A total of 23 research projects were presented to the public at the 2016 Research Symposium of the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) held on November 28, 2016 at the National Institute of Physics, National Science Complex, UP Diliman.
The symposium allowed the researchers to publicize their OVPAA-supported projects and discuss research concerns with administrators, senior scientists, and other researchers of the University. Project heads and proponents gave the status, accomplishments, and future plans of their projects through presentations and posters, while opening them to questions and feedback from the public.
The presentations were moderated by Professor Emeritus Elsie Jimenez, Professor Emeritus Salcedo Eduardo, Professor Gloria Nelson, and Professor Emeritus Asuncion Raymundo, with Professor Emeritus Evelyn Mae Mendoza giving the closing remarks. Vice President for Academic Affairs Gisela Concepcion also actively gave her input to the projects.

Cordillera Textile samples exhibited during the presentation of Dr. Salvador-Amores from the Department of Social Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, UP Baguio
The first session discussed the following research projects: “Philippine Studies on Primary Care: Pilot Study in UP Diliman”; “Wavefront Engineering Research: Suppression of Spurious Diffraction Orders”; “Bugkos: Putting Equitable Development at the Center of the Asian Century”, and, CoST UP: Communicating Science and Technology Research and Development at the University of the Philippines”.
The second session featured the following: “UP Wellness Initiative for Seniors and Elders”; “From Genes to Ecosystems: Understanding Fruit Bat Species and Genetic Diversity and Its Ecological Interactions with Plants in Tropical Lowland Forests, Palanan, Isabela, Philippines”; “In vitro Release Properties and in vivo Biochemical Activities of Microencapsulated Anthocyanin Extracts Prepared with Duhat and Bignay”; and, “Promoting Rice and White Corn Combination as Food Staple for Filipinos”.

Poster presentations during the OVPAA Research Symposium held last November 28, 2016 at the Intel Center for Science Innovation Auditorium, National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman
“Multimedia and Multidisciplinary Teaching and Learning Materials: Production, Research, and Assessment”; “Learning Tourism Destination: Creating Functional Partnership and Initiating Positive Change for Sustainable Tourism Development in Local Economies”; “The Mass Transit System in Metro Manila: From Tranvia to MRT, 1879-2014″; and, “University of the Philippines in the Last Two Decades” were the research projects presented in Session 3.
In Session 4 were discussed: “Anthropological, Mathematical Symmetry and Technical Characterization of Cordillera Textiles”; “Philippine Performance Archive: Rituals, Dance, Theatre”; “Reinforcing Local Applications of Omics Technology and Bioinformatics”; and, “Towards an Enhanced Health Care System by Community-Managed Health Programs to Achieve Better Health Outcomes: A Community Participatory Research for Advocacy to LGUs, DOH, PITAHC, and PhilHealth”.

Participants of the OVPAA Research Symposium held last November 28, 2016 at the Intel Center for Science Innovation Auditorium, National Institute of Physics, UP Diliman
Presented as posters were: “Mathematical Analysis of Climate-based Malaria Transmission Model with Age-structure Human Population”; “Forest Canopy Observation, Positioning and Investigation Program: Developing Forest Canopy Science in the Philippines”; “Ten Years After the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of Lagunda de Bay: Towards a Sustainable Future”; “Development of a Nanoparticle-based Biosensor for the Rapid Detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Strain Sakai”; “Molecular- and Culture-based Characterization of Bacterial Community from the Manleluag Alkaline Spring in Pangasinan,”; “Conus Structural Exogenomics Program”; and, “Conduction in Disordered Materials in the Low-Frequency Region”.
The UP System, through the OVPAA, awards research grants to faculty and REPS to promote high level and high quality scholarly and creative output in the University. These grants include: the Emerging Interdisciplinary Research (EIDR) Grant; the Foreign Trained Balik PhD Program; and, the Emerging Science and Technology (S&T) Research Grant. These grants are competitive and subject research results to review.
This article originally appeared on the UP System website. Text by Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc. Photos by Jun Madrid.