DoST amazed at scholar volunteers during pandemic

DEPARTMENT of Science and Technology (DoST) Secretary Fortunato de la Peña said he was in awe of their scholars who haD been volunteering in their localities amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“It is very inspiring to know that our DoST scholars are doing their own part to help the nation recover from the current crisis,” de la Peña was quoted as saying.

According to the DoST, as of June 5, 1,081 ongoing and former science scholars volunteered in the relief operations.

Their efforts included data encoding and validation; providing personal protective equipment for frontliners; and alcohol production.

According to the DoST’s Science Education Institute (DoST-SEI) director, Dr. Josette Biyo, this is credited to their Filipino Patriot Scholars Project.

“Since 2017, we wanted to inculcate the core values such as professional excellence, social responsibility, servant leadership and volunteerism among our scholars aside from them pursuing academic excellence,” Biyo stated. “We know that those values don’t fully blossom in a matter of days or weeks, but the Patriot Project allowed them to find deeper meaning to the brand of being DoST scholars.”

Also, 45 scholars under the DoSTSEI were deployed at Department of Health regional offices as volunteer data encoders and analysts, using the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler or Fasster.

“The Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler, which was developed by a team lead by a research team from Ateneo de Manila University, with funding support from the Philippine Council for Health Research and

Development of

DoST, allows forecasting of possible cases in a given area at a specified period of time,” the DoST statement read. “It is used for creating predictive models and visualizing possible scenarios of outbreaks of dengue, typhoid fever and measles at specified time periods.”

Dr. Biyo commended the volunteers saying their institute is proud of them.

“Indeed, there’s no amount of volunteer work that is too small nor big enough,” she said. “The fact that reaching out to others while being under the same threat of exposure to the deadly virus is noble for our young scholars.”

The DoST-SEI said they were positive that scholars would continue to receive their

initiatives.