Press Release
SMART, Notre Dame in Koronadal extend SWEEP partnership
[October 4, 2008/ Koronadal City] - Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) and the Notre Dame of Marbel University (NDMU) recently agreed to extend and further enhance the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) partnership for another five years with the forging of a new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).
“This is a big development for us here in NDMU as SMART has already helped our faculty and students in SWEEP Phase 1,” said Bro. Wilfredo Lubrico, FMS, president of NDMU.
NDMU is one of the premier universities in Region XII.
Lubrico said that under SWEEP, faculty members of their engineering department appreciated the chance to work with SMART engineers during the immersion program.
“During the faculty immersion with SMART, they were able to enhance their capability to teach wireless education to our Electronics and Communications Engineering students,” he added.
SWEEP is a first-of-its-kind industry-academe partnership that seeks to improve the level of technology and engineering education in the country, particularly in the field of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE).
Under the new MOA, SMART shall continue the programs started under the initial five-year run, but will shift focus to new technologies, particularly wireless broadband.
These include trainings conducted by SMART engineers and those conducted in partnership with industry experts Cisco and Trends.Net. SMART has already started conducting trainings under the second phase with “Wireless Networking and Voice over IP”. Some 100 students attended the seminar, which was conducted by SMART engineers Ferdinand Q. Tancio and Harvy D. Calcena at the NDMU SMC Hall last October 4.
There’s also the faculty immersion program where professors from partner schools are given the opportunity to work as trainees under SMART’s local engineering groups for two weeks. Professors gain first-hand experience and a more realistic understanding of the telecoms industry while their students and co-faculty benefit from the knowledge that they are able to pass on.
“SWEEP will definitely help us produce better and capable ECE students,” said Prof. Gladys Paciente, dean of the college of engineering of NDMU.
Paciente explained that before the implementation of SWEEP, faculty members found it difficult to discuss equipment and machines which they themselves never saw or handled.
“With SWEEP, our instructors were able to have hands-on training with equipment that we only read about in books,” added Paciente.
Rodel Agustin, SMART Network Services Division-Network Services Assurance Head for Mindanao, said that through SWEEP, SMART is able to help partner schools nationwide to produce industry-ready graduates.
He encouraged school officials to avail of the slots offered to SWEEP schools for students to get on-the-job training with SMART.
Paciente also noted that the annual SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards “inspires our students to come up with new and innovative ideas when it comes to wireless technology.”
Aside from the wireless laboratory and a continuing education program, SWEEP hosts an annual Innovation and Excellence Awards and the PalaECEpan quiz challenge. The 5th SWEEP Awards will be held in March 2009 with the theme “Strengthening Community-Based Emergency Management Systems.” @
(seated from left): NDMU Academic Director Dr. Noemi B. Silva and President Bro. Wilfredo Lubrico, FMS, SMART Network Services Division Network Services Assurance Head for Mindanao Rodel Agustin and NSA-East Mindanao Operations Manager Lowell Roca. (standing from left) SMART NSD Quality Management Senior Supervisor Cynthia Capua, NDMU faculty Engr. Elmer Claveria, College of Engineering Dean Prof. Gladys Paciente, Michelle Bayhonan of SMART Public Affairs and NDMU faculty Engr. Victorino Tobias.
