Out of the 90 nationwide entries that joined this year’s SMART SWEEP Innovation Awards, a team from ADZU made it to the top ten. The team is composed of Philip Adrian Atilano (Team Leader), Joselle Macrohon, Chris Vem Modejar, and Sharief Kayer Alsree, all 5th year ECE students of the CSIT. They were with Ms. Maureen Billones who was coach/mentor.
The team’s entry, Time Free, is an SMS-based application that maximizes the waiting time of students/parents in the long queues during tuition payment periods. When one pays his/her tuition in the Cashier, he/she gets a number and basically waits for his/her turn to be served. Time Free, allows the payee to drop 1-peso coins in an apparatus and to enter his mobile phone number after having gotten a number. The payee can now attend to his other errands instead of waiting idly in the Finance office. Time Free will then send a text message (depending on the number of 1-peso coins dropped) to the payee reminding him that he will be served soon (10 numbers before his turn).
ADZU sent 7 entry proposals and these were presented in the Mindanao Leg of the elimination round at the Waterfront Hotel in Davao City last September 30, 2009. More than 30 entries were screened during the Mindanao Leg.
Rounding the top ten finalists are 2 teams from Ateneo de Davao University and Ateneo de Manila University, and one team each from the following schools: University of St. La Salle-Bacolod, Notre Dame of Marbel University, Holy Name University, Batangas State University and Mindanao State University – General Santos City.
The ten finalists received PhP30,000.00 each to be used for the implementation of the proposal. The final judging and demonstration of the project will be held on February 5-6, 2009 in Makati City. The winning team will be awarded PhP500,000.00, the second and third placers will receive PhP300,000.00 and PhP150,000.00 respectively. The schools of the winning teams will also receive grants equivalent to the winning team’s prize.
The SMART SWEEP Innovation and Excellence Awards is an annual event sponsored by Smart Communications, Inc. The participating teams propose wire-less applications based on the theme. This year’s theme is “Empowering Communities through Wireless Technologies.”
