIVED AIR QUALITY DATA:
A CASE STUDY IN METRO MANILA

Levels of air pollution in urban environments vary depending on the topography of the area, climate
conditions, and sources of emissions. The distribution of air pollutants changes in space and through time. In
this study, a spatiotemporal approach is employed on aerosol measurements. Since ground monitoring
stations of aerosols are very limited, especially in the megacity Metro Manila, aerosol values derived from
satellite data are utilized. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) values were extracted from available daily images of
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite from 2000 to 2021. The AOD values were
aggregated in a space-time cube and used as inputs to Emerging Hotspot Analysis, a Geographic Information
System (GIS)-based approach in determining spatiotemporal patterns in the region for 21 years. This work
highlights the spatiotemporal framework that can be applied for assessing air pollution concentrations on a
regional scale and can be used to supplement ground measurements for comprehensive long-term
monitoring of air quality.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF GEODETIC ENGINEERING 105

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.

QUANTIFYING VERTICAL LAND MOTION (VLM) AT TIDE GAUGE SITES USING PSInSAR AND
GNSS SOLUTIONS

One of the consequences of climate change is sea level rise (SLR). The most reliable data 15 for quantifying
SLR rate is still from in-situ measurements from tide gauges (TG). The contribution 16 of VLM, however, can
affect the accuracy of these observations and can exacerbate the risk of coastal 17 area inundation/flooding.
This study investigated the viability of PSInSAR to quantify the rate of 18 VLM at the tide gauge sites.
Measurements from TG co-located GNSS receivers provide the actual 19 VLM rates and ground truth for
PSInSAR-derived rates. Based on the results from the 9 study sites, 20 almost all except one are subsiding.
Both PSInSAR and GNSS solutions showed the same trend with 21 magnitudes that do not differ much. The
computed correlation between the two datasets was 22 around 0.89. This proves the reliability of using
PSInSAR for areas without installed GNSS receivers. 23 The VLM velocity maps for all study sites indicate
land subsidence mostly happening in the coastal 24 areas. This should be a cause for concern since coastal
communities are the most to be affected when 25 sea level rises.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

106 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

GEOMATICS IN PHILIPPINE ARCHAEOMETRY: RECENT ADVANCES.
This paper, written for the Professorial Chair Award, presents recent applications of Geomatics in Philippine
Archaeology (2019-2021). The experimental methods presented herein led to the identification of possible
archaeological features with reliable quantitative and qualitative confidence. The features found include trails,
patches of soil inconsistent from its surrounding land cover, possible stone markers and possible structures
from the Spanish Occupation. These features can be further verified with absolute conclusiveness once
mobility restrictions ease up. This paper introduces innovative workflows that were successfully applied to
both small and large feature detection cases. These schemes expand the literature towards Philippine
Archaeometry advancement.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS



108 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

ECONOMIC IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SECTOR PRIORITIZATION OF COVID-19
VACCINATION COVERAGE 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 labour force who may have been (1) directly affected by the virus or (2) obligated to undergo community/
self-quarantine due to an exposure to suspected infected individuals in order to mitigate 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 closures 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. Fortunately, alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of development has also been
devoted to being able to manufacture and deploy safe and effective vaccines that can protect individuals and
give back the economy its much needed push. This research aims to investigate how prioritization policies on
vaccine distribution and administration to cover the different sectors of society may influence the economic
recovery of interdependent economic and service sectors of a region. It serves as a decision support and
economic impact analysis tool to minimize the ripple economic effects while keeping infection rate within
healthcare capacity. A vaccination coverage-based reduction in inoperability dynamic input-output (VCDIIO)
model is applied to determine the direct and indirect reduction in economic losses in a network of
interdependent sectors for the National Capital Region. The model has been made capable to accommodate
variations in vaccination coverage based on modifications in the proportion of the labour force that may be
scheduled for vaccination. A case is demonstrated for the ongoing Corona virus pandemic from 2019. The
model has flexibility and scalability over other disruption-events, vaccination coverage and other economic
regions that deal with related work force disruptions.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTGRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 109

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 COMPARISON BETWEEN A SYSTEM DYNAMICS MODEL AND DISCRETE EVENTS
SIMULATION MODEL

This paper provides a comprehensive comparative study between two simulation modeling techniques in
solving a simple queuing system. The paper tries to explore the differences between two commonly known
simulation approaches: Discrete Event Simulation and System Dynamics Modeling. A case study on a simple
theoretical queueing system was used to identify key attribute differences between the two models. This
paper concludes that there are more differences between the two rather than having more similarities. A
comprehensive comparison table was also developed to guide future researchers in understanding which of
the models is appropriate for use in a certain scenario.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

