COE professors get awards in eng’g confab

Two professors from MMSU College of Engineering (COE) hauled awards at the close of the three simultaneous conferences conducted by the Philippine Society of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers (PSABE) at USeP Sports and Cultural Center in Davao City last April 22-28.

The conferences were the 29th Philippine Agricultural Engineering Week, 6th International Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Conference and Exhibition, and the 68th PSABE Annual National Convention. The two awardees are Dr. Nathaniel R. Alibuyog and Dr. Carlos M. Pascual, COE dean and chief of MMSU’s International Program, respectively.

Dr. Alibuyog was cited as the 2018 Outstanding Agricultural and Biosystems Engineer in the field of soil and water resources development conservation, irrigation, and drainage engineering, while Dr. Pascual placed second in the two different categories of technical paper presentations. He submitted three research papers in the conference, but two garnered recognition.

Dr. Alibuyog said the qualifications in giving the award are professional competence and advancement, social responsibility, and participation in professional activities, adding that his accomplishments are parallel with these criteria given by the PSABE.

“I have been involved in different research and development (R&D) projects related to land and water resources engineering, and I also developed various training modules and manuals for engineering courses to capacitate researchers with emerging technologies,” he beamed.

The R & D projects he conducted include harnessing of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing technology towards improved agricultural productivity and governance, national R&D program on watershed management, Quiaoit River watershed, and Philippine Light Detection and Ranging (Phil-LiDAR) 2, among others.

He also published 12 research papers in refereed international and national journals, among which is an international book entitled “Vegetable-Agroforestry Systems in the Philippines”, and he also served as consultant in developing water resources master plans in Ilocos Norte, Abra, Abulog-Apayao, and some parts in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pascual’s papers on the “Assessment of Hydrologic Alteration or Hydropower Dams: Case of the Omo-Gibe River Basin in Ethiopia” and “Assessment of Renewable Energy Systems in Northern Philippines using Geospatial Toolkit” garnered second places in the fields of soil and water conservation, irrigation and drainage, and in rural electrification, agricultural processing, and agriculture, respectively.

In his first paper, Dr. Pascual evaluated the hydrologic changes due to the hydropower dams and its ecological impacts on the Omo-Gibe river basin using Indicator of Hydrologic Alteration model and the World Bank’s environmental and ecological impact (EEI) indicators.

His second paper, he and his co-workers Michelle B. delos Santos and Mayrose E. Valenzuela worked on in exploring how the Geospatial Toolkit (GsT) can be used to assess renewable energy systems in northern part of the country.

PSABE was founded in 1950 to advance the theory and practice of engineering in agriculture and the allied sciences and arts, enhance the status of agricultural engineering as a profession, and improve the usefulness and the role of the organized agricultural engineering society.

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