For the past five years, the companies under the leadership of Manuel V. Pangilinan have provided 14 professorial chairs and four teaching and research grants to the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Engineering to aid in their research studies on innovative and tech developments for the country. Through the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), Pangilinan also committed to donate another professorial chair to the College of Engineering.
The MVP Group also provided two more professorial chairs to the UP College of Science.
Pangilinan recognizes the efforts of UP to forge ahead in broadening its expertise in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education by becoming the country’s premiere engineering school.
“PLDT and Smart have been sourcing IT talent. In the future, this is very important because we ourselves are looking forward to the future mode of development. Given our heavy capex for 5G, our existing business model needs people who are IT-focused and are really IT- and science-trained,” Pangilinan said.
“You have given us this rare opportunity to be helpful to the College of Engineering and UP in general. We now have a wider relationship with the school and it is very important for the country that we orient our schools towards the sciences,” Pangilinan added.
UP Engineering R&D Foundation, Inc. (UPERDFI) president Ferdinand de la Cruz shared the foundation’s monumental project for the UP College of Engineering, which is the building of the high-performance computing facility.
The project aims to provide high-speed computer facilities to PhD students who are doing researches in various simulations, including landslide, transport and typhoon. According to de la Cruz, there is an increasing use of computational models and simulations, but because of the lack of high-speed computing facilities, most opt to use models that require less computing power. Thus, capping what these PhDs and research students can do.
Phase 1 of the project aims to have a modest number of over 1,000 cores by the second quarter of 2021 with a target funding of PHP 20-million.
Pangilinan offered a more extensive discussion of the PLDT Group and the UPERDFI on the project to target at least 5,000 to 10,000 cores for its exclusive high-performance computing facility for the UP College of Engineering.
“Thank you once again, chairman MVP for your generosity for all these years. Being relatively new in the foundation, I didn’t realize how invested you are in supporting the Iskolars ng Bayan. Your quiet and meaningful support speaks volumes. Maraming, maraming salamat po. I believe the investment in Filipino engineers is well worth it dahil ito po ay para sa bayan (Thank you once again, chairman MVP for your generosity for all these years. Being relatively new in the foundation, I didn’t realize how invested you are in supporting the Iskolars ng Bayan. Your quiet and meaningful support speaks volumes. Thank you very much. I believe the investment in Filipino engineers is well worth it because this is for our nation),” de la Cruz said.
“I would also like to mention [this] another initiative — the more recent one — on PLDT’s forming their data privacy information security committee. Yan ay magandang modelo para sa ating information security (I would also like to mention this another initiative — the more recent one — on PLDT’s forming their data privacy information security committee. This is a great model for our nation’s information security),” Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said.
Secretary Fortunato de la Peña also expressed his gratitude to MVP and his companies for their leading efforts in helping boost the country’s national development. These include the MVP Group’s support to the government in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural development innovations, and national information security.