110 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

EVALUATING THE IMPROVEMENT OF MULTISERVICE SERVERS IN M/M/s QUEUEING
SYSTEMS WITH HETEROGENOUS CUSTOMERS

This paper evaluates the improvement in queueing systems with multiservice servers as compared to
systems with servers that only provide a single service. Queueing systems are evaluated in terms of the net
hourly benefit of the system, which is a function of the hourly service reward, hourly waiting cost and hourly
service cost. Of the three, it was deemed that the hourly waiting cost is to be the sole metric used to evaluate
improvement, since it is the variable that changes throughout different systems. A simulation model was used
to produce concrete values for the costs. Results show that for a queueing system with constant customer
arrival rates and a fixed number of servers, converting the single-service servers to multiservice servers
decreases the average number of people waiting and line and the time spent waiting for service by as much
as 79.96%, over 100 replications of the simulation.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTGRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 111

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.

REENGINEERING the UP DILIMAN - OFFICE of the VICE CHANCELLOR
The University of the Philippines Diliman Office of the Vice Chancellor for Administration (UPD-OVCA) is in
charge of implementing policies relative to personnel, finance, supplies and property management, and
utilities usage monitoring. It assists the Chancellor on policy formulation, review, and evaluation of finance,
personnel, and procurement matters. With this critical role, effective and efficient operations are vital to
ensure the support services needed in running the university are in place. Through the years, the OVCA had
operated using manual processes with minimal use of technology. The need to review and streamline the
processes and leverage on technological innovations became increasingly urgent with the growing size of the
university population and expanding functions in fulfilment of its mandate. The urgency became even more
pronounced when the COVID-19 pandemic happened. With the timely change in leadership, an
Organizational and Personnel Audit was quickly undertaken to establish a baseline, and parallel initiatives
were done to adapt to the work from home arrangements and digital work environment. Short- and long-term
projects have been planned and will be implemented in phases as OVCA transitions to a more resilient,
efficient, and effective operation.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

112 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

LOWELL LORENZO
Stephen D. Sy Professorial Chair

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

AN APPLIED PREEMPTIVE GOAL PROGRAMMING RAW MATERIAL PORTFOLIO SELECTION
MODEL AND IMPACT OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN FOOD PRODUCTION

This is the second part of our research paper on raw material selection, specifically starch which is used in
food production in a high-volume manufacturing setting. In the first part of our research paper, a non-
preemptive goal programming model was initially developed to assess its viability as a decision model for
material selection. In this paper, we now modify the mathematical model to a preemptive goal programming
model which better captures the factors and constraints relevant to the decision maker. The impact of the
revised model is then presented by cost savings calculations that may be achieved if implemented in this
manufacturing setting.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTGRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 113

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

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.

A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A UP DILIMAN BS IE STUDENT: A SELF-REPORTED
WORK-SAMPLING STUDY

The curricular demands of undergraduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math-intensive (STEM)
institutions are both technical and challenging, that students pursuing engineering undergraduate degrees in STEM
institutions experience imbalance unlike most other undergraduates in co-educational institutions [2]. When the student
is unable to mobilize and manage requisite resources to fulfill the demands, stress occurs. Prolonged high levels of stress
can contribute to poor learning, the development of detrimental health behaviors, attrition, and burnout. There is global
recognition of the increasing levels of stress, anxiety and mental health problems experienced by young people attending
college and university [4]. Balance helps students be better students and happier people.
Belonging to the undergraduate engineering degrees is Industrial Engineering (IE). It covers a wide range of topics and
activities, a multidisciplinary, or even transdisciplinary, area which makes Industrial Engineering very challenging [12].
The five-year BS IE program in the University of the Philippines Diliman was converted into a four-year program because
of the implementation of the K-12 education reform at the basic educational level and benchmarking against international
universities offering a BSIE program. This led to students taking additional 1-2 units in some semesters and students
being required to take about 2 hours more per week spent on classes than that of the 5-year curriculum. The study
aimed to investigate the effect of this transition to the study-life balance of BS IE students.
The self-reported, one week work sampling of 3rd year BS IE students in 2017 and 2020, and 2nd year BS IE students in
2020 and 2021 reveal that the shift from 4-year to 5-year curriculum, as well as the remote classes due to COVID
pandemic, resulted to an increase in time spent on studying from an average of about 38 hours in 2017 to 48 hours in
2021. Although results show that there is a study-life balance during a regular week the BS IE students, it is
recommended to extend the duration of the study to capture the activities on a non-lean period. The increase in the
number of hours spent on studying would also mean that the students have become more sedentary which increases
health risks. With the implementation of online classes, it is recommended to incorporate breaks and exercises, or more
dynamic activities in lectures.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

114 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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

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.

