MANILA, March 19 (PNA) — Children may now be able to enjoy reading books as an aspiring scientist has developed an electronic storybook creator that can process texts into animated content.
Kevin Colina, a Computer Science student from the University of San Carlos in Cebu, said in an interview that his research would help kindergarten educators publish storybooks and promote interactive learning among students through the use of modern technology.
He explained that Cebuano texts uploaded on the system will be analyzed and an animation will be produced based on them.
“This research will motivate children to develop their knowledge as they can already visualize the stories they’re reading,” he added.
The project is in line with the K-12 curriculum in the country which uses mother tongue based learning as a medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3.
To further improve the project, Kevin plans to create audios related to the animated videos and a Cebuano grammar and spelling checker.
Eventually, he envisions the system to be utilized for other dialects.
“I intend to create modules that would enable the system to analyze texts from different dialects,” the researcher stated.
Because of this innovation, Kevin was selected as the second runner-up for this year’s Bank of the Philippine Islands-Department of Science and Technology (BPI-DOST) Science Awards held at the Mind Museum in Taguig City.
Alexander John Cruz, a BS Chemical Engineering student from UP Diliman, bagged the Best Project of the Year Award for his project entitled “Design and Field Testing of a Plasma-Enhanced Optical Fiber Reactor for Hydrogen Production via Visible Light-Driven Photocatalytic Water-Splitting.”
The research aims to convert solar light to hydrogen fuel through water splitting by using optical fiber cables. These cables are used to transmit sunlight which serves as an electric current to induce chemical reaction that decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The innovation supports the utilization of plasma-treated cables as a precedent in developing large-scale solar hydrogen power plants and portable energy generators for remote regions.
Meanwhile, Jessa Marie Makabenta, a BS Chemistry student from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, was adjudged as first runner-up for her project entitled “Sodium Caseinate Encapsulation of Coconut-Oil Extracted Astaxanthin from Shrimp Wastes for Enhanced Stability, Bioavailability and Bioactivity and Controlled Release.”
Her study looked into improvement of the properties of astaxanthin, a chemical derived from shrimp wastes, which offers benefits in nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and aquaculture industries.
The Science Awards aims to encourage budding scientists and researchers to pursue excellence in the fields of mathematics, physics, engineering, chemistry, biology and computer science. (PNA)