AN INDUSTRIAL Electronics/Mechatronics Training Center is being established at COE to serve as training ground for teachers of electronics, mechanical, computer, and electrical engineering.

            The project is implemented through the collaborative effort of MMSU, CHED, and the Temasek Foundation based in Singapore.

            Engineer Wilson Duldulao, COE faculty member and one of the project leaders, said the center cost P7-M from the Disbursement Accelerated Fund of President Benigno Aquino III channeled through CHED. The other project leader is engineer Romaric Ascaño.

            “The center is already 90 percent completed and we hope it will go full swing at the end of this month,” he said adding that this would strengthen the knowledge, capabilities, and competencies of the COE faculty.

            Prior to the establishment of the center, both Duldulao and Ascaño conducted a five-day in-house training for 17 faculty and staff of COE in May 2011 where they were able to fabricate laboratory equipment such as relay modules and simple pneumatic module with the help of laboratory manuals.

            The center’s laboratory/training room is being refurbished and painted, and its electrical power source, air-condition units, closed circuit television (CCTV) security system, and computer network system are  being expedited and are expected to be completed at the end of this month.

            Duldulao said that during the initial implementation of the project where the first batch of equipment was acquired, the realization of the project objectives also started at the opening of classes for academic year 2013-2014. The center’s equipment were already used for laboratory activities in ECE 138 and ECE 100, which are industrial electronics subjects for EE, ECE, and ME; and in project design for ECE 161 (Microprocessor) and  ECE 162 (Computer Aplications in ECE and CompE), including the embedded system applications in the Instrumentation and Control subjects for the EE, ECE, and ME departments.

            “The actual experience gained by the students on the mentioned activities has complemented the theories and knowledge imparted to them,” Duldulao said. He added that the equipment play important roles in developing students’ competence needed in preparation for the real industrial world.

Project expenditures

            Before the implementation of the project, the CHED shared MMSU an initial investment of P7-M in the last quarter of 2012. For its part, the university committed a space at COE to serve as laboratory room that would house the training center.

            The amount was immediately allocated for the purchase of laboratory facilities and equipment for the training center. However, only about P4,606,477 was initially spent for the equipment leaving a balance savings  of P2,393,523 which, later on, was used to buy additional equipment.  “Some of these items were already purchased and some are in still the process of acquisition and delivery,” Duldulao said.

            Meanwhile, the establishment of the project contributes to the attainment of the college’s goals and objectives which respond to the challenge posed by globalization. That is, complying with the Outcomes-Based Education program initiated by CHED and the Philippine Technological Council which mold engineering students to be globally competent upon graduation.

            The project could also make MMSU as center for engineering education in the Ilocos Region, while it caters to the advance continuing education of secondary school teachers as they respond to the basic needs of the senior high school curriculum in the K to 12 program of DepEd.