By Crisdeniele Clemente

Officials of the Wadhwani Foundation (Wadhwani Fdn.), a global non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating job creation, visited Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) Technology Business Incubator (TBI) office on Tuesday, April 2, to explore possible collaborations.

MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis warmly welcomed Mr. Lucrecio ‘Cris' Delgado, the Southeast Asia regional director of Wadhwani Fdn., and Atieenza Tata, senior consultant and program manager, during a courtesy call at the Ferdinand E. Marcos Hall.

A collaborative meeting was later held at the Center for Flexible Learning, where Dr. Delgado presented the diverse programs offered by Wadhwani Fdn., emphasizing their potential to enhance the skill sets of the MMSU TBI workforce. He also promoted a self-paced learning application called IgniteX, infused with artificial intelligence to equip student entrepreneurs with business skills.

Dr. Agrupis recognized the company's capacity to capacitate MMSU employees and students further. She also shared potential partnerships with the research and entrepreneurial aspects of the Promoting Research and Innovation to Strengthen Transformation of Industries and Enterprises (PRISTINE) program. 

Dr. Dionisio Bucao, director for research; Dr. Mee Jay Domingo, director for internationalization, linkages, and partnerships; Prof. Armie Sabugo, MMSU TBI chief and Bannuar TBI project leader; Mr. Neil Bryant Baliao, TBI project staff; deans and department chairs from the College of Engineering, College of Computing and Information Sciences, and College of Business, Economics, and Accountancy were also present at the meeting.

Founded by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani in 2001, the Wadhwani Fdn. initiates job growth by impacting the lives of millions across various countries through its four core initiatives: entrepreneurship, skilling, innovation and research, and government digital transformation. (MKA_StratCom)