Mapua Dominates Annual Short Film Tilt in UP

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Short films from Mapua University recently led the winners of Piling Obrang Vidyo XV, an interschool video competition, at Cine Adarna in UP Diliman.

Films directed by Mapuans Celina Mae Medina, Harold Lance Pialda and Gabrielle Lloyd Reyes topped their corresponding POV categories.

Medina and fellow Mapuan Tricia Sotaso bagged Best Narrative Film and Best Cinematography, respectively, for “Ophelia.” The short film is about a depressed college student (Rea Molina) who wants to seek psychiatric help but her parents (Soliman Cruz and Angelina Kanapi) have other plans in mind. 

 

Pialda’s “Gatilyo” (Trigger) was awarded Best Director, Best Sound and Best Production Design, also in the narrative film category. “Gatilyo” tells the story of a soldier (Rocky Salumbides) who is being haunted by the war he survived.

Meanwhile, Reyes got the Best Experimental Film prize for “Ang Mambabarang at ang mga Taong Pinatay sa Limot.” Reyes' work bested his other entry “Kanin Baboy, Taong Baboy,” another Mapuan film “Ang Pagtuklas sa Larangan ng Pagiging Maria Clara” by Lady Vicente, and two others from University of San Carlos in Cebu and UP Film Institute.

“Aswang” from Far Eastern University received the Best Screenplay award, “Babuyan” from UPFI got Best Editing, People’s Choice and Cinemasters’ Choice, while “Househusband” from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde won Best Documentary.

Rody Vera, Carlo Manatad, Chuck Gutierrez, Dix Buhay, Christian Bables, Lars Magbanua, Prime Cruz, Miko Livelo and Raffy Magsaysay judged the narrative films. The group of Hiyas Bagabaldo, Wena Sanchez and Keith Deligero, and that of Jet Leyco, Jim Lumbera and Rox Lee, served as jury for the documentaries and experimental films, respectively.

POV is organized by UP Cinema, an academic, social and cultural organization based at the UP College of Mass Communication. Aside from organizing POV, UP Cinema also serves as a venue for the open and free discussion of issues and ideas concerning cinema as a movement, art and industry.

The Ways In Which GPS Is Changing How We Travel

Wazzup Pilipinas!

GPS is everywhere: in cars, in phones, in laptops, in trains etc. We can take it for granted, and we will do increasingly as it becomes a more and more common element of daily life and travel, but the amount to which it has shaped our very understanding of travel cant be overstated.

GPS is unambiguously helpful: the number of times that we turn to it to orient ourselves in situations as disparate as hiking and trying to find the local shop, is incredible. It is also packaged nowadays with an incredibly intuitive user interface. But what are the ways in which it has changed the way we travel? Lets find out.

Negates The Danger Of So Many Situations

Previously, going for a walk through a forest could be considered a highly trepidatious adventure, that required some real orienteering skills. However, GPS tracker makes it a walk in the park (or forest?). Plus, GPS negates the danger in so many other situations. Getting into a car crash on an unknown road no longer means desperately trying to explain what the last landmark you saw was to the emergency services. GPS handles that for you.

Increases Our Reliance On Smartphones

“GPS is currently most user friendly when packaged inside of a slickly designed app for your smartphone, notes Mark Channing, tech writer at Write My X and Brit Student. As if we need more excuses to be hooked on our smartphones, having this invaluable ability to track ourselves and find locations with ease in our smartphones makes all of us that bit more connected to our phones.

Allows Us To Be Found A Lot Easier

As mentioned above, in regard to the emergency services, the ability to be found as well as to find has its positives and benefits. On the one hand, the emergency services can use it, either an ambulance finding you in a remote location or the police tracking a criminal. On the other hand, it can lead to serious invasions of privacy. Again, this could be from the government, companies, organizations or just your creepy ex. Either way, its not always pleasant knowing you can be tracked at any time.

Makes Us Far Less Able To Orienteer Instinctively

Sooner or later, we will find ourselves mapping our routes everywhere. Human beings have recorded, instinctual orienteering in our DNA. Some humans, as you have probably noticed, are far better at directions and using a map than others. But the more we all get sucked into always relying on the phone, the more likely it is that we as a species erode our sense of direction.

