By Daniel P. Tapaoan, Jr. 

Officials of the QIS Institute of Technology (IT) in Andhra Pradesh, India visited Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) on May 4 for a partnership meeting and lecture forum held at the University Center for Flexible Learning. 

Dr. N.S. Kalyan Chakravarthy, executive chairperson of the SRI Nidamanuri Education Society in QIS-IT, delivered a lecture before officials and researchers of MMSU and the Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College (ISPSC). He was joined by Dr. Jafar Ali Ibrahim S., head of Industry and Collaboration Officer - Society Affairs. 

Dr. Chakravarthy talked about probiotics products and their applications, and discussed transformational and translational education during the meeting. 

Topics discussed by the Indian professor are deemed necessary as MMSU and ISPSC are implementing a project titled “Advancing Ilocos Indigenous Food Production Systems through Industry Collaborative research and Innovation Toward Healthy Food Security.” Funded by the Commission on Higher Education, this project is under the MMSU-led Indigenous Food Research Consortium (IFRC). 

Dr. Dionisio Bucao, project leader, said the meeting aimed to provide a platform to discuss the latest trends and challenges in indigenous food research, engineering, and education. According to him, inputs from the lecture forum will be used by the consortium in enhancing its regulatory framework for probiotics development.

MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis, IFRC program leader, thanked the visitors from QIS for sharing their time and expertise to the officials and researchers, saying their engagement here in the university signifies the emerging partnership with the Indian institute. 

For his part, ISPSC President Gilbert Arce hopes that the collaboration with the foreign institution would become instrumental in making the probiotics project more successful. 

QIS-IT is a partner of the Asian Institute of Technology - Thailand. In March, MMSU, ISPSC, and AIT forged ties to further advance research on indigenous food products and functional foods. (HLY, StratCom)