UP Diliman (UPD) bagged two awards at the WorldInvent Singapore 2024 (WoSG 2024). The Philippines was one of nine participating countries that submitted entries to the WoSG 2024.

CharM (Charging in Minutes), a UPD-grown fast-charging technology for electric vehicles (EVs), won a gold medal in the electric power and energy category from the WorldInvent Singapore Committee, and the Best International Invention and Innovation Award from the National Research Council of Thailand, a major partner of the WoSG 2024.

CharM was part of the 14 technologies supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Technology Application and Promotion Institute and the Filipino Inventors Society, and was evaluated by a panel of judges at the WoSG 2024 according to their level of innovation, commercialization and marketability, performance and/or practicality, and presentation.

Held from July 9 to 11 at Singapore Expo Hall, the WoSG 2024 is a conference/exhibition that showcases innovative solutions to global challenges such as climate change, energy security, and environmental protection.

Presenting CharM at WoSG 2024 were its inventors, engineers Leo Allen Tayo and Rovinna Janel Tayo of the UPD Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute (EEEI), who had 15 minutes to pitch their technology to the attending judge.

According to CharM website, the fast charging for EVs “uses lithium-ion battery storage technology” that reduces the normal four-to-six-hour charging time to “less than an hour or even a matter of minutes for smaller vehicles.”

One of CharM’s noteworthy features is its ability to be integrated with solar charging and energy storage systems, allowing it not only to be energy secure but also energy independent to a certain degree. A CharM charging station can be powered not only by a regular power grid but also by the station’s solar-paneled roof and battery.

CharM began as a research and development project of the EEEI and the DOST-Philippine Council on Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIERRD).

In 2015, the DOST-PCIERRD gave CharM the Most Outstanding R&D Project Award under the Energy and Systems category. In 2019, it became the central technology of CHRG EV Technologies, Inc., a startup company of the inventors from UPD.—With a report from Leo Allen Tayo, EEEI