IBM Culminates First Cebu Innovation Bootcamp

Senior high school students from three public high schools impressed judges and organizers as they presented and demonstrated the mobile applications they made as a culminating activity to the Cebu Innovation Bootcamp Hackathon last March 10, 2018 at the Grand Convention Center of Cebu.

IBM, in partnership with Education Development Center (EDC), and in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT), Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB), and Department of Education (DepEd) launched the Cebu Innovation Bootcamp last October 17, 2017. The program aimed to gear the students towards being market-ready for employment and to be prepared to address different socio-economic challenges.

669 students from Pajo National High School, Mandaue Comprehensive National High School, and Ramon Duterte Memorial National High School were given the opportunity to go through a series of innovation workshops through design, thinking, ideation, prototyping, and consultation conducted and facilitated by IBM. They were also able to use Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform for creating mobile applications.

Out of the 669 students, 48 students qualified to the final Hackathon. The results of the learning sessions and workshops impressed the judges who were invited to the culminating activity.

The panel of judges consist of DICT 7 Regional Director Antonio Padre, CIB.O Executive Director Mr. Jun Sa-a, Program Officer of the Governance and Linkages from RAFI Mr. Christian Anuta, DepEd Regional Field Technical Assistant Dr. Leah Apao, and IBM Application Developer IT Specialist Mr. Samuel Allen Samson.

10 innovative and ready-to-launch mobile applications were made looking to address issues such as water supply, solid waste management, and flooding, all of which were presented and demonstrated by the students.

The project that stood out among was called “Rebootant” which was a trash-to-cash initiative where DIY projects are shown in the website and households can sell their finished products to the project proponents and earn money. The other two projects which came second and third places were also very innovative. “Eco-barter”, which is an online platform to exchange garbage for school supplies and seedlings, is made by students from Mandaue Comprehensive National High School. Lastly, students from Ramon Duterte Memorial National High School came up with an application for water consumption tracker.

Mr. Sa-a expressed his impressions towards the students for a job well done and appreciation to the organizers and proponents of the program. Cebu Innovation Bootcamp will target another 5 public senior high schools for their second run which will start within this year.