It Damages Our Memory

“The hippocampus, the seahorse that stores our memory in the brain, shrinks if under-utilized and flourishes with training. Taxi drivers who still learn their routes by heart, for example, have powerful hippocampi, explains Rod Stuggart, travel blogger from  1 Day 2 Write and Australia 2 Write. For similar reasons as above, our memory is affected by not being relied on. If we never have to remember routes and directions by heart or with the help of rudimentary maps, our memory functions for this part of the brain will naturally decay.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. It is definitely a blessing and a curse and the results of which of those two sides win out wont be known for, potentially, hundreds of years. That being said, dont worry too much. Your reliance is unlikely to be at 100%. Next time you head out for a walk, just leave the Maps app closed for a change!

Adelina Benson is an email marketer and writer at Academic Brits and Origin Writings. She develops marketing strategies, edits and proofreads company emails. In her free time, she loves to blog to help people reach their full potential at PhD Kingdom. She is also a keen orienteering and mountaineering expert, with a passion for travel.

MARINA Hosts 2019 MET Conference

Wazzup Pilipinas!

To translate the trends in maritime education and training into assets of the Philippine maritime industry, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), in cooperation with the International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU), hosted the 2019 Maritime Education and Training (MET) Conference and Workshop in Manila on 21-22 February 2019.

The MET Conference started in 2016 through a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) between the MARINA and IAMU to provide an avenue for discussion on how to further advance maritime education and training in the Philippines.

MARINA Officer-in-Charge Vice Admiral Narciso Vingson Jr and IAMU Executive Director Takeshi Nakazawa welcomed more than 200 representatives from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), maritime higher education institutions (MHEIs), maritime training centers (MTCs), seafarer associations, research groups and course developers, maritime instructors, as well as manning agencies participated in the two-day interactive discussion about the trends in maritime education and training, particularly about specialized maritime knowledge, student engagement, assessment, maritime teaching and crew manning in 2020 and beyond.

Also tackled were the innovations in maritime education and training and how it impacted the society and the development of Filipino seafarers, the maritime education internet of things (IoT), and the fundamentals of running a training ship in 2020 and beyond.

Capt. Pradeep Chawla, Chairman of the Global Maritime Educaation and Training (GlobalMET) – an association of 80 maritime training institutes across the world, was one of the remarkable speakers who shared invaluable insights at the 2019 MET Conference.

The MARINA noted the affirmation made by Capt. Chawla that the Philippines will remain as one of the top suppliers of competent seafarers in the next ten years due to their high moral ethics, professionalism, and integrity compared to other nationalities.

With this, the country has to keep up with the latest advancements in maritime education and training by enhancing teaching methods through digitization and gamification, among others, as well as virtual reality and flip classroom to yield higher learning outcomes from maritime students. Through these initiatives, Capt. Chawla said future Filipino seafarers may have greater ability to process larger amount of data at a time, better focus on critical issues, cope with increased stress level, be more assertive, and work efficiently with remote teams.

Above all, he emphasized the importance of continuous learning to active seafarers so they may contribute in the development of maritime education and training by becoming maritime instructors or trainers in the future.

Furthermore, the MARINA presented the 10-year maritime industry development plan (MIDP) with emphasis on the manpower requirement that is needed to be developed to effectively implement the MIDP’s eight priority programs, especially on shipyard, logistics, cruise tourism and the ancillary businesses of the first-ever maritime hub.

Aside from Professor Nakazawa, IAMU brought in Engr. Johan Ljungklint, Dr. Damir Zec, Mr. Vlado Fracic, and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son to facilitate the open forum which focused on the future of the shipping industry through autonomous and/or smart ships, the developments in maritime education and training through digitization, threats on cyber security, and expectations to maritime instructors in 2020 and beyond.

The two-day event concluded with the commitment from various maritime stakeholders to seek the way forward in the eventual enhancement of the Philippine maritime education and training system.