Feature: Internship 2ONEs of Batch 2021: ASE

5/21/2021 06:10:00 PM Media Center 0 Comments

The Applied Sciences and Engineering Track (ASE) in UPIS handles the learning areas of Science, Mathematics, Health, and PE. Every year as part of their curriculum, all Grade 12 students who take this track undergo an internship program, set to offer them hands-on experience on the sites that they are assigned to. The programs transpire both inside and outside of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus.

The internships were able to push through as adjustments in line with the ongoing pandemic were made. For the first time, the programs ran through various online platforms like Zoom. They kicked off on March 1, 2021 and ended on March 14, 2021.

Are you psyched to know more about their adventures as interns? Let’s jump right into the internship sites of Batch 2021 ASE:

AJM Planning and Design is a design firm that consists of passionate designers committed to transforming people and places through landscape architecture. It comes up with responsible and innovative designs to make a productive impact on individuals and communities. It is led by AJ Moldez, the principal landscape architect, who is a graduate of Landscape Architecture at UP Diliman.

Andrei Salongsongan personally enjoyed one of the plates, which he got to work on with a group. The plate is a project given to them by a client who asked them to transform an open space into different amenities such as nature pools, a garden café, amphitheaters, and a lot more.

“Being able to finish this complex task feels relieving and we had fun while we were accomplishing it,” he added.

Andrei stated that lacking knowledge and experience in using certain softwares made things difficult for him. Even though basic software lessons were taught to the group when they took Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) in Grade 10, they were not enough to help them smoothly and effectively finish their project. Various techniques needed to be mastered and applied in order to work on the project.

After finishing the internship program, Andrei realized that having a well-balanced environment in his landscape architecture projects was significant because it had an impact on individuals and communities. He also added that, in his time as an intern, he developed his experiences and knowledge in using software like SketchUp and landscape architecture. He said that those skills might help him in his future college course.

The Climate Change Commission coordinates, monitors, and evaluates government programs. It also ensures the mainstreaming of climate change in the Philippines’ development plans, with an aim to move towards a climate-resilient and climate-smart country. The commission is divided into different sectors, each with its own tasks and responsibilities.

The Implementation Oversight Division (IOD), which is responsible for supporting national, sub-national, and sectoral climate action, was the sector Celina Morales and her co-intern were assigned to. One of the activities that they were tasked to do was to attend orientations for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) and State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).

“This activity not only made me learn more about the steps our country is taking to put a stop to climate change, but also let me express my skills and abilities to contribute to the greater good,” Celina shared.

She also added that the online setting made it more difficult for her to quickly grasp and understand the nature of their work. Unfamiliar words and concepts that surrounded their tasks also prevented her and her co-intern from finishing everything done quickly and efficiently.

Still, the program taught Celina a lot of lessons and realizations. She was able to gain insight on what it’s like to produce outputs in a real-world setting. She was also able to develop her communication and analytical skills, as well as being able to produce high-quality outputs within a given amount of time.

“I learned that going from a learning environment to a working environment can be a bit challenging. However, with enough support and perseverance, each working environment can be made fun and enjoyable, especially when working with the right people,” she added.

The College of Architecture in UP Diliman offers architectural work experience to Grade 12 students. It is focused on honing students’ creative and analytical skills. It aims to inspire society to seek for a more progressive discussion towards a better-designed and better-built environment.

Japheth Neri was one of the few interns who were accommodated by this internship program. In his first week, he was assigned to work at the Extension Services Office, while in his second week, he was assigned to the Urban Design Studio Lab.

Japheth chose designing the interior of the UPCA Extension Office as his favorite out of all the activities. He was given a SketchUp layout of the office by his supervisor and was tasked to freely put materials and furniture fit to his own taste to make the office look better.

As much as he enjoyed the activity, there were also a few mishaps along the way. Before he started as an intern, he said he presumed that all the tasks assigned to him would be related to architectural design only. He looked into modern art ideas and practiced geometric designs as preparation for the program. In actuality, he also received office work-related activities such as researching and constructing publicity materials. “Things were a little difficult at that time and I needed to adjust,” he mentioned.

Japheth mentioned that his first time to work hands-on was a great learning experience. He learned that architecture is not all about designing—it involves science and business as well. He also realized his inadequacies in terms of work qualifications because he saw he needed to improve his skills in adaptability and time management. Japheth described the whole internship program as “fun, yet challenging.”

As an institution for research and higher learning in the field of electrical and electronics engineering, the College of Engineering - Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI) of UP Diliman gears the country’s future innovator-engineers towards technological advancements related to electricity.

According to Jana Garcia, one of the students who worked at the EEEI, there were two departments available for internship. The first was the Space Science and Technology Proliferation through University Partnerships (STEP-UP), which focuses on the space exploration and satellite technology of the Philippines. The main tasks for the interns of STEP-UP were tracking satellite movement and monitoring the collected data.

The second was her department, the Digital Signal Processing Laboratory (DSP), which tackles algorithm development and implementation or the processing of information from different signals like sounds and images.

