UP Diliman (UPD) is the top performing school in the July 2022 Environmental Planner Licensure Examinations, with Aleya Carmela E. Arca topping the examinations with a rating of 84.4 percent. The SURP board passers. Image from the SURP Facebook page Eight other examinees from the UPD School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP) made it to the top 10: Mark Anthony A. Francisco (2nd, 84.20%), Lisa Marie B. Jacinto (3rd, 82.8%), Joshua R. Ladia (4th, 82.4 %), Gerard Patrick J. Mayo (6th, 81.85%), Christine S. Chicano (7th, 81.8%), Maria Christelle A. San Antonio (8th, 81.35%), Maria Clarissa C. Magdaraog (9th, 81.3%), and Joben Ryan A. Padre (10th, 80.60%). According to the Professional Regulation Commission, 36 of the 43 examinees from SURP passed, giving the school an 83.72 percent passing rate and making UPD the top performing school. To be a top performing school, the higher educational institution must have 40 or more examinees and at least an 80 percent passing rate. UPD was the only institution to achieve both feats.

Even with the sudden downpour, the inauguration of the UP Diliman (UPD) baseball field still pushed through last Aug. 5. Located next to the annex gymnasium of the UPD College of Human Kinetics (CHK), the baseball field took five years to finish so much so that it earned the moniker “field of dreams.” “At long last, mayroon na tayong world-class facility para sa baseball and softball teams,” said UPD Chancellor Fidel R. Nemenzo. The UP coaching staff and varsity players with (beginning fifth from left) Anthony Dizer, Diaz, Nemenzo, Concepcion, and Cayetano. Also in photo are Ronualdo Dizer and Pagkaliwagan (second and third from right). Photo by Jefferson Villacruz, UPDIO Nemenzo who was a former UP track and field athlete and a UP Integrated School high school baseball alum, added that the baseball field is an inspiration to the UP varsity community. For his part, UP President Danilo L. Concepcion said the baseball field’s construction was a team effort. He proceeded to thank Sen. Julia “Pia” Cayetano, his former student at the UP College of Law, for her contribution. “The construction of this baseball field has indeed been a team effort for many of us … I thank Senator Pia Cayetano for pushing relentlessly through the years for the funding for the construction of this over P106 million baseball field, and other facilities in the UPD Sports Complex,” Concepcion said. Cayetano was the main sponsor in the Senate lobbying for the funding of the UPD Sports Complex. “My time in UP as an athlete defined me. I am such a believer of sports changing lives,” she said. Cayetano was a member of the UP Women’s Volleyball team that won the championship in Season 45 (1982-1983) of the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP). “I started lobbying for funds for the university sports complex in 2012, which was accidentally the year my daughter entered UPD,” she said. Like her, Cayetano’s daughters Nadine and Maxine were student athletes in UPD. The two were members of the UP Women’s Football Team. Cayetano. Photo by Jefferson Villacruz, UPDIO Meanwhile, UP Baseball Team coach Anthony Dizer thanked Cayetano and the university officials for their unwavering support. He dedicated the field to Coach Artemio ‘Temiong’ Isidro. Isidro was a former CHK dean and baseball coach who steered the UP Baseball Team to a 5-peat championship in the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) from Season 40 (1977-1978) to Season 44 (1981-1982). UP last won the baseball crown in Season 68 (2005-2006). Isidro passed away on Oct. 12, 2021. UP Softball Team coach Ronilon Pagkaliwagan said…

Applications for the new UPD program, PhD in data science, this first semester of AY 2022-2023, are now accepted until Aug. 22.  According to the announcement on the UPD College of Science (CS) website, data science “is a multidisciplinary approach that studies data as a vehicle of information throughout its natural cycle of production, storage, retrieval, processing and purification, analysis, and presentation including visualization, in relation to the scientific questions connected to it.” Approved by the UP Board of Regents on July 28 at its 1372nd meeting, the program “aims to produce PhD graduates equipped with a good scientific mindset, with adequate technical skills, and a professional perspective of expanding the science of data, with data as carriers of information.” The UP System and UPD officials at the launch in 2021 of the UP Data Commons, the computing facility that supports the PhD in data science program. Photo by Jefferson Villacruz, UPDIO Computational Science Research Center director Johnrob Bantang, PhD said the program is supported by the UP Data Commons. This is a computing facility that includes several units of high-performance computing (HPC) machines that can be utilized for research such as HPC tasks, programming applications/software, systems and web application development and deployment, data repositories and database systems development, and many others. Bantang is chair of the graduate committee of the CS Data Science Program. He added that the new program is implemented independently by the CS, UPD College of Engineering, and the UPD School of Statistics, but has a coordinating data science graduate committee to maximize the many opportunities available in the University such as access to domain experts in UP. “There is only one program of the University implemented by the three colleges. To ensure a uniform implementation, the Data Science Graduate Committee coordinates these units in terms of the policies and requirements of the program,” said Bantang. The PhD in data science has three program track options: option 1 is straight PhD, option 2 is regular PhD, and option 3 is PhD by research. Straight PhD track is intended for students with a bachelor’s degree in sciences, engineering, or in other fields relevant to data science. Those admitted to this track are required to take graduate courses in mathematical, computational, and statistical methods. These courses will serve as foundational courses for the students to acquire the necessary minimum competencies to do advanced studies in data science. Poster. Image from the UPD Data Science Program Facebook page The regular PhD track, on the other hand, is for those who already have a master’s degree. Applicants for this track are expected to already have the necessary competencies to do advanced studies in data science. They must also have…