Learning at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI) of the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Engineering (COE) is about to get a boost with the ceremonial signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the upgrading of EEEI’s laboratory facilities and the development of a Smart I-Lab.
EEEI Director Lew Andrew Tria said the improved facilities will benefit not only UPD engineering students, but engineering students from other state colleges and universities as well.
“[W]e will be able to offer our laboratory courses to other universities. So this donation would not just actually benefit UP students, but it will have a national impact as well,” he said.
The endeavor will be done largely with a P50 million donation from Magdaleno Albarracin Jr. through the UP Engineering Research Development Foundation, Inc. (UPERDFI).
Albarracin is a former UP alumni regent and former dean of the UPD College of Business Administration (now Cesar E. A. Virata School of Business). He finished his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the COE in 1956. Albarracin is currently vice chair of Philippine Investment Management (PHINMA) Corporation and PHINMA, Inc.
According to the EEEI, the donation aims to “enhance the instruction and research capability of the institute by upgrading three of its computing laboratories (Rooms 126, 428, and 429) into instructional laboratories with both computing facilities and electronics testing set-ups.”
The project also targets the development of Room 308 into a “green, future-ready, and smart instructional laboratory (Smart I-Lab) powered by renewable energy and equipped with teleconferencing and collaborative learning setups, and embedded with sensing, and automation features for energy monitoring, and smart control.”
Signing the MOA on July 26 were Albarracin, UPD Chancellor Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II, Tria, COE Dean Maria Antonia Tanchuling, Department of Energy Undersecretary and UPERDFI Adviser Rowena Cristina Guevara, UPERDFI Chair Sun Eng Sy, and UPERDFI Project Representative Rafael Nestor Mantaring.
Among the event’s witnesses was Fortunato T. dela Peña, former Department of Science and Technology secretary.
Albarracin was instrumental in the construction of the Concordia B. Albarracin Hall, a residence hall in honor of his late mother.
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*In the story EEEI upgrades facilities with PHINMA aid posted on the UPD website on 22 Aug. 2023, it stated that the donation was made by PHINMA when in fact it was a personal donation by Magdaleno Albarracin Jr., PhD. The article has now been corrected to reflect this fact.
UPDate Online wishes to apologize to the EEEI, Dr. Albarracin, and the wider public for the error.