STREAMNLINING THE PRODUCTION OF VIDEOS AND OTHER ONLINE TEACHING MATERIALS
TO MEET THE TAKT TIME DRIVEN BY THE REQUIREDCLASS HOURS OF THE SEMESTER

The need to transition from face-to-face classes to a combination of synchronous and asynchronous modes
of teaching has necessitated educators to think of ways to transform class materials in effective and efficient
ways, especially because there was limited time to prepare for the resumption of classes after the lockdown
period caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper proposes the production of teaching videos via a
production system with a rate that is matched with the Takt Time that is based on the proper time to maintain
student focus. Two case studies are presented in this paper and these case studies show promise of
efficiency in the production of a high volume videos

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTGRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 115

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

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.

IDENTIFYING KEY FACTORS FOR WINNING BASKETBALL GAMES USING DATA ANALYTICS
The game of basketball is deeply engrained in the mind and the hearts of Filipinos. Being considered as the
most popular sport in the country, it is important to analyze the performance of teams that are playing in order
to identify the significant factors in winning games. However, present studies do not accurately define the
significant factors to win basketball games that are suitable for the Philippine Setting. Most of the published
studies use historical box score data to model the results of basketball games. These data include points
scored, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, turnovers, and other statistics that can be obtained from the games.
This thesis presents an analysis methodology considering the effects of factors that are unique in the
Philippine setting such as the presence of imports or foreign players and the financial capacity of the
company handling the team. This thesis will also consider the effect of measures that may not be unique in
the Philippines but were not considered by previous studies such as the number of superstars in a team,
starters’ scoring, bench scoring, guards’ scoring, centers and forwards’ scoring, guards’ assist, center and
forwards’ rebounds, years of experience of the coach, and the nationality of the coach. The methodology
obtained the data from the Philippine Basketball Association from its 2012-2013 to 2017-2018 season. The
data were analyzed to identify the significant factors in winning basketball games in the Philippine setting.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

116 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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 PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATURITY OF THE BUREAU OF EQUIPMENT
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS AND HIGHWAYS

The assessment of project management maturity is very important as the exercise looks deeply into an
organization’s project delivery systems. Its intent is to assess their execution, set the baseline performance,
identify areas for improvement and periodically monitor if these are put in place. As a baseline assessment,
this study applied the Kerzner maturity model at Bureau of Equipment of DPWH. As requested, the
assessment was carried out initially from the perspective of middle and senior management of the office.
Results showed that BOE has reasonable knowledge of basic principles of project management (Common
Language), has fully recognized the importance and benefits of project management and is supportive of it
(Common Processes) and has worked to have integrated processes (Singular Methodology), though not
without existing struggles and hurdles. The Bureau also undertakes some semblance of benchmarking with
other organizations particularly in risk management and scope change management (Benchmarking). From
the perspective of management of BOE, there is commitment to continuous improvement, but a lot of work
needs to be done to ensure that this commitment translates to a way of life in the organization (Continuous
Improvement).

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTGRIAL ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH 117

VIRGINIA J. SORIANO
Jose Edgar Manrique Professorial Chair
in Industrial Engineering

Dr. Virginia Soriano is a full professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, UP Diliman.
Her expertise and interests are in Life Cycle Thinking in Design, Analysis and Assessment, Sustainable Product / Service
Systems, Concurrent Product and Process Design, Analysis of Product-Service Systems, Systems Study Life cycle analysis
of small scale gold production systems, Environmental LCA of Products.

SUSTAINABILITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN FACILITIES MANAGEMENT:
EMERGING TRENDS AND CHALLENGES

When the term Facilities Management first emerged in the 1970s or earlier, it took on a simple concern on
providing support services for the maintenance and cleaning of constructed buildings. Over the years, FM’s
primary focus was to control the operating costs of the facility which consequently influenced the productivity
of the production system. While the various FM definitions have become divergent and sometimes
ambiguous, the vision, mission and overall purpose of FM remains consistent across the globe, that is, to add
value to the core business and contribute to the firms’ bottom line not only by reducing facility costs, but also
by continuously improving productivity and sustainability of the business. This study aims to provide an
overview of facilities management and its significance in adding value to business by considering the
challenges, trends, strategies and direction of future research that can affect an organization’s productivity
and sustainability performance. This study conducted a review of various published research materials,
journals, books, case studies, as well as internet publications and discussion forum from various practitioners,
organizations or associations involved in FM work, consultancy, education and training. The information
gathered was used to understand the FM practice and the challenges that come with it. Key drivers of
development and future trends in the management of facilities were determined. Finally, the study identified
some recommended areas for future research.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

118 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS



120 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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

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.

AERODYNAMIC INVESTIGATION OF A HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND TURBINE WITH SPLIT
WINGLET USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources, and the most developed energy
extraction device that harnesses this energy is the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT). Increasing the
efficiency of HAWTs is one important topic in current research with multiple aspects to look at such as blade
design and rotor array optimization. This study looked at the e ect of wingtip devices, a split winglet, in
particular, to reduce the drag induced by the wind vortices at the blade tip, hence increasing performance.
Split winglet implementation was done using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on the National Renewable
Energy Lab (NREL) Phase VI sequence H. In total, there are four (4) blade configurations that are simulated,
the base NREL Phase VI sequence H blade, an extended version of the previous blade to equalize length of
the blades, the base blade with a winglet and the base blade with split winglet. Results at wind speeds of 7 m/
s to 15 m/s show that adding a winglet increased the power generation, on an average, by 1.23%, whereas
adding a split winglet increased it by 2.53% in comparison to the extended blade. The study also shows that
the increase is achieved by reducing the drag at the blade tip and because of the fact that the winglet and
split winglet generating lift themselves. This, however, comes at a cost, i.e., an increase in thrust of 0.83% and
2.05% for the blades with winglet and split winglet, respectively, in comparison to the extended blade.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 121

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.

ENERGY DEMAND OF LIGHT RAIL TRANSPORT USING DRIVING CYCLE AND POWERTRAIN
ANALYSIS

This research aims to improve the capacity and energy utilization of light rail transport operation in Metro
Manila through a comprehensive analysis of train operating parameters and existing ridership data. The
electric powertrain and auxiliary systems were also analyzed to develop an efficiency map. Combining this
provided information on how many trains must be operating at certain windows, how many passengers to let
in, and the speed profiles that must be followed to achieve a balance between ridership, reliability, and energy
and operating cost.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

122 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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.

PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT MODELLING AND DESIGN OF A COFFEE HUSKS
GASIFIER FOR DRYING OPERATION

This study was conducted to test the viability of coffee husks as a potential feedstock in a gasifier-dryer
system. The projection of the total amount of waste produced is necessary in determining the input for the
process modelling, together with the proximate and ultimate analyses that were conducted thru standard
testing. In the tests, the proximate analysis gave 12.30% moisture content, 64% volatile matter, 23.30% fixed
carbon and 12.70% ash content. On the other hand, the ultimate analysis gave 38.50% carbon, 5.89%
hydrogen and 42.91% oxygen. No traces of nitrogen and sulfur were found. Aspen Plus Version 11, a package
that can be used for modelling reactors for biomass gasification was used to produce a model and determine
the producer gas composition. To dry 2 tons of coffee fruits in a gasifier-dryer system, it requires 50 kg/hr of
the biomass feedstock. By feeding 50 kg/hr of coffee husks and 0.578 kg/hr of air in the model, it produced
simulation results of 925.85 °C gasification temperature in the reactor to gasify the coffee husks and air
mixture to produce the producer gas composed of 84.2851 carbon monoxide (CO), 4.7104 carbon dioxide
(CO2), 0.1063 methane (CH4), 6.9086 hydrogen (H2), 1.0164 nitrogen (N), and 2.9726 water (H2O) in mass
percentages. Finally, the energy efficiency of the gasifier with respect to temperature and air to biomass ratio
was computed. All the inputs are based on the actual elemental analysis of coffee husks feedstock. A valid
point at 704 °C was established, indicating the realistic limit of the gasifier based on the simulations. The trend
of the results was found to be consistent with the experimentally validated analysis of other biomass
feedstocks in published investigations. The model developed in this study is intended to be validated through
experimental verification in our future studies, and the results of the modelling and validation will be used in
prototyping the specific gasifier.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 123

JENNIFER F. CALLANGA
Cerlito San Juan and Family Professorial Chair

Jennifer F. Callanga is an Assistant Professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of the
Philippines Diliman. She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from
the University of the Philippines. She has served various committees both in the department and college levels.
Currently, she is the Assistant Chairman of ME department.

Her work has centered around finite element analysis, composite materials, and product development. She is currently
doing a research on structural integrity of composite tidal blade. She is also part of the research on prosthesis
development using natural fibers, in collaboration with the MMM department.

STRESS ANALYSES COMPARISON OF FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITE PROSTHESIS
SOCKET 2 USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

The static structural response of a composite socket incorporating pineapple fiber to 32 carbon fiber-
reinforced material in the fabrication of transtibial prosthesis was analyzed 33 using finite element simulation
and compared the results to other types of fiber-reinforced 34 composite prosthesis sockets. The structural
model using the 3D scanned file of the 35 actual prosthetic socket was set-up in ANSYS 19. Material
properties were assumed to 36 be isotropic, linearly elastic, and homogenous. The experimentally measured
vertical 37 ground reaction force (GRF) of 590 N at heel strike was used as the input load. Parametric 38
study of the socket thickness and material type was conducted to determine their effect 39 on the maximum
Von Mises stress, total socket deformation and safety factor. The 40 maximum Von Mises stress observed
was 16.56 MPa on carbon fiber-pineapple fiber 41 reinforced composite (CPFRC), 16.33 MPa on carbon fiber
reinforced composite (CFRC), 42 16.46 MPa on glass fiber reinforced composite (GFRC), and 16.67 MPa on
polypropylene 43 (PP). The recorded total deformation for CPFRC was 0.23 mm, 0.13 mm for CFRC, 44 0.46
mm for GFRC and 12.74 mm for PP. Additionally, the safety factor of 4.6 for CPFRC 45 was found to be
comparable with those of CFRC and GFRC with values of 4.9 and 4.6, 46 respectively. As the wall thickness of
prosthetic socket increased, the maximum principal 47 stress and safety factor were also increased while the
socket deformation decreased. The 48 results showed that incorporating pineapple fiber can be an alternative
material for 49 manufacturing of prosthesis.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

124 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

LOUIS ANGELO M. DANAO, PhD.
Vicente Paterno Centennial Professorial Chair
in Mechanical Engineering

Louis Angelo M. Danao is a Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Philippines
Diliman. He acquired his BSc in Mechanical Engineering (1999), and MSc in Mechanical Engineering (2006) from UP
Diliman. He completed his PhD in The University of Sheffield, U.K. (2012). He has been a full-time faculty member of UP
Diliman since 2006 and has served as Graduate Program Coordinator for the Energy Engineering Graduate Program as
well as Department Chair for Mechanical Engineering. His fields of expertise span from solid mechanics dealing with
finite element analysis, structural design, and composite materials, to energy engineering covering wind and tidal
turbine design, computational fluid dynamics, renewable energy systems, and techno-economic assessment of energy
systems. He has been recognized for his accomplishments through various awards including the Gawad Tsanselor para
sa Natatanging Guro (2018), Outstanding Engineering Professor (2018), Scientist 1(2017-2019), among others.

TECHNO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY IN THE PHILIPPINES

The technical and economic assessments for emerging renewable energy technologies, specifically offshore wind
energy, is critical for their improvement and deployment. These assessments serve as one of the main bases for
the construction of offshore wind farms, which would be beneficial to the countries gearing toward a sustainable
future such as the Philippines. This study presents the technical and economic viability of offshore wind farms in
the Philippines. The analysis was divided into four phases, namely, application of exclusion criteria, technical
analysis, economic assessment, and sensitivity analysis. Arc GIS 10.5 was used to spatially visualize the results of
the study. Exclusion criteria were applied to narrow down the potential siting for offshore wind farms, namely, active
submerged cables, local ferry routes, marine protected areas, reefs, oil and gas extraction areas, bathymetry,
distance to grid, typhoons, and earthquakes. In the technical analysis, the turbines SWT-3.6-120 and 6.2 M126
Senvion were considered. The offshore wind speed data were extrapolated from 80 m to 90 m and 95 m using
power law. The wind power density, wind power, and annual energy production were calculated from the
extrapolated wind speed. Areas in the Philippines with a capacity factor greater than 30% and performance greater
than 10% were considered technically viable. The economic assessment considered the historical data of
constructed offshore wind farms from 2008 to 2018. Multiple linear regression was done to model the cost
associated with the construction of offshore wind farms, namely, turbine, foundation, electrical, and operation and
maintenance costs (i.e., investment cost). Finally, the levelized cost of electricity and break-even selling price were
calculated to check the economic viability of the offshore wind farms. Sensitivity analysis was done to investigate
how LCOE and price of electricity are sensitive to the discount rate, capacity factor, investment cost, useful life,
mean wind speed, and shape parameter. Upon application of exclusion criteria, several sites were determined to
be viable with the North of Cagayan having the highest capacity factor. The calculated capacity factor ranges from
~42% to ~50% for SWT-3.6-120 and ~38.56% to ~48% for 6.2M126 turbines. The final regression model with
investment cost as the dependent variable included the minimum sea depth and the plant capacity as the predictor
variables. The regression model had an adjusted R2 of 90.43%. The regression model was validated with existing
offshore wind farms with a mean absolute percentage error of 11.33%. The LCOE calculated for a 25.0372 km2
offshore area ranges from USD 157.66/MWh and USD 154.1/MWh. The breakeven electricity price for an offshore
wind farm in the Philippines ranges from PHP 8.028/kWh to PHP 8.306/kWh.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 125

GERALD JO C. DENOGA, PhD
Fernando N. Seriña Professorial Chair

Dr. Gerald Jo Denoga is a Professor of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the UPD College of Engineering. He
got his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering (cum laude) in UP Diliman, his MS degree in Mechatronics Engineering
(High Distinction) at the University of New South Wales, and was the class valedictorian when he got his PhD in Energy
Engineering at UP Diliman. He was a former chairman of the Mechanical Engineering Department, and is the current
Associate Dean for Research. Prof. Denoga established the Emerson HVACR laboratory, the Design and Manufacturing
Center, the Instrumentation, Robotics and Control laboratory, and the Machine Design Laboratory.
Prof. Denoga specializes in transportation energy and systems modelling. His latest researches include energy
modelling of light rail systems, development of hybrid vehicles, energy modelling of public utility vehicles, and
modelling of condensate systems.