Admitting that it is not her greatest skill, Jana revealed that she struggled with the tasks that involved coding. What made learning how to code all the more complicated was the online setup. She also said that she was challenged by the activities that allowed no room for mistakes.

Fortunately, she and her fellow interns were ready to help each other, even if it meant “staying up until the wee hours of the morning.”

Still, the program left her with lots of fulfilling experiences. She picked spectrogram generation, in which she plotted an audio clip into a 3D graph, as her favorite activity because she enjoyed seeing the visual differences among the data. Another of her favorites was their culminating activity where she presented her research proposal to her teachers, fellow interns, and some EEEI faculty members and she was able to incorporate the techniques she learned.

Her short but jam-packed stint at the DSP helped her to become more well-rounded both as an individual and as a student by further realizing the value of teamwork. This also showed her different ways on how STEM can be used in community development.

Jana mused, “As a STEM student, recognizing how interconnected the different concepts is key to becoming an innovator. It's fulfilling to see how we can build upon knowledge to create a new purpose, no matter how different they are in nature.”

With the mission of conserving and sustainably managing the country's biodiversity, the Department of Environment Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau’s (DENR-BMB) main task is to construct and implement policies, guidelines, rules, and regulations in line with environmental management and pollution prevention and control. The branch particularly focuses on managing the Ninoy Aquino Park and Wildlife Center (NAPWC).

As a DENR-BMB intern, Krissie Ebdane said that they were tasked to evaluate the NAPWC’s non-traditional bioswale, which can be found in the Arboretum of Philippine Native Trees. Bioswales convey stormwater runoff. She mentioned that she and the other interns enjoyed this interesting dive into green architecture.

As the program came to an end, one of Krissie’s realizations was how the world outside school operates. She realized how important it is to accomplish requirements immediately to show respect to the personal time of everyone involved. Having a good system for organising tasks and information is beneficial in working.

“Our teachers are just too kind (and they) made time for us,” she added.

UP Diliman’s Institute of Biology (IB) is the branch of the College of Science that deals with biological sciences and strives to advance cross-disciplinary research important in regional and national development through local and international partnerships with government agencies and other academic institutions.

The remote laboratory experiments done were particularly memorable to Jhanjoe Hermano, a former intern at the IB. Although online sessions could never compare to those held at the actual institute, he shared that the computer programs used to simulate the experiments stood out to him.

“These computer programs felt like a minigame of all the experiments we had to perform. The experience is limited, but it was still able to teach all of the significant aspects of each procedure,” he explained.

Securing a stable internet connection was the biggest challenge for Jhanjoe since his synchronous sessions in the morning competed with the internet use of his other family members. But this was no match for his desire to enrich his preexisting skills and to develop new ones in fields apart from the sciences. He observed that his writing skills improved as well, thanks to all the paperwork, such as reports, analyses, and presentations, that was assigned to them.

Specializing in mathematics research and education, the Institute of Math (IM) in UP Diliman handles all the courses and graduate degrees in the field of mathematics.

AJ Tang said that while the faculty of IM has 8 academic groups, interns were only distributed into 5: the Matrix and Linear Algebra Group, Modelling and Applications, Optimization and Approximation, Mathematical Finance and Actuarial Science, and Discrete Geometry and Combinatorics. He was assigned to Modelling and Applications. As the name suggests, the activities of his group revolved around making mathematical models related to the timely topic of COVID-19.

AJ found exploring the program application Matrix Laboratory, or MATLAB for short, to be his most thrilling experience. Interns were required to use MATLAB in the creation of the models. Even though he was completely new to this application, the challenges were crushed by his eagerness to learn new things.

His inexperience may have caused the application to malfunction, lag, and encounter function errors multiple times but by consulting with his supervisor or researching on his own, he was able to solve these problems and finish on time.

From his experiences during the internship program, AJ was able to gain many skills that will be valuable in the future. One thing he discovered about himself was his unwavering passion and dedication no matter the work environment.

“Since my activities focused on COVID-19,” he reflected, “the most rewarding part of the experience was the ability to understand the situation we are in. To be able to use data in expanding knowledge was amazing and perceptive.”

Interns under the Applied Sciences and Engineering track had multiple takeaways as the two-week internship program came to an end. They realized that they have areas for improvement such as coding, and using software and applications. This resulted in them having a hard time accomplishing tasks, but they managed to pull through. Their past knowledge regarding some scientific concepts has also been modified or changed. They were able to practice producing outputs in a real-world setting and practice time management. The importance of teamwork also came to light. Simple things like reaching out to supervisors for clarifications or questions immediately and organizing tasks and information turned out to be crucial.

All in all, the interns thought that the whole internship experience was great and fun, yet challenging. The tasks that were given to them went beyond their expectations, but because of their eagerness to learn new things, they managed to fulfill the requirements. The interns were also able to express their skills and abilities to contribute to the greater good. // by Danzar Dellomas, Sophia Luangco, Gabie Santiago