PN Philippines Scholars Defend their Thesis

It's been almost a week since the defense of our thesis for the First Semester in Software Engineering. Yet the sound of the word defense and the mixed expression on the faces of my classmates after walking out from CEAC still lingers in my head.

It was a fine Saturday morning. Everyone was surprisingly early at school, except for some who still rushes to the internet cafes to print some documents for their defense. It was quite a busy day, which added a thrill sensation of facing a panel of professionals that would certainly ask questions about our study, from technical things to all sort of topics about Software Engineering.

There were five groups all in all with eight members each, except for one which has seven. The first group to face the panel was Team ‘Kinect’ headed by Mr. Mark Kevin Olores who is currently having his internship at Aboitiz Equity Ventures. They presented and defended their thesis to the best that they could. After the first group's moment of truth, the panel and guests were revealed. Supposed to be, three faculty members from the Computer Engineering Department will serve as the members of the panel, but unfortunately only two were available. Aside from the panel, special guests were also present. These include Madam Julie Tardieu, PN Philippines Education Manager, Mr. Guillaume Le Cousine, IT Head and Mr. Rhey Anthony Laurente, a PN Philippines Alumni who represents Zoog Technologies, Inc. 

Next group to impress the panel was ‘Tsuki’ team with Ms. Kriszia Cutamora as their leader who is currently an intern at NEC. Though they had a little idea on how things were going inside based on the first group's feedbacks, responding to questions was tough. The  third team, ‘Pro-Beginners’, with Mr. Neil Jayson Dañe as the Project Manager and an  intern from Accenture, also shared the same fate with the first two. But I'm pretty sure they were able to answer most of the questions as smiles were very visible on their faces when they came out of CEAC room. The fourth group entered the room without any hesitation in order to end the somewhat extended misery of tensions. Lead by Mr. Pedro Libradilla, an intern from NCR, ‘Team Poraree’ squeezed out the remaining of their strength to answer all the questions from the panel.

During this time, my calm mind seemed to start rewinding oddly all the things I prepared for our presentation. Every now and then, I kept noticing my team mates glancing at the door which made me feel more nervous. The fourth group came out, a signal for our group to be ready.  Though we have the most advantage since we were able to gather lots of feedbacks with the panel’s questions, the feeling of uneasiness seemed to consume us. DS2, our group, headed by our Project Manager, Ms. Khristine Censon who is an intern from Trends and Technologies, tried the very best to present and defend our thesis. Nevertheless we managed to make it to the end, with discussions which I think as the weirdest of all the groups since we received lesser questions from the panel and more discussions between our client (Zoog Technologies Inc.), our advisers and the panel. 

Everything suddenly felt light after the end of our defense. Sharing of experiences and picture taking were the highlight at that moment. But it was not yet the end of it, because our grades are yet to be announced after. That instance, the feeling of tiredness was visible on the eyes of everyone. Some tried to take a nap. Others continued chatting, while others were busy posing in front of the camera. Then finally the result was announced. It was a merry moment after hearing from our adviser that all had passed the defense. The sound of relief was very audible in the cozy room. It was a great relief, after all the numerous sleepless nights, weeks of preparation, research, documentation and some sacrifices.

However, we couldn’t have done it without our advisers – without their lectures, advices,　emails, text messages and most specially support. They were the first to believe that even if we are not taking full Computer Engineering courses, still we, Passerelles Numeriques scholars can do it. For us, who works almost 5 days a week, a collaborative project to be accomplished in a month or two with scattered members seem to be impossible to accomplish.

Yet our advisers always tell us that we can do it! With proper time management, plus following the principles of Software Engineering and probably lesser TGIFs, we were able to make it. All these are because of our best advisers and instructors, Mr. Godwin S. Monserate and Mr. Gran Sabandal!

In behalf of all PN scholars, by writing this article, I would like to express my gratitude to these great people who helped us a lot in accomplishing this event. It was a great attainment for us and we are proud that we are the first batch to experience such opportunity as PN scholars. I hope that our younger fellow scholars would learn as much as what we have learned from you. The first phase had passed; we hope that you would still be there in the second phase of our projects. We know that the next phase will be harder, but we now fully believe that we can do it. You have let us experienced what we thought was impossible to do; now we will make sure that this second phase will surely happen and will be more successful than the first one!

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Passerelles Numeriques All Batch Event: Dance Battle Competition

It was raining so hard when our class was dismissed at CEAC. Though most of us felt cold, I knew in my mind that majority of us are feeling relaxed due to the unfavorable weather. The staff has set a Dance Battle competition within the PN Scholars on the latter part of the day as what is customary on every first Saturday of the month. And talking about dancing, I’m not really that favorable with that kind of activity. That‘s why I sort of describe our feeling earlier as relaxed due to the weather.

As what we almost considered as custom routine during Saturday classes, we had our lunch at the old Tado’s (now Chickey’s) which is just across the University of San Carlos. Lunch was quick since most of us are really excited to get home. Suddenly, the rain stopped and the feeling of shyness seemed to consume me thinking that the Dance Battle will push through. After a short while, we found ourselves slowly ascending following the road towards the Family Park. It is where our regular activities on every first Saturday of the month are held. We have almost reached the top when we received information that the venue of the activity will be held in the center instead since the grounds at the Family Park are wet or rather muddy. We have no choice but to change route and head for the center.

Just a few minutes after we reached the center, the weather started to become rough again. We waited for quite a while until the rain slowed and finally come to a stop.

Then Ate Rosalyn Miñoza, one of PN Philippines’ Education Team, announced that the activity will continue and that we are expecting Mr. Thery Beord, a representative from the French Embassy who will be judging the competition. All scholars hastily prepare for their dance steps.

The contest will be done by group which is based on the usual grouping we had from our previous Saturday activities and are composed of first year, second year and third year students mixed up. The categories of the contest are Hip-hop and Swing which means each group will divide its members into two to participate both categories. There are eight groups in all, with group names derived from IT terms combined weirdly such as WiFi Projector, 3D Printer, DVI, 4G, Bluetooth Mouse and more.

Before the contest begins, the scholars had group pictures together with Ma’am Virginie Lombard, PN Philippines General Manager. All scholars seemed to enjoy the activity based on the smiles captured on the camera. Except for some that seemed to look bewitched for some reason that which I do not know.

The contest started with lots of cheers and all sort of noises from the audience. Some performers finished their numbers while others suddenly exit with their music still on the first or second stanzas. Others have to make a ‘take two’ with ridiculous murmurs from the audience. You can hear yells and cheering from time to time as if you’re watching a TV fighting scene, or a comedy and sometimes a little bit of horror. Not on the face of the audience, but on the performers.

The contest ended with the recognition of the winners. Only then I realized how foolish it is to assume, or perhaps ask something not to happen when it brings so much laughter and joyous cheering and so much life to people when that something happens.

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