ENERGY DEMAND OF LIGHT RAIL TRANSPORT USING DRIVING CYCLE AND POWERTRAIN
ANALYSIS

This research aims to improve the capacity and energy utilization of light rail transport operation in Metro
Manila through a comprehensive analysis of train operating parameters and existing ridership data. The
electric powertrain and auxiliary systems were also analyzed to develop an efficiency map. Combining this
provided information on how many trains must be operating at certain windows, how many passengers to let
in, and the speed profiles that must be followed to achieve a balance between ridership, reliability, and energy
and operating cost.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

126 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

HANNAH ERIKA D. MACASPAC
Roger Murga Professorial Chair

Hannah Erika D. Macaspac is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the
Philippines Diliman. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical
Engineering in UP Diliman.
Her research interests include product development and manufacturing and finite element analysis. She is currently part
of a project collaboration with the MMME Department in prosthesis research which aims to develop alternative
prosthesis material that is locally available.

BUCKLING ANALYSIS COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT PROSTHETIC PYLON TUBE
PARAMETERS USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

A pylon tube is an important component of the prosthesis where it bears the weight of the patient and
buckling is the common failure mode. It influences the gait performance and comfort, where its flexibility can
dictate the ground reaction forces associated with walking and step-down. In this study, the buckling
propensity of prosthetic pylon tube materials such as polypropylene (PP), titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V), carbon
fiber reinforced composite (CFRC) and carbon fiber-pineapple fiber reinforced composite (CPFRC) material
were evaluated using 3D simulation by finite element method analysis. Thickness, outer diameter and pylon
tube height were varied to compare the critical load value for each material. Parametric changes showed that
the critical buckling load value for all materials increased with increasing diameter and thickness. A 120%
increase in critical load was observed for both titanium alloy and CPFRC when the pylon tube length was
decreased to half. Considering the price and its mechanical properties, the carbon fiber-pineapple fiber
reinforced composite material can therefore be an alternative for titanium alloy or carbon fiber-based
prosthetic pylon.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 127

FERDINAND G. MANEGDEG
Alejandro Melchor Professorial Chair in
Engineering

Prof. Ferdinand G. Manegdeg is currently the Dean of the College of Engineering, the Executive Director of the
National Engineering Center of the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP) and holder of the Alejandro
Melchor Professorial Chair in Engineering. In 2016, he was awarded with the Professional Degree Award for
Mechanical Engineering by the UP Alumni Engineers and UP College of Engineering and in 2020 he was awarded
the Achievement Award by the U.P. Vanguard. He is a graduate of UP with a degree of Bachelor of Science in
Mechanical Engineering in 1979 and a Certificate in Advanced Citizen Military Training (Advanced ROTC) in 1978.
He finished his Master of Science from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, in 1981. He was awarded the Arthur Smithells Prize and the Best Student in the
Master of Science in Combustion & Energy in 1981 by the University of Leeds. He also attended mechanical engineering graduate courses at UP and graduate
courses in mechanical engineering, energy management, and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the US. He has completed trainings
on energy and environmental planning at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, air pollution monitoring devices and methodology at the East-West Center
in Hawaii, standard formula of manufacture at the National Institute of Technology and Quality in South Korea, maintenance engineering and management from
the AF Swedish Management Group in Sweden, and maintenance technology of integrated wastewater treatment tanks and systems at the National Institute for
Environmental Studies in Tsukuba and at Fukushima University in Japan.
He has completed at least 70 research and projects in the field of conventional and alternative energy, environment, manufacturing, engineering, systems
evaluation and policy analysis, industry assessment and productivity improvement. He has also managed nationwide programs and surveys, for both private and
public institutions in education, industry, agriculture, health, science and technology, and the judiciary. He has at least 30 published papers in peer-reviewed
international and local Journals and Proceedings, and several unpublished papers. He was a member of the Committees to help establish the UP Energy
Engineering Graduate Program and the Joint International Graduate Program in ASEAN Energy and Environment.
He has advised 26 MS/PhD graduates and has 4 active graduate advisees. He has conducted tests and calibration for at least 50 companies and performed at least
150 training programs of various topics in mechanical, energy, environment, engineering, and management, involving at least 5,000 participants. He has attended
at least 140 local and international seminars and conferences; and was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the International Conference of Manufacturing
Engineering and Engineering Management at the World Congress on Engineering 2014 at the Imperial College in London. Recently, he is doing outreach programs
to Filipino minorities and indigenous peoples for energy access, barangay electrification, and installation of small solar and wind power plant.
He has served the university in various capacities, notably as Chair or member of at least 110 standing and ad hoc committees of the UP System, UP Diliman, UP
Mindanao, UP Cebu and the College of Engineering, as Mechanical Engineering Department Chair, as UP Diliman and UP System Human Resources and
Development Director II, and as a Program Development Associate of the Chancellor and three UP Presidents. He has also been an Officer-In-Charge of the Offices
of the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor (UP Diliman and UP Mindanao), College of Engineering, and National Engineering Center.
He is currently a regular member of the Division of Engineering and Industrial Research of the National Research Council of the Philippines, member of the UP
Vanguard Makati Chapter, member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and member of the Board of Trustees of the UP Engineering Research and
Development Foundation, Inc.

WASTE-TO-ENERGY TECHNOLOGY SUITABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR THE TREATMENT AND
DISPOSAL OF MEDICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND ELECTRONIC RESIDUAL WASTES IN METROPOLITAN

MANILA, PHILIPPINES

There is a global need for residual waste management to prevent environmental and health hazards and reduce its volume for
disposal to sanitary landfills. A waste-to-energy (WtE) facility can provide solutions by converting energy from waste to
generate electricity. In this study, a method of selecting the most appropriate WtE technology for residual wastes from medical,
industrial, and electronic sectors was formulated and implemented through multi-attribute decision analysis. The preference of
the investigators with technical knowledge from different fields of expertise was considered in ranking the most important
parameters in the study. From the comparison of seven waste conversion technologies and four power generation
technologies, the pyrolysis-Brayton plant was found to be the most suitable WtE technology for residual waste. Using empirical,
literature, and industry data, a pyrolysis-Brayton WtE power plant was simulated at capacities of 1, 3, and 10 tons per day (tpd)
for the three waste sectors. The results of the study show that a WtE plant can reduce the volume of residual wastes of up to
90% and generate electricity up to 1.2 MW for 10 tpd plant simulations. The flexibility and small footprint of the pyrolysis-
Brayton set-up is suitable for installation in clustered locations. A pilot demonstration is recommended for future studies.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

128 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

EDWIN N. QUIROS, PhD.
Federico E. Puno 2 Professorial Chair

Edwin N. Quiros is a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UP-Diliman and faculty-in-charge of
the university’ s Vehicle Research and Testing Laboratory (UP-VRTL). He obtained his BSME (1982) and Ph.D. in Energy
Engineering (1989) from UP- Diliman after completing his research work on a toroidal diesel combustion chamber
concept at the Engine Research Center, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985-88. He currently teaches courses in
thermodynamics and internal combustion engines. Dr. Quiros was part of the technical training management team at
UP NEC and other private companies. He has worked as technical assistant to plant managers in two cement plants
and engineering manager in a 240-MW diesel power plant. He was involved in tender document preparations, bid
evaluation, and contract negotiations for the first 25-MW wind farm in the Philippines. He spearheaded the
establishment of the UP-VRTL in 2008 and has since conducted testing of aftermarket fuel-saving and/or emissions-
reduction automotive products including biofuels. He is currently active in conducting research on and technology
assessment of alternative/renewable fuels and automotive propulsion technologies for various government agencies in
aid of policy/program formulation, regulation, and implementation especially for public transport.

EMISSIONS FROM REFINED COCONUT OIL ETHYL ESTER-DIESEL BLENDS – A PRELIMINARY
STUDY

The study describes the production of ethyl ester biodiesel from refined coconut oil. It aimed to replace the
toxic methanol by a renewable and relatively safe ethanol and to determine whether the product properties
conform to Philippine National Standard (PNS) specifications for B100 fatty acid methyl ester biodiesel.
Emission characteristics of the biodiesel were also studied using a single-cylinder engine generator set fueled
with neat diesel, B1, B2, and B5 biodiesel blends, at 61%, 77%, and 93% electrical loads, which are low,
medium, and high load respectively. Successful conversion via base-catalyzed transesterification was carried
at process conditions of 1% (weight to oil) KOH catalyst, 59% excess ethanol, 1.5 hours reaction time and
ambient temperature at mixer setting of about 4500 rpm with a yield of 93.64% ester. Several properties of
the produced coconut ethyl ester conformed to PNS specifications with the exception of cetane index, acid
value, water content, and total glycerine content. The calculated cetane index was 46.327 which is close to
US and Brazil standards for cetane number. Emission tests revealed that the B1 blend had the optimal
emission characteristics with most of the parameters while B2 blend had the most significant decrease in CO
emission. B1 reduced CO2 emission by 8%, NOx at 7% and THC by 2.5% at high load when compared to
base petro diesel. B2 blend reduced CO emission significantly by 46% at low load and 22% at medium load
when compared to base petro diesel. The remaining B2 and B5 blends had an average increase of about 10%
and 16% NOx emissions respectively, a typical characteristic for most biodiesels.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 129

JOSEPH GERARD T. REYES, PhD.
Leopoldo V. Abis Professorial Chair

Associate Professor Joseph Gerard T. Reyes graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical engineering, Master of Science in
Mechanical engineering and Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering, all from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
He has accumulated twenty-six years of teaching experience at the UP Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as in the Energy
Engineering and Environmental Engineering Programs of the UP National Graduate School of Engineering. He is also a former chairman of the UP
Department of Mechanical Engineering and the former Associate Dean for Student Affairs of the UP College of Engineering. He was also an
affiliate professor of the UP Technology Management Center. Currently, Dr. Reyes is the air quality track head of the Environmental Engineering
program of the UPNGSE.
Dr. Reyes has also worked with industry as plant operations management coordinator, facilities manager, and technical training officer,
respectively in various locally-based companies. Aside from his academic qualifications, he is a certified watergy auditor under the USAID and a
certified energy management trainor of the ASEAN Energy Managers Accreditation Scheme (AEMAS). Dr. Reyes is also a regular resource person
of the Professional Certificate in Facilities Management program and other professional courses of the UP National Engineering Center since 2000.
He also served as a resource person for the Energy Audit course of the Energy Efficiency Practitioners Association of the Philippines (ENPAP).
Dr. Reyes areas of specialization are in machine design, industrial and commercial plant equipment and processes, manufacturing processes,
refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, energy conversion systems, facility engineering and management, energy efficiency, and air quality.

METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING AIR FLOW PATHWAYS IN RELATION TO INDOOR AIR
CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT AND DISPERSION - A PRELIMINARY STUDY

People stay indoors for 85% of their time and, thus, are exposed to indoor air pollutants that may be present
in their vicinity, which may cause them to suffer from Building-Related Illness (BRI) or Sick Building Syndrome
(SBS). These pollutants may originate either from sources outside the enclosed facility and entering via
infiltrating air, or from within the enclosed facility itself, where there would be sources of these pollutants.
These pollutants are dispersed within the facility via air flow brought about by the ventilation system and other
factors influencing flow. Real-time detection and measurement of these pollutants will enable concerned
parties to initiate actions to protect the health of occupants and for compliance with local and national policies;
such methods require the deployment of fixed monitoring stations. Properly locating these sensors will assure
accurate detection and measurement, and optimize the number of stations to be used. To pinpoint this
location, a procedure for assessing air flow pathways and the corresponding indoor air contaminant transport
and dispersion, with reference to previous works, is proposed and presented in this paper.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS

130 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS



132 UP DILIMAN - COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

ALBERTO V. AMORSOLO JR.
Philex Mining Corporation UP Centennial
Professorial Chair I

Dr. Alberto V. Amorsolo, Jr. has been a regular faculty member since 1981 of the UP Department of Mining,
Metallurgical and Materials Engineering who holds the rank of Professor 12. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. Materials
Science degrees from the University of Rochester in 1994 and 1997, respectively as DOST ESEP Scholar. He also earned
his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of the Philippines in 1981 and 1987,
respectively. He is recipient of the 2020 Philex Mining Corporation UP Centennial Professorial Chair 1 Award. He has
completed researches on shape memory alloy synthesis via electroplating-annealing route, lead-free solder alloy
systems, surface modification of polymer materials, and titanium silicide thin films, among other topics. He has keen
interest in the characterization of materials by X-ray diffraction methods and electron microscopy (SEM and TEM) and
applications of thin films in the microelectronics industry.

A SIMPLE SPREADSHEET PROGRAM FOR CALCULATING MASS ATTENUATION
COEFFICIENTS AND SHIELDING PARAMETERS BASED ON EPICS2017 AND EPDL297

PHOTOATOMIC LIBRARIES
A spreadsheet program for calculating mass attenuation coefficients and other shielding parameters was built.
The program can choose its libraries from ENDF/B-VIII (EPICS2017) or ENDF/B-VI.8 (EPDL97) photoatomic
cross sections. Using MS Excel extensions, cubic spline, one way spline, and linear interpolations were used
on a log-log scale. Good agreements were shown between both libraries and XCOM generated mass
attenuation coefficients in most elements from Z = 1 to Z = 100 and in most energies considered. However,
there were significant differences for some heavy elements at low photon energies. The program was also
validated by multi-elemental material results obtained by XCOM, by others in literature, and by the Phy-X/
PSD, all with good agreements. Therefore, the program is a versatile tool especially in the validation of photon
shielding parameters calculated via the Monte Carlo method.

2021 PROFESSORIAL CHAIR AND TEACHING &RESEARCH AWARD - BOOK OF ABSTRACTS