Agham+Sining: UP’s best innovations and creative works to be showcased in a 2-day Innovation and Knowledge Festival

| Written by Celeste Ann Castillo Llaneta

The University of the Philippines (UP) is showcasing the research and creative work, and scientific and technological innovations of its community in a two-day knowledge festival, and everyone is invited to come and participate.

The “Agham + Sining: UP Innovation and Knowledge Festival 2022” will be held on November 28-29 at the UP Bonifacio Global City (BGC) campus as a hybrid event—both face-to-face and live-streamed.

It will feature the best products from UP’s best in the sciences and the arts. These include innovations and promising research led by brilliant university faculty and researchers and the best technologies adopted by UP’s industry partners and research projects to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. For the arts, the festival will promote the digital and physical outputs of the University’s creative minds, from history to visual arts and cinema and indigenous and local cultures to education and innovation.

Some of the projects to be featured are:

  • Project SARAi, or Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines, aims to develop a national crop forecasting and monitoring system for rice, corn, banana, coconut, coffee, cacao, sugarcane, soybean, and tomato farming, and is being implemented by the UP Los Baños, together with several state universities and colleges and national government agencies.
  • Bio-Nitrogen, or Bio-N, is an organic/microbial inoculant fertilizer for rice and corn that increases yield while maintaining soil health.
  • Lab in a Mug/Dengue Detection Kit, or the Biotek MTM aqua kit, a miniaturized nucleic acid-based detection kit with 85% Sensitivity and 100% Specificity in detecting Dengue, and a turnaround time of just 1 hour, with results that can be seen with a naked eye.
  • Yerba Buena, an aromatic herb known as mint, spearmint, or marsh mint found in the Philippines, contains Menthalactone. This substance has been shown to have analgesic or pain-relieving activity.
  • Mussel Glycogen, utilizes the glycogen content of various mussel species in the Philippines and optimizes the procedures for glycogen extraction and use in multiple products.
  • VISSER, or Versatile Instrumentation System for Science Education and Research, is a low-cost, portable, and handheld science kit that allows high school students to conduct over 50 science experiments in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering, which greatly contributes to the enhancement of the STEM strand.
  • PteraBooster, which involves the processing of biowaste using Black Soldier Fly Larvae to produce products such as nutrient-rich organic compost and protein-rich animal feedstuff.
  • And TVUP, the University’s Internet television (webcast) network, offers free informational and instructional material via its Facebook page and YouTube channels,  has recently launched its CIGNAL TV Channel 101 in partnership with Cignal TV Inc.

The two-day knowledge festival will also feature sessions on Teaching and Learning in the Digital Era, Sining at Ako: Kasaysayan, Kultura at Pagkakakilanlan; Green Energy and Sustainable Solutions, Responsible Consumption and Production, and more.

The “Agham + Sining: UP Innovation and Knowledge Festival 2022” is organized by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the UP System Technology Transfer and Business Development Office. Registration details shall be posted soon. For updates, visit the OVPAA Facebook page.

Download the Agham + Sining Programme here. You may also view the schedule of activities